Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932)

 "War is not inevitable, but proceeds from definite and removable causes"

English author. Son of Lowes Cato Dickinson and brother of Sir Arthur Lowes Dickinson.  He was a pacifist during World War I, and he was later instrumental in the conception of the League of Nations. His political writings include The International Anarchy, 1904–1914 (1926). He is also known for The Greek View of Life (1896), a study of Hellenic society.

See his autobiography ed. by D. Proctor (1973).

To C. R. Ashbee

Pittsburg

October 20th, 1901.

The two things rubbbed into me in this country are (1) that the future of the world lies with America, (2) that radically and essentially America is a barbarous country....The life of the spirit -- the one and only thing which justifies and dignifies the life of men on earth -- is, not accidently or temporarily, but inevitably and eternally killed in this country.  All that man has achieved in this region, from Buddha to Goethe, is non existent for Americans.  They have, in their own phrase, 'no use for it'.  (I don't count the adventitious fringe of cultured people who cling to the skirts of Europe and are despised and hated by true Americans.)  And this American spirit alias the Chicago spirit, is to dominate the world.  Don't reply with the usual excuse that the country is 'young'.  It was much better when it was younger still.  This is its adult age, its deliberate choice now it has broken loose from Eastern tradition.  It is a country without leisure, manners, morals, beauty or religion -- a country whose ideal is mere activity without any reference to the quality of it, a country which holds competition and strife to be the only life worth living.

[From Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, by E. M. Forster, 1932, 1962]

Bibliography

1896
"The Greek View of Life". [A volume in the 'University Extension Series' edited by J. E. Symes]. London: Meuthen & Co. Sm. Cr. 8vo. pp. xii, 236.  (New York: Scribners; republished by the Chatauqua Press, 1903; McClure, Phillips & Co. 1905; Doubleday, Page & Co. 1908).

1901
"Letters From John Chinaman" [Anonymous till 1907].  London: R. Brimley Johnson.  Fcap. 8vo. pp. 63. [7th impr. J. M. Dent & Co. 1907; 12th impr. Allen & Unwin, 1932].