THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 287, 2 September 1942, Page 4

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections There is no one mortal whom sorrow and disease do not touch— Boetlus.

“it is essential that everybody who passes through a school should see and learn to recognize goodness and greatness when they meet them in history and literature —this is fay more important than passing the School Certificate '—and that the vision, should be ‘habitual,’ continuing through the elementary school, the technical school, the secondary school, the university, and kept alive and renewed through life.”—Sir Richard W. Livingstone.

“A general survey of the whole horizon- shows that everywhere in Europe, in Asia, and in Australasia, except for the R.A.F. bombing offensive from British bases, the initiative is still to a great extent in the.hands of the enemy. It is still far easier for the Germans and the Japanese to choose their own line of action and their own point of attack than it is for the Allies. And yet that horizon, if still menacing, is not quite so unrelievedly black as it was a short time ago. It is more broken, and there are lighter patches amid the rack of the storm. We fight for respite flow, but if we go on fighting in the spirit of the past few weeks it may not be long before we are fighting with more positive aims in view.’’ —“The Times,” London.

“Science can only exist in a free society,” said Professor A. D. Ritchie, speaking at Manchester University on “Science as a Creative Power." “Discovery is the fruit of freedom, and the discoverer is the child of his environment, of his age, of the society in which he lives, and of his special place in that society. A society which prefers guns to butter will undoubtedly get guns, and the more highly developed the scientific technique, the more destructive will 'be its guns. It ten'ds to forget also that guns can shoot both ways. Is the scientist to be blamed if the fruits of science are misused? The discoverer is to blame for anything that has consequences of evil to the society he lives in, but no more to blame than any other member of that society which enjoys such advantages as be supplies. If mankind restricts the fruits of science it does not mean merely no aeroplanes, no submarines, no high explosive bombs, but also no clothes, no tools, no domestic animals, no art, music, or books. In fact man would return to the animal level. The risk of misuse must be taken, for there is. no certain knowledge.”

"The historic practice and duty of political parties,” urges “The Tinies,” of London "have been to emphasize their differences and put the widest possible space between themselves and their opponents. During the war, and for the purposes of the war, those differences have been bridged by an acceptance of common interests and benefits and by insistence upon them. Some day occasion will again demand insistence on divergencies. That day is not yet near for those who, though seeing the inevitable difficulties of the approaching times, are resolved to wrest opportunity out of adversity both for our own citizens and, with the cooperation of other nations, for the whole world. While parties and groups continue to seek and to define in their own terms the way of advance, they should hold fast to the purpose of proceeding to the farthest point by agreement, provided always that the quest for agreement does not itself destroy opportunity by delay. To bring a healthy diversity of opinion within the bounds Of unity of purpose will be the chief problem of the first years of the peace. It would be foolish to pretend that deep and wide differences do not divide parties. Those differences will persist. But it would be no less foolish, because of differences, not to endeavour to achieve botli now and in the period of reconstruction the greatest common measure of agreement—and of agreement to press forward.”

“1 think our curious habit of selfdepreciation has rather led us to say that the German Central Control is better than ours and probably better than It is. My own belief is that it is not so good. People used to say it was good in the last war, but it was not good; it was bad. It v was definitely worse than ours. I could show that this was so from almost all the German-political, naval and military memoirs. I know that that position was not very different in Germany a few years before the war, because I hud it from Germans with whom I discussed these subjects and who were in it position to know; and I suspect it is not too good today. After all, -the Germans have made the most frightful mistakes. There are their treacherous dealings with the U.S.S.R., culminating In their wanton aggression against that country; there was the failure of their summer campaign in Russia; there was the failure to prepare for a winter campaign in Russia; there was the failure of the Battle of Britain ; there was the cruel treatment of subject populations: there was the sending of the ‘Bismarck,’ an isolated ship, to inevitable disaster, Into the midst of their enemies. I suggest that there must have been n lot of bad advlee and a lot of bad decisions, and that does not suggest a perfect system. It may be true —indeed, It is true —that they have had the most brilliant successes; but, if that is so, it is due to the failure.of other nations to arm. If they have developed a better technique than we have in combining their forces, that is -because they have had the opportunity of testing and perfecting their theories in the best field of all—active warfare where they were walking over their enemies.” —Lord Hankey, speaking in the House of Lords.

Tlie Forgotten Brotherhood.

This was our sin: that we did nut see; We did not hear and we did not heed When our Prophet voices spoke to us Of a brave new world with a Brother Creed; Of a Federation of Mankind.

Of a League of Light and Love and • Law That would crush forever from the land The reign of sword and tooth and claw. This was our sin: that we did not see; We did not hear and we did not heed; That the world was Due, and we could not stand

Aloof from the universal need! —William L. Stidgcr,- in “Zion's Herald.” of U.S.A.