WHEN America went "dry" I was profoundly impressed. Before the war I had seen the squalor and suffering caused by drink in our industrial cities. When I undertook slum visiting for a philanthropic society in 1910 in London I had been horrified by the devastation wrought by drink. The lives of entire families were blighted because the wage-earner spent all his earnings in the nearest "pub." In the United States I had seen the evil caused by the saloon. Weighing the pros and cons of prohibition, although not a teetotaller myself, I agreed with Mr. Taft. I considered the loss of personal liberty entailed was a small price to pay for the sake of a higher standard of well-being all round. I had been much struck by the high level of prosperity I had seen in "dry" states in America I knew how strong was the "dry" sentiment in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

I had seen something of the prosperity of the American Middle-West---where the wage-earner brought home his earnings and spent them in his home. European friends were surprised at the wonderful physique of the American "doughboy." I knew that it was partly owing to the healthier environment and fewer opportunities of obtaining strong drink. Every time I returned from North America and walked through the working-class districts of Dublin, Glasgow, Liverpool or London I shuddered. Naturally I did not attribute all the sordid sights I saw to drink, but I knew---as every social reformer knows---that drink was one of our major problems.

With few exceptions my American and Canadian friends in 1918-19 were advocates of Prohibition. They gave me reports to read from the leading industrialists on the North American continent who stated that there was much greater efficiency among their workpeople when removed from the temptation of liquor and a much higher standard of living. It was only necessary to compare the homes of the workers in "dry" and "wet" districts to become convinced of the benefits of Prohibition. When I was in America in 1920 I talked with leading industrialists and business men in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland and Boston and I found they were overwhelmingly in favour of National Prohibition.

If the workers could have indulged in their pleasures in moderation and sipped their iced beer and light wines in open-air cafés as they did on the continent of Europe I would not have advocated Prohibition. But I feared there was something in the Anglo-Saxon make-up that necessitated drastic measures. For several years I became a warm advocate of Prohibition. Just as the motorist had to submit to restrictions and as the ordinary citizen had to be protected from himself, so a further interference with personal liberty became necessary for the general good. I realise now that I entirely under-estimated the evils that Prohibition brought in its train such as an entire disregard for law, smuggling, illicit drink shops and bootlegging. The best way of fighting the evil of drunkenness is to reform the public-house, to serve food with drink in pleasant surroundings, above all to give the people better housing conditions. I am still of the opinion that there should be public ownership of the drink trade. In my view the country which deals with the drink problem in the most effective way is Sweden. The system in force there has neither the drawbacks of prohibition nor of private ownership.

To return to the autumn of 1919. At the Overseas Club, as part of the mental fare we provided for our members, I used to arrange discussions and debates on current problems. I had met Mr. W. E. Johnson ("Pussyfoot") on several occasions and he had become a member of the English-Speaking Union. I resented some of the attacks which were being made on him in the British Press and I asked him if he would consent to take part in a debate on the pros and cons of Prohibition with a representative of the Anti-Prohibition League. Mr. Johnson consented and Mr. R. Mitchell Banks agreed to represent the Anti-Prohibitionists. Such was the demand for tickets that I decided to take the Essex Hall, in Essex Street, close to the Overseas Club's premises.

The meeting took place on Thursday, 13 November, 1919, and I asked my friend Mr. F. A. MacKenzie to take the chair. I was quite ignorant that any trouble was brewing but apparently London newspapers anticipated lively events because flashlight photographers were mounted on vantage points in Essex Street. In retrospect I realise that some kind of demonstration was likely because a certain section of the Press had lost no opportunity of attacking Pussyfoot's campaign as a meddlesome interference from abroad with Britain's internal problems---"this sinister attempt to deprive the British working man of his beer", to use the words of Mr. Horatio Bottomley. In John Bull these lines appeared:

It is always easy to raise the bogey of foreign interference at moments of national excitement. In the abolition of slavery campaign in Massachusetts in 1834, George Thompson, a young Englishman, who had been invited by William Lloyd Garrison to come to America to advocate the cause of abolition, addressed two hundred anti-slavery meetings. Finally he had to fly for his life when the Boston crowd broke up a big meeting he was to have addressed on 14 October, 1835. On that occasion the American Press used arguments about "the interfering Englishman."

Prior to an interview granted by Mr. W. E. Johnson to Mr. Ferdinand Tuohy, and printed in the Daily Mail in July, 1919, Prohibition was not a live issue in Great Britain. Almost within twenty-four hours the situation changed. In a vividly written article Mr. Tuohy described "Pussyfoot" as " the Field-Marshal of the Prohibition Forces of North America, who is reported to have done more to make the United States 'dry' than any other single man." The object of Mr. Johnson's sojourn among its was thus described:

Mr. "Pussyfoot" Johnson is to-day established in commodious Fleet Street offices. He is a stout, heavy-featured, bespectacled man with the gentlest, almost inaudible, pleasantly-modulated voice. He first made Oklahama "dry"---it took him ten years---then Kansas, then largely the United States. Now he has come over to make this country "dry."

The Anti-Saloon League, an organisation that it would be infantile to scoff at, has sent its best man to this country. It has sent him with carte blanche in strategy, tactics and finance. The others are coming, "large numbers of men and women experts, including Mr. Bryan"; meanwhile Mr. "Pussyfoot" Johnson is inaudibly, invisibly clearing the field for action.

After reading this article the British public became alarmed. They had visions of an army of spell-binders stumping the country. The Anti-Prohibition forces saw their opportunity. Mr. Johnson sought to counteract the impression given by the interview in the Daily Mail. In the Manchester Guardian he stated:

Neither I myself nor the Anti-Saloon League has had the slightest intention of interfering in any way with British affairs. We will not take any part whatever in any British elections.

Of no avail. The fat was in the fire.

Outside Essex Hall there was an electric atmosphere. The street was crowded with young men. Apparently students from King's and University Colleges were determined to put London University "on the map." They had, it seems, decided to seize "Pussyfoot" and make him the object of a good "rag," with of course no intention of hurting him. But when F. A. MacKenzie and I elbowed our way into the meeting hall we were blissfully ignorant of their intentions. Students in military formation marched down Essex Street---I learnt afterwards---and whiled away the time by singing the refrain:

As Mr. Johnson, Mr. Mitchell Banks, Mr. F. A. MacKenzie and I mounted the platform we were greeted with catcalls and shouts of "What won the war? Beer!" I announced that Mr. F. A. MacKenzie would take the chair. There were roars, "We want 'Pussyfoot'." Mr. MacKenzie tried to address the meeting. He was shouted down. I then appealed to our members, who composed half the audience, to give our guests a fair hearing. I was shouted down by the students. I then had to leave the meeting as I was already late for an important meeting of the English-Speaking Union. As I left there was a temporary lull and Mr. MacKenzie seemed to have matters in hand. The last thing I heard was a student, dressed as a stage Irishman, who was enthusiastically greeted shouting, "We don't want Americans coming over here with elaborate and ornate speeches, telling us what we ought to do. We won the Battle of the Somme on rum and rum only, and the sooner Mr. Johnson realises that the better."

Mr. MacKenzie wrote(1) " Mr. Banks, the Anti-Prohibitionist, now asked for fair play for his opponent. Then Johnson himself stepped to the front, quiet, smiling and looking, as the reporters next day said, as cherubic as Mr. Pickwick."

At a given signal, the students who had rushed the hall, hurled bags of flour at the speaker. Chairs were smashed and tables overturned. There was a rush at "Pussyfoot," who put up a fight with his fists, his back to the wall. Blinded by flour he was seized by the students, as was the Chairman, Mr. MacKenzie. After the tumult had died down Mr. Banks said, "I hope you will take my word that I knew nothing of this disgraceful scene. I repudiate it. I propose to you that we pass a vote of condolence with Mr. Johnson on the unfair and rough handling he has received."

The students carried their captives in triumph to the yard of King's College. Here "Pussyfoot" was offered beer which he refused. He now realised that the whole affair was a "rag" and entered into the spirit of the proceedings. "Pussyfoot," his clothes covered with flour, was placed on a stretcher and taken by the students in a triumphal procession, marching slowly through Piccadilly Circus to Oxford Street. At Oxford Circus police reserves arrived on the scene. They manœuvred in such a fashion that they cut off the section with Johnson from the rest of the procession. Then the police made a rush and bore him away from his captors. A motor-car was nearby and they hurried him into it. Up to now the affair had been nothing more than a rag."

Let Mr. MacKenzie complete the story:

At the last moment the" rag " took a more serious turn. Someone on the outside of the crowd---the students declared that it was none of them---threw a stone which caught Johnson full on the ball of his right eye. The police took him quickly off to Bow Street station, where a surgeon attended to his injury.

Heavily bandaged he returned home and said to the reporters, "Tell the boys there is no ill-will on my side---not a grain."

There was a great revulsion of feeling in Mr. Johnson's favour. Messages of condolence poured in upon him. The Chairman of the Wine and Spirit Trade Defence Fund wrote saying, "we entirely deprecate anything which is not fair play." I was deeply concerned that Mr. Johnson's acceptance of my invitation to address an Overseas Club meeting should have ended so disastrously. But Mr. Johnson was great in his misfortune.(2) He did not regret the loss of his eye. His misfortune had advanced the ideals for which he worked. At the large meeting tendered him subsequently at the Central Hall, Westminster, he said, "So far as the affair in Essex Hall is concerned I do not intend to grieve about that. The benefits which I believe have accrued to the cause we have at heart more than outweigh my sense of personal injury through the loss of an eye."

While I did not share Mr. Johnson's optimism that England would be "dry" by 1930, I was convinced in 1919 that sooner or later the whole English-speaking world would follow the example of the United States. So little can we foresee coming events.

In the Star two days after the meeting I wrote:

Surely the great body of London students cannot regard their exploit with much satisfaction. To refuse the right of free speech is neither clever nor should it be tolerated in the twentieth century. If they wish to make the amende honorable to Mr. Johnson, who is confined to his bed, they should invite him, when he is well, to state his case before them, and promise him a fair hearing.

EVER since starting the English-Speaking Union in July, 1918, I had eagerly looked forward to revisiting America and assisting in the task of organising our American sister-society. Originally I had hoped to go in 1919 but there was still the anxious task of putting the finances of the British society in a healthy state before tackling so difficult a job. Early in 1920 most of my immediate financial problems were solved. We were able to move from our inadequate premises in Lennox House, Howard Street, Strand, to a delightful suite of rooms in Trafalgar Buildings, Trafalgar Square, at the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall, opposite the Admiralty Arch. It is one of the best sites in London and our tea-parties in honour of American visitors became very popular.

My financial worries were lifted once again by my "fairy godfather," Alexander Smith Cochran, and I was able to go ahead with the planning of my American tour with an easy mind.

Cochran's help was entirely unexpected. This letter to my parents tells the story:

 . . . My chief excitement this week was a wonderful piece of good luck. I dined with Cochran on Sunday and we patted very warmly and he said he would look out for me in New York. I never mentioned the question of finance as I thought it would be wiser not to, unless he volunteered, which he didn't!

On Monday the finances of the E.-S.U. were rather weighing on me as we were sailing too close to the wind and I kept wondering whom I should try next. Well on Tuesday morning I found a letter from Cochran enclosing a cheque for $4,000 (£1,179 at present rate of exchange) with his best wishes. But it is entirely due to Hylda that I have got it.

Without saying a word to me about it she wrote Cochran such a nice letter---she showed me a copy afterwards---telling him how worried I was and how the entire financial responsibility fell on my shoulders and if he could come to the rescue what a help it would be. Well, he wrote her a charming letter saying that "Evelyn seemed so cheerful, etc. " that he had no idea I wanted help and was so grateful to her for letting him know. You can imagine what I felt about it and I am so glad now that Hylda had met him a year ago.

This means that I shall have no more financial worries as regards the E.-S.U. this year. We moved into our new quarters--- Trafalgar Buildings, Trafalgar Square, last week and the office part is ready.

The reading and writing room will be finished in a couple of weeks, I have got Lawrence of Arabia lunching with me to-day which ought to be interesting.

My presence was urgently needed in America and the provisional New York committee was going through troublous times. There was violent antagonism between two of the most forceful personalities on the committee. I was afraid that the whole cause would collapse in America owing to these internal feuds, Mr. Taft was so disturbed by the rumours that reached him that he resigned as national president and Dr. Judson of Chicago University likewise withdrew his support.

Friends wrote imploring me to come over: I alone---as founder---had the necessary authority to reconstitute the movement and make a fresh start. Till Cochran's timely gift arrived I did not feel justified in charging the expenses of my trip---£300---to the organisation. The money I had collected in London was definitely for our new premises and development work in Great Britain. Cochran's generosity meant that I could now go to America with a clear conscience. I liked to feel that my visit was made possible by American money---and above all money from an old friend, who had helped me through a very anxious period in the history of the Overseas League.

