VOICES of the NATION

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 60, 4 December 1926, Page 17

VOICES of the NATION

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

The Octopus. “Since the close of the war Great Britain has spent on armaments over £1,300,000,000, whilst Europe to-day is spending three times as much on armaments as upon education. The disastrous effect of this expenditure on industry is apparent on every hand Sir Josiah Stamp has estimated that if present expenditure on armaments could be cancelled the standard of life throughout the great industrial Powers would be raised by 10 per cent. It is true to say that the monster of armaments is spreading himself all over the civilised world. The task, therefore, which confronts civilisation in this respect was never so great, never so urgent, and, it must be admitted, never so intricate and difficult, as it is to-day. Our obligations are clear.”—Mr. J. H. Harris.- secretary of the Anti-Slavery League, in “The Friend.” A Liberal-Labour Pact?

“It is becoming clear to the intelligentsia of Labour that there is no definite finality about nationalisation, because it represents in the end crass Syndicalism and the tyrannical rule of selfish, bureaucratic groups. An alliance with the Liberal Party would automatically mean the postponement of all forms of invidious Socialism, and the pact is certainly worthy of consideration if Liberals are still determined that extinction is inevitable unless they are merged for a time within a new Labour group. There are already many points of agreement between the two parties. Mr. Lloyd Georue would be as content to serve under Mr. MacDonald as he expressed assent to serve under Lord Oxford. Unity is more imperative than leadership ; economic prosperity is more urgent than Utopian schemes, and unless some amalgam of thought is achieved reconstruction will end in a mirage. We repeat that a pact between these two groups will not remain inconceivable, but such a political agreement will demand careful draftsmanship, skilful negotiation.”—Mr. James Corbett, in the “Fortnightly Review.” The Complacent Party.

“It may be said that although the opinion of the Conservative ‘Man in the Street,’ of his wife, his sister, his mother, his cousins, his uncles, and his aunts count for much so long as the party is in opposition, once office has been attained the Right Honourables are apt to forget the ladder by which they mounted, and not infrequently despise the crowd beneath. It is common ground that there is a striking and sometimes painful contrast between the attitude of an Opposition Front Bench and the same individuals when constituting a Treasury Front Bench, towards the questions that arouse enthusiasm among their followers, who, unlike their Leaders, remain the same after a general election as thev were before. It is more difficult to induce Conservatives than Radicals or Socialists to express their annoyance in effective action. Conservatives are not only more complacent, and perhaps intellectually inert, but more easygoing and good-natured than their opponents. They realise and make allowances for the difficulties besetting the path of Responsible Statesmen. The latter are disposed to take advantage of this disposition.”—Mr. L. J. Maxse, m the “National Review.”

A Flight, and the Empire. "Cobham’s flight is of importance as a demonstration of the practicability of linking by air even the most distant parts of the Empire. Mr. Cobham has always kept before him tins consideration. Already’ his previous flights have had solid results. The opening early next year of the air route between Egypt and India is, for example, attributed directly to his pioneer work. It is almost certain that the technical reports of his latest flights will influence future developments. He has, for one thing, proved that a seaplane is invaluable, if not essential, for the air journey to Australia. Probablv, of course, the airship is the most practicable means for making the journey. But Imperial airways, when they become going concerns in the future, will be accomplished in stages, and the seaplane, no doubt, will be used for certain stages. Mr. Cobham’s thorough testing has certainly proved the reliability of that type of craft.”—Liverpool Post.” Man and the Monkey.

“Probably few people who habitually use the word Evolution as part of their working vocabulary could define the term iu a way that would satisfy a scientist, and there are probably nearly as few who have read Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species.’ That epoch-mak-ing book was published sixty-seven years ago, and directly or indirectly it has profoundly affected every department of research and thought; yet it may be- questioned whether its ideas have really percolated into the popular mind. ’ The idea of evolution entertained by most unscientific persons is summarily expressed in the phrase that ‘man has sprung from the monkey’—to which a cyncial wit once added, ‘And some men have not sprung very far.’ ” —The “Expository Times.” Church and State in Mexico.

