VOICES of the NATION

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 17

VOICES of the NATION

SAYINGS AND WRITINGS :: :: OF THE TIMES ::

Rare Things. “If the rose were a rare plant, cnly to be .imported in small quantities and needing careful guarding in a hothouse, it would command a tremendous price, but it would not be one whit lovelier. The rose, so common and so beautiful, is a typical example of the good things of life which are also the common things of life. Any cottager can be a rose millionaire, and get as much enjoyment out of his flowers as a money millionaire. Indeed, if he tends and cultivates them himself lie gets far more fun out cf them than the money millionaire who leaves his roses to his gardeners, .'.nd only enjoys them by leave of the men he has to pay to do what the cottager can do for himself. It seems almost sacrilege to speak of food after speaking of roses, but what is true of roses is also true of food. Any woman of modest means can make as much of food as can be made of it by anyone. If an apple, picked from a tree which anyone can buy and plant for a ritilling or two, were a rare fruit instead of a beautiful thing that rnyone can have, the fruiterers of the rich would proudly display apples at ten shillings a pound, and stupid people would think: ‘What a wonderful thing an apple is! How 1 should like to taste one! Oh, if somebody would only give me an apple!’ ” —“My Magazine.” The Failure of Industrial Arbitration.

'Die proposed arbitration tribunal put forward by the British Government to <leal with district settlements in the coal dispute, if appointed for one definite purpose, may succeed. But Mr. Meredith Atkinson, M.A., formerly Professor of Economics of Melbourne University, points out in the "Daily Mail,” in the course of a clear and concise contribution, that arbitration Fas failed in its purpose in Australia. He writes in that paper : — “The establishment of cn independent arbitration tribunal is one cf the latest proposals for a settlement cf the coal strike. Everyone who has had experience of the arbitration system as practised in Australia will hope that it is not adopted here. Whatever the merits of the arbitration system may be in theory, the fact remains that in Australia it has completely failed to achieve its primary purpose. During the period in which it has been in existence the number of - disputes in Australia has enormously increased, and the more aggressive unions, taking advantage cf. the innumerable opportunities conferred by the system, have kept industry in a continual state of unrest. Unions apply for new awards, or variations of .an existing award, at absurdly short intervals, knowing that they' have everything to gain and nothing to lose; and employers, never sure what wages will be a short time hence, are unable to quote for goods or contracts with any confidence, or if they do quote often lose contracts through being forced to quote high as a precaution against a further rise in wages.”—Mr. Meredith Atkinson, M.A., formerly Professor of Economics at Melbourne University. The Folly of it. “The slogan is dead. Its creators have now cast it aside. The trusting ccnfidence of a million men has been shattered in the process. These twentyone weeks of misery and sacrifice have all been in vain. Is this leadership? After twenty-one weeks the miners’ leaders, whom the men pay to lead them, now plead for less than what they rejected before the stoppage. For what they plead now the General Council could have got for the asking without one moment’s stoppage. This is a gross betrayal of the men’s trust—the veriest travesty of leadership. The men and their families have suffered for naught!’’ —Mr. Frank Hodges. And What is the Good ?

“What ever views one may hold in this disastrous mining dispute, I believe there is common agreement that it has proved, with an emphasis we have never experienced hitherto, that war in domestic and industrial affairs is just as futile and leaves the same debit balance in the end as war between nations. When will people understand—and, understanding, fashion a rule of conduct—that after an exhausting war .there can be victory to neither side? But when we have put these obvious truth in writing, and when we have reeled them off our tongues with smug assurance, are we willing to put our house in order so that we may create the conditions under which peace may be secured?”—Mr. Ramsay MacDonald in the “Sun Express.” An Orderly Strike. “One thing, at least, in this long struggle gives hope for the future. The miners have in general shown an admirable restraint and self-control. It will be found that no strike on a large scale has ever been attended with so little disorder. The conduct of hundreds of thousands of men who, whatever we may think of their wrongheadedness, were enduring, and seeing their families endure, considerable privation, has been beyond praise. No country in the world, we take leave to say, would have conducted a long industrial dispute so peaceably, with so much respect for order and the rights of. others. This entitles the miners to all the consideration which the owners can offer. This gives us encouragement to believe that when the settlement comes the men will do their best to work it with good sense and good-will ’’—“Daily Telegraph’’ (London). Hymns—and Hymns,

“There are many hymns, familiar to us all, in which noble words are wedded to noble music. I believe that there are enough of these in existence to make it unnecessary to use inferior metal. But there are also many hymns of which the words are good, but which are set to trivial or unworthy tunes; and not a few hymns the words of which have no merit, except that they were composed with good intentions, and which only pass muster because the tunes are attractive. And there are some familiar hymns which are well adapted to individual devotional use, but quite unfitted, though they often are, to be sung by a congregation. Moreover, there are some livnins and tunes which are so endeared to us by long association that we should be sorry to lose them, even though both words and music are of an inferior type.”—Archdeacon James, in Cathedral Festival servon,

