New-York tribune. [volume], January 04, 1920, Page 6, Image 72

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Famous English Scientist Says
He Has "Been Shown"
and Has Seen
By Benjamin de Casseres
SIR OLIVER LODGE, who is
coming here this month to be?
gin a whirlwind tour of the
country in the interests of the im?
mortality of the soul and to tell us
of his adventures in the realm of
psychic phenomena, is nearly sev?
enty years of age. It was Mark
Twain who, when he had arrived at
the Biblical allotted span, described
himself as "seventy years young."
The great American humorist merely
emitted a witticism; but Sir Oliver
can say it literally, because he be?
lieves that when he undresses here
and throws his earth-clothing into
the crucible of that greatest of all
chemists, Old Mother Earth, his soul
will go marching on into other di?
mensions. He will begin all over
again, prepared for new adventures,
scientific and sensuous.
If his life here on earth, as he be?
lieves, is really only the cradle
experience before his real life be?
gins, he is actually only seventy
years young. Instead of being an
old man he can look on himself as
only a child, and he need not worry
an atom's worth of gray matter
when the doctor pronounces him
"dead"?for he iBn't. He can smile
back from "over there" at his death
certificate as blandly as he would at
his income tax blank for the follow?
ing year or his landlord's eviction
notice, if scientists and psycho
astral swamis are ever evicted.
Curious how the crystal gazers al?
ways bring home the bacon; but that
?is another story. This one is about
I the evolution of Sir Oliver Lodge.
Is the Oliver Joseph Lodge who
delivered a lecture, in 1877, in
London, on the deposition of dust
and fume and fog by electricity the
same person as the Oliver Joseph
Lodge who is to-day laden with com?
munications from the dead and who
says he does not believe the. soul is
immortal but he knows it is? ?
A Mystery Himself
Is Sir Oliver Lodge as great a
mystery himself as any he has
"solved"? Is he a growth or a
"freak"? Has the evolution of his
mind, since the days when he went
to the Newport Grammar School to
that memorable day in his life, in
1916, when he got in "communica?
tion" with his son Raymond, who
was killed in northern France, been
a consistent,' normal evolution, or
is he possessed by a second, a
threshold, personality that com?
pletely absorbed and took posses?
sion of the old exact, pedantic
Lodge when the great grief of his
son's death was brought to him?
Multiple personality is one of the
most fascinating studies in the
realm of psychic phenomena. The
cellular theory has broken up all
our preconceived ideas of unalter?
able personality. We are not one;
we are many. Each cell in us is
an embryo personality. The domi?
nant cluster is the Speaker of the
House. We call it our "character."
But there are other clusters always
fighting to get into the chair?mi?
nority leaders, so to speak; opposi?
tion groups. You say one thing to?
day?based on a long line of per
*
sona? . emotions, reactions and
thoughts; to-morrow you are apos?
tate to yourself,' and suddenly see
that you were entirely wrong?as
j tounding yourself and your friends.
| People who are of the monorail,
? one-cell-cluster variety call you a
| hypocrite, a poseur, a changeling.
The more sensitive to mental and
physical impressions you are the
more completely exposed you are
to the intrusion of these cell-clus?
ter intruders in your ego.
All the vagaries, contradictions
and paradoxes of genius are explain?
able on this hypothesis. It is hard
for the average man to grasp the
flights and Bomersaults of a d'An
nunzio, for instance, because he is
looking at the actions of a man who
is not governed by one personality
but by a half-dozen, a human Fre
goli. Schopenhauer, when one day
asked by a stranger on a country
road, "Who are you?" replied, frank?
ly, "I do not know." As a matter
of fact, the great pessimist was
"possessed" at that moment by an?
other being?that is, a series of cells
latent in their activity down in the
subconscious world until then, had
so maneuvered that they took pos?
session of the throne of his con?
sciousness and jostled the regular
everyday Arthur Schopenhauer into
oblivion for the time being. He was
another one of his selves.
Walt Whitman declared he was
"all things to all men." He was a
thief, a god, a vagabond?it de
pended on which gang of cells hac
possession of him. Goethe said, "J
am all murderers." Leonardo d?
