RESPONSIBILITY OF DEMOCRACY

Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1929, Page 2

RESPONSIBILITY OF DEMOCRACY

AN lAI PORT ANT POINT IN INDUSTRY.

LONDON. Nov. 27

Lord Alelclictt, addressing the autumn conference oi the Institute ol Fuel:

“With regard to the efforts to restore prosperity to British industry as a whole, I must say that industry benefits in America by far irankcr interchange ol views and inlorinalion than is the ease ol this country. I here should bo a feeling that the prosperity ol one individual linn against another is less important than the prosperity of industry as a whole. If coalowncrs had done two years ago only one-tenth of wliat they are doing now. we should never have bad the strike.”

THE FUTURE OK DEAIOCBACY. The Prime Al mister, to the Junior Imperial League: “The future of democracy depends rerv largely ii)x>n tile youth ol to-day. Upon them will rest a heavy responsibility’, and it is tlioir duty to tiain themselves so that they may Ibe enabled to bring a sympathetic and broad-minded understanding to bear on the social. Imperial inti industrial problems with which they must inevitably be confronted. Ihe Junioi Imperial League provides them with a means of political education. 1 welcome the steps which the league is taking to enroll more members, and I sincerely hope that the youth of the country will be quick and ready to seize the opportunities which this great organisation a fiords them.’ The Junior Imperial League was formed 22 years ago with a view to creating a practical knowledge of political work, to educate young people in good citizenship, and to impart a thorough knowledge of the British Constitution and the Empire. Its aeivities are political, social, and athletic in character.

DANCING FOR A [OTHER'S. Dr .Janie Loritr.er Hawthorne, at the institute of Hygiene, said: “1 would advise all mothers to dance juLt as much as their daughters, and I would advise fathers to do the same. A darning mother, if she is happy, is healthy also. The girl of to-day is fine. Ihe nation that has beautiful women is going to he successful.” SHOUT SKIRTS PRAISED. Sir Walter AJ.. Fletcher (secretary of the Aiedical Research Council) at the Public Health Congress: “Whether it he. the shorter skirt, or the lower neck or customs of exercise, the common anaemia among girls of 20 years ago, causing green faces in the streets, has gone. One of the most amusing developments and applications of physiology to public health, however unconscious it may have been, has been the voluntary action on tlie part of the women who. for motives I will not attempt to analyse, have applied practical physiology in their dress and habits. Ihe last 20 years have in consequence seen an astonishing revolution in the health of women.”

THE RIGHT DIET. The same speaker, on national physiq lie: “With improved means ot transport food has been coining from greater distances and has been subject to a greater variety of operations in collection and distribution. That has brought many benefits and many evils. The benefits are plain. Our city populations have a greater variety and cheaper food ; hut there have been at the same time a dangerous loss ol essential food values which are not to lie detected by the ordinary person. This question is of overwhelming importance. On the teaching of modern science, if we have, to choose between housing reform and dietary reform, dietary reform ought to have the precedence. Science is calling out for the application of a constructive polity of definite nutritional guidance and not only nutritional prohibition. In this direction there is the greatest hope of remedying the disquieting condition of the national physique. Is the national physique becoming better? If anyone can walk throughout crowded industrial cities and see the workers coming from their work, or see a crowd at a cup-tie match, and not have a sinking at the heart at the stunted .figures, poor physiyue, and had teeth, has has no eyes to see. They are not a native standard characteristic of our country. There is no racial stock more capable of producing the finest examples of stature, health, and beauty. Recent research shows that it is not housing for external environment which is accounting for the failure in physique, but the iu'ternal effects of food— not deficiency in quantity, hut deficiency in the right qualities. It is more correct, perhaps, to say that men of had physique make slums than to say that slums make men of had physique. Ihe knowledge that we possess indicates that wo have thi' means of restoring to the great mass of our people their birthright of stature, health, and beauty.”

EMPIRE INSPIRATION. Dr Alberto Pirelli, the Italian commercial magnate, at a London luncheon by the British Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce:

“Often as ;i boy I wondered how it was that Rome maintained her sway in distant lands; how it was that a .Roman general or procurator, with a few centurions. - managed to keep the Pax Romana in Rritain or in Oaul. In later years, when travelling in the heart of India or on the outskirts of your Empire, in Hurmah, in .Mandalay. or in the Sudan. 1 saw an Indian civil servant and a few Knglish business men or sometimes only one Englishman, in the midst of teeming populations, which look to them lor protection and lair play. Ihe secret is that both the Pax Romana am! the Pax Rritannica have had behind them a living inspiration—a great Empire. •‘The tendency towards closer cooperation between Capital and Labour is distinctly growing—('cheers)—although. of course, it takes different form in different countries. In the United States the majority of workmen are already small capitalists, and where the' problem once was to provide a full dinner-pail for the men in overalls, it is now to find a parking space for their motor cars.—(Laughter.)

“In Italy co-operation lias taken the form of legislation, and provides the most interesting, and, lip to the present most successful experiment of the times in which we live. In England and in other countries progress has been made and the new spirit of the greater leaders of industry and their sense of responsibility for the welfare of those who assist them in the creation of wealth has met with gratifying response form the most intelligent representatives of Labour.” —(Cheers.)

"REAL FREE TRADE, The Right Hon. L, S. Amery n< Brighouse, Yorks:— “We propose to give relief in regard to the rates levied on factories and industries generally, and also to give help to distressed districts, and that will mean that we shall give help where it is most needed. '1 hat will greatly help to relieve unemployment. “We used to produce more iron and steel than anybody else. To-day America produces five times as much, and (treat Britain is falling hack as a great producer in the world. Cheap foreign goods contribute nothing to our English taxes, hut the money has to he found and our rates steadily rise and are reflected in the cost of living. What would you do? If it rested with me personally. ] would at once impose an overage duty of 20 per cent, on all foreign manufactures, and I would do that in order to secure real free trade. Beyond that I would try to see if any industry required- special consideration That is ,my personal view, hut it is not vet the policy adopted by the (Jovernment.”