I considered Cochran's help a good omen. At the same time I did not under-estimate the difficulties. Friction-mongers were at work in the United States---German, Irish and certain others with "the ancient grudge" complex against Great Britain. After the war time friendship existing between our two peoples there had come the inevitable reaction. Any interference by an Englishman(1) in the affairs of an American organisation would be resented. I would have to walk warily. In view of the official position I had held in the Ministry of Information I was a marked man. The Irish Republican Brotherhood and Fenian emissaries made attacks on me, as the representative of the "hidden hand of British propaganda."

There was much talk about hyphenated Americanism in the post-war era. Uncle Sam had no place for citizens with a dual allegiance. Above all the Englishman was suspect. Irish-American 100 per cent. patriots made the blood of poor unsuspecting Americans run cold by accounts of the sinister attempts being made to entice the United States---unversed in the tricks of old-world political intrigue---back into the folds of the British Empire! In business matters Uncle Sam could hold his own, but in the realm of diplomacy he was no match for the secret emissaries of Downing Street. It was only the immigrant Irishman, whose forbears had suffered for seven hundred years under the cruel yoke of Dublin Castle, who understood the depths of guile of which John Bull was capable. Extracts from letters written in the months before I set out for America are given:

Sunday, 27 October, 1919. I have had another very full week and have been hob-nobbing with all manner of men from prize-fight promoters to the leaders of the nonconformist conscience

On Tuesday I lunched with "Jimmy" White, who belongs to the first category, and extracted £100 a year for three years from him for the E.-S.U. He is quite a nice little man without an "H" but lots of money. On the wall is a cheque for £2,500,000---one of his large deals. The day previous I had lunched with Dr. Archibald Fleming, the minister of the Scottish Church in London, and the following I took part in a welcome to ten of the leading religious preachers and lecturers of America who are over here.

 

Sunday, 23 November, 1919. I lunched quietly with John Astor on Monday at the Carlton. I like him very much, he has high ideals and is absolutely unspoilt and not a bit out for himself You know his father has left him Hever Castle in Kent, which is a wonderful place. He is getting quite interested in the E.-S.U and turned up at our Committee meeting on Thursday.

Massingham, the man who is carrying on the campaign against the trade in the sale of egret feathers, came to see me and I am going to help him all I can, it is disgraceful that we should allow such a thing.

 

29 November, 1919. I am delighted that Lady Astor has got into Parliament.

 

Sunday, 7 December, 1919. I saw a very terrible thing on Tuesday morning. It was after breakfast and I had been reading my papers and was just getting ready to go to the office, when I heard a crash so I opened the window and looked out. There, immediately below on the pavement exactly opposite the door through which I go out every morning, was a poor man who had been knocked down by one of the chimneys in this building which had been blown by a hurricane of wind into the street. Half the poor fellow's face had been taken away.

With all these Sinn Fein raids going on I do hope you have taken your (F's) guns and cartridges to the bank or some safe place, but I think you told me you had done so.

 

Sunday, 21 December, 1919. I am very sorry to see that there has been an attempt on Lord French's life and am very glad that he escaped, but I am not surprised and I fear there will be many more outrages.

The Chief rang me up one morning to discuss Irish matters. He is much exercised about Russia.

 

Sunday, 18 January, 1920 . . . . I have had two talks with Wickham Steed who wants me to help him to organise an Anti-Bolshevist League, but I have told him I have my hands full elsewhere. I expect to go over to America for a month in April to straighten out E.-S.U. problems there.

On Friday Lord Hugh Cecil lunched with me at the Marlborough Club to discuss his Flying Corps Memorial and I ended up the week with a two-hour talk with Lionel Curtis.

 

Sunday, 8 February, 1920. I have definitely booked my passage on the Carmania sailing from Liverpool on March 23rd.

 

Sunday, 15 February, 1920. One day last week I lunched with Norman Angell and found him full of interest. By degrees he is coming into his own and people are realising that in all his main points he was right in The Great Illusion.

On Friday Sir William Tyrrell lunched with me and gave me a most interesting account of their time at Washington and all the wheels within wheels. He is a very wise little man and I do not think Lord Grey could have a better adviser.

I hear from friends that President Wilson will never forgive Lord Grey for his letter, which has had the most excellent effect.(2)

 

Sunday, 29 February, 1920. Lawrence of Arabia lunched with me alone last Monday. He is such a quiet unassuming person with blue eyes which look right through one. He hates publicity and is now writing a history of the Crusades which he thinks will take him five years and then he expects to write a book on Spinoza! I had a long talk to him about Middle-East problems and was gratified to find that in many matters he and I saw eye to eye.

 

Saturday, 6 March, 1920. I am beginning to collect letters of introduction, etc., for my American visit and I think my only trouble will be too much hospitality.

On Tuesday evening I got Campbell Stuart to dine with me to meet T. E. Lawrence to discuss the Times policy on Eastern questions. It was most interesting and CS. was much impressed by Lawrence, who arrived at the "Marlborough" just in his evening things and with no overcoat or hat! One can do these things if one is the "uncrowned King of Arabia."

One evening I went round to see Reading to arrange further details about Rothermere's gift of £20,000 to found the Chair of American History in Oxford University---I think it will do a lot of good. (Letters to Parents.)

It made me very happy to think that just before my tour I had been the agent selected by Rothermere to carry out his purpose of endowing a Chair of American History at Oxford. In the Landmark for August, 1920, I wrote:

Lord Rothermere's generous gift of £20,000 to endow a Chair of American History at Oxford University is most welcome. For Lord Rothermere has shown that in Great Britain we are realising more and more a defect in our University education, namely the inadequate teaching of American history. Many of us left school or college twenty years ago with none but the scantiest knowledge of American history subsequent to the rebellion of the colonies.

To the members of the English-Speaking Union, Lord Rothermere's generosity has a special interest. For it was to the writer that he first announced his intention of endowing the Chair at Oxford in memory of his son Vyvyan Harmsworth, who was killed in the war, and it was my good fortune to be the bearer of the offer to Oxford from Lord Rothermere to Lord Reading, our chairman, who approached Lord Curzon, the Chancellor of Oxford University. In telling me of his decision Lord Rothermere informed me that he first conceived the idea from some remarks of mine in an earlier issue of this journal. Lord Rothermere first told me of his intention in the autumn of last year.

My last westward trip across the Atlantic had been on the Mauretania in May, 1912, when I was setting out on my Empire crusade and the voyage had lasted five days. On this occasion I crossed in the more sedate Carmania and the voyage took just under twelve days.