Vinci, the man of the "Mona Lisa,'
was, variously, poet, physicist, seer
astronomer and painter. Shelley de
clared he could remember his previ'
ous lives. None of these men was t
drug fiend or "alcoholic." Whitmar
alone had been violently "converted'
by a great blaze of light while riding
in a cab.
Sir Oliver Lodge, whether a vie
tim or not of the phenomena oj
"conversion," or double personality
has a parallel forebear in the great
Emmanuel Swedenborg. Both were
scientists and physical experiment?
ers; both ended as mystics, seers of
another world, founders of great
ghost movements. Sir Oliver Lodge's
case is more normal than that of the
great Scandinavian, but the case of
the latter calls up the case of the
former almost automatically.
The Parallel
The parallel lies, first of all, in
this striking fact, that both Emman
- . ?<
] uel Swedenborg and Sir Oliver
; Lodge came of clerical and not sci?
entific stock. Both of Sir Oliver's
grandfathers were preachers. The
father of Swedenborg was Bishop of
Skars. He believed himself in
constant communication with the
angels. Sir Oliver's ancestors, how?
ever, were not mystics. The father
of Swedenborg laid himself open to
a charge of "heresy" because of his
j visions. The, tastes of the youth
Oliver and the youth Emmanuel ran
to the natural sciences; both were
endowed with unusual intellectual
faculties; both had a dislike of
theology.
Swedenborg published in his thir?
ty-second year a scientific periodical.
He was a student of mathematical
inventions and engineering prob?
lems. At this very age?thirty-two
?Sir Oliver Lodge was a professor
? of physics at University College,
Liverpool. Neither had the slightest
inkling of his extraordinary future
and fame in a realm that was not
only far removed from such material
matters, but was the very opposite
of them.
Swedenborg was, in 1724, a mat?
ter-of-fact government inspector of
?nines. His personality began to ex?
pand, or prepare for a psychic som?
ersault, in 1734, when he published a
curious treatise on the origin oi
things, based on mechanics and ge
ometry.
Gradually he began to wander ir
the region of the abstract, leaving
bridges, mines and hydraulics be?
hind him. He-was in his fifty-sixtl
year when his illumination came t<
him? In his fifty-sixth year Si;
Oliver Lodge was still writing abou
electrons and the properties of elec
tricityi although, in 1905, in his fifty
fourth year, he had written a criti
cism of Haeckel's "The Riddle of th
Universe." He was beginning t
thaw out.
From the date of "the opening o
his spiritual sight" Swedenborg un
derwent a series of "illuminations,
which resulted in the production o
?>
The Present Existence Is D^
clared Only an Introduc?
tion to That Beyond
those extraordinary books which
have founded a church and have
been the puzzle of all students of
psychic phenomena. He "died" at
eighty-four. The mystical cells in
him had conquered completely the
physical groups. Not the triumph
of mind over matter, but of vision
andN imagination over both.
The spiritual romance of Sir
Oliver Lodge is not as inspiring or
as fascinating to the average per?
son as the romance of Emmanuel
Swedenborg, because we live in a
more practical, wide-awake age.
But to the connoisseur of minds and
the dilettantes of psychological bi?
ography it is just as fascinating.
To the imagination whatever is is
wonderful. 'There is no such thing
as a commonplace being ? read
Dickens and 0. Henry if you think
there is. . Sir Oliver Lodge's imagi?
native evolution, or "conversion," is
an epic. Kings and their doings no
longer interest us. They are pup?
pets and lowbrows. ? But if one
goes over the books of Sir Oliver
Lodge, from his theory of fog to
his latest "message" from the world
beyond the tomb, and digs out all
the factors of that growth, or "con?
version," one is? present at as awe?
some a specta?ple as the world af
fords-^the saga of a soul.
A Darwin of Spiritism
A close study of the work of the
Englishman would reveal the fact
that from his earliest years he was,
unconsciously, perhaps, groping
toward the fantastic, the irreal, the
"spooky." He may be the forerun?
ner of a Darwin of spiritism, one
who will unite matter and spirit on
common ground, unfolding the la*
of their unity, weaving two opp<*.
ing systems of philosophy into on,
stupendous and grandiose whole.
