THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14829, 21 November 1913, Page 14

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

(ritOM OFB OWN CORRISrO.VDENT). LONDON, October 10. A PAN-GERMAN ON ARMIES.

Professor Hans Delbruck, of the University of Berlin, at the University College, London: —"My conclusion is that at Tberinopyhe the Greeks were stronger in number than the Persians. The objection might be made: How, then, was this Persian invasion so great a danger for Greek freedom, and why did not the 'King of Kings' bring a greater army with him from his Empire 'i The answer is the same as with the Swiss who conquered Duke Charles tho Bold. The glory of the Swiss was not that they emoto the enemy at great odds, but that their enemy had an army of knights and profe&sional warriors, while the Swiss were a levy of citizens and peasants. Tho pre-eminence of the Roman armies lay in the .Roman discipline. The Koman army of citizens and peasants, well disciplined a.s it was, couid not withstand the military gonius of Hannibal, but Hannibal, iv spite of his victories in the open lieJd, was not strong enough with. his barbarian soldiers to besiege and Lake all the towns that belonged to the Roman Federation, much loss .Rome itself. So the liomans protracted tho wisr. But with their army oi citizens they never could have got rid of such , an adversary, still less overcome him. The war itself, however, changed tho character of their army, and made it one of professional soldiers, with professional officers, und a commander-in-ch ief at its head. It was the authority of tho magistrates derived from the gods that gave to the Romans that discipline by which they overcame Hannibal." THIS GENIUS OF KELVIN. Mr Balfour. at a Glasgow civic ceremony:—"Lord Kelvin in his own person .showed how close was the connexion between theory and practice.' Ho was, so far as I know, a unique example. That a professor of science should have been also tho leading spirit in submarine telegraphy, and that he should have done so much for navigation, is surely one of those felicitous coincidences which have never occurred before in the history of science. Lord Kelvin's life impressed upon every student that the man who pursues knowledge must pursue it for itself, but that he would pursue it with far poorer effect if he were always thinking of what its practical and pecuniary results will be. 1 have heard it said that Lord Kelvin was himself not in very close sympathy with some Latterday speculations to which his own labours directly led up, and I have heard it suggested that perhaps it was inevitably and unavoidably the result of increasing years which made it difficult for him to appreciate with wholehearted sympathy the' new ideas as they camo into existence. Well, if that has been tho case, few will have reason to criticise. I believe it had a different origin. It was tho working out of problems from his own point of view which made Lord Kelvin sometimes impervious to outside influences. It was t£e intense inner life which he led. the concentration of his mind upon certain lines of investigation which made him oblivious of what was going on around him. If this was a weakness of a great man it was a weakness intimately connected with all that was greatest and strongest in his intellectual characteristics, and I cannot regret it. THE PROBLEM OF CITIES. Mr Birrell, on receiving the Freedom of Glasgow : —"The urban problem always seems to mc to be the biggest of our problems. Say what you choose, do what you will, men will live in towns and be drawn to them more and more; and sanitation, by rendering these vast populations possible, has secured their continuance. Great cities will always be with us, and. the task of good citizens is to labour for the common improvement. Life in any great city must always be a grim education ; .sorrow will dog sin to the end of tho chapter, and greed and selfishness, alike in the breasts of rich and poor, will produce the same crop. We may reconstruct society, but human nature will always bo beyond even a police and sanitary committee. A Roman Emperor and an Imperial sage, Marcus Aurelius, said that 'even in a palace life may be well led, , and so, by tho grace of God, even in a slum tenement Jife may be well led. But mankind need not worry about the danger of removing temptntion. There will always be enough left to try the character of us all. One of the most urgent problems of great cities is the removal of slum tenements, so that the youth who had to carry on great traditions shall have happy homes and not be exposed to those temptations from which very many might have escaped, but to which too many must of necessity succumb." "IMPOSSIBLE JOHN BULL." Lord Ashbourne, at the Gaelic Leaguo:—''The real English tongue can never be the Irish tongue. In parts of Ireland the may use more Gaelic words than in other parts, or may use only Gaelic words or only English words, but tho language is the Irish language. The question is: Is the Irish language to be spoken in Ireland with an Irish vocabulary or with an English vocabulary ? I have been for years past wandering about the country wondering if ie wiil be possible to address an average meeting of 1 citizens in Irish without using any English. I know that it can be done in the country parts of Connemara, or Donegal, or Kerry, and 1 have done it recently myself in the streets of Galway. But can an audience be found in a big town capable of understanding Irish ? The. thing happened the othei day, not in Gaiway or Cork or Lnnerick. but in the capital of the black north, in Belfast. It is better to teach children at school their national language than intermediate French or German. It will give them self-re-spect and nride for their country. I belong to a family of Ulster Scots, but after 300 years it is about time that people like myself should give in and stand with the Irish people-. Whatever else my ancestors came to Ireland for, it was not to be made Englishmen. Tho most fundamental thing a people can do is to be true to its language. The representatives of culture may argue that it means isolation, but I say I can show it is John Bull who is isolating himself. Johu Bull is the most prejudiced, insular, narrow-minded, and impossible person the world has ever seen. Anyone who has gone to the Continent knows what an utterly incapable fool the representative of John Bull is when you meet him. He looks for his own language, his own civilisation, customs, and habits wherever he goes, and he complains when he does not get them. An English atmosphere is essential to John Bull abroad before ' he manages to live. He learns nothing and sees nothing, and comes back as ho goes, an insular Englishman. The Irish want to be a progressive people, and among the cultured nations of tho world. The best way to do that is to be Irish instead of speaking a language which rejoices in its insularity, and which is on the wane, because its sounds are dying, both vowels and consonants." HUMAN MISFITS. Dr. Woods Hutchinson: "It has been found that 2 to 3 per cent, of the community are congenitally defective, and from "that springs fte enormous mass of the feeble-minded, the epileptics, a large .share of the insane, tho lion's share of criminals, and the vast mass of the paupers and tramps. The most careful investigations have shown that a normal child has never been born from feeble-minded parents. If the stream can be broken in some way or other an immense number of the defec-

tive and misfits' of the human species can be stopped. When defects are discovered the children, if incurable, should be taken and placed in a special environment out in the country under the most favourable and happiest circumstances, and trained and doveloped to the highest possible pitch, but prevented by permanent segregation from producing their kind. When this has once been done it will only be a few decades before there will be an enormous falling off in pauperism, crime, insanity, epilepsy, and feeblemindedness. The conclusion has been reached that we are not manufacturing defectives, but are simply reproducing them from some far period in the history of the race."