Carmania, 27 March, 1920. I am sitting next Wiseman(3) at the Captain's table. My fellow cabin-mate is a Captain in the Canadian Army, such a nice fellow. My last view of Liverpool was of hundreds of little people waving handkerchiefs from the landing-stage. I have had many talks to Wiseman and have heard about his war experiences and the part he played as liaison officer with Colonel House. His brother-in-law was one of the "Bush Brothers " whom I met in Queensland.

Later. Very rough to-day, but bright sunshine and the sea a deep blue with porpoises plunging in and out of the water. My first ocean voyage since my return from South Africa in 1913!

I love "your " Mrs. Browning, especially the time she was in bed at Wimpole Street and he was wooing her, but I am disappointed in her afterwards in Italy. . . I have been thinking of our talk on Wimbledon Common by the Queensmere the other day on the subject of Faith. I am certain you are right. The only thing to do when the torch burns but dimly is to throw one's whole weight on the side of Faith and to govern one's life as if one had a burning Faith and leave searchings and questionings on one side and then the Faith will return in moments of insight.

 

Carmania, 29 March. There is a black American Army officer with a practically white wife and little half-caste child. I feel very sorry for him and want to talk to him.

 

1 April. Before going to bed and after breakfast I paced the deck for an hour and then talked to a man who I think will be of use to the E.-S.U. I feel I ought to try and organise a meeting on board, but I feel diffident.

 

2 April. The sea is raging outside and there is a blizzard and the wind is howling. It has turned bitterly cold, it has been too cold to sit on deck this afternoon, so with the help of a friend I carried on a campaign for the E.-S.U. and enrolled ten members. We are having the worst weather since leaving England ; there is a real blizzard, blinding sleet an howling wind with the waves dashing right over the ship.

Thanks to Mothersill I never miss a meal! At dinner it was quite difficult to keep one's food on the plate despite the fiddles. My overcoat and the curtain of my cabin door keep hanging out at impossible angles from the wall as I write.

 

Carmania, 3 April. Total members of the E.-S.U. enrolled now 23.

 

5 April, Carmania at Halifax, Nova Scotia. I was told Captain de Carteret(4) was looking for me. I went ashore with him and was taken round to see various overseas members and then we ended up at the Club where I was given lunch by the Lieutenant-Governor. I had to speak and then had to rush back to catch the boat. It is eleven years since I was last in Nova Scotia.

 

At Sea, 5 April. It is foggy outside and the fog-horn has been going all night.

Had my English-Speaking Union meeting in the smoking room. It was rather a difficult audience but I warmed up and got six more members and one life member (£25) as a result-my total bag is now 31. I kept thinking of the last time I crossed the Atlantic before the war when I had that large Overseas Club meeting the Mauritania in 1912. I little thought then that within six years I should have started another movement!

 

At Sea, 6 April. We have had a bad storm, by far the we have had since leaving Liverpool, and the wind and the sea have been raging. I went and stood right under the bridge and watched the waves coming over the ship. She is pitching and tossing so, it is inconceivable how a huge boat like this can be thrown about. I can't imagine why the ship does not break in two, she's quivering all over.

 

Carmania, Evening, 7 April, 1919. We are actually in New York harbour. It is eight years since I passed the statue of Liberty! We are not going to be allowed to land till to-morrow morning. As we came into the harbour it was snowing and is bitterly cold.

As we lay on the peaceful waters of New York harbour after our stormy voyage south from Halifax, I thought with apprehension of the six weeks' trip ahead of me. I recalled similar sensations before landing in Australia and South Africa on my Empire tour, only on this occasion there was the new problem of organising under a foreign flag---although I never felt a foreigner in the United States ---and the additional worry of local dissension. Why was it that individuals permitted personal likes and dislikes to wreck a great cause? I feared that perhaps after all circumstances would be too strong for me and that I should have to re-embark defeated and be obliged to leave the American members of the English-Speaking Union to work out their own destiny. On the other hand the knowledge that I had now a chain of friends---mostly dating from 1918--- scattered across the continent was reassuring. I was convinced they would help me in my difficulties. The mood of America in the spring of 1920 was distinctly isolationist. I recalled the contents of Washington's letter which I have reprinted at the head of this section of my book. Washington evidently understood his countrymen. The predominant impression I received on this visit was America's determination to withdraw from all European commitments. There was a marked dislike of president Wilson. Almost everyone I met---apart from a few personal friends of Mr. Wilson's---criticised the President and his administration. "Why had the President gone to Europe, why had he allowed himself to be fooled by those wily European leaders such as Clemenceau and Lloyd George?" "If he had to go to Europe why hadn't he taken some trusted representative of the Republican Party, such as ex-President Taft or Senator Root?" "How could he have consented to the creation of a League of Nations in which the British Empire would have six votes to America's one?" And so on. I began to be apprehensive about peace in Europe as America was evidently going to cut the painter. The next impression was of the popularity of Prohibition. American industry--now that the drink evil was eliminated---was about to embark on an undreamt era of prosperity in the export field.

Finally there was considerable resentment at Europe's lack of recognition of the war effort of the United States. America was the one nation that had entered the war solely for ideal motives, she was the one country that had sought no personal advantage. She had suffered 300,000 casualties, had contracted a large debt and had disorganised her national life. She asked for neither colonies nor indemnity. She wanted nothing save the defeat of militarism. She had expected at least a modicum of gratitude from Europe, instead she got abuse. Very well, she would leave Europe to disentangle itself from its problems without her help. Never again would an American "doughboy" cross the Atlantic to pick the chestnuts out of the fire for European nations. "Sir, not on your life!" As for the League of Nations it was only an ingenious device to compel other countries and especially the United States to maintain the integrity of the British Empire and to safeguard France's enormous oversea possessions.

The changed feeling towards France was very marked. During four visits to America in pre-war days idealisation of France was pronounced. Distance had lent enchantment. America's recent first-hand contact with Europe had dispelled many illusions. Among them the French "myth." France was not peopled by a nation of Lafayettes`. France had extracted the last sou from the American nation in 1917-18.

The United States would certainly have nothing to do with the League. I recalled some verses(5) Owen Wister had composed on the Atlantic a year previously and had sent to me in a letter. I only hoped the American people shared his views as to co-operation with the British Empire:

11, East Street, New York, 9 April, 1919. Driggs(6) of the Flying Club was at landing stage which made me feel at home straight away and we drove here. There were 50 or 60 letters and telegrams to greet me from my American friends.

From the moment I arrived the telephone began ringing, including long-distance calls. Their long-distance service is amazing---so much better than ours. Old Putnam(7) was one of my first callers and grasped me warmly with both hands.

Various private E.-S.U, members have been to see me to tell me of the position and fighting that has been going on, which I have to straighten out. The situation is no worse than I expected and I feel perfectly capable of dealing with it. It is nothing like the disappointment that faced me on my O.S. tour when I arrived in New Zealand.

Later. Have just had two hours with one of the most difficult members of the Committee, then a long talk with Putnam. . . 

The chief changes I notice in New York are the increase in skyscrapers and the growth in the motor traffic. There is an unending stream of luxurious cars on Fifth Avenue.

 

10 April, New York. Had to switch over from E.-S.U, to Overseas Club to-day Was given dinner by latter last night. Very cordial gathering about 100. New British Consul-General(8) was there. He was very friendly, was born in Ulster and knew Father. After dinner they presented me with cheque for 300 dollars for Overseas War Memorial. Altogether I had nice warm feeling.

 

11 April, 1919, New York. As I was beginning to despair about my correspondence went round to Commodore Hotel and dictated 53 letters to an attractive and efficient blonde stenographer direct on to the machine. She was a real expert and I have never seen hands race over the keyboard like that and never a mistake. My three hours' dictation cost me £3 but was well worth it!

 

13 April. To see Ivy Lee in his 31st storey office down town, with such a view over the harbour. It must be easy to generate ideas with that outlook . . . . Had tea with Arthur Willert,(9) Washington correspondent of Times, who was at Summer Fields with me.

 

13 April, 1919, Bellevue Stratford, Philadelphia, Pa. Was given lunch before leaving New York by Paul Cravath, a very important man. He had got a group of leading men to meet me. I hope to get them to take up the English-Speaking Union on my return when I have straightened things out. This is the first time I begin to see daylight . . . Rather worried as my baggage has not arrived. That is the only drawback to American system of checking baggage.

Later. Baggage arrived so I was just able to scramble into dinner jacket. Was taken to see Russian Ballet by Fullerton Waldo of Philadelphia Ledger. He was one of my guests at original E.-S.U. dinner at the Marlborough on 28 June, 1918.

 

14 April, Philadelphia. Called round to see various people the American Ambassador had given me letters to. They were all very friendly and wanted to entertain me. Then to see the Mayor. On the walls of the City Hall is a prayer of William Penn's. On the top of the great tower of the City hall is Penn's figure, which broods over the whole city and I felt very much at home thinking of Jordans . . . . A Mr. Gribbell gave me lunch at the hotel in a private room. He gave some original Burns manuscripts to Scotland some years ago and is head of the local Trans-Atlantic Society with which I want to link up. After lunch I was interviewed by reporter from the Ledger.

 

16 April, Philadelphia. I have just been to see Mr. Edward Bok, of the Ladies' Home Journal and called in at the Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and touched the Liberty bell. You will know some of the sensations I had. Mr. Bok was very friendly. The office of the Curtis Publishing Company is a marvellous place. We have nothing like it. Inside the great doorway is a marble vestibule with a large pool in which goldfish swim and there is a fountain with an allegorical picture of a dream city in coloured glass mosaic. I then went to see Owen Wister. Dined with Overseas League and then on to good Overseas meeting, spoke for about an hour.

 

17 April, Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore. Had a very nice dinner with my friend Frank R. Kent, editor of the Baltimore Sun, and two other E.-S.U. friends, and have been made to feel absolutely at home and really welcome. Since then I have had to see the reporters. It is now 10 p.m. and another reporter is waiting to see me. I think Baltimore had given me the warmest welcome I have had in America so far.

 

17 April, Mount Vernon Place, Baltimore. I am waiting for Mr. Theodore Marburg. He was formerly American Minister to Belgium. After dictating forty letters I had to go round to see the local photographer as they wanted to take me. I was fetched by the City Club people and escorted across. It was a gathering of about three hundred and I had to speak just on an hour. It all went with a tremendous swing and I really felt I did justice to my theme. They gave me a great reception when I sat down. I had been a little bit nervous.

 

18 April. The Marburg's is a very large house in a quiet square in the centre of the town and I have got a huge room. Their kindness passes belief. Mr. Marburg escorted me to the Maryland Club, where my editor friend, Kent, gave me a terrific repast to meet the leading citizens. I had to talk for over an hour and they asked all sorts of questions about conditions in England.

Just think, Mr. Marburg first met his wife on a Wednesday and proposed to her on the following Monday, but she did not finally accept him for three months and they were married in October of that year. They are absolutely happy.

The drive through the suburbs was lovely, the Forsythia perfectly wonderful and Japanese drooping-pear very beautiful.

 

Monday, 19, Baltimore. Mr. Marburg gave a dinner in my honour. I had him on one side of me and the head of a large women's college here, Groucher, on the other. It is a thousand strong. They are particularly interested in British labour problems.

I only got to bed at 1 and the following morning was called for at 9.30 a.m. and taken off to Groucher College, as the President of the institution had asked me to talk to them. After a hymn had been sung in the college hall where they were all gathered, just about a thousand, I spoke for nearly half-an-hour. I managed to make one or two jokes at the start and got on friendly terms with the audience.

Then the rest of the day was spent going round to see E.-S.U. members and I was taken off to the golf links and played nine holes. I really was too tired to enjoy it and it was frightfully hot. On the links I picked a wild flower called bloodroot, when you pick it it stains your hands. I forgot to say that before going to the golf links I asked particularly to see Cardinal Gibbons. The Cardinal is a charming old man of eighty-six with beautiful manners and a spiritual face and being with him was a real rest. His parents were Irish and he has an Irish accent and is most enlightened and is not anti-British. He recalled many pleasant days spent in England. He insisted on coming to the door and opened the hall door himself when he said good-bye.

 

21 April, New Willard Hotel, Washington. After breakfast, which I always have in my bedroom, I found Admiral Niblack waiting for me and he escorted me to the Navy Department and I was at once taken into the room of Secretary Josephus Daniels. There were eight or ten Admirals and various high officials. I had my remarks written out so as to be sure and not say anything wrong and then handed over the cheque for £6,000.(10) Daniels replied. We were photographed by about a dozen photographers and then taken by a cinema man.

To commemorate British-American naval co-operation.
The author handing a cheque for £6,000 to Mr. Joseph Daniels
at the Navy Department, Washington, D.C. April, 1920.

At 11.30 I went round to see the Secretary for War, Mr. Newton D. Baker, then a motor-car was placed at my disposal and accompanied by a young officer I was taken round to see the chief public buildings. It is a very beautiful town and the public squares were lovely with pink and white magnolia, judas trees and fruit trees and others which I don't know. The "Speedway" along the banks of the Potomac, planted with cherry trees sent by the Emperor of Japan to Mr. Taft when he was President, is an absolute vision of loveliness just now. I lunched with Major Putnam's brother, Mr. Herbert Putnam, who is the Librarian of Congress. There were twenty-five and I was guest of honour and sat next Senator Medill McCormick.

