is fear is ever present in Belloc's articles and ever brooded on by
the Editor. He rallied his forces to urge, week after week, the
possible alternative to disaster--the recovery by the people of
England of power and freedom, the restoration of England to its place
in a restored Europe, freed from the German menace. Despite the
natural high spirits a certain gloom and more than a touch of
fierceness mark the work of these years. Summing up "the twenties"
of the century, Chesterton saw them as singularly bankrupt spiritually
and intellectually, and he foresaw from their sowing a miserable
harvest.

CHAPTER XXVI

The Distributist League and Distributism

_To say we must have Socialism or Capitalism is like saying we must
choose between all men going into monasteries and a few men having
harems. If I denied such a sexual alternative I should not need to
call myself a monogamist; I should be content to call myself a man_.

Advance number of _G.K.'s Weekly_, Nov. 1924

FROM _G.K.'s Weekly_ grew THE DISTRIBUTIST LEAGUE. Its start in 1926
was marked by intense enthusiasm, and its progress was recorded week
by week in the paper. The inaugural meeting took place in Essex Hall,
Essex Street, Strand, on September 17, 1926. G.K. summed up their aim
in the words: "Their simple idea was to restore possession." He added
that Francis Bacon had long ago said: "Property is like muck, it is
good only if it be spread." The following week the first committee
meeting took place. Chesterton was elected President; Captain Went,
Secretary, and Maurice Reckitt, Treasurer. It was planned to form a
branch in Birmingham. Alternative names were discussed: The Cobbett
Club, the Luddite League, the League of Small Property:

The Cow and Acres, however suitable as the name of a public house at
which we could assemble, is too limited as an economic statement. . . .

The League of the Little People (President, Mr. G. K. Chesterton)
may seem at first too suggestive of the fairies; but it has been
strongly supported among us:

And again: Suppose we call our movement, "The Lost Property
League" . . . the idea of the restoration of lost property is far
more essential to our whole conception than even the idea of liberty,
as now commonly understood. The Liberty and Property Defense League
implies that property is there to be defended. "The Lost Property
League" describes the exact state of the case.*

[* Fro