e has died in a dank, garden arbour, transfixed by a mysterious
dagger, many a millionaire has perished silently though surrounded by
a ring of private secretaries, in order that Mr. Belloc may have a
paper in which he is allowed to point out that a great Empire does
not default because it is growing richer. Many a shot has rung out in
the silent night, many a constable has hurled himself through a
crashing door, from under which there crawled a crimson stain, in
order that there might be a page somewhere for Mr. Kenrick's virile
and logical exposition of the principles of Distributism. Many an
imperial jewel has vanished from its golden setting, many a detective
crawled about on the carpet for clues, before some of those little
printers' bills could be settled which enabled the most distinguished
and intelligent of Distributists to denounce each other as
Capitalists and Communists, in the columns of the Cockpit and
elsewhere. This being my humble and even highly irrelevant
contribution to the common team-work, it is obvious that it could not
be done at the same time as a close following of the varying shades
of thought in the Distributist debates. And, this ignorance of mine,
though naturally very irritating to people better informed, has at
least the advantage of giving some genuineness to my impartiality. I
have never belonged distinctively to any of the different
Distributist groups. I have never had time.

As time went on however and the disputes continued, he wrote a series
of articles* which have in them that note so special to him, so
embarrassing to some of his admirers, of deep and genuine respect for
every person and every opinion. The small numbers of the
Distributists, the greatness of the work to be done by them, would
make any split in their ranks "a tremendous tragedy." The difficulty
in keeping any movement in being was that of holding together the
ardent pioneers and the rank and file.

[* September 10, 17, 24, October 1, 1932.]

Men who really have common convictions tend to break up. It is only
those who have no convictions who always hang together. . . . Roughly
the position is that there is a moderate body which regards
extremists as visionary; a more extreme body which regards moderates
as ineffective; and lastly a catastrophic simplification in the
social scene, which makes the simple enthusiast seem more fitted to