WANTED: MINDS TO SUPPRESS REVOLUTIONARIES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1913, 22 November 1913, Page 7

WANTED: MINDS TO SUPPRESS REVOLUTIONARIES.

Sir,—Wo ore spending enormous stirns of money in providing and equipping o«r elementary schools. Wo are forcing the children to. school until they.arc over age, and after they leave in a few brief years there are thousands of •thorn that absolutely cease to, use their brains in aiiy sphere for their mental improvement. Whether the nature and quality of the education we are how giving in oui' elementary schools is generative or stultifying may be debatable, but tlicro is not lacking the expression of opinion that the system is a failure. We have almost, if hot' altogether, eliminated the original mind from the teaching profession.' and reduced tho teachers to mere machines. It may be ti wise and economical process to standardise in machinery, but when we have succeeded in standardising the human mind as wc appear to be trying to do in our schools to-day, we shalliiave succeeded in destroying those noble characteristics which have been the making of this great Empire. Iu religion, in commerce, hi politics, and in industrialism, and in soience and in literature we find that the average adult mind is becoming more and more deadened. There may bo and doubtless are many other agencies at work in this mina destroying process besides ail elementary educational system, but that the adult mind's of hundreds of thousands are through liiek of use and ad* verso agencies being destroyed is an iftdisputable fact, xno loss and danger morally, socially, and commercially is incalculable, and unless some wiser niinds than those whieii at present and for a decade past Ivavo ruled on this question can bo found to bring inspira'tioit and life to the adult mental life of this nation we shall assuredly drift oil to tlio toeks of a destructive revolution. There is not a single sphere, in which men and women are moving to-day into which thoro is not a deep-seated spirit of tin rest, and the misfortune is that thoro aro abundant evidences that this unrest is boing engineered arid manipulated by a set of moil whose minds are bent on destruction and. Hot regeneration. It is patent to alt that' in Labour, Socialism and religion tlio tail is wagging the dog. The mass, through lack of mental energy, aro as putty in these propagandists' hands; the mass have largely lost all conception of originality of thought and action and now they allow themselves to bo moved as soulless armies. Never within the history of this nation was there a greater used for a mighty generative and loading mind than there is to-day. Nothing but a national awakening to tl.lo dan> gei- of this deathless and barreiiess of the adult minds of the country will save us fi : om tlio social and national dangers which are iiow, through this industrial unrest and educational' sterility, besetting it. Why should the people leave their social, moral, spiritual, and talus* trial destinies in the hands of a few proj piigaudists P Why don't they shake off this iiieiital stupor and every man find woman think for themselves ? Thought is- tife, and human salvation will eomo Id a people who think for themselves and who ill deadly earnest refuse to bo led astray by the self-seokin.g propagandists.—l am, etc., CKOKGE WALKER,

THE COUNTRY CONFIDENT. Sii't—'We in Wellington cannot forri (ISKjtei. Joi!_ ja« jsS?st ii Jfa, »ftUtoj»

the country districts. I was talking to ah elderly gentleman from tho Tarauaki Province, on a visit to the city, and lie assured mo that tile striko was doing a vast amount of good to tho farmers, at least, that it would ultimately prove beiieficial. Farmers have had a. vaglio idea that the interests of tho cities Burn bound a]) with tlicm, and this striko has helped to bring it liomo to tlmni. Ttiey. woog-niso now that tho Merchants and traders atfe doing Uiu work of the fanners, and had tlioir interests to conserve. It has further* livoio given the iarmois ciMifi-do-iiCc in the futurCi for the)' now realise that the dreaded strike is not such a bogey as tliey thought it was—that the leaders of tho Syndicalists are mostly self* seeking, ignorant, but cunning indivi-duals—-and that 111® strong arm ol: tho law is aisle to deal with them —that the majority of tho people arc entirely iu favour of law ana order, aiul tho fight of the individual to Work for his living in his own way, and without molestation. Above all, it is recognised that with tho strenuous fight put up by tho cities, with the help of tlio mounted men from the country, and the Utter and complete defeat of tilts "Red Federation," it will be many a long day before New Zealand 'witnesses another such uptaatal.*—l am, etc.. I'ONIiKK. .