Sir Oliver Lodge, be it remet?. 1
bered, nowhere claims that he ha. 9
thrown science to the winds. H 1
asserts that his "revelations",hav. I
been tested with all the scientific!
rigor that is applied to the measure. I
ments of the distance of stars?fo. \
fore Einstein threw a monke?.
wrench in the works. He di_cug?
his "discoveries" of the "other life"
with the calmness of a man discus
ing cubes. Like the late William
James, he says he had "to be
shown." He says he hag not onh
"been shown," but he has seen.
Another famous man who parti.
lels somewhat the career of Sir Oli.
ver Lodge is Camille Flanimarior.,
The latter is a great poet; Sir Oli
ver is not. It is a difference in tern
perament, not in results.
Flammarion was a great astron?
omer and mathematician before he
became converted to spiritism. He
used to measure suns; now he
weighs souls. In Flammarion's cas?
it is unimportant whether- he speab
the truth or not ; his books are great
literature, magical flights of the
imagination, astounding and charm?
ing adventures in other world!.
Flammarion was a born poet ami
thought he was a mathematician;
another trick of the cells, the?
Pr?speros and Pucks and Caglio.
tros of the psychic nature of num.
That there are more things in
heaven and earth than were ever
dreamed of in the philosophy of ma?
terialism Sir Oliver is coming hen
to prove. i
The Eigl
DURING the six or eight
weeks following January 13
the eyes of "wets" and
"drys" throughout the
United States are go im: to be fo?
cused on that ringed dot on the
map labeled "Trenton." There, one
week from to-morrow, the New Jer
?*ey Legislature will convene, and
from its session is almost certain to
?develop one of two things:
Either Edward I. Edwards, who
becomes Governor of New Jersey
January 20, will make good his
boast that he is the Moses who can
lead the "wets" out of the arid
wilderness the Volstead act
creates ; or
New Jersey will have repeated
the unsuccessful experiment of
South Carolina in 1833, when that
state, in seeking to nullify the
Clay Tariff act, called down upon
her bead the wrath of Andrew
Jackson and the threat of the dis
iteenth A
?a-?:-1
patch of United States troops to
compel her obedience.
There is a striking analogy be?
tween the legislative program Gov>
ernor-elect Edwards and.the.Demo?
cratic leaders in the State Senate
and House of Assembly have laid
out and that actually enacted bj
South Carolina eighty-seven years
ago. There is, of course, this differ?
ence:
South Carolina defied merely th?
j United States Congress. New Jer
I sey, if Mr. Edwards has his way
? will defy both Congress and tha'
?body which, "wet" advocates art
j wont to remark scornfully, wield!
i still greater power in this land o:
! freedom?the Anti-Saloon League
! The Anti-Saloon League has no
! encountered many recalcitrant legis
latures in its career of conquest
So there may be a Battle of Trentoi
this winter as fierce as that whicl
featured the War of the R?volu
tion.
South Carolina in 1833 declarei
j the Clay Tariff act unconstitu
| tional, forbade Federal customs of
{ficials from attempting to collec
Lmendme.
in that state the duties it imposed
and prohibited her own citizens
from paying them.
The Jersey Plan
New Jersey in 1920, provided the
Edwards program prevails, will con?
tend that the Volstead prohibition
enforcing act is unconstitutional;
will pass a law directly at variance
with its provision*, "legalizing" the
manufacture and sale of beers and
wines as beverages and of whisky
for medicinal purposes, and can
hardly avoid coming into open con?
flict with the Federal government if
the latter essays to enforce its own
statutes.
The South Carolina "nullifiers"
were backed by the overwhelming
popular opinion of their common?
wealth. If Henry Clay, author of
the obnoxious legislation, had not
come forward with a compromise,
historians agree, there is little doubt
that South Carolinians would have
flocked enthusiastically to the stand?
ards of revolt as they did twenty
eight years later when Sumter was |
fired upon.
Any one who knows New Jersey
realizes that public sentiment is
rit Brings
back of Edwards in his evident in?
tention of carrying out a campaign
pledge that won him many votes.
"I will make New Jersey as 'wet1
as the Atlantic Ocean," he was
quoted as saying before the elec?
tion.
After the election he explained
that he hadn't said exactly that, but
that he would exert every legal
means to prevent enforcement of
national prohibition in his state.
However, he wasn't very insistent
upon this point being cleared up.