At tea I was told the romance of Dr. Wilfrid Grenfell of Labrador, a man I admire very much who has worked all his life among the people of the Labrador Coast. He was forty and had never thought of marrying. He was crossing the Atlantic and looked round him and beside him lying on a deck chair was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and he talked to her for one-and-a-half hours on end. By then she was getting a little bit nervous and said, "I have never had anyone to talk to me like that before. I do not even know your name and you don't know mine," to which he replied, "No, but I know what it is going to be." They have been married six years and it has been a great success !

 

22 April, Washington. Eighty-one in the shade to-day. Went to the Shoreham Hotel and was entertained by Richard Oulahan and ten of the chief journalists here at a very pleasant and friendly lunch. I have made many good newspaper friends. I was very pleased with the account which appeared in the New York Times yesterday about the function of my handing over the cheque in connection with the Dover Patrol. It was on their main news page. Very good for E.-S.U, cause.

A large Government car was sent to take me out to Mount Vernon, Washington's home, 14 miles away. It was such a marvellous afternoon with a slight breeze and the country a dream of loveliness. The house where Washington lived is a wonderful and dignified old English country place, looking down on the Potomac, the flowing lawns and out-houses of an English country estate just as it was. He is buried in the grounds. The lilac, mauve and white, was out, and the ground all around the tree stems was covered with periwinkle. It is a marvellous place for a national valhalla. If ever there was a hit of England, in which a great Englishman lived, it is Mount Vernon.

I have met most of the celebrities here: "Uncle Joe Cannon" who is eighty-four, Mr. Lansing, Governor Lowden and all sorts of other big-wigs. I spent the evening at the Washington Press Club.

 

24 April, William Penn Hotel, Pittsburgh. I like staying at an hotel called William Penn. This is a big industrial town rather like Manchester. I arrived on Sunday morning. I had a good night as I was extravagant and took the drawing-room car compartment of the Pullman, which means you have a sleeping compartment to yourself and take two tickets, but it makes all the difference to your comfort. I have been feeling rather lonely here and realizing the uphill nature of the job.

Later. Our E.-S.U, man, Mr. Wilmott, has just come to see me; he is Secretary of the Carnegie Hero Fund. I was introduced to quite a lot of people at lunch, Then I was taken a three hours' trip all round the town and shown the chief sights including Mellon's home and we ended up at the most sumptuous club I have ever seen, with a swimming bath on the third floor

 

Monday, 24 April, Statler Hotel, Cleveland. Arrived here at 8.30 p.m. and there were no porters or taxis. Late in the evening before I left, a party of newspaper men came to interview me. One of them almost before I had opened my mouth launched forth on a tirade about "England's 800 years' oppression in Ireland." I soon realised that he too had been born in Ireland and we parted the best of friends!

At Cleveland when I came down after breakfast I also felt rather dispirited as there were no messages from the University or my other friends. I spent over an hour on the telephone trying to get in touch with our Corresponding Secretary. I was just going to give it up as a bad job when Dr. Thwing, President of the University, came in to see me and was so nice and took me off to lunch with several of the other professors.

We discussed E.-S.U. matters and I felt it was well worth having come here, such a friendly atmosphere, I felt quite at home, though arriving at these strange towns is rather a horrible business and I sometimes feel very depressed and almost wonder why I have started another society. I ought really to have an advance agent to pave the way. All the rush and scramble for the dollar does nauseate me.

 

27 April, Blackstone Hotel, Chicago. Very comfortable hotel, my room costs £2 a night. Had to cable for another £50 as travelling is more expensive than I expected. Went to lunch with friends at a club, they were all very friendly but not really interested in the E.-S.U. All the afternoon I went round calling to try and find the right kind of E.-S.U. people, without any luck. Got back here just before dinner, it is cold and raw, like London in the winter---trying after the lovely weather in Washington---felt rather depressed as the anti-British feeling is very strong.

Lunched at the Atlantic Club with my friend James Keeley. He had twenty of the chief people to meet me, including Samuel Insull, an old friend, Mr. Cyrus McCormick, Mr. Victor Lawson of the Chicago Daily News, McCutcheon the cartoonist and several of the leading packers. The lunch went off very well and after my talk there was general conversation. I felt at last that I was getting in touch with just the right people, and began to feel more encouraged as far as Chicago is concerned.

At five I was taken off in a motor to see the South Chicago parks and dined with a group of editors. One man attacked me on the Sinn Fein subject and I felt rather forlorn. He really was a very nice fellow and the others told me I kept my end up and I really quite enjoyed the evening.

There is just the same feeling of rush here that I found eleven years ago. The town is reclaiming large plots of land from Lake Michigan to extend the space for parks and public buildings. Everybody on my way here told me that I should find a lot of anti-British feeling and one man in Philadelphia said, "To admit ever having drunk a cup of afternoon tea was considered treason to the American Constitution!"

 

29 April. At 10.30 a.m. I am to be taken to the stockyards again. I did not at all want to go but at the luncheon yesterday Edward Morris, the President of one of the big-five Packing Companies, invited me and as I wanted to get him interested in the E.-S.U. I did not see how I could refuse! Mr. Morris sent me his own car. I shuddered inwardly as I was taken to the cattle killing beds.

I was escorted by a young man who had been an officer in the American Army in France and we were given long white butchers' coats to keep us clean. I had very vivid recollections of my previous visit fourteen years before. I could not bear seeing the poor animals waiting. By saying I had not much time I managed to see the minimum of horrors. I do think all this slaughter business is awful. I am sure we shall evolve out of meat eating one day!

I think it was worth my going because I met one very nice man keen on the E.-S.U. I then went back and lunched with Colonel Robert McCormick, the chief proprietor of the Chicago Tribune, which frequently adopts rather an anti-British point of view. I had a very strenuous one-and-a-half hours arguing with various members of the editorial staff and most of the rest of the afternoon was taken up with Press interviews. The Middle West understands very little about the British Commonwealth and what it stands for in the world. Irish propaganda has done its work.

I have made a good number of E.-S.U. friends here who have promised real help, but it has all been a great rush and I ought to have had more time.

 

1 May, Chicago. I have got several really good people interested in the E.-S.U. and I think our prospects look better. I was taken by a man called Prosser to meet a group of his friends so that I could get them interested. They all promised help. They wanted me to address an audience of a thousand of the leading businessmen in Chicago at lunch next Wednesday. I would like to have done so but I can't fit it in.