Britain and America. “it is a platitude that on the cooperation ol Britain and America the future depends, and there can be no co-operation without understanding. Hie difficulties in the way jire many. American forthcomingness is met by British reticence, American hyperbole by British meiosis. One special difficulty is America’s gift for misrepresenting herself. It is probable that Americans understand Englishmen better than Englishmen Americans, just because America is so inadequately represented by her ‘public form.’ Every nation has its national idiots, but, owing to her highl}’ developed publicity system, she seems to give hers the centre of the stage and provide them with megaphones. The road to understanding is not by way of flatter}'. Candour is the least compliment we can pav to a masculine people. Nor is it by wav of peevish fault-finding and petty cynicism Mr. John Buchan in the “Spectator.”

Eating to Live. “It is said that we live by what we digest, and not by what we eat. That, in a sense, is quite true, but it would reallv be more correct to say that we live by what we utilise. Many people digest, assimilate, and store a great mass of material which they never utilise. This material is deposited as fat, and in order to digest, assimilate, and store this fat, an enormous amount of vital energy is uselessly expended; energv, that is, which would be more profitably employed in other ways, in other organs. It is too often loosely taken for granted that when more food is taken than is immediately required, the residue is quite simply set aside for use when occasion serves.”— Dr. Leonard Williams. Books v. Wireless.

“Professor Gillespie, of Leeds University, says that a book is i eally wore wonderful' than the wireless system. Wireless seems to annihilate space; so does a book, because we can multiply a book as much as we like, and people the world apart can lead the _ same matter; but a book does what wireless cannot do, it can annihilate time, and if a book is preserved we tan have people speaking to us through it v ho have been dead and gone any number of years. If a book is a good one and’ the man a really great writer we can be quite certain he has not put down what he said without considerable reflection. A book, is an extremely human thing. It is very largelv through books that we become the heirs of all the experiments cf mankind in the past.”—“The Schoolmaster.” A School for Emigrants.

“There are many ways in. which immigration can be further encouraged. The principal is the provision in Great Britain of addition! training farms for agriculturists, these to be sufficient in number to enable a steady supply of many thousands of young Englishmen who are physically fit, and who have been trained in the rudiments cf agriculture. When conditions become a little more definitely settled industrially, it is more than likely that the immigration of skilled artisans can likewise be encouraged.”— Mr. E. W. Beatty. president of the Canadian Pacific Railwav.

Seeking the Light. The alternatives of religious evolution or religious decay lie before us. What is the path of religious evolution? I find it in the words: ‘Follow me and leave the aead to bury their dead.’ We need to cease from elaborate and unsatisfying attempts to defend doubtful positions. We must return to, and develop in its modern implications, the basis of faith on which alike the reformation and the evangelical movement rested. There is no doubt as to the character and quality of the spiritual insight of Jesus. His teaching as to God’s nature and as to man’s duty and destiny is brilliantly clear. From His spiritual intuition sprang the conception of the Kingdom of Heaven: here the object of our striving, elsewhere our final home.”—Bishop Barnes.

Shoddy Silver. “In ten years, unless the Act of 1920 be repealed, the whole of our so-call-ed silver will be ‘ring straked and speckled,’ showing patches either of yellow surface for the earlier, or of red surface for the later, issues. There is still enough of the old money, issued before 1920, in circulation to disguise the effect of the new money in a casual handful of change. When the old money has all disappeared—and it is going fast—the whole of our fractional currency will be a deplorable sight. Let any reader take a pound’s worth of change, pick out and reject any coins issued before 1920, and any others of the last two years, and then contemplate the remainder, and judge wvbat they will be like after a few more years of tsage.”—Sir Charles Oman, M.P., in the "Banker.”

The Government and the Coal Strike.

“The Conservative Party should beware of pursuing incompatible policies. There are two groups working in it at the moment. One aims at conciliating the leaders of the miners. The other is in favour of allowing the weight of economic pressure to break the strike. The latter section will be loudly audible at the conference of the National Union of Conservative Associations at Scarborough next month, when the Prime Minister is expected to develop the party policy with regard to trade unions and strikes.”—The “Daily Express.” On Brown Bread.

“Efforts are made from time to time to popularise wholemeal bread. Unfortunately they do not meet with the success they deserve. The ordinary white bread, with its deceptive appearance of virgin purity, makes a more urgent appeal to the eye; therefore it is preferred, by most people, to that made from the darker wholemeal flour. However, from the standpoint of nourishment, the latter is infinitely superior, and, again, gives more value for money. The general preference for white bread affords an apt illustration of the fact that personal prejudice, and individual likes and dislikes, are unreliable guides from the dietetic aspect.”—Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, in the “Daily Chronicle.”