BRAINS FIRST IN ENGLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1920, Page 12

BRAINS FIRST IN ENGLAND.

"SUPERMAN IS NOT THE OFFSPRING OF A SUPER-TAX," SAYS SIR MALCOLM MORRIS. Sir Malcolm Morris, one of Britain's most distinguished surgeons, writing in the Weekly Dispatch, says: "The immediate future of our country, and, for that- matter, of civilised countries everywhere, lias surely never been more fascinating than it is to-day. It seems certain that, fifty years hence, England will have changed more than during any half-century of her history. "Already the old barriers have gone. The caste system is practically dead. Just as, during the war, we had the scions of our oldest families serving as rankers for a shilling or so a day, while men of little lineage were making many millions, so to-day one may find a professor at an English university with £250 a year, while an American railway guards earns his £SOO. "Many excellent people, unaccustomed to mental exercise, view with an air of gloom these rather rapid reversals of the social values.

1009 MADE BY 1919. "They forget that the future is in the hands of the present; that the England of 1009 is what the England of 1919 choose to make it. "Nor is it improbable that the. next generation will be an improvement upon ours. The breaking down of caste barriers is of itself good. "Moreover, the unrest which prevails to-day need not be a matter for melancholy if the more worthy types of human beings are as a result presented with an opportunity to emerge from the mass —always provided that our new standard for giving social prominence to people is the standard of neither a demagogue nor a snob "Open industrial warfare does undoubtedly develop anti-social qualities in both employers and their workers, because each group is fighting for its own hand, and consequently there is not that motive of selfless sacrifice which exists in the more terrible warfare of the mins. But while an extension of collectivism might result in a levelling dfiwn, and while we have certainly to he on our guard against any repression of individual skill by trade unions, we must at the same time admit that the general effect of trade unionism is upon the whole socially beneficent. Society cannot win spiritual freedom without a certain freedom from the materialistic side of life.

AN Al CROP. "What, flien, should we, as a nation, do? "We should, I think, definitely set out to secure for everyone a decent minimum of comfort which will permit the natural capacity of each of us to be properly developed. "An increase in leisure and income and education will not, of course, automatically yield a crop of Al citizens from the class who are now C 3. Such conditions would, however, give us a far better opportunity to gauge the natural capacity of each.

"In the wider interest of the race our next step would he to curb the increase of the less desirable type of men and women by the simple expedient of placing the quick-witted in a better position than the others to strengthen the stock of the following generation. That aim ought to be consistently expressed in the laws of our land.

THE TRAGEDY OF DEFECT. "It may be asked just what is meant by any individual's contribution to the society in which he lives. Necessarily, his contribution largely depends upon what his society demands. "In a community which set a high value upon spiritual attributes one would find artists and musicians and authors encouraged to create. At the present moment our own social ideal mav be said to be a demand for as good a standard of living as can be obtained for as large a population as we can port"lt is an ideal of which wa need be neither proud nor ashamed. Clearly, the general improvement of social conditions is essential; it is not less essential that the succeeding generation should, as far as possible, be recruited from those who benefit most from this improved environment"One docs not, for example, desire to see in the England of fifty years hence a mob of mental defectives maintained by the mentally efficient. Therefore, a person who can keep himself by his own efforts in the community should, as a general rule, be encouraged to marriage and to parentage in preference to one who cannot do so; whose father, grandfather, great-grandfather have failed to do so.

OUR INDIFFERENCE TO BRAINS. '•'As a community we have been oddly indifferent to brains. The inventors or aniline dyes, to cite one notorious instance, have never received the reward of their research work. Manufacturers have earned handsome profits; the workers' standard of living has increased; those whose brains really contributed that new : < -ovledge and that new wealth have not been recognised as the socrