The Daily News MONDAY, JANUARY 4. THE OPTIMISM OF NATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1909, Page 2

The Daily News MONDAY, JANUARY 4. THE OPTIMISM OF NATIONS.

Thp fact that " hope springs eternal i".i the human breast" is the chief reason why most of us care to go on living, if anticipated disasters had the effect we imagined they would have there would he few sane people on earth, and living under ordinary circumstances could not continue. It is, for instance, inconceivable to the ordinary person' with normal instincts that life can be the same after

the loss by death of one's dearest relative or friend—one will take, for instance, a loving mother. But still when the dread event lias come and passed it is so necessary to carry on the business of life tliafi soon the sharp edge of the loss is worn olt and the grief thai was so poignant is dulled, because it is constitution! in all normal folks to hope. The grief of individuals, as well as of nations, is short lived. It is nearly al-

ways a subject for sarcastic comment, but if the. grief of people and of nations | was eternal people would become insane and nations would decay. The fact that it is necessary at once to lill the place of a national' idol is the reason why grief at the loss of the idol wanes so long after the atiitest season of sorrow. ■' The Queen is dead. Long live the

King." If horrible national calamities prostrated the nations in indefinite sorrow, there would lie no reclilication. There

comes along a Hood of fearful proper- \ tions in the most densely populated dis- i trict of China, and it sweeps millions of people to their death. But because the country is fertile and because hope springs eternal the people who are left at once set about rectifying matters. People do not cease to laugh because of earthquakes, Hoods, fires and general catastrophes. Pompeii is destroyed and Hcrciilancum is buried, and the molten lava streams down the side of Vesuvius, but it is really only a momentary scare, and soon there are olive groves and vineyards nourishing on the side of Vesuvius, houses spring up, the people hope that the next earthquake will not. happen in their time, and so sleep peacefully in their beds, even though

there are subterranean rumblings, inward groans and earth tremors. Lisbon is destroyed, hut Lisbon grows again, out of the hot ashes, as it were. There are fearful happenings in.lauiaici, but Jamaica doesn't halt. San Francisco is almost destroyed, and the nation begins immediately to reconstruct it, and to make it better than ever with up guarantee that the newest city will not be destroyed. Six hundred people perish in a theatre (ire and the subsequent panic, but the nation buries the people and those who are left still go to theatres. Gentle women locked, up in uclcagurcd cities might be expected to be panic-stricken and to die of fright. They do nothing of the kind. Human beings get used to anything, and the little children of shell swept towns rim out and pick up the recently dropped shrapnel and the women hope the shells won't come their way. Soldiers die with a laugh in their

throats not because they are soldiers and bravos but because hope is eternal. An unprecedented desolation strikes Italy and over two hundred tltou'sand people perish. The fact that there is need for work, for courage, for'the

use of the very best powers/inherent in all human nature, whether it is black, brown, yellow or white is the clement that keeps a nation sane. Hope is wonderful ; it is precious; it is the greatest possession of individuals and congregations.

No nation would enter upon war if that nation believed It would lie beaten. No prize-fighters would enter the. ring unless he knew in his own mind that he would win the stake ; no runner would I do his best unless he hoped and believed J he would have a chance for the trophy, j Xo statesman ever promulgated a 1 scheme for which he saw no chance of fulfilment ; no manufacturer/ ever made I an article ho did not hope he would sell;) no scientist ever propounded a theory! that he did not. hope might be applied! practically to his own advancement oil the use of humanity.' If one has had *' bad year, for instance, tjmt one will no * '"throw up the sponge." on that account. In common, parlance the one will "buel: in." .If one thought and really believcil that all years to come were to he year > of gloom and sadness one would just "turn it up." People who "turn it up" are not normal. The most awful catastrophe that ever happened has disturl ied the innate hope of the people Lirfr temporarily and the element of hope confined' to no particular people and to no particular territory. ( Indeed while it seems absolutely callous to assert that great catastrophe's are necessary in the evolution ami strengthening of nations it remains p fact. Historically the most virile nations have become sobered anjd 'strengthened through catastrophe /ijr through some great civil or foreign iijpheaval. The history of our own people is redolent of this truth. It is the nations that have been peaceful that have lost those, characteristics of virility and vitality that are the most precious possession of any nation. Tribulation brings oiit the linest traits in |the finest people and the worst traitsl In those people who are essentially bad, or abnormal. Nobody can be a hero until there is a chance for heroism, ami no nation can show its strength unless it has material for the use of it. And so it is possible, that Italy whose people are in peace indolent, artistic loving and lovable (although fierce wiongh at jbottom) may ; through the horrible catastrophe that'has decimated the beautiful land emerge stronger than before! because of the necessity for work ami the never dying element of hope.

