* 右写真出典:R. Clark's B. Russell and His World, 1981. この時期(=1902~1910)を通して,私は,毎年冬の期間,主として政治問題に専念していた(注:日高氏は,「この時代を通しての幾歳月」と誤訳されている。)。ジョセフ・チェンバレン(Joseph Chamberlain,1836-1914:英国の政治家)が保護貿易(制度)を擁護しはじめた時,私は熱烈な自由貿易論者になっていた。(また)ヒューインズ(William Albert Samuel Hewins,1865-1931)が私を帝国主義と帝国主義的関税同盟の方向に向かわせた影響(力)は,私を'平和主義者'に転向させた1901年の危機(参考:ラッセルの回心)の時期'の間に消え去っていた。
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* Coefficients Club の会員: Sir Edward Grey, Haldane, Bertrand Russell, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Leo Maxse, Clinton Dawkins of the City, Carlyon Bellairs of the Navy, Pember Reeves, W. A. S. Hewins, L. S. Amery, H. J. Mackinder, Lord Robert Cecil, Lord Arthur Balfour, Michael Sadler, Henry Newbolt, Lord Alfred Milner, John Hugh Smith, J. Birchenough of the City, Garvin, Josiah Wedgwood (the single taxer), John Hugh Smith, Colonel Repington, F. S. Oliver, and C. F. G. Masterman Throughout this period my winters were largely occupied with political questions. When Joseph Chamberlain began to advocate Protection, I found myself to be a passionate Free Trader. The influence which Hewins had exerted upon me in the direction of Imperialism and Imperialistic Zollverein had evaporated during the moments of crisis in 1901 which turned me into a Pacifist. Nevertheless in 1902 I became a member of a small dining club called 'The Coefficients', got up by Sidney Webb for the purpose of considering political questions from a more or less Imperialist point of view. It was in this club that I first became acquainted with H. G. Wells, of whom I had never heard until then. His point of view was more sympathetic to me than that of any other member. Most of the members, in fact, shocked me profoundly. I remember Amery's eyes gleamning with blood-lust at the thought of a war with America, in which, as he said with exultation, we should have to arm the whole adult male population. One evening Sir Edward Grey (not then in office) made a speech advocating the policy of the Entente, which had not yet been adopted by the Government. I stated my objections to the policy very forcibly, and pointed out the likelihood of its leading to war, but no one agreed with me, so I resigned from the club. It will be seen that I began my opposition to the first war at the earliest possible moment. After this I took to speaking in defence of Free Trade on behalf of the Free Trade Union. I had never before attempted public speaking, and was shy and nervous to such a degree as to make me at first wholly ineffective. Gradually, however, my nervousness got less. After the Election of 1906, when Protection ceased for the moment to be a burning question, I took to working for women's suffrage. On pacifist grounds I disliked the Militants, and worked always with the Constitutional party. In 1907 I even stood for Parliament at a by-election, on behalf of votes for women. The Wimbledon Campaign was short and arduous. It must be quite impossible for younger people to imagine the bitterness of the opposition to women's equality. When, in later years, I campaigned against the First World War, the popular opposition that I encountered was not comparable to that which the suffragists met in 1907. The whole subject was treated, by a great majority of the population, as one for mere hilarity. The crowd would shout derisive remarks: to women, 'Go home and mind the baby'; to men, 'Does your mother know you're out?' no matter what the man's age. Rotten eggs were aimed at me and hit my wife. At my first meeting rats were let loose to frighten the ladies, and ladies who were in the plot screamed in pretended terror with a view to disgracing their sex. An account of this is given in the following newspaper report: |