the war turned sanderson from a successful schoolmaster into an amateur statesman. life had become intolerable for him unless he could interpret all its present disorders as the wreckage and confusion of the house-breakers preparing the site for a far nobler and better building. he shows himself at times by no means certain that[pg 106] this would ever prove to be the case, but he had the brave man's assurance that with luck and courage there was nothing impossible in the hope that a more splendid human order might be built at last upon this troubled and distressful planet. but for that to happen every possible soul must be stirred, no latent will for order but must be roused and brought into active service. he had no belief in hopeless and irremediable vulgarity. people are mean, base, narrow, implacable, unforgiving, contentious, selfish, competitive, because they have still to see the creative light. let that but shine upon them and seize them and they would come into their places in that creative treatment of life which ennobles the servant and enriches the giver, which is the true salvation of souls.

he became a propagandist. he felt he had now made good sufficiently in his school. he had established a claim as an able and successful man to go out to able men, to business men, to influential men of all sorts, and tell them the significance of this school of his, this hand-specimen, this assay sample, of what could be done with the world. he went to chambers of commerce, to[pg 107] rotary clubs, to civic assemblies, to luncheon gatherings of business men, to tell them of this idea of organisation for service, instead of for profit and possession. he tried to find industrial magnates who would take up the methods of oundle in productive organisation. he corresponded extensively with such men as, for example, lord weir and sir alfred yarrow and lord bledisloe. he wanted to see them doing for industrial and agricultural production what he had done for education, reconstructing it upon a basis of corporate service, aiming primarily at creative achievement, setting aside altogether competitive success or the amassing of private wealth as the ends of human activity. surely they would see how much finer this new objective was, how much fuller and richer it must make their own lives!

when i tell of this search for a kindred spirit among ironmasters and great landlords and the like i am reminded of confucius and his search for a duke in china, or of plato or machiavelli looking for a prince. there is the same belief in the power of a leader and the need of a personal will; the same utter scepticism in any [pg 108]automatic or crowd achievement of good order; once again the schoolmaster sets out to conquer the world. perhaps some day that perennial attempt will come to fruition, and the schoolmaster will then indeed conquer the world. perhaps the seeds that sanderson has sown will presently be germinating in a crop of masterful business men of a new creative type. perhaps there are sandersons yet to come, men of energy; each with his individual difference, but all alight with the new conception of man's creative life. perhaps oundle may, after all, prove to be the egg of a new world. oundle may relapse, probably will relapse, but other, more enduring oundles may follow in other parts of the world. at present all that i can tell is of the message sanderson was preaching during the last six years of his life.

here he is, talking to the textile manufacturers of bradford. this that follows is from his printed address, restrained and pruned, but for the manner of his delivery, the reader should think rather of that sample sermon and the other descriptions i have given of his personal quality.

'i am very much honoured by your invitation to address this important congress, and i am[pg 109] honoured, too, in being permitted to speak on education in this great city of bradford. for your city stands out very prominently in the annals of education, and its work is well known by all who have watched educational progress.

you, gentlemen, are concerned with education: you are much concerned with the education which will promote the welfare of the leaders and workers in your industry; and the welfare of the people in your districts. industrialism has tumbled upon us, and it is an untamed, unruly being, the laws of which are not yet known, and need study. for some thirty-five years—a long spell—i have, in places removed far away from the voices of industry, devoted my time towards the introduction into public schools of those scientific and technical studies which, as i understand it, lie at the basis of industrial life. i have always had before me the work of organising technical subjects so that they might give all that is best to give of spiritual and intellectual training. and our object is to send forth from school boys that will be in sympathy with the work that they have to do, that they will be privileged to do, and to send them forth equipped[pg 110] for it. you have the same purpose. your wish is that the boys and girls of your country should have every chance of developing into effective workers in the community, and that they should take a zealous intellectual interest in their work—that they should love their work, love to do it well, ever anxious to mount to higher things.

and one of the difficulties of the immediate future will be to reorganise industrial conditions so that each worker may have the chance of stretching his faculties and of getting the work that will give him reasonably full play for his abilities. the fact that able and clever men are, in the present system, kept too long at work which does not stretch their brains, is a cause of unrest. fortunately there is a growing consensus of opinion that more freedom for opportunity and for advancement is seriously necessary, and this sympathetic opinion will lead towards a solution. it is also well within the work of a school to promote this sympathy by sending out boys with those intellectual and scientific tastes and knowledge which will react upon themselves and attract them to the workers.

there are two other questions which i will[pg 111] mention before i come to the actual work which may be done in schools. one of the main aims of a good school is to see that each boy and girl is cared for, that each one has every opportunity for development. we must not cast out, or send our weak ones away, we must keep them in school—we must find out what kind of work will appeal to them, so that they, too, may move upwards, gain in self-respect, and love their life. and we claim that this is what we would have done in all factories, or in any occupation. it is the essential duty of every nation. we are anxious that no worker should be stunted mentally or physically by the kind of work he has to do. this again is a difficult as it is an urgent problem. it is one which can be studied in schools, and there is no doubt that the attempts of a school to provide avenues of advance for all kinds of boys will tend to bring the right spirit into industrial and agricultural life....'