WEMBLEY AND ITS FUTURE,
WEMBLEY has been a success; as we felt sure it would' be It is popular, it is: useful, it is informative, it is inspiring. In the best sense of the word, and it is a very good word pease, it has-advertised to ourselves and to the world at large, not merely the vastness and potential wealth of the Empire, but of the way in which we peed -and can help each other. it has shown that our Commonwealth of Nations is not an institution which is based solely on the mutual relations of Mother-State and Daughter State, but quite as much upon the lateral relations of the component parts of .the Empire. We long- ago got rid of the notion that, the Dominions were Dependent States. Wembley is Making us see that all the States of the Commonwealth are Sister-Nations, including, of course, the United Kingdom, and that Britain's -special function is to act as the great Clearing House of- the signatories of the Pact— a Clearing House of .political, legal; intellectual and moral ideas quite as much as of commodities. At Wembley, somewhat to the astonishment of the public, it would seem, hosts and guests have- done much to stimulate Barter between the Peoples of the Empire, and 'in the best possible way. Jones has found by ocular demonstra- tion, that his former view that • if he wanted - the best thing at the lowest possible price it was unfortunately necessary to go outside the Empire for it, is almost always a delusion. The fulfilment of his commercial desire, he finds, is attainable under -the best vconomie conditions, either here or in one of the Dominions.
The Exhibition again hat stimulated demand, as well as supply. It has at one and .the same: time created wants and shown how. they can be satisfie& But this is the authentic spirit of trade. It is Advertisement in its truest and highest connotation. The business of the Advertiser is by the use of his Art ,to_stimulate demain4 Consciously or unconsciously. the Advertiser rests his activities on the essential principle of Economics—that value, and so wealth, isthe daughter of demand, and,is con- ferred - upon objects by the desires of mankind- -When demand occurs, supply rises up to meet it, just as the crops. rise up out of the gnaund at the call of the sun and rain of the Spring. In a word the Advertiser's function is to create values and, wealth, first by. creating demand and then by showing. where it can be satisfied. Wembley has done this very thing. Wembley has proved itself a creator of demand and an indicator of supply. Therefore Wembley can justly call itself the Imperial Advertiser.
That being so, it is a: most happy circumstance that we welcome this week to London and to Wembley the Convention of American Advertisers. They are thrice welcome guests to the. Mother-land of the English- speaking, races, and_welave this yesmsomething to show them worthy of attention in the field of their special philosophy. They, on the, other - hand, have much to teach us, for we all acknowledge that America has gone further in the theory and practice of Advertisement than any other nation: With that boldness and rapture of exploration which is the characteristic of Americans in all the arts and sciences of life, and even in its games, pastimes, and recreations, they have pushed the deViees of Publicity, and especially of commercial 'publicity, far further than -they have been pushed in any other emintry. We have little or nothing to teach them in what concerns the principles. of Advertising. We • may be subtle and refined performers on special instru- ments, but the Americans understand. to the full the command of the grand Orchestra of Publicity, and: know how to call in the sovereign storm of sound from the concerted instruments of wind and reed, wire and string. Still there -will be much to interest them at Wembley, for it is proving a notable example of the uses of Adver- tisement. It is a display of their raw material. Nor is it unfitting that they, the members of the advertising organizations, should be supported by a body of editors and newspaper -men--do we not ourselves live in part on the crumbs that fall from the table of the advertisers? —and also that the Bars of America and Canada should be our visitors in Wembley year. A cynic might say that they, too, will find their raw material in the halls and pavilions of the Exhibition. Not only do they arbitrate our mercantile quarrels, they prepare those Contracts, Bonds, Agreements, Articles of Association or Dissolution without • which- trade would sink into the squalid simplicity of the cave-man.
The successes of Wembley, direct and indirect, planned and accidental, bring me to the main object of this article, which is to deal with the question which is now occupying so many minds-,-the question, " What about Wembley ? What shall we do with it ? How can we maintain the advantages of trade and of pleasure which we have reaped from it ? How, that is, can we get a Wembley continuum ? " In the space of a newspaper article it is impossible to discuss all the various projects that have been suggested, or might be suggested, for using Wembley in the future. All I shall do is to try and piit shortly on paper what I should do if I were entrusted with the decision, were made a dictator on this Matter.
