Welsh Journals

Terms of Industrial Peace, Alex Ramsey Constable & Co. 3s. net. Pp. 144. Of the output of books treating upon the relations between Capital and Labour there is no end. This volume consists of a series of eleven essays written by an engineer employed at a munition works who tries to approach the subject from a neutral standpoint. Although he has lived as a workman and has known the most intimate conditions of his existence, his hardships, difficulties and struggles, the uncertainties of his future, his hopes and aspirations," he has, also, a knowledge of the complexity of our commercial and industrial organism, and thinks the wage labour system is the only one to which we can look to carry us through the next generation and maintain our industrial and national prosperity." He therefore seeks to make that system as just, workable and mutually profitable as possible. The main theme of the book is that Capital and Labour should work together to increase productivity by the use of improved methods and machinery by the employers and the abandonment of restrictions on production by the men, and the adoption of satisfactory methods of adjusting the conflicting interests of the two parties. The book contains very little that is new and it has no special message to offer. The presen- tation, however, is lucid, interesting and sympathetic, and the reader will, at any rate, by its perusal be able to visualise more clearly the difficult problems that await solution. E.L.C. Suggestions for the Consideration of Teachers, etc." Introduction (revised edition) 1917. Board of Education. 2d. Pp. 30. This is the revised edition of the introduction published twelve years ago. By this time The Suggestions are familiar to all concerned in educa- tion. Their publication was the manifestation of a new spirit quite different from that which prompted the issue of the Code, the spirit namely of appeal and not of command. It is refreshing to note the insistence on the freedom of the teacher, the determining force of any true education is to be found in the teacher, the broad views which are taken with regard to method and discipline and the stress laid on the fact that the whole value of school training must be tested by the attitude of the scholar when he leaves school and the use he makes afterwards of the means of learning and doing which have been given to him." This introduction should be read not merely by the professional teacher but by every parent who cares for the education of his children. W. The Living Past." A sketch of western progress, by F. S. Marvin. Clarendon Press (1917). 3s. 6d. Pp. 290. That a third edition of this excellent little book has been called for, is a welcome sign of the changed attitude towards the interpretation of history which is perhaps one of the results of the increasing demand for education among the workers. Taking his cue from Kant's theory of a universal history revealing the growth of a world community and a common humanity, the author has added to it the knowledge which the present century in particular has contributed by way of scientific dis- covery and improvement. Thus World history is tending to become One History for whatever happens in any part of the globe has now a significance for every other part." In such a scheme the political historian has to give way to one who describes the account of man's achievements through knowledge, power, and social organization. The outcome is an extremely interesting book, of which not the least impor- tant portions are the admirable time charts and appendix on books. W. "War Poems and Other Verses. R. E. Vernede. W. Heinemann. 5s. net. Pp. 88. Mr. Vernede had already made himself a name as a writer of novels and books of travel when the War broke out. Then though over the military age, he joined the Army with a quickness of decision which was to be expected from so fine and generous a spirit. He was killed In France in 1917, and this slim volume of verse is a legacy born of the quickening influence which the great world crisis exercised on his spirit, though he seems to have written some occasional light verse before the War. The book shews a technical accomplishment of >a high level. If the matter is on the whole inferior to the manner, this may to some extent be attributed to a very English kind of modesty, a constitutional shyness of emotional display. The two poems, entitled, Before the Assault" and A Petition shew that Mr. Vernede was capable of real passion and real poetry. The shorter (though not the stronger) of these poems may be quoted in full "A PETITION." All that a man might ask thou hast given me, Eng'and, Birthright and happy childhood's long heart's-ease, And love whose range is deep beyond all sounding And wider than the seas- A heart to front the world and find God in it, Eyes blind enow, but not too blind to see The lovelier things behind the dross and darkness. And lovelier things to be­· And friends whose loyalty time nor death shall weaken, And quenchless hope and laughters golden store, All that a man might ask thou hast given me, England, Yet grant thou one thing more That now when envious foes would spoil thy splendour, Unversed in arms, a dreamer such as I May in thy ranks be deemed not all unworthy, England, for thee to die. The Coming Democracy," by Hermann Fernau. Constable & Co. 6s. Pp. 320. Herr Fernau belongs to that growing company of patriotic Germans who have had to take refuge on foreign soil in order to continue their efforts to free their country from the influence of a corrupt dynasty. His book was published in February, 1917, at Berne (Switzerland), and therefore appeared prior to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, and before the United States joined the belligerents. It is a work of com- manding interest because the writer, by reason of the peculiar quality of his experience, stands in a class above that of the ordinary, academic critic. As a Prussian democrat he is compelled with sorrow to fix the responsibility of the world war in the Machiavellian character of German foreign policy, and confesses that only in the utter defeat of this policy can the German people expect to find political salvation. For every victorious war means for the victorious nation a loss of political liberties, whilst for the vanquished it is a fount of inspiration and democratic progress." The basic principle of his treatise is that conflicts between nations are due entirely to dynastic ambitions. Hence the truth of Kant's pene- trating observation; The civil constitution of every State must be republican." He shows clearly that the Germans have paid a heavy price for the doubtful ornament of their dynasty. The Hohenzollerns have made gilded puppets of their subjects, duped them with empty forms of democratic freedom, and with the help of pliant ministers and servile professors standardised a type of citizen by militarising from top to bottom the people's organization, -their outlook, their philosophy. What are the national results — "Learning without character, know- ledge without conscience, organization without humanity, discipline without liberty, ideal without dignity." This book provides mental pabulum not only for Germans, but for autocrats and democrats in every country. The spirit of Prussianism makes light of geographical boundaries, and is becoming more cosmo- politan every day. Herr Fernau has torn off its mask. and let us see its ugliness. In so doing he has made a valuable addition to democratic literature. Free men will recognise the merit of his work. The Lost Legacy." A play of Welsh domestic life, by the Rev. W. F. Phillips, BLitt., 13, Queen's Drive, Walton, Liverpool. 6d. net. There are many of us who hope that the new-founded dramatic literature dealing with Welsh life has only been stayed for a short time by the absorption of our energies in war, and that presently we shall witness a fresh outburst of activity that will eclipse all previous attain- ment. Meanwhile the tradition is being carried on by one or two dramatists in spite of present difficulties, and in The Lost Legacy," which has