Before I started breakfast this morning two men called in to see me. It is rather awful the way they invade you at all hours. You literally have no moments to yourself. Even going in to have a bath is quite difficult as when you are in the bath you are almost sure to be rung up on the long-distance telephone. For people who are doing public work I think there will have to be telephoneless bedrooms in the future. I have had to do a great deal of spade work in Chicago but I think I have left things on a very different basis.

 

2 May, Minneapolis. Mr. Herschel V. Jones, the proprietor of the Minneapolis Journal, called for me. He took me for a spin round Minneapolis and its twin city St. Paul. He is a charming old man and has a wonderful collection of rare books. He came over last year (1918) with one of the parties of editors, and I looked after him at the Ministry of Information. I lunched at his house and met his wife, altogether a very friendly atmosphere.

Then I dined with Mr. W. C. Edgar of The Bellman, who has enrolled fifty members as a start. I was much encouraged.

I forget if I told you that I have had a friendly postcard from the Chief. The last words are "am fat and red." He thoroughly sympathises with my English-speaking friendship work.

 

3 May, Minneapolis. My E.-S.U. meeting was a great success, it was held on the second floor of the Minneapolis Club. I talked for fifty minutes and then answered questions and I think from the E.-S.U. standpoint it was a great success. The leading big-wigs were there I was told: among them the head of the great Washburn-Crosby milling firm. There was such a friendly atmosphere. This is the greatest milling centre in the world. During the dinner a wire was read from our Honorary Corresponding Secretary at Winnipeg, C. W. Rowley:

"Much regret inability to accept Mr. Jones' and your hospitality in honour of Major Wrench. Fully agree with your cartoon 'one tongue, one destiny' of the English-speaking people for the benefit of the world. Humanity to-day looks to the English-speaking people for leadership and a better life. Don't let us disappoint them. See Isaiah, chapter forty-one, verse six : 'They helped everyone his neighbour; and everyone said to his brother, be of good courage.'"

Wasn't it nice of him? There was tremendous applause after it was read.

 

5 May, Back in Chicago on way to Boston. We arrived back at Chicago at nine. I particularly wanted to see Dr. Judson, head of the University, who had resigned from the E.-S.U. on account of the quarrel on the New York Committee. I was determined to try and get him back, so I took a taxi out to the University, about seven miles. The University is a marvellous place and is only thirty years old and has an endowment of £10,000 000! I do admire the way the rich men in America give these huge sums of money with no hope of reward. Thank heavens they have no title-business here.

Judson was very nice, I got him to withdraw his resignation and I settled everything up all right and I told him I was going entirely to reorganise things when I got back to New York. He said he was very glad I had been out to see him. I felt well satisfied with my visit.

 

6 May, 70, Beacon Street, Boston. I travelled here by the Twentieth Century Limited and realised afresh how dangerous these level crossing are. Wasn't it awful---the first section of our train, travelling at sixty miles an hour dashed into a Ford car somewhere near Toledo, Ohio, and killed the four people in it. I saw a white collar lying by the track.

I was met at the station by Mr. Allan Forbes, such a nice man with a charming wife. I felt at home with them straight away. There was such a home-like atmosphere in their house, old furniture, an open fireplace with crackling logs and a Scottish nurse for the children.

 

7 May, Boston. Just got back from a meeting of E.-S.U. members at Architectural Club, a Mr. W. P. Thayer in chair. It all went off very well.

 

8 May, 70, Beacon Street, Boston. I love Harvard and its old-world setting. I like to think it has existed an equal number of years under the British and American flags. I dined at the Harvard Club last night, all very friendly. On getting back sat up having a talk with my host and hostess. We discussed the problem of re-marriage. She said of course people ought to re-marry.

8 May, In train from Boston---New Haven. Caught the 8.30 train for my four-hour journey to New Haven as I want to see Mr. Taft, this is my only chance. I am so anxious to try and persuade him to withdraw his resignation from the American E.-S.U. He resigned in connection with the controversy between the two men on the New York Committee I told you about. I am told he is a very difficult man to persuade to alter his decision when once he has taken up a certain point of view, so I am by no means sanguine.

 

8 May, In the train on way back to Boston. It has been pouring all day and I set off in a taxi to see ex-President Taft with feelings of trepidation. I need not have been so fearful as to the result of my visit. Mr. Taft was spending a few days at New Haven in between two lecture tours. He had just got back from the Southern States and leaves to-morrow for the Pacific Coast. I wonder how our public men would enjoy round trips of 7,000 miles as a matter of routine! Mr. Taft was most friendly. When he laughs he has a peculiar kind of chuckle, which is I believe quite famous. I saw him in his office and I had no difficulties at all, and he consented straight away to remain President of the English-Speaking Union in the United States. He also gave me a message to our members for printing in The Landmark. I explained to him exactly what I had done and that the whole Committee was going to be reorganised as soon as I got back to New York. All this is very satisfactory and I feel I have now practically straightened the situation out. It all depends if I can fix up with the group I want to in New York. If I can I think I shall really put the whole E.-S.U. in the U.S.A. on a proper footing.

I do like this absence of formality in the U.S.A. Here is the only living ex-President of the United States and he treats me just like an equal and expects to be treated in the same way. I am very pleased about Taft, especially so as my host in Boston, Allan Forbes, said he did not think I would succeed.

 

9 May. Back in New York. Commodore Hotel. The Overseas League meeting in Boston last night was a great success and I am not sure that it was not one of the most enthusiastic Overseas meetings I have ever had. Was interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor before leaving.

I am staying at the Commodore Hotel, my room is on the eighteenth floor with a wonderful view. I found a huge batch of letters waiting for me from all over the United States. How I wish I was able to afford to have a secretary with me. I am dining with the publishers of the Trade papers in America to-night as their guest of honour.

My friends the Trade journalists came at 6 o'clock and took me off to dinner. There were 150 Trade journalists present and it was a very good audience. I talked rather more on business lines than purely on the ideal side. The audience was very cordial. I spoke for just three-quarters of an hour. My friend Mr. H. M. Swetland spoke after me.

He was one of the Trade journalists who came over to England in 1918 and whom I looked after at the Ministry of Information, and he it was to whom I had to hand the cable about the death of his son in France when he was there in 1918. He has just come back from Germany and made an excellent speech entirely on my lines as regards treating Germany as an equal in Europe and said till the economic life of Germany and Austria was re-established all civilisation would suffer. I was surprised that he dared to speak so openly. He prefaced his remarks by saying that perhaps the war had come home to him on account of his son's death as much as anyone in that room.

 

11 May. After lunch I had to make rather a difficult call and I felt rather oppressed by all the difficult problems in connection with getting the E.-S.U.

 

12 May. To-day is the most important day of the trip as far as I am concerned. I am dining this evening with the group in whose hands I want to leave the E.-S.U, cause over here. Had a busy day, telephone calls began at eight and people were waiting downstairs to catch me on the way out, then I had to make a succession of calls up till lunch, then I had a lunch at the Yale Club with Dr. Frederick Lynch connected with a Carnegie Church Foundation. He had asked thirty of the leading bishops and clergy to meet me. Coming back in the subway really is a nightmare it is a mad struggle, fifty times worse than our Underground, and the people are so rude and I felt very depressed about humanity en masse.

Later. I am just back from my meeting. It was a great success and I have got a really strong committee. The whole thing has been a much greater success than I expected. The dinner was given me by Mr. Paul D. Cravath at the University Club and it was a kind of E.-S.U. Convention with our branches at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Pittsburgh represented, while I was empowered to represent Chicago, Minneapolis and Cleveland. It was a very influential gathering. It was decided to make an entirely new start and we constituted the English-Speaking Union of the United States, to be incorporated in America and to be an independent but sister society of the E.-S.U, of the British Empire.(11)

 

13 May. Spent a lot of time with my friends Mr. Paul Cravath and Wells, two of the chief people in the new E.-S.U. group here. Such a load has been lifted off my mind about the E.-S.U. I hope this time I shall not be disappointed.

 

15 May. Yesterday really was a nightmare of a day, I have been rushed off my feet all these last two or three days but I shall be able to rest on board. It has been a case of perpetual telephone calls from 8.30 onwards. I lunched with Wells at the Harvard Club and he had fourteen to meet me---among others Theodore Roosevelt's son. During the afternoon I called on various people and had an interesting talk with Colonel House who was President Wilson's adviser at the Peace Conference, a man with a very sane outlook and a great friend of Wiseman's.

Then I had to dress in rather a hurry as people were waiting and Alexander Smith Cochran called for me and came with me to the dinner which was given me by the Foreign Press Correspondents in New York. It was the first time I had seen Cochran since be had sent me that £1,100 for the E.-S.U., but he would not let himself be thanked. He is a curious disgruntled person but has a very kind heart.

 

16 May, On the Carmania. Such a lovely evening with crimson sunset and watching all the steamers glide out of New York Harbour was a sight I shall never forget. The boat is absolutely packed, my cabin mates are, a Dane engaged in the butter business, and the other a young American going to India for a year in the jute business.

 

17 May. Carmania. I saw a huge rat in the lavatory just opposite my cabin yesterday and did not relish the thought that it would only have to run across the passage to come into our cabin. I want on the voyage to finish all the accounts of my American trip and also to write one or two articles for the press. I am playing quite a lot of shuffle board.

 

19 May. I am chiefly playing shuffle board with Clive Davies and an American called Maynard Williams who is connected with the National Geographic Magazine. We talk much about our mutual friend Lawrence of Arabia.

 

Saturday, 22 May. I am going to have an E.-S.U. meeting on board this evening. I am feeling rather nervous about it.

 

23 May. The E.-SM. meeting on board last night was a great success and I had one of the most enthusiastic meetings of all my tour and I felt that I did justice to the cause. I so much enjoy the thought that I never know how many Americans and how many British are in my audiences. Forty people signed on as members straight away.

 

The following day. A lovely day and the sea so wonderful and the gulls circling round. We have just left Queenstown. I roped in another twenty E.-S.U. members to-day making my bag sixty on the return journey. (Letters.)

I RETURNED from New York with a two-fold conviction. The conviction that upon cordial and close English-speaking co-operation rested the hope of mankind and the conviction that the task of steering the English-Speaking Union to success would not be easy.

On getting back to London, ready to throw myself with renewed determination into my work, I went through the inevitable period of depression and reaction. For a time at least my mind dwelt on the difficulties. I knew how strong were the forces in America trying to fan the embers of discord between our two peoples. I was well acquainted with anti-Americanism in Great Britain---much in evidence now that the days of war co-operation were receding and that the United States seemed more than ever determined to embark on a policy of splendid isolation. The unsettled Irish question was a boulder across the path and till it was out of the way frank British-American friendship would be difficult.

I was ten years older than when I started the Overseas League. I had lost some of my confidence in myself. The war and the immediate post-war period had shattered many hopes. I no longer felt so confident in a kindly fate---or perhaps it would be more correct to say that periods of doubt as to the ability of individuals to alter the destiny of nations became more frequent. The two great causes that I cared for, Empire Unity and British-American friendship, were passing through troublous times. In Ireland, South Africa and India there were strong forces opposed to closer co-operation. In both Great Britain and in the United States the fomentors of trouble were meeting with temporary success.

I was acutely conscious of the indifference of the majority to the cause I had at heart. War-time enthusiasts now became self-absorbed. I sometimes thought regretfully of my position at the Ministry of Information two years earlier. When in a government department it is comparatively easy to pull strings. I envied American friends who were working for great causes with the backing of the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations.

There was a steadily growing number of adherents to both my causes and I had loyal colleagues, but nevertheless the mass of humanity was indifferent. Committee meetings were no longer as thrilling as immediately after the war, when visions of reconstruction were in the air and almost any object seemed attainable. I learnt afresh how different is the realisation of a scheme from the vision. Committee meetings were often disillusioning. "The letter killeth."

When I started the English-Speaking Union I vowed I would never enforce my views in face of opposition. I tried to keep in the background. I recalled glaring examples of self-advertisers. In 1920 the world had not become familiar with dictators, in whom self~ adulation is regarded as a virtue! I pondered on the difficulty of keeping early enthusiasm red-hot. Once ideals assume concrete form the life-spirit evaporates. I envied authors and artists. They are judged by visible works. Founders of schemes are not so fortunate. The reality is a travesty of the ideal, embarked upon in a moment of insight. The popular preacher or lecturer has great moments of elation when he sways his audience. Crusades are comparatively easy: the speaker is carried along by his enthusiasm and the enthusiasm of his supporters. But translating the views expounded on the platform into reality during ordinary humdrum life round the committee table requires staying power. Only those with stout hearts and reserves of inspiration should start movements! The practical idealist lives in two worlds---the world of the spirit and the world of hard fact. In the latter he is aiming at showing results. It is not enough to play upon the emotions. Enthusiasm is evanescent. The paucity of result compared with his dream is baffling. The joy of service must be sufficient reward. He must not for ever be measuring up life's journey with a tape measure. He must get a true sense of values by withdrawing from the practical world to the realm of spirit.