Every one who was interested, either
as a "dry" or a "wet," was under the
impression up to the time the polls
closed that Edwards had promised to
make New Jersey "as wet as the At?
lantic Ocean"; it is no exaggeration
to say that a big majority of Jersey
men want their state to have at
?east that degree of moisture, nor is
it stretching the truth to assert that
they look to Edwards to give them
their hearts' desire.
And Edwards will, if he can. He
has no John C. Calhoun to indite an
exposition, justifying nullification as
a state's right under the Constitu?
tion, but he has?Frank Hague.
Hague, the Mayor of Jersey City,
State's
- who was boosted into the undisputed
i leadership of the New Jersey De?
mocracy by Edwards'? nomination
' I and election, is a strategist of the
? first water. He knows that political
? i expediency for the time being de
! mands the state's rulers show sym
[ pathy for the "wet" cause, just as it
; is known to everybody else in New
[ Jersey, including the Republicans.
' And thereby hangs another angle of
! the situation?
: The 1920 New Jersey Legislature
j will have a Republican majority in
' I each house. The Senate will stand
j fifteen Republicans to six Democrats,
the Assembly thirty-three to twenty
? seven. Moreover, the vote cast
j throughout the state last November
; for Republican Assembly candidates
' totaled over 30,000 more than that
polled by Democratic aspirants for
j seats in the lower house. Edwards's
j plurality of some 14,000 in the face
! of this merely accentuates the fact
that his victory was a "wet," not a
Democratic, triumph. Republican
legislative candidates in normally
Republican bailiwicks went down to
defeat when they wore the "dry"
label. But, for the most part, the
Republican candidates for the Sen
Rights to
! ate and Assembly were as "wet" as
I their Democratic opponents, which
* enabled the G. O. P. to gain control
of the Legislature.
The point of all this is that there
is every indication that the Repub?
lican Legislature will enact into
law the Edwards bills to permit the
manufacture and sale of liquors.
The Republicans may not do just
that, either. They may insist that
they have a part in framing
the legislation.
State Rights Again
Assuming that the proposed leg?
islation is enacted, just what will
j happen in New Jersey? The- Vol?
stead act, designed to apply to all
parts of the United States, pre?
scribes that any beverage contain?
ing greater than one-half of 1 per
cent alcohol is intoxicating, and
therefore taboo under, the Eight?
eenth Amendment. New Jersey, as
revealed by the preamble of the
proposed bill, already made public
by State Senator Thomas Brown,
will assert that the state, under the
amendment, has concurrent power
with the Federal government to
legislate regarding its enforcement.
the Fro
The intention, apparently, is that
New Jersey will proclaim in her en?
forcement law that beers and wines
are not intoxicating. Should a Fed
teral officer arrest a violator of the ;
I Volstead act, but one who had kept i
within the New Jersey law, the state \
will demand that he be tried in her ?
own courts.
The first test case on this issue
will bring to a head, the conflict
between the doctrines of state's
rights and Federal sovei-eignty.
Much may depend' on the degree of
| firmness with which the powers in j
control in Washington meet the
situation. This question already has |
been asked by politicians across the j
Hudson:
"Just how far will a Democratic j
national Administration go toward i
embarrassing a Democratic Gover?
nor on the eve of a Presidential
election?"
New Jersey is President Wilson's
own state. It is* the home of Secre?
tary Tumulty, who hafc never beon
accused of being a babe in the
woods of politics. Edwards's elec?
tion has revived to some extent in
] Bourbon breasts the hope of putting
! the state back into their party col
at Agaid
umn in 1920. With Edwards an.
the Hague machine in control that
is not entirely without the realir.
of possibility.
What then? Would Edwards an?
Hague, political observers inquire,
be apt to break their necks gettinf
votes for an outfit that had smash?
their pet project in their own st
Ask any one who has known Frank
Hague during the course of his rut
less rise from leadership of his party
in an election district in th4 "Horn
shoe" section of Jersey City to it1
leadership in the state that que
tion. The answer will be an un?
qualified, unhesitating "No." Hagix
isn't built that way. Neither is 1
wards.
