THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14839, 3 December 1913, Page 12

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

(rnoit oca own- coruespon'DKNT.) LONDON, October 2-i. TRADE UNION FOR ART. Mr G. Bernard Shaw, at the Three -Vrts Club:—"lf artiste do not underhand a little about the economics of irt they are quite certain to make foots of themselves in the necessary bunnoss of selling their work, that is to say, themselves. What is the value of tho work of an artist, an actor, or a varied and full of anomalies Intrinsic merit has nothing to do with the matSr The young lady who gives a liberal display of her figure on the stage has motor-cars and fur coats, and gets i n t o tiie best society, and generally lias a very comfortable time, while great benefactors of mankind—Jesus Christ or Joan of Arc—are put to an extremely cruel death. The artist who says, 1 will not soil my work for less money than is paid for that of so-and-so, winch is far inferior to mine, , will starve The market value for which an artist sells himself has no relation whatever to the essential social value of his work. Ih* position of women in the labour market is in many cases a tragedy. Those who have to keep themselves have to comiKsto with those who live with relatives or in other ways are able to supplement their income. But whereas no one will go into a factory without being paid for so doing, there are many people who will devote themselves without payment to art in their spare time, or even who will pay to be allowed to do so Tho prico of talent is like the price of fish at a fishmonger's shop, being regulated by supply and demand. In order to make money an artist must have talent that is scarce in proportion to the demand. There is only one escape for the artist, as for others, from competition, and that >s combination. Artists should form a timcm of some particular kind and should make up their minds what is the subsistence wage and pledge themselves solemnly that in no circumstances will they accept less than that." PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT. ► ->Ir Laurence Housman, author and artist:—"Press has been tho product of social conditions, rather than the cause. Highlanders, Arabs, Greeks, and Albanians all enjoy tho freedom of petticoats, and when employed m similar occupations the dress of men and women tends to assimilate. lr petticoats are restricted to one ccx, a condition resulting in petticoat government is thereby sot up. The wearer of petticoats must either govern "their petticoats or tho petticoats must govern theuii If they are not allowed to be restrictive of "activity they aro noble. If they are allowed xinduly to limit rights and freedom of action they become ignoble- Tho term 'petticoat government,' ac applied to women, never has meant tho assumption by her of civic powers for civic ends. Tt means merely the assumption of individual powers for individual ends and for tho assertion of her influence. So long as woman s sphere is circumscribed and limited her Government will be of tho petticoat iype, and will be restricted more or less exclusively to the sphere of home instead of having her narrow domestic horizon widened, as it ought to he.'

MEDIEVAL SOCIALISM. Archdeacon Cunningham, the celebrated economist; —"The" monasteries, in, their eeonomio aspect; wore an extremely interesting institution. They represent a religious ideal, and wie remains of thorn which exist show that they wore, extraordinarily prosperous. The monks of the West were successful in planting centres of civilised life after the barbarian invasions, and disseminated the Roman tradition of land management. The monasteries soon boeamo centres of commerce, as well as places for the practice of arts and crafts. The duty of work was strongly insisted on, fof jvork was viewed as a means of giving effect to God's purpose in making and ruling the world. The monastery! was an example of community life that was successful economically. The monka were vowed to poverty. The land «nd means of production wore technically the possession of tho saint to whom the house was dedicated; they received food and shelter and clothing, whatever their work might be worth, no attempt being made to reward labour according to results. Tho modern point of view is that this is unfair and unwise, that a man shall be paid for his labour according to the value of his contribution to the. resources of the community. In recent times, however, there has been a reaction to, some extent in favour of tho medimval view. The conception of a standard of life to be maintained, irrespective of changes in the value of the labourers work, has been fighting its wav to recognition throughout the Nineteenth Century, and it ia now coming to receive- legislative sanction. . It was easier to be sure of maintaining a standard in the days when payments were made in kind and when the difficulties arising from variations in the value of money did not need to be taken into account,"

MENTAL DEFICIENCY. Sir James Crichton Browne: —"The etiology or causation of mental deficiency is still obscure, indeterminate, and urgently in need of investigation, as it is upon it that any efficacious measures of prevention must be founded. At the moment it is the hereditary nature of mental deficiency that is uppermost in tho public mind, and sanguine hopes were in some quarters entertained that the segregation of those afflicted by it might lead to its reduction and ultimate extinction. There can be no doubt that feeble-minded-ness is a recessive character! Carefullycollected pedigrees prove that it is strongly inherited, and that wh«n both parents arc feeble-minded, all tho children in some way abnormal, and that in feebleminded stock there is a tendency to opilepsy and to alcoholism. But heroditv does not exhaust the matter. If all*the feeble-minded in England were locked up to-morrow and kept locked up we would very soon again have an abundant crop of idiots and defectives. The recessive character might skip a generation, and we could not shut a man np because his father or his grandfather was weak-minded. There aro many other potent causes besides he«»dity at work in the production of mental defect. Tt would almost seem as if the highest intellectual development in parents might sometimes result in mental deficiency in offspring."