VOICE of the NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 114, 11 February 1928, Page 17

VOICE of the NATIONS

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

The Christmas Spirit. “It is a good thing to observe Christmas Day. But there is a better thing than the observance of Christmas Day, and that is, keeping Christmas Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your dutv in the foreground ; to see that your fellow-men are just as real as vou are, and trv to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry lor joy; to own that probable the. only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, fait what you are going to give to life; to close y our book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness—are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas."—Henry Van Dyke, in the "Western Christian Advocate.” Street Lighting. It is an odd thing that the first extensive trial of electric light should also have been made on Westminster Bridge. That was in 1858. Twenty years passed before electricity was proved a practical proposition on Waterloo Bridge and in the British Museum. By the end of the century' London had electric light over ‘2OO miles of streets. People who remember the nights when a street-lamp was cither a fish-tail gasburner or a jigging electric arc will be ready enough to admit that our lighting systems have been vastly' improved. But we are still some way from the ideal of complete diffusion and uniformity of light. In these days of fast traffic and of many streams of traffic at different speeds a glaring street-lamp is a source of danger, and even more dangerous is an arrangement of lamps which compels us to look from bright light into gloom and to pass at a stride from deep shadow to blight light again—The “Daily Telegraph” (London), Catarrh and Colds.

Catarrh and colds have been misunderstood and abused as ailments, and have not been credited with valuable work as a curative factors,” said Mr. Eustace Miles in a recent lecture. They are largely Nature’s way of dealing with and making as harmless as possible, or else eliminating, poisonous acids or toxins and irritants. Among the causes of catarrh and colds may be chill or irritation of various sorts; or excess of sugar; or excess of salt —a very common influence in producing catarrh; or too fast eating; or deficiency of exercise that would relieve the bodv of waste-matter through the skin. The permanent cure would be particularly by a strict diet of the right foods and drinks, with plenty of waterdrinking, preferably hot water, together with abundant deep and full breathing, and healthy exercise in the open air.”

A Reasonable Religion. “A ‘reasonable religion’ was a - religion which enabled us to give some account of the whole of experience,” said Bishop Gore, reports the “Yorkshire Post,” “to find, some clue'to this strange and bewildering world. They' were to be open-minded. They were to welcome the light. But it was not easy to welcome the light. It was not easv for a dogmatic theologian to welcome scientific light, but it, was difficult for most of us to welcome the light about ourselves. There were very few people who eared to bring their own ugly selves into the light, and that was a very dangerous kind of obscurantism. Science could teach us many things, and let them never go to a theologian to ask what was the truth about science. Let them go to the experts about .science, but remember that they were not the only experts. That was not the whole of human life. All human movement, all human progress, had faith at the very base of it.” The Hope of Agriculture.

“The agricultural problems of the Empire are diverse in many ways, but they have at least this as a great common factor—their attitude towards the use of fertilisers. As you are better aware than I am, the population of this country has lived for several generations on the stored-up reserves of fertility of the virgin plains of the world. I have often stated that Britain has become over-industrialised. She has lost the balance between agriculture and industry. Many of the most complex of our social and economic problems have arise 1 from this fact. I feel that the fertiliser industry will help to restore the balance between industry and agriculture to equity. Even in industrial England agriculture is our greatest trade, and it is unnecessary to tell you of its importance in the Empire. The extended use of fertilisers, such as we are now beginning, will play a large part in en-. couraging agriculture and thereby assist in increasing the prosperilv and cohesion of the Empire. It is no exaggeration of language to say that, with the large' scale manufacture of synthetic nitrogenous fertilisers, a new era has dawned on the world.”—Si’ Alfred Mond. Wireless—lts Spiritual Value.

“It seems to me that on the field of the world’s life at the present time there are great harvests which ought now to be gathered in. Think of the field of knowledge. In one sense, no doubt, science is still in its infancy; the knowledge we have to-day is infinitesimal compared with the knowledge which will one day be available for men, but knowledge already is sufficiently great to yield a marvellous moral and spiritual harvest, if only we had enough wisdom to gather it in. Science has led us into a world of new experiences and wonders. We are to-night using the great scientific achievement of wireless, but are we also reaping its moral and spiritual meaning? We all feel the wonder of it, and we know something of its social value. Hut there should be in it a value beyond this.”—Rev. T. R. Williams, of Union Chinch, Brighton, in a recent broadcast sermon.

