THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15037, 4 August 1914, Page 7

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

SPEECHES OF THE WEEK.

TWO NATIONS IN ENGLAND

(ntOM OU» OWN COERK?O"rDIS*). j LONDON, June 26. j Bishop Welldon, Dean of Manches- j ter:— | "There is a great danger of north and south becoming, as it were, two difierent nations. No ono can go from soutn to north without being struck with tho wide gulf between them. Thero is, for instance, a wide and growing difference in ecclesiastical opinion. The north shows less sympathy with what is called Ritualistic opinion than the south. Tho north clings with tenacity to freo trade, whilo tho south is in favour* of tanit reform. Again, it comes as a great surprise to find how little persons and places well known in London are known in tho north. The samo remark applies to tho knowledge of tho north by tho south. To bring theso two 'nations' into something liko unity would be little short* of a national service. Many things tend to widen the gap; tho conditions of industrial lifo have separated the employed and the employer in the manufacturing districts of the north, whero the great industrial concerns are now in the hands or limited companies.- There is in thoso districts a growing difference between the Church and Nonconformity, because tho contact between the two is far less than in the oast. We must mako it our effort to bring them together. In bringing tot-ether master and clave a far more diffici.lt ta.-k was once nccomnlw-hed by tho Church. The Church must unite north and soutn, and rich and poor, and peoplo are never so near together as when kneeling in the Church of Christ." THE HIDDEN PLAGUE. Dr. Talbot (Bishop of Winchester), at the British Federation for tho Abolition of tho CD. Acts:— / . i "Tho Federation has a double object —hostility to the Stato regulation of vice whero it still exists, and an unrelenting attaik on what is known as tho sorial evil. The defeat of Stato regulation is the victory of tho principle thalk moral evil must be mot and heakd by moral) forcers, and not by material means. To protect the young from th»» deadly evil of impurity is equally ita purpose. This whole Biibicct becomes more complex. The action taken ifiust grow increasingly scientific. It must tak-.*- into account economic causes, it must bring together moro adequate and searching knowledge, it must co-ordinate all tho moral and nhysical resources of remedy. The reaction from the false reticence of the past has resulted in a coarso outspokenness. Let the doctors mako men and women aware of the judgment of God silently written in the grim detail of fact, and challenge our youth, in tho name of clean,, wholesome, noblo manhood 'md' womanhood, to help in making the new morality which may, please God, in a far-off day, wine the nightmare of prostitution from off the earth."

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. Dr. Pago, tho American Ambassador, at the Royal Institution: — "The fundamental article in the creed of ■ the American democracy is the unchanging resolve that • every human -being should have his. opportunity forth© ntmoa*t development —hid chance" to* become and be the best thatj ho can. An cxamplo of it is tho so* called anti-trust agitation of the past! decade. The trusts abridge the opportunities of our competitors, and that is their undoing. Another example is the vast volume of railway regulation caitifed by a.f*reat._k>pular. outcry. The cause of; the' .popular wrath is. the practice of .' tho railways' in carrying goods moro cheaply for somo persons.and companies and some communities than for their competitors, and so abridging somebody's fair opportunities for tho benefit of somebody else. The American democracy has to deal with largo territories and grpat numbers of people, and it cannot discriminate to make its justice exact. It asserts some principle *n aii table way which reminds one of a volcano or a tornado.. The main matter is that the power of its protest shall bo felt, not who nvght be incident-iH-** hurt by it. Thatis the way in whichi righteousness has been maintained from Moses on Sinai to the emphatic voices of the American democracy. I rogard this vast educational activity as the most irhport-tnt ,snd typical .manifestation of tho earnest foss and wisdom of the American democracy. That democracy has lately shown- itself leas than fair'to the rich. The fact that a man is rich gives him'to help to public j.dvaneement. ' In fac:fc. the pressure on the rich to justify their possession of wealth is so great* that they come to a period when their, chief concern is how to bestow their wealth for tho nnblie welfare We have now an era of private mm-iin*-*ence thnt is perhaps without parallel in the history of the Republic TliCre must be a complete ! cbnnge in .the temper and tendencies j of American democracy before the evils