Edwards's and Hague's polio?
futures may turn out to depend?
the ability with which they mai"
good the promise to have New Jets? j
as "wet as the Atlantic Ocean.'
they fall* down on the undertat?f
their names will be anathema toalj
the thirsty voters who bolted their J
own party and put a Democrat it ?
the Governor's chair. It's a matte:
of political life and death with their
?and they are shrewd and darinf
men.
The "Ca
By Frank Getty
New York Tribune
European Bureau
CARLISLE, England, is an
ancient Cumberland city
with a cathedral nnd a past.
The war gav? it a munitions
factory, and the factory brought
about the "Carlisle experiment"
To-day ft is the cynosure of many
anxious eyes, for it stands a wel?
come barrier between England and
the menacing shadow of prohibition.
It personifies, if a ?city with an idea
can be aaid to do that, the elastic
defense; it represents a bending but
r*et a breaking before the general
trend agalmrt alcoholism.
The government has promised
legislation "to make permanent the
reforme achieved by the liquor con?
tre! beard." Limited in the larger
eiti?se to restricted hours of drink?
ing ?and an enforced under-proof
statua for liquors, these reforms
took practical and poetical form-in
Carlisle. Chintz curtains and so?
briety have been substituted for
?awd??t and the roaring drunkenness
if yesteryear. Popular testimony
*a ft that the experiment has
teorfoa a eoecess. /rf
Thtf teak me ateund Certifie and
rlisle Exp
*-?
: had more Carlisles it would have
waited longer before enforcing pro?
hibition. Here in this northern
city, with its winding, age-worn
streets and picturesque little ivy
covered public houses, is indeed
! portrayed the "humane tradition"
which sweetens this country's con
i tact with the demon rum.
To get back to the origin of the
?idea: In 1916 Carlisle developed
the great Gretna munition works.
And the men who erected those
works and the men who went to
work in them were not teetotalers.
Not by several quarts fan evening.
And Carlisle stagecPas undesirable
an exhibition of inebriety as could
be found anywhere in this tight
little island. The control board laid
a heavy hand on Carlisle's bars. At
that time there were 119 public
houses; full every evening in the
week, but having nothing on their
patrons. The board closed fifty of
these with a single order. And then
it set in with the remaining sixty
nine to develop the "experiment."
The main idea seemed to be the
substitution of framed engravings
end Whistler prints for flaming
advertisements of beer and whisky;
flowerpots in place of cuspidors; a
general air of propriety for the
theoretical atmosphere of iniquity.
We went on what is sometimes
known as a "pub crawl"; on pleas?
ure bent, you "crawl** from one
"pub" or hat to the n*Kt, gutherio?
eriment"
moTe; In this case we went out of
hours, which is perhaps as well, for
we visited so many public houses
during the morning that there could
have been but One result.
The Citadel's Reformation
Now, the first "pub" we went to
is known as the Citadel. In the
olden days it had a bad reputation.
Now it is rather a restaurant;
tavern is the word they use, but to
ap American it is reminiscent of
country lanes. In what used to be
a squalid barroom one can now get
a hot meal, with beer, of course,
but with flowers on the table, and
spotless china, and the oak-paneled
walls all around hung with Japanese
prints.
And its customers are still there
and quite happy. Around the cozy
fires and little tables there seems
as much good nature as in the good
old days. They still serve liquor.
But patrons do not stand up to the
bar in the approved fashion of yes?
terday and guzzle against the clos?
ing hour. They take their tank?
ards of foaming ale or their glasses
of port to the little tables, and talk
philosophy and damn the govern?
ment and play dominoes, or just sit
and think,, or just sit But they
don't get drunk! And there's no
law against it.
One thing that mAkes a powerful
lot of difference is that the bar?
tender? as we would cell him, ?etc
Is an En
he's working on a salary, not a per?
centage basis, and so has no inter?
est in getting as much liquor as
possible into his customers in the
prescribed hours.
It was, and still is in other parts
of England, the custom to have
public houses divided off into first,
second and third class bars, sepa?
rated by narrow partitions. Just
what the distinction is an outsider
might not at once determine.
Apparently if you wear a collar
instead of the neckerchief of cock
neydom you should patronize the
second-class bar, and if it's a clean
collar the first. The board knocked
lish Ver
I down all these partitions; it put in
tables and chairs and carpets and
flowerpots; and the whole happy
i family sit down together and tell
one another stories over foaming
mugs. Then there used to be little
cubbyholes where one or two men
could get off from sight and never
be heard from the rest of the eve?
ning except when ringing for the
waiter. Secret drinking is pro?
hibited, as well as too heavy drink?
ing; not prohibited exactly, either,
? but made bad form. And the board
made away with the cupboards.