In the first place, I should decree that the Dominions be invited to continue the Exhibition for another six months, beginning, say, in the middle of April next, or, to be more specific, beginning with the first day of Summer Time. That accomplished, and while it was being accomplished, I should lay plans for making Wembley the Reception-hall of the great London caravanserai, the Reception-hall to which would be introduced in the future those 'thousands of visitors to London who, whether for pleasure, for commerce, for study, or for a combination of all these impulses, will come to our shores. Remember that this in itself is going to prove no mean function, for unquestionably the lure of London grows and grows. Rome was:the -city-which drew mankind like a magnet, not only in Imperial times, but throughout the Middle Ages. During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries the mantle fell upon Venice. In' the Eighteenth and Nineteenth. Centuries Paris was the World's city, the city in which 'the -beacon fires that attract mankind burnt brightest. And now London is the place to which, not only the orphans of the heart, but the explorers of men's activities in mind, in body, in commerce, and in the Arts and Sciences in the widest sense, will turn. IndiViduals may praise their New York or their Chicago, their Athens or their Rome, their Paris or their Berlin ; but each and all will Fit London second. Therefore under the Themistoelean test London will bear the palm. To be more concrete, everybody who wants to hold an inter- national gathering from a conference to a League will declare that, if he cannot have it in his own home town, he would like best to have it meet in London. But the Reception Hall function will only be one side of Wembley as a permanent institution. Another function must be that of being the permanent mart, exchange, and clearing- house of the British Commonwealth of Nations. But, though it is of vast importance that Wembley should act this Imperial part and act it not in the dusty sordidness of the warehouse, but in a pleasure park and a pleasure house, it is also essential that other nations should have their share in the permanent Wembley. Just as we do not desire to restrict the Stadium to the Association Cup Tie Finals, so we do not want to restrict the Exhibition grounds to Imperial trading. No nation, no Commonwealth of Nations, however vast, can live to itself alone. To be healthy it must trade and traffic in commerce as in ideas with the whole world. Therefore in the higher sense Wembley should be internationalized and not -show any foolish selfishness or isolation. Again, to be specific, we should, in my opinion, rake Wembley not only a place where there should be a permanent Imperial mart, but a place for a series of exhibitions, generally by nations, but also sometimes by special induitries, such as, fOr example, agriculture, mines, fisheries, electricity, or rather power, whether generated by the wind, the water, or the fire. 'In a 'word,'there should be seasonal exhibitions year by year, super- imposed upon the permanent British Commonwealth of Nations Exhibition, including, of course, a British section, though not one on so vast a scale as-at present.
But if we are going to have, as I hope we shall, other nations represented at Wembley, it is clear that it is our first duty to get the other and larger half of the English- speaking race to come here and show us its achievements while they look at ours. The first duty of a member of the British Commonwealth is to concern himself with the interests of his home country; next with those of the British Commonwealth of Nations, next to that with the interests of the English-speaking world as a whole, finally with the pre-eminent interests which combine them all universal interests of mankind. But, though these come last, they are by no means least. Rather they come last because they are the ultimate expansion, the full flower. But remember always that a man will be a better internationalist if he has learnt the lessons of co-operation and common action first in the ways I have suggested. You cannot eat your three meals a day all at once. You will not make a worse, but a better, dinner if you have -first had your breakfast, and your luncheon. You will have learnt how to enjoy the grand banquet at the end, by your previous practice. We shall have had a good British breakfast at Wembley this year and, as I hope, next. Then let us follow it up with an American and English-speaking lunch, and then proceed to an international banquet ; for by that time one may confidently expect that the nations of Europe will be ready and willing, nay, anxious to be present. If they are let them meet at Wembley exhibitors from that home of all the raw materials—South America.
Throughout all this let us never forget that our duty, as it ought to be our pleasure, is to be a clearing-house nation ; not a nation narrow, jealous, or exclusive in any sense. We must, no doubt, think of our home markets, for we desire and intend that these islands should not only be inhabited, but should be inhabited by a population which will be a model to the world politically, industrially, and intellectually. But let us never forget that our commercial 'advantages can only be obtained and enjoyed to the full by sharing them with our fellows. It is only by the pooling of trade and production that mankind can get the best out of life and out of the world on the material as on the spiritual side. A man may live by cultivating its own potato patches; but you will never get thereby that margin upon which a progres- sive civilization can be built up. That comes only through a pooling of interests. This the traders of the world have already realized, though blindly and un- consciously. Jones may make speeches about his country trading with another country ; but at heart he knows, or, at any rate, he acts as if he was conscious of the great trade secret that there is no such thing as trade between nations, but only trade between individuals. Nations may throw obstacles in the way of trade between indi- viduals, or may specially encourage trade with individuals of a particular complexion or language, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for bad ; but they can never alter the fundamental and imperative fact that Jones trades with Smith, with Duval or with Muller, or with Mahomet Ali, and not otherwise.
Exhibitions are the happy hunting-ground, or, shall I say, the model farms of this international individualism. Floreat et Florebit ! May it flourish, and it shall flourish—" at Wembley, in the County of Middlesex
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