Page 870

ALS IK KAN: NOTES: REVIEWS
ALS 1K KAN
N the February issue of THE CRAFTS-
     MAN, the leading article was a short
     personal sketch  of Jack   London,
which attracted much attention because
of its vivid presentation of the strong
individuality, the earnestness and sin-
cerity, that characterize the work    of
this already famous young writer and
reformer. About the time this article
appeared, Mr. London lectured in New
York on "Revolution," setting forth his
theory of the reconstruction of society
upon the basis of unmodified socialism.
In this lecture Mr. London justified all
that has been said of his zeal and sincer-
ity, but the views to which he gave utter-
ance, although not new, were so extreme,
that they would hardly stand the test even
of argument, let alone a possible practical
application.
   Like most enthusiasts possessed of a
ruling idea, Mr. London sought rather
to pull down the existing state of affairs,
than to suggest a remedy that might serve
as a good working basis for the much-
needed reform of social and industrial
abuses. The one theory he advocated
was the old one of a revolution,-
a general uprising of the proletariat that
would destroy the existence of capital,
and effect, by force if necessary, a redis-
tribution of the world's wealth so that
every man would share equally, his right
to do so being founded upon his human-
ity alone.
   Although his large audience was com-
posed chiefly of ardent socialists, the lec-
ture excited but little enthusiasm and
elicited but faint response from the ma-
jority of his hearers. A point of view
870
that is merely iconoclastic fails to appeal
to reason, for the question at once arises:
After revolution, what next? After the
overthrow of existing conditions, and the
abolition of property rights and of indus-
trial organization, what guarantee     is
there  for a   better state  of  things?
Would it not be better to work sanely
and deliberately toward the systematic re-
form of abuses, rather than to pull down
the whole structure, paralyze industry for
an indefinite period, and then find that
the last state of the working-man was
worse than the first?
  The argument for a sweeping revolu-
tion and the answering question of the
more conservative reformer is a thrice-
told tale, as old as the theory of socialism.
Yet, when an earnest, vigorous thinker
like Jack London seriously advocates the
desirability of such a revolution, it may
not be out of place to cite a few facts from
the other side. Mr. London's viewpoint,
as expressed in his lecture, took in only
one aspect of the question. In his eager-
ness to learn the truth, he went himself
to the depths of the social abyss that he
might, from personal experience, know
its miseries and proclaim them anew to
the world, but through it all he has for-
gotten that the viewpoint of a spectator,
however intelligent and sympathetic, can
never be the same as that of the people
who suffer. He is from       a different
world, with different capacities and dif-
ferent standards. He has lived among
the people of the abyss, outwardly as one
of them, but he has studied their life, not
lived it as one for whom there is no other
outlook. He realizes fully and proclaims
passionately that their birthright has