“No teacher of the ethics of Jesus Christ has any need to fear opposition on the part of the Government of Mexico. Mexico is in no sense antireligious, any more than is the United States, and yet the people of the United States have always been quick to resent the faintest approach to interference in their affairs by the officials or priests of any organised church. The fact that the Government of the United States has not been called upon to face the problem of interference with its affairs by prelates is solely due to the fact that the Church was entirely divorced from the State when the Government was founded. Mexico, on the contrary, found itself immediately after the adoption of its constitution in 1857 faced bv the most violent opposition on the part of the church hierarchy in everv attempt it made to improve the condition of its people and to democratise its government. The church problem has unfortunately remained with us, and will only be settled right when the hierarchy of the Church shows its willingness to content itself to move within its proper sphere in the life of the Mexican people.”— Arturo M. Elias, Consul-General of Mexico,

Law and Order in Two Nations. “A contrast that was most forcibly impressed upon me was the respect for law and order in England as opposed to the utter breakdown of law and of protection afforded to the citizen by his government in America. Almost the last day before I left New York in January I had occasion to go to my bank in Wall Street. In one block I saw three armoured cars, with machineguns and armed guards, engaged in transporting valuables in the heart of the financial district of the biggest city in America. What have we come to when government can no longer afford protection to its citizens in the heart of our greatest city? In London, while I was there, a steamer arrived from South Africa with five millions of gold consigned to the Bank of England. At the dock it was placed in an open dray; a tarpaulin was thrown over it, and it was driven to the bank with .no guards of any sort.”—“A Returning American” in the “Atlanta Monthly.”

Theory and Practice. “It is easy enough to indicate measures which would put the economic organisation of the world upon a more stable foundation than it has known heretofore, greatly increase Europe’s wealth, and greatlv relieve some at least of the most patent economic evils from which Europe suffers—unstable money, disorganised exchanges, overtaxation, barriers to trade, industrial unrest. But all thorough-going, farreaching, and reallv effective measures immediately encounter the difficulty that there is not the remotest chance of their being accepted and worked bv nations moved by the public opinion which we know—obsessed by the fears, suspicions, resentments, and illusions which mark the Nationalist organisation of Europe and still dominate international affairs.”—Norman Angell. The New Debating..

“Have we not now a Prime Minister who reads his speeches? Surely there was never such a Prime Minister who did such a thing before. After all, the House of Commons is supposed to be a debating assembly, and if Mr. Baldwin’s habit were to become generally followed, it would be a logical simplification for members to hand in their speeches to be circulated with the official report. Another curious tendency, which is all part of the decline cf dialectics, is the now more than ever frequent introduction of a speech with the phrase: ‘I do not propose to follow tl e hon. member who has just sat down.’ What else does one go to Parliament for?”—“Cross-Bencher,” in the “Sunday Express.” An American Lack.

"I know of no greater lack in American civilisation than the fact that our clergy boasts few thinkers cn public questions of independent, vigorous mind and sufficient authority to make themselves heard. Certainly, we have nowhere in this country a clergyman so clear in his intellectual processes, so outspoken, and so courageous in his thought and speech rs the Very Reverend William Ralph Inge, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral.”—“The Independent” of America.

The Lonely “Family.”“The family of the lower middle class is now being reduced to one child and a motor-car. A mother not long ago took her one and adored little boy to school, with a sad heart. ‘Oh, mummie,” said the adored little boy, ‘l’m glad to be going, I shall never be lonely again.’ The doom of England rings in that cry.”—Prebendary H. F. B. Mackay.

Debt and Waste. “The National Debt has risen from £23,500,000 to £300,000,000 a year, or more than a million pounds a day. Everybody, of course, knows that the greater part of this burden is due to the war, and cannot be escaped. But it is important to remember that the debt itself was swollen during the war and in the early years after the Armistice by horribly wasteful methods of administration. But that is past history. The important point to-day is the way in which public money is still being wasted for purely political ends. The most significant example of this last-named scandal is to be seen in the comparison between the fighting strength of the Army and Navy and the number of bureaucrats employed by these services. Before the war we had 320,000 soldiers and sailors in the Army and Navy, we now only have 252,000; meanwhile, the number o{ officials employed in these two. services in ‘cushv’ jobs on shore has increased from 8600 to 12,552— roughly, 68,000 fewer fighting men and 400 more bureaucrats.” —“Sunday Times” (London). Park Manners. “The child has an innate sense of courtesy tnd common decency. If a child went into the house of a friend or relative, and had an orange, he would not strew the floor with orange-peel. Yet people come into the parks and do this. If it can be impressed on the young mind that this ■ practice is just as much lacking in courtesy and good manners as it would be if the scene were somebody else’s house, a good deal will have been done to eliminate the nuisance It is the only way, and it is a method I have been adopting for some time past.”—Mr. T. R. Triggs, Chief Officer of Parks in Leeds. For Social Peace. "It is the right and the duty of all good citizens to use their influence on behalf of social peace. The bishops and their colleagues represent certain common principles of conduct and judgment, and, acting on those principles, they uphold a certain view of public duty. One of the results of the awakening that followed the war has been an increasing tendency among leaders of religion and education to seek to use their influence in this way. It is apparent in the universities as well as in the churches. We believe that this change will have important consequences. One of the paradoxes of our life is the wav in which the workers who have political power still speak and think of themselves as a separate and oppressed class in the community.”— “Manchester guardian,’ s