Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

THE ADLER SOCIETY 95

was the beginning of a group which met regularly at the Chandos, from which it took the name. They had come together in response to the social crisis that faced Britain after the failure of the General Strike, which Mitrinovic in particular believed had been a marvellous opportunity to reorganise British society and industry—a chance which had been missed. It would appear that it was disappointment with the outcome of the Strike that led to the new initiative: fortnightly meetings of a group of like minded men who shared a commitment to the principles of guild socialism and the Douglas social credit scheme and who recognised that the crisis of society could not be resolved by a merely administrative tinkering about with the system but required a thorough-going re-orientation of individual and collective life. The members of the group included Philip Mairet, Rev. V. A. Demant, Alan Porter, W. T. Symons, Egerton Swann, Albert Newsome and Maurice Reckitt. Most of them had known each other in the days of Orage’s editorship of The New Age. In his autobiography Reckitt recalled that the initiative to form the group came from those centered “round the powerful, if somewhat elusive, personality of a Jugoslav sage, Mr. D. Mitrinovic, who had not been without some influence on Orage himself.’

Although instrumental in founding the group, Mitrinovic was an infrequent attender at their meetings. However, through Porter, Mairet and Symons in particular, his presence was felt. At one of their early meetings on October 12th 1926 the group resolved to publish a pamphlet on the crisis in the mining industry:

which should be framed by Mr. Newsome, the quickest writer among us, with the collaboration of Mr. Porter. With each member of the circle contributing his own amplification and his own direction. For instance Mr. Demant should write upon the crisis as a failure of will, Mr. Symons should criticise it in its implicit economic assumptions, Mr. Mairet’s contribution should deal with the constitutional issue raised by the crisis.”

Coal: A Challenge to the National Conscience was published by the Hogarth Press in 1927. Specific recommendations were made for the establishment of a national economic council which would unite trade unionists and employers in the management of the economy, whilst demands were also made for a reform of the financial system in the direction of social credit. However, the main thrust of the book, as its title suggested, was an attack against what was interpreted as a failure of will and vision on the part of all sections of society. People were evading the fact “that history is the accumulated result of the impact of the human will on the environment,” they were leaving the management of the nation’s affairs