The Psychology of Citizenship. What is the psychological basis of citizenship ? What are the psychological characteristics of man as a social animal ? How do the fundamental tendencies of human nature adapt themselves to the changing circumstances of the modern industrial order? A study of citizenship which does not take account of social psychology might apply to a native of Cloud-Cuckoo-Town, but would assuredly not be true of the men and women who live in the modern industrial world. It is in instinctive behaviour that we must look lor the psychological basis of citizenship. Long before an individual is capable of forming definite purposes and consciously willing his conduct, he acts instinctively. Human instincts are important, not only because’ they are there to start with, but also because they are capable of modification mid development, and thus continue to form an integral part of conduct, even at its highest levels. Many of man’s highest ideals are firmly footed in primitive instincts, and it is in instinctive behaviour that many of his grandest institutions have their foundations.—G. A. Johnston in “The Edinburgh Review.” The Voters. Those lew who have both the knowledge and the social sense to make their votes valuable are lost amidst the mob of those who lack that combination. Yet this .motley crowd controls the ship of state. The navigators of that ship arc at its mercy.' They will take their hands from the helm in order to make a gesture'of acknowledgment to preserve its goodwill. They are as intimately concerned about its wishes as they are about the course of the ship—nay, even more so: thev must alter the' course altogether if .onlv the almighty mob shouts loud enough. Is it not grotesque to see the captain and his officers at the mercy of this ignorant crew of landlubbers? Is it not wasteful of the valuable energy of our lenders that watchfulness of the electoral barometer must continually distract them from their true work—the science of social betterment ? This need for watchfulness of the electoral barometer —this ever-present dread of being ousted from power, exerts a verv wasteful and pernicious influence in our svstem of government—-E. HSpencer in “'I he Review of Reviews. Unemployment.

Our pundits point to the numbers of ’ our employed workers, greater than at anv time in our history. ‘1 he unemployed they regard as’ the inevitable consequence of a growth of population which has outstripped the demand for productive labour. It is a view utterly false, because hopelessly narrow. An unparalleled heritage lies at our doors needing for its development nothing but trained hands. But because the economic need is rural and the economic surplus urban, because Labour is without enlightenment, and Liberalism without authority, and Unionism without enterprise, the glowing possibilities of Empire are- ignored. There is a call to-dav for the vision of a Chamberlain. The training of urban youth at home for agricultual work overseas would not solve the unemployment problem. Bat it would certainly mitigate it, because it would bring public expenditure into relation with the vital economics of Empire, More than this, it would proclaim to our youth that statesmanship had power to save their lives from the blight of idleness. The crux of the evil lies here. The deterioration of unemployment is not merely nor even mainly physical. It saps the temper of the soul. This threat to the national well-being must be combated. Let us begin where results will be swift and conclusive. In co-operation with the Dominions, let-us so train out youths as to assure them of hands competent to execute the purposes of enterprising hearts. —The “Observer.” A Counsel of Optimism.

“Whatever may be the slate of th? atmosphere and however uncertain may appear to be the prospects of the immediate future, never lose faith and hope. Never allow yourselves to be ensnared in sombre and paralysing generalities and shallow pessimism. There are moments —I am not sure that is not one of them—when the most sanguine among us arc tempted to be depressed by the spectacular follies and stupidities of mankind, and, as we survey this disillusioning panorama, to say to ourselves, ‘As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever .shall be, world without end,’ ” said Lord Oxford, in a recent speech at York. “That is not a wholesome mood, nor is it, in niv judgment, in the long run, justified by reason or by experience.” The Praver Book—if?

“It is possible,” states the “Liverpool Post,” “that the Church Assemble will refuse to have any further dealings with Parliament. It may, indeed, begin seriously to turn its face towards Disestablishment, or at least to securing a degree of independence in the sphere of doctrine and discipline similar to that enjoyed by the Scottish Establishment. Churchmen must this week have realised as probably they never did before the humiliating and archaic conditions in which the Church of England exists as an institution of State. If the rejection of the Prayer Book measure exacerbates the crisis in the Church to fever pitch, if the friction between rival parties is enormously intensified, Disestablishment certainly cannot be delayed very much longer, whether or not Disestablishment must mean, as Air. Baldwin regretfully supposes it will, the sacrifice of that ideal of comprehension which is so attractive to the English temper, with its preponderant emphasis on the practical.” If We Had 1

“The study of social life has been comparatively neglected in this countrv. Whilst we have led the way in the applied sciences and in the sphere of politics, we have lagged behind other nations in the pursuit of the social sciences. Had we given as much attention to the art of social living as we have to mechanical science and politics, it is unlikely that our social problem would be a hundred years behind the political in prospect of solution.”—Professor Atkinson Lee, in his Hartley lepture.