THE WORLD'S FUTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 47, 4 June 1910, Page 10

THE WORLD'S FUTURE.

MR. C. A. BENSON'S VIEWS. "Prophets and preachers and satirists say that the. nation is luxurious and apathetic, or else they say that it is plea-sure-loving and hysterical. 1 can see few signs of either," says Mr. Arthur Christopher Benson, writing in the Quiver on "The Future of the Race." "The nation is very much what it was: goodhumored, robust, stolid; not every imaginative or active-minded; possibly rather too prosperous and confident. There may be disasters ahead of us, but they are disasters from without rather than from within.

"It appears to me that in the last halfcentury we have grown kinder and more reasonable; more inclined to make allowances, more disposed to give everyone a fair chance, more compassionate of suffering; and I do not honestly believe that there ever was a time at which there were so many serious and capable people investigating national deficiencies and mistakes, and taking pains, not impatiently and ilightily, but gravely and quietly, to cure and strengthen and save.

"The first fight which I believe is coming inevitably upon us is Socialism; but Socialism of a kind which I should welcome with all my heart and soul. Not a violent disruption of existing social arrangements, and still less a wholesale confiscation; but a gradual levelling up and levelling down. ~ "I anticipate that by some process of slow taxation accumulation of great wealth in the hands of individuals will Ibe made impossible, 'while every opportunity will me given to the lower ranks of society of gaining knowledge and the culture and the taste for higher pleasures which are now both expensive to cultivate and to enjoy. "I believe that this will result in an immense increase in the direction of the development of national gifts. • All ability and talent will be recognised and welcomed; but used, not for selfish ends, hut for the happiness of the State; for the more civilised and educated that the populace will he, the more will they hail the appearance of any who can guide, and instruct, and benefit, and enlighten, and.interest, and amuse .them; but these services will not he paid for rs now r , in a clumsy and anomalous manner, in money and property, hut by honor and gratitude. „

"The whole situation seems to be teeming with the elements of hope. The one serious feature about the situation is the packing together in Europe, in so minute a corner of the world, where expansion is no longer possible, of so large a number of active civilised nations, each of which is developing on its own lines, and in different degrees, so intense a sense _of patriotism and national aspiration.

"Whether this rivalry can adjust itself without some prodigious contact, some devastating strife, it seems impossible to forecast. The danger is that our material civilisation seems to nave outrun our intellectual energy and our moral force. The simplification of life seems an impossibility; the only hope appears to be in developing the rational ele--ments of humanity up to its material resources. The chief cause of national misunderstandings, apart from temperament, is a difference of language. The adoption of some one common form of European speech, taught throughout the schools of Europe, would be & better peacemaker than a thousand treaties."