TASK BEFORE THE WORLD.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 225, 23 February 1928, Page 3

TASK BEFORE THE WORLD.

LESSON FROM AMERICA. Each of the last score of years began, the Archbishop of Canterbury said in a New Year message, with a distinctive note of something in the air. In the broad sense, that note at the present time sounds the desire of the nations for a world peace. The Great War represented in one sense the breakdown of our civilisation; a repetition of it with the more terrible means of destruction now known would involve a still greater catastrophe. It has been recently said that during the last two centuries men have enormously increased their power over Nature without increasing the control of that power by thought. We can make war more efficiently but we cannot prevent war. At least, so far, we have failed to provide effectively for the settlement of international disputes without recourse to arms, yet the future of our civilisation depends upon the successful completion of some plan to guarantee international peace. Further, in order that our civilisation may advance, it is necessary to promote good health and physique as well as to overcome disease. Increased attention to health is imperative on the part both of State anu of the individual. Particularly is it essential that special efforts should be directed towards the prevention of disease. Thanks to Sir Truby King and his co-workers, New Zealand has led the way in the saving of babies. We now lose less than one baby out of 25 during the critical per-iod-—the first year of life. Still, the health and physical development of our children until they reach manhood and womanhood call for more attention than is given to them. The medical inspection and treatment of school children should be extended and improved. Any educational course that does not include a knowledge of the laws of health is incomplete. The important work of imparting to young people instruction regarding the conditions of good health is, however, just as much a duty of parents as it is of teachers. The national loss of efficiency and working power that is due to illness must be enormods. An improved acquaintance with, the conditions of good health and greater observance of the laws of hygiene would appreciably lessen the volume of pre-sent-day illness. Thousands of lives might be made happier and pleasanter, the efficiency of the workers might also be considerably increased. An improvement in physical health would be reflected in a diminution in the number of nervous breakdowns. One blot on our modern civilisation is the percentage of mental cases which it produces. Many occupations involve a great mental strain without requiring much physical or muscular effort. Our complex civilisation has got too far iway from the simple and natural life. If th' physical system were afforded sufficient exercise in the hours of recreation the mental powers and nervous system would be the better able to stand the strain. A patent need of our civilisation is the establishment of better relations between labour and capital for their mutual benefit. The prosperity of the United States is largely due to che cooperation of employers and wageearners in increasing production. The American people are working harder and more efficiently than ever before. Employers and employees co-operate in stimulating production, reducing costs and eliminating waste, and increasing both the profits of capital and the wages of labour. High wages are paid, but they have to be earned. If conflicts between capital and labour could be avoided in our own Empire through the promotion of a spirit of co-operation, the whole community would benefit and there would certainly be much less poverty than there is. Sir Oliver Lodge has reminded us that in the time of the guilds of industry the worker took pleasure in his work because he had initiative and could construct things of beauty. This work exercised and developed not his manual skill only, but his best faculties—intellectual, imaginative, inventive. England in those days was rightly called Merrie England. The problems of poverty and crime, between which there is a certain amount of inter-relation, must continue to receive the attention they deserve. Mr Henry Ford considers it entirely feasible to abolish poverty. He says:— “Poverty can be done away with only by plenty. We can now see as a natural development the day when production and distribution will be so scientific that all may have according to ability and industry.” In the treatment of crime, immense strides have been made. In all civilised countries society is giving serious consideration to the reformation of the criminal. Through the existence of Borstal institutions and reformatories the terrible mistake is now being avoided, of putting young offenders into the comj pany of hardened criminals. The (Continued in Next Column).

treatment of criminals in the past has not been successful. The methods that are now being applied give every promise of resulting in a reduction in the volume of serious crime.