Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/119

 of the ideology of the new situation in which democracy, as hitherto conceived, was destined to be torn between capitalism and proletarianism, each seeking to use the machinery of the State for economic mastery, and driven by the emergency of the conflict to dictatorships of the right or left.

But for some time the atmosphere was very hazy. The prevalent feeling when the War came to an end was that after a time things would settle down in their old grooves, and that after some licking of wounds, the different combatant nations would somewhat shyly resume their earlier relations. Though some foresaw that grave troubles would come from reparations, War debts, and new frontiers, few, if any, had any notion of the disastrous psychological reactions of the post-War blockade and the Versailles Treaty upon the German people.

Most of my associates in the world of politics and journalism lived in an atmosphere of hope. The War had broken many bonds of custom, had evoked a wide sense of comradeship, and made large advances in social reforms possible and politically necessary. “Self-determination” had a captivating sound and the liberation of Poland and other oppressed nationalities seemed an earnest of a new Liberal Europe. Above all, the Russian Revolution appeared to give a fine refutation to the dull doctrine of gradualness. Smuts’s famous statement, “The tents have been struck and the great Caravan of humanity is once more on the