They say that Carlisle workmen
are bearing up nobly under the
St. Albania Row in Carlisle, one of the sections in which
iture in F
?>,
atmosphere of "highbrow" art with
which the public houses are deco?
rated. Some inns have libraries
and are used as reading rooms both
in and out of hours. In others chil?
dren are given meals the same as
grown-ups; not in the same room
wherein liquor is served without
food, it is true; but they can walk
right into any of the "pubs" with or
without their parents. The board
believes that more good will come to
the "pub" from the contact than
harm to the children.
The proprietor of the Goliath,
another notorious inn of former ill
repute, assured us solemnly that the
place hadn't staged a fight for a
year. Formerly it was the custom
' for two, or even three, of Carlisle's
Tangs to concentrate in the Goli
;th, and, when sufficiently drunk,
ittack one another in free-for-all.
Aid usually compulsory-for-all, com?
bat. Coal carters and railway work?
ers used to bring their brawls to the
(ioliath. Now the gangs arc broker
up and the quarrels no longei
make hideous the night. Meeting
sober, the factions decided they hac
really no grievance at all.
i
Frown on Drunkenness
Drunkenness is off in Carlisle. I
is not tolera tod by the authorities
and, they say, it is also frowne<
upon by the Regular customers.
"My customers would throw j
man out of the place if he go
EB^^.^tt?ii?lA_?^__i_i_?i
Vohibition
I who runs one of the inns as house?
keeper, under the board's super?
vision.
One secret of the control board's
success at Carlisle was that local
members and officials were by no
means teetotalers themselves. In
fact, they were strongly opposed to
prohibition. But they were also op?
posed to overindulgence in alcohol;
in moderation, even if enforced at
first, they see England's salvation
without the burden of prohibition.
They acted not only in connection i
with the public houses, when they |
began the "Carlisle experiment." Of i
the city's four breweries they closed :
I three, leaving one to do the work of !
four, with a saving of labor, trac- j
tion and time. Of the seventeen j
warehouses they left only one, which i
does the work of the lot.
There is always something in?
tensely fascinating about the names
adopted, or, ?more often, handed
down, by owners of public houses
and inns in England. Take Car?
lisle's supply, for instance: The
Jovial Sailor, the Cumberland
Wrestlers, the Albion, the Carlisle !
Arms, the Joiners' Arms, the Fox
and Beagles and the Swan With Two
Necks. Though in external appear?
ance and general location they re?
semble nothing so closely as the late
corner saloon in America, yet they
have titles reminiscent of Robin
Hood.
The "Carlisle experiment" is
tmt?txAintf.' Alm???*??- <?<H?*i?*l?w *???__??
i Solution
j without any urging from the boa*
; have observed what they take to k
j benefits accruing to their neig?*
, Carlisle, from the idea, an? h**
j cleaned up their own "pubs." UM
j town and Annan arc two pi?*
?which have instituted the theory^
attractive, orderly drinking pi***
and found it conducive to sobrfe?
In many instances cinemas and I*0
parlors are in the same buildW
but whether the latter is not the #
cessory of the former is doubtiV
One can claim too much for v*
"Carlisle system." They arc ne?*
all enthusiastic about it. All *
"the trade," as they call the Hi"*
and brewing interests in this ce*
try ^^^^^^^^^^^
Although many keen obsetff
feel that in the sober drink*
of Carlisle lies the seed |
protection from the great drouff?
which has afflicted America, *
liquor interests are firmly set ag***
it. It cuts down their profit?, *?
urally. Sober men never h?"
drunk so much as intoxicated *j*
And then there, arc still fw**^
citizens of Carlisle who profs*
acorn the "namby-pamby" ?"V.
and china of to-day and long ?***
swearing and the sawdust of ^
stricted days. But they are h*
minority. And it doesn't aw**'
anyhow. The ?'good, old days ?
not coming back. And the ns*|
oration will never miss theni J
is the gist of the "Carlisis
mo?L!V