The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1930. THE EMPIRE PRESS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1930, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, 1930. THE EMPIRE PRESS.

At the opening session of the Imperial J'l'ess Conference at Grosvenor Jhlouso on June 3, a. cordial welcome was extended by the Prime Ministei on behalf of the Government. AI r MacDonald spoke of the newspapers of ,'lhe Empire (as .coustiLuting one of the most pjfeetive. links binding its peoples in. community together. The great problem of the fCrnpire,, said the Premier, was- how ,tp. unite individuality with co-operation, how to combine national freedom„ with oommonwealth obligations.Tlie contribution whicVi tlie British Empire had so far Viia'de to the solution -o! that' problem ' was very great. In this ■confiediton the responsibility of the press', with 'its great power, was considerable, and ho appealed. ’ to journalists and‘politicians to insist on the circulation of good, sound ’coinage in opinion, idea's,- and ideals. “The Empire goes through phase after phase,” said . Mf‘ |i|tbl)onald. “Ithas its periods of gfeat glory fun. others of loss. It has ; .its periods 01 difficulties, but I think what you and T have to remember is that the 1 mind showing alacrity to appreciate, mid even to anticipate, the changes which are accomplished is the mind that is going to; lead-vfcho Empire pyimanent substance and long-during life, As long as wo think of the past, and the past only, as Jong as we merely aye-persons 'of the'present, thinking only: pf the present without my conception • of- the -voluntary' idea which is turning and events'and' determining tho future, then diva will not do our work well, whether we are' newspaper men or politicians; It is die live mind, the mind that not only •ees bit foresees, that is the mind we want for the Empire at tlie present time. And all our work depends upon what is our conception of Empire, what is ouj- sense of Empire. Jim pi re is a lovely word. fn the construction of our towns we have certain central ideas.- In accordance with the type of building that we select as tlie central embodiment of , he spirit of oar towns so our towns ;row. We must have everything that is useful; the question is not elimination, but selection for the central building, so that we may have a -•entral idea; There must bo the wading spirit in the Empire, that must be the idea of production, of exchange, of consumption, there must >e the idea of inter-economic help'ulnesa and usefulness, but that is not the central idea, that is not 'the inspiring idea, iNor must /the Rm>ire in these clays find an environment in one- of those great massive Holdings, embodying brutalities and the powers of modern art, construct'd of reinforced concrete, standing urge, challenging, and powerful to the eye of everybody who strays into its neighbourhood. That is good of tself, but that cannot be the central dea of our British Empire, nor can L be some pretty, unstaine'd creation

of feminine purity in white marble, vo are l.unnin. Wo have made groat idiiovemenls and we have made great mistakes. If we want to embody our Knipire in an idea which is human, in a structure which cniihodied frail--1 ies as well as achievements, let us think of one of those commanding Gothic structures wuore the rough and the primitive are detailed, where passion and goodness mingle together, where we see the frailty of i the human hand and not, 'but in the whole the illumination and aspiration :>f the humane! mind. Tlc.it worthilv embodies the 'work we have done. !t

is mi inheritance wo share together, m building wo !;u\o to guard and extend. To the eye that looks for permanent essentials it is a great inspiration to our devoted service What power does the press bring; to that service? In my time the press, as an organisation, has been completely revolutionised. I remember the old days when the press was a personal possession held by individ-

mils competing with each oilier, each organ showing the stamp of a strong and a special individuality, not u cog in a great centrally-controlled machine, but each a being specially of itself, hi the march of progress, however sad it must be to lose many of those gold ’qualities, we have to bow our heads and say that the now conditions must be made the best of. To-day the press is a mighty business organisation, with enormous capital behind it, and tremendous fighting and crushing power. The more its power, the greater the mechanical and materialistic forces it can command, tho heavier lies upon its back tho responsibility of ,using that power for Imperial interests and the good of the Commonwealth to which wo all belong. There is no form cl' property that has more obligations placed vpon it to serve than the press’ 1 ol the Empire. We can easily engage in a reckless exploitation of public emotion and ignorance. Tile Gresham law in economics teaches us that if you put a base coinage side by side with a good coinage the base will elbow out the good. There is a Gresham Law in politics. Let the politician and the pressman, the statesman and the editor, enter into a holy consm'racv to defeat the Grcs-

”i Law by insisting on the circulation of good, sound coinage in opinion, ideas and ideals. The great problem of the Empire to-day is tbe old problem of how to unite individuality with co-operation. We must get those two values into co-ordina-tion, the value of individuality, of nationhood, into, combination with community, commonwealth and unity. U civilisation is to be maintained, and the world’s good pursued, those two conceptions must move together and. combine, In our Empire the striving to 'he nations must not allow us fo overlook the equally important striving to maintain ourselves as a community. The greatest contribu'ion that has been made to active social thinking and acting; lias been the contribution that the British Empire lias made up to now in the practical solution of that theoretical difficulty. Thait proljlem will underlie oerl;arm the greater part of the confer ence work—the problem of how to combine national freedom with commonwealth obligations, how to merge the Imperial spirit of rule l into tho commonwealth spirit of counsel, how to do things as a Commonwealth and Empire,'and yet to hold . out the hand of family helpfulness to-the. rest or the world. That is our problem, if we can succeed in helping our generation to solve that . problem—we shall nob solve it completely in rour generation—if we pan ..conspire .'together to make a further: contribution to the solution of that problem—wc can make that contribution if men of goodwill and insight are responsible—we shall have done something more to make the name and the fame our commonwealth good in the eyes of tLj world.”