HEALTH OF THE NATION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 134, 2 March 1920, Page 5

HEALTH OF THE NATION

LECTUKE BY JUDGE ALDEN. Judge George D. Alden. of Massachusetts, delivered a lecture in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last night, under the auspices of the - Chautauqua Association of New Zealand. The title of his discqurss was "The Powder and the Match.'' There was a large gathering, and the attention of everyone was held throughout. .fudge Alden said that a far more' fitting title for the lecture would he "The Health of a Nation." What was true regarding an individual's health was true also of a nation's health, and the natural laws, must not be broken. Dealing first of all with the man in his relationship to the State, the lecturer pointed out that a knowledge of history was necessary to good citizenship. lie felt sorry for the man who neglected his education. To-day young men were hanging around street corners in Wellington, and attending places where they should-riot be found, and yet, twenty years hence, they would be complaining about the inequalities of wealth. Education could be found if people sought it. Th* educated man was the hope of tho nation. No nation had yet died from old age, but from disease, caused through, its own carelessncss: Indifference had been the powder to which the match of revolution had everebcen applied. He trusted that th* day would never come in New Zealand, as it, had in America, when, men would sell their votes. For the last fifty years, unfortunately, Arneriqa had turned from things-spiritual to things material, and ,the people were living in an ace of graft and greed. The spirit of graft and greed was .present in every country, principally because people thought most of those who made good—cash. In Christian manhood there lay the only hope of tho world. In every land where men,had the franchise there was one thin;; essontinl, and that was independence in politics. People should' know why they were voting and what they were voting for. "Get away from the old idea of party loyalty," urged tho lecturer,- "and have nothing whatever to do with-patty 'bosses.'" Party "•bosses" had been the ruination of.political life in some countries. Socialism was growing in tho United States because the Socialist did something which the average party man-did not do. A man was a Democrat or a- Republican,'mno times out of to l, berawe he was the victim of chance, climate, or circumstance. Socialism was the product of thought. I]o did not say that Socialism was right, but if it were wrong then they should study the arguments in order to meet them. Touching on the League of Nations, Judge Alden remarked that there was only one League which could be a success, and that was the league of Great Britain and the United States. (Applause.) Deferring to home life, Alden said that disease, degeneracy, and divorce were tub three great enemies of a nation's health; each was the shild of ignorance, and all three were the grandchildren ,of prudery. Marriage was. not discussed'or considered in the right/ight, because attention was not pnid to the question whether the children of a union would be of use to the nation. Pnrcnts should take their children into their confidence regarding the facts of life. The hope of a nation was clean manhood and puro' womanhood and the hopo of the world lay in purity. •