A LESSON h'KOM SWITZERLAND, Miss Edith Kellers, iu the Nineteenth Century magazine, tolls how Switzerland deals with the unemployed and loafer problem. .What the writer says, about the ikitler particularly, is not without interest to New. Zealandcrs. "Begging is a leriuvo, and so is vagrancy," she says, "And in some cantons tile police receive ii special fee for every beggar or vjigrant tliey arrest If a man is out off work there, he must try to lind worlj; for if he does not, the authorities of the district where 'he lias a settlement will liad it for him, and of a kind, perhaps, not at all to his taste—tiring auk badly paid And. l|e cannot refuse to do it, for if he does he may be packed off straight to a penal workhouse, an institution where military discipline prevails, and where every inmate is made to work to the full extent of 1113 strength, receiving in return board and lodging with wages of from a penny to threepence per day And when once he is there, there 'he must stay until the authorities decree that he shall depart, for a penal workhouse is practically a prison; lie cannot take liis own discharge .and the police are always on the alert to prevent his running away. No matter how long his sojourn lasts, however, it does not cost the coimmm* ity a single penny, for in Switzerland these penal institutions are sill supporting. . . . The man uflrtfis 011: of work through his own fault, and because he does not wish to be. in winrl: is treated as a criminal." In most districts there is a special fund from which grants are made to respectable persons in temporary distress' liolief-in-kind stations or casual wards organised on philanthropic lines, arc now maintained in every part of indiisfk-ial Switzerland for the use of the r<ppectn')ilc unemployed. There are also home-inns where working men wifclioiitl lodgrags may stay with their wives anjt children at small expense and somethyies gratis. There are also "warm room-.'' jwlherh the workless may pass their ijays while waiting for work, fenal Worltlmiisei' for the wilful idler date. line!-, to U'v}!/ in Zurich, and 1057 in lievne. 1 But industrial progress in recent year* lias led lo an increase in the trumbe?" of the unemployed. So in : 1801 was opened in Bevnc the first Miinieiplil Bureau for assurance against \uneraploy-' ment. Its funds arc chiefly derived from fees of members, employers' voliiulary contributions, ivnd a 1 municipal grant. But 11s yet the nioil; regularly employed and better paid) workmen hold aloof, and mostly those insure who are likely to be soon oui of work: those who actually came M be out of work number from 3S to 42 Jpor cent, of the whole number. The In.Wancc Bureau and Labor Exchange Bee under the same roof and the same ol'ij.'ial, and all 'municipal .work so far as 1 possible is .saved up for December, .Ir unary, and February, when other work is scarce. Miss Sellers declares "that i'n labor 1111-' rcaux and insurance again- f unemployment lies the true solutimj of the 1111--jomjiloyed problem." l>m- -.1.1 ]U M S) 'Hie Insurance must be compulsory." She that last! , few yafijjflk' has a risen j ilftnil a^^^B'pilbu'.jiiovem/.^^^BiK t^^^^^H

507 L U'lil^BM^^^^^l In must, F" ;nU not, ImmW liandieralt ucioioTpv as well as cooktug State in *roral cantons are by ■ >«™ nniiwl ta » taught a lucrative (.•ailing. Cents odo not do their tot to Shi children to be self-supportmg ™ rrM las criminals; their children 'areapp .Heed by the labor .bureau Masters ust, under pain of penalty »ee that th apprentices are technically i trained The Swiss have found that most of 1* unemployed are unemploynlilo—di ikon, 10/.v, or unfit. So by decree < the Bundesrath every teacher Wat t< !h his pupils to put their pence into a vinga tank and to avoid the ' touchin of alcohol.