C.P. Scott and the Method and Moment of Peacemaking. by risa
This is series of quotations from Charles Prestwich Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian from 1872 to 1929. The Guardian was a reform-minded journal that played a major role in the formation of public opinion during the time when the “taxes on knowledge” maintained The Times’ monopoly. Under Scott the paper continuously advanced a progressive Whig (not radical) line.
These quotes trace a dark moment in the history of movements of thought and in governmental acts of collaboration. Scott, with remarkable prescience, calls for the fair treatment of Germany following World War I, so that her citizens might find their way toward a dignified new life. But the Guardian’s power has already been over-shadowed at this point by the amalgamated Northcliffe Press whose editor in chief has been issuing daily calls for Germany’s punishment, and for the economic sanctions which contribute considerably to the social climate in Germany that will eventually elect the Nazis.
In our contemporary moment the rhetoric of punishment is still dangerously magnetic, but if we can keep our eyes pragmatically open to the communications that might negotiate a way beyond present-minded anger small steps can be continuously made towards peace and fair relationships; and a better collective life, without the crashing disapointment of false utopia, might still be possible.
On peacemaking The Great Day november 12, 1918.
“Facts are spectators of great and transforming events, and Germany stands disclosed before us not merely as a democratic State- or rather, we should say, as resolved or resolving itself into a series of such states, destined, we may believe, to form the United States of the Germany of the Future- but as one which may easily pass to a position far more extreme. The inborn and acquired sense of discipline so strong in the German people will, we may well hope, save them from the excess the disorder, and the bitter internal strife of which Russia has shown the world an example, but Bolshevism had its root in the mind of a German doctrinaire, and it remains to be seen whether Germany, in her deep humiliation and staggering under the load which is the legacy of of four years of war, will resist the contagion. We have yet to see what her returning legions, suffering and bitterly disappointed, may have to say. Certainly if they should go back to find them selves workless and foodless the result is not likely to be happy for the German State… In the interests of order, in the interests of humanity, we must see to it that the German people, whose fate is now largely in our hands, shall not starve. That is a first duty which we owe a conquered enemy. Let it be handsomely performed.” p. 174.
“The Slump in Idealism” Dec. 3rd 1919.
“The time was a time for coolness, for restraint, for dignity in the hour of our victory, so that, if possible, we might achieve that most difficult of all conquests, the conquest of our selves, and win that final success, the success of moderation and of statesmanship, rather then that of violence and self-assertion and letting loose of passion. Already we begin to see the results. As for anything constructive, for any mandate on policy such as we were bidden to look for, there is no such thing. An outline of reforms was laid down in the joint manifesto of the Government at the beginning of the contest, but it receives a merely perfunctory assent from their followers. All the real ardour of the Coalition goes into execration of the enemy- who doubtless deserves curses deep and long, but is already paying a penalty which might satisfy even those whose mind cannot travel beyond the the ethics of commination- and the demand for vengeance on him, high and low, and his utter exclusion for all the time to come from our land and commerce. It is as natural here as it was in America, and may prove no less effective as a political weapon. But in any larger view it is not helpful. It will not assist us to get rid of Chauvinism among ourselves or others; it will not strengthen the hands of those who wish to play the part of statesmen at the Peace Conference; it will not advance by a hair’s breadth the cause of a just and enduring peace.”
Coalition April 24th 1923
“Liberalism is not, as some would have us believe, the shibboleth of a party of a party, or, as Mr. Fildes would appear to hold, a doctrine, a program which, its main objectives having now been achieved, may be dismissed as of small account. It is a spirit as a principle capable in itslef of growth and ever fresh application. Historically it is the mother, in all countries, of free institutions. It is the foe of all tyranny, of the tryanny of opinion no less than of the tyranny of the oppressed and of the common man. It hates priviledge, it seeks no advantage for a class which it would not share with all. Within the limits of what is possible it makes for equailty. It hates war, as the destroyer, though it is willing to wwage warin defence of things more precious than life or property- in defence of justice and of the higher interest of civilization. In much of this, it may be said, it has no exclusive propoerty, and it is true that its spirit is pervasive. So much the better; let all share who will.”
In “Men and Movements” Woodrow Wilson February 4th, 1924.
“When Wilson came to Europe for the conference, his place in popular imagination and hope throughout Europe was beyond all precedent. If by any miracle he could have dealt, face to face, with the masses of decent, friendly, and simple people who form the bulk of every nation, a new era of peace and well-being might have opened for the world. But at Versailles he had not peoples to deal with but a few politicians fatally barred by their own past from acceptance of the rule of being just and fearing not. Some had already bound their countries over, by furtive treaties, to carry out bargains that would not square with the Fourteen Points, or indeed with any honourable rules of international conduct. (…) The Prime Minister of England had just won his commission to make the peace by a demagogic appeal to faith in his power of “making Germany pay.”In the cool, quiet rooms of Versailles, with all the generous relentments and chivalrous or Christian impulses that were then stirring in Europe safely shut outside the shut doors, Wilson had the deal alone with with that entangled, sophisticated, and materialist diplomatic world which so many Americans believe to be Europe, the whole of Europe, and nothing but Europe. It beat him.” p.217
C.P. Scott 1846-1932. The Making of the “Manchester Guardian” Greenwood Press, Publishers. Westport, Connecticut. 1974.
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