The Junior Member in the Ancient House

THE CONTRIBUTORS’ CLUB

DID you ever see the second generation enter into a business house? I am speaking of the second generation of the best sort, in whom the will and energy, and, under the downy exterior of youth, the ruthlessness, of the first, has been marvelously preserved, — the thrust-back-shouldered, grim-chinned, instant-speaking second generation, in which our fabricated-steel fiction of the popular magazines, all put together of standard parts like one of the Ford’s Lizzies, delights, — have you ever seen such an one enter the commercial purlieus where age and decay have brought comfortable inefficiency? You know him, modest and self-conscious, expressing doubt of his powers, jostling no tradition, ‘waiting to be shown,’ grateful for the patience of his elders.

A little while passes and he begins to do things, always with an eye to the approval of his mentors. He begins to walk alone commercially, not straying off the premises, to be sure, while an admiring circle of other generations applauds— applauds and pats on the back.

The youth is happy in this approbation. He begins to have a sense that the future is his, but in his kindness of heart he is willing to wait upon time. The earlier generation eyes him like an impending doom, but a considerate and patient doom that is in no hurry, which is all that may be asked of a doom.

Something happens. Unconscious growth takes place more rapidly than was expected. The taste for the balance-sheet which is in his blood asserts itself. The egotism of mastery hardens him. A sense comes that the fight before him is a real fight. And the new generation has arrived!

Well, this is a long way to it, but something like that has happened, is happening, and will happen, in the big firm of Allies & Son, '& Son’ having only recently been added to the title. I should say that the Junior Member had passed through the first stage above described, was now in the second, and must, if the war lasts long enough, and is to be won, enter the third.

Let me give a few details of each phase of the Junior Member’s consciousness. When the war broke out, I, in Washington and seeing the thing closely, was always on the point of writing a light article on ‘The Most Modest of Nations.’ It was amazing. It seemed the finest paradox that the chief word in the vocabulary of the boastful Yankee should be the word ‘Can’t.’ We were so aware of our own weakness, our lack of preparation, our unmilitary character, and we had been scolded about them so often, that we even utterly underestimated our actual capacity. We could n’t do this and we could n’t do that, short of many months. We could n’t get soldiers to France inside of a year. The French showed us that we could get them there inside of a month, but only by dint of Marshal Joffre’s going directly to the President about it. The biggest steelproducing country in the world, we could n’t build steel ships. We couldn’t build many torpedo-boat destroyers, or build them fast. We could n’t build war aircraft, or their engines, — at least, not short of endless preparation. Ultimately we should do wonders, but for the present we were full of doubt and self-abasement.

This phase has passed. Some of its doubts, or, rather, much of its lack of confidence, still inheres; but none the less we have found that we can do many things that at first we thought we could not. In a year, instead of just beginning, we shall have a big army in France. We have an enormous steelship-building programme. We plan a navy of destroyers unequaled by any other power. All this leaves a good deal to be desired, but it measures an immense stride forward in self-assertion. We begin to hear calmly, and as a matter of course, our Allies say, ’America, the unbeaten, — she will win the war.’ We do not take in the full significance of that declaration. But our role somehow appears bigger to us. Our voice is heard first when terms of peace are proposed, and we are not covered with confusion at thus being thrust forward. We decide that Russia, now that her striking power is clearly gone, is worth being kept upon her feet, at the cost of diverting aid to the East which is sorely needed on the more hopeful Western front. Arrogance is lacking but there is a sense of maturing power.

And — here I enter the difficult area of the future — does any one suppose the Junior Member will stop where he is, content to play the good youth learning at his elders’ knees, loving the older generation so much, that he will never grow impatient with its failures, never reach out for the power that is his by right of the adage, ‘Youth will be served ’ ? It would be better not so. The present phase of the Junior Member’s consciousness leaves much to be desired. He is still content to think that he cannot begin to get a big fleet of merchant ships short of a year and a half. He is undisturbed by the knowdedge that he will, so far as present shipping prospects go, as the General Staff sees them, be able to send an army to France at the rate of only 30,000 men a month.

He is too well pleased with himself and with the applause of the generation that lingers on the scene. His present modesty may be more lovable than the strident self-assertion that is to come; but if a man is to be a man, he has to grow up, grow hard, give his egotism play, forget that others have ceased to love him in the ruthless effort to get results. And not only is t he change a part of the history of individuality, but it is in this instance eminently desirable. The business of Allies & Son is not going well. The house lacks aggressiveness. It needs young blood. It requires an offensive policy on sea and land. Admiral Sims is abroad representing the Junior Member navally; Sims the arrogant smasher of traditions in our own navy. He is participating with men whose policy has failed, who are merely conservers of the existing situation instead of builders of victory. And yet he is only playing ‘little brother’ to them, playing his assigned part with small questioning.

This is typical of the existing state of the National consciousness. We are helping as best we can, not inspiring, leading, mastering. If ‘America is to win the war’ it must be upon a different conception than that. But let us watch the Junior Member when the final stage of consciousness comes and he begins to jostle the traditions of the ancient house!