THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 4

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

He that would eat the kernel must crack the nut.—Proverb.

The trend (in America) is toward conservative ways of thinking and doing. That means toward individual initiative, private enterprize, private profits and maitnenance of the essentials of what we call "capitalism.” It means that the • trend-' in the United States is away from further growth of Government domination, Government control and political management of the economy from some central Government watchtower. —AV. M. Kiplinger, in the “Cosmopolitan.”

It may be wise to realize beforehand the nervous tension which an occupied people like the Dutch have been storing up during three years of steadily increasing oppression. On the day of liberation they will be dangerously underfed. Thousands, if not tens of thousands, will emerge from their likling places, skeleton-like. The feeling of general Insecurity, the terror of the Gestapo wilt have left its mark on millions. In fact, the entire people will have lived “on their nerves” for years. —Dutch correspondent in London "Times.”

"Labour union leaders are still under the illusion that their political strength plus that of the party iu power gives them a majority. What they do not realize is that a new majority is being developed which is rapidly turning against labour unions. Certainly there is every indication that, if the 10.009,000 persons who are in the armed services arc permitted to vote, a substantial majority will cast their ballots against anybody who by legislative or official inaction seems to permit strikes or work stoppages.”—Washington syndicate writer, Mr. David Lawrence.

“Aviation can become the greatest blessing or'curse mankind has ever known. For the first time in his history an instrument has been put into the hands of man with which he can establish the rule of law between nations by converting it into a policing agency instead of using it as a weapon in the international duel. He can also increase his wealth, culture, and happiness by developing it as a means of communication and transport linking up the remotest parts of the globe. On the other hand, if nations retain it as a weapon in their national armouries to impose their wills upon their neighbours —as Hitler and Mussolini intended to do—then the aeroplane becomes the most terrible engine of destruction the world has ever known. That is the choice before us—the United Nations. By mutual agreement we can constitute an international authority at the conclusion of this war. We can insist upon the freedom of the air, subject to such laws and regulations as may be agreed upon by the members of the authority. We can pool our dir resources—both civil and military—by placing them under the control of the authority' and equipping it with an international air police force which will deter the aggressor.”—Lord Davies, in a letter to the “New York Times.”

"These attacks [by the R.A.F. on Germany] should be read as part of a terrible series that have swept along the valley of the Ruhr and the adjoining regions since March, and have Crippled that great industrial belt,” says the “Manchester Guardian.” “There can be no question of the severity of the blow that has been struck at the heart of Germany's war industries. The Germans themselves have ceased to pretend that the factories have come through unscathed and that it is only ‘residential quarters’ that the bombs have touched. The evidence in their own papers is convincing. We have to think of the string of towns—Duisburg, Overhausen, Mulheim, Essen, Bochum, Dortmund, comparable in population with South-east Lancashire, as pitted with devastated areas, their public services disrupted, their transport disabled. Nor does it. need much imagination to translate the raid into human terms. Every night that we raid the Ruhr the population of a wide area goes to earth. As the ‘Frankfurter Zeitung’ revealingly put it: ‘One lives from night to night; one makes no elaborate plans for tomorrow or the day after; one lives, so to speak, retrospectively, saying in the morning that tilings have once more gone well. The nucleus of existence is the night, and it is pathetic to see —and not appreciated enough—how composed people’s faces are as they sit on the narrow bunker benches, heads drawn in a bit, children gathered around them, and their “most essential” belongings—and how few they are—a t hand.’ ”

“While avc discuss the possibility of world government, world government’S here. The world war indeed is in progress to settle what kind of world governincnt it shall be, who shall be its rulers, what shall be its ideals. But no one can look at our time and fail to realize that both the Axis and the United Nations have now determined on world govern went. Facts have so decreed. The United Nations, more numerous, spi'tiAvled more widely across the Avorld, have rather had this purpose thrust on them than conceived it or desired it. It is still to them. So big debates are in vigorous life evciywhere that free speech and argument continues. They are carried on in a thousand ways—in the Press, in representative assemblies, by delegations of plain people, by visits between leaders, by newsreels, but, above all, by the ever-present, Instantaneous radio. Instantaneous —that is the dominant word. Speech flies across the world in no time; and simultaneously, to many scores of millions, every where. Mr. Churchill, for instance,.spoke within a month in Washington, in Ottawa, in London. Each of these speeches was heard, or was re]>eateii, so as to b« available instantaneously from end to end of the earth. Heard, discussed, criticized, responded Io —before the speaker left the hall. This has brought about the Big Debate. —Mr. Walker Elliott, M.P., in a radio broadcast. »!« BEYOND RECALL. Remember, three tilings come not back: The arrow sent upon its track— It ivill not swerve, it Aviil not stay, Its sjieed; it flies to wound or slay. The spoken Avord, so soon forgot By thee; but it has perished not: In other hearts ’tis living still, And doing Avork for good or ill. And the lost opportunity. That com eth back no more to thee. In vain thou weepest, in vain dost yearn, Those tliree will nevermore return. —Author Unknown,