THE ROAD TO MARTYRDOM

It is a well-established maxim that the world withholds full approval of its prophets and guides, so long as they are still living. In the contemporary world, Mahatma Gandhi appears to be a striking exception to this rule. His political creed and conduct are too well-known to need rehearsing, but the effect they have produced justifies special emphasis. The whole-hearted support which he enjoys in India is impressive in itself, but the reception which he, although its avowed enemy, received as a visitor to England, seems like an even more remarkable instance of the triumph of a moral ideal.

It may be questioned whether that triumph is as complete as it appears. Already, among the nations which have no personal interest in the Indian struggle, signs can be detected of a polite scepticism toward Gandhi. Much of the trip was of the kind occasioned by an exciting spectacle, rather than by a genuine interest in his mission. And, as he himself predicted, the Round Table Conference was a failure.

As a result of that failure, Gandhi is today lodged in an Indian jail, from which he plans to renew the struggle for freedom. Very likely the resistance of the British Empire will be the more bitter, from the fear that an independent India is perhaps ultimately inevitable. But that it will come very soon is more doubtful. On the Mahatma's return to India, if press reports were accurate, the fire of enthusiasm was less strong among his followers. Coupled with the smothered hostility of the Moslems, the end of the Round Table Conference may well be the beginning of bitter days for Gandhi. People are usually ready to accept an idea in theory long before they apply it in practice, and the principle of non-violence in particular is one for which men are not yet ready. History indicates that such messages must be sealed in blood before they are accepted. "The fathers stone the prophets, and the sons build their sepulchres."