of nlutocracv overtake us." ENGLAND IN INDIA. Lord Sydenham, at the Oxford Mission to Calcutta: / "After five-and-a-half years' of careful study of the tendencies'- -and conditions of modern India, 1 have come to the conclusion that missionary effortis nlaying'a far greater part than is realised in the raising ot high ideals ..luong tho people. In all India to-oay there aro only about 3J millions of native Christians, and of that*number over one million are children. But in tho last decade the increase lias been surprisingly great, and therefore we may assume that the progress towards Christianity in India is proceeding with accelerated speed. Perhaps the greatest tribute of all to the work of the missionaries is tho growing number of Indian institutions which, without being professedly Christian,'are still the direct result of Christian influence working upon Indian minds and leavening Indian thought. Philanthrophy, too, is far larger and broader in its operations than it was some few yc>ars ago, and I am sure that all the schools and colleges in which all creedsaro received are doing an immense amount of good. If Christianity is to be permanently established in India it can only be done by Indian agency. The object must be slowly to build up an Indian Church, and there must be Indian men and Indian money in that Church. The problem of India grows more baffling and 1 more com pies every year. The work England has already done there is marvellous, but it is not nearly finished, anc - perhaps the part remaining is tho more difficult." AN UNWHIPPED GENERATION.

Sir Dyco Duckworth, the eminent physician, at the annual meeting of the Church Army: "With-th.>'vast numbers of peoplo constantly ponriug into London from all parts,* we are surrounded by a vast pagan population. The doctor in a large hospital learns a good deal of the inner side of men; to him are often told secrets that the priest never hears. I attribute a .great deal of tho misconduct of the times in which wo live to the.manner in ■which young people are educated in the elementary schools. When the cane was removed from the schools they, took away Solomon's rod. Another great failing* is the loss of parental authority, and especially is it evidenced by so many daughters growing no to extreme independence _It is "bad for body, mind, and soal. Vc

lire now suffering from 'an iinwhipped generation.' We are suffering from tho lack of Christian teaching m the schools, and if Churchmen stand out for it no Government dare resist tiom. But wo are /cowards and poor .creatures. We aro little Englanders. -If we were big Englanders we should have the oourago of our opinions and 6peak out. We aro degenerating for want of it: wo aro too quiet, too gentle, too peaceful I notice, too. tho very bad style of dressing young ladies. It is a thing to bo rebuked. It is not graceful; it is disgraceful. I feel affronted when I. see a pretty woman in a_hideous dress. To copy some silly, idiotic not womanly* The country is suffering because its women lack womanliness, and real womanliness is irresistible. We do not want a b.ii imitation of men."

THE PR OGRESS OF PE.ACE. Mr Andrew Carnegie, at a hundred years' peace dinner: "The English-epeaking race leads the civilised world in the abolition of personal war and the duel. Note, please,

incidentally, that the German Emperor has reduced duelling from 120 per -ear a vera go to less than 12. I cannot forbear • from referring to the great triumph of our President in his heroic repeal of the action of Congress with reference to the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, giving to tbe whole world, as promised equal tolls on the Panama Canal. He has stood for tho honour of his ccuntry and rescued it from dishonour. Let mo predict that this is not the only triumph that* is to be his, life and health being spared. President Wilson may in duo time a-**k himself whether ho should not*, in the interest cf world peace—the foremost question of our day—consider the Treaty of Peaco which failed to retain support of the t-fenate Com mitten on Foreign Relations. Tin's Treaty, bridging the chasm between peace and war, by agreeing to settle all disputes, though wounded at its birth, is not lifeloss. Even if crushed to earth it is * o rise again, and finall*- ml*** the civilised world, and this may happen poon. There is no doubt that the vast majorit.v of our people hailed the Tri-.artit,-- Treaty (Britain, France and our Republic) with enthusiasm. There is little"doubt .that if President Wilson's judgment and conscience lead him to tako up this issuo, the people of both partio*** will support him with enthusiasm." MIDDLE-CLASS HOUSING. Mr Walter Long, at Wembley Hill Garden City: "Men preach doctrines such as temperance and advocate strong measures in order that weaker brethren may not be led into temptation; we hear a. lot about tho elevation of tho moral tono of tho people, but at the bottom c-i" this question of sound social reform lies the housing of the people. When we talk of this question of the housing of tho pfKiplo we, not improperly, think of the prorision of houses for the working ('•lasses more than of anything else, but in all these questions of social reform, and especially of housing, tho difficulty is even greater for what I may call tho lower middle-class than for any other class in the community. Tho men of this class, who can he described as '"'black-coated' men. aro men,whoso incomes are incredibly small and compare indifferently with thoso of many working men, men who have in their own ■persons-and in their surroundings to maintain a degree of resnoctabiiity and prosperity which was not* incumbent upon the working man. Upon thoso

men's shoulders tho burden arising from industrial competition falls most heaviiv. It* is not by attacks on individuals or on classes—attacks which are the outocmo of insufficient knowledge ana lack of experience—that the golden, key. is to be found, hut it is to be found m tho initiation, of some such scheme as that of tlie Wembley Garden City, which will combine the interest of the owner of the land and those who are to live upon it." AN ARMED DEMOCRACY . Viscount Haldane, at tho opening of Hartley College:— 7 "There are thoso who think that the •"iucation given in a University College h something that is of a class nature, something of which the democracy does not get the benefit. I have sat in the University of Edinburgh side by side with the 60ns of ploughmen and the sons of men who earned a weekly wage. Why do theso men, at inconvenience to themselves, send their sons and daughters to the University? The Scotch are not foolish people in the matter of twopences. The four Universities in Scotland to which the democracy send their children have sent out all over the world a largo I.timber of young men and a good many'young women, who have been able to help themselves to the cream becauso of their superior skill in getting it. The old notion that capital is: the monopoly of a tew people and that tho working class never can have access to it has all gone. The real monopolist is the man who has tho trained main. Ntjti-ral talent sometimes takes the place, but natural talents have a 'difficult job against a highly-trained mind. In the main it is the man with the highly-trained mind who finds out how to pay the interest on the capital invested. If democracy wishes to get its share of these new things that are coming—and we are at the. beginning oi very groat changes—then democracy will Lave to take advantage of the chances of education. We live in times of which our ancestors did not dream. Everywhere wo are surrounded by competitors. The old British superiority is imperilled. Wo have all tho old British ' energy and pluck, but o,th,ers have got for their workmen a training which is in many respects far superior to ours. I am not in tho least afraid of the invasion of German armies, but I am j very much afraid of the invasion of people who have been trained in German Universities and' schools, and whose science has enabled them to j ct mpete with us. who are at a disadvan- j tago. because of their superior know-j ledge in science. It is not only the ; highly-placed people but the workpeople in Germany who are being train-

od now in a way nobody conceived of a j few years ago/ 1 ' "THE WHOLE HOG." Mr Asquith, to a deputation of i-Jast End suffragettes:— i "I think 1 am right in saying that in substance the case you have presented to mo comes to this—that tho economic conditions under which women labour in a community like the East End of London are such that neither in the way of legislation nor, perhaps, in the way of administration, can wo get substantial and intelligent reform unless the women themselves have a voice in choosing their representatives in Parliament. ... There are special and sad cases with regard to the position of deserted wives and -young unmarried mothers which no doubt call for special consideration, but in regard to which, if even every woman over twenty-one had a vote and exercised it, you would still find the legislative problem. I will not say insoluble, but exceedingly difficult. The best brains of the country, inspired by the strongest sympathy ar.d thoroughly representative of all the interests concerned —1 will not say that we shall never be able to do it—but all find it a very difficult, and complex problem which cannot be sol red by any 6hort cut or heroic remedy. On one point I am in complete agreement with you I have always said that if you arc going to give the franchise'to women you must give it to them on the same terms as to men. Mako it a democratic measure. Ii is no good paltering with it. If tho discrimination of sex is not sufficient to justify the giving of tho vote to one sex and withholding it from the other, tben_ it follows a fortiori that tho discrimination of sex does not justify and cannot, warrant the giving of a restricted franchise to women and the giving to men of an unrestricted form o: franchise. If the change is to come ie musr. be on a democratic basis, we must face it boldly aud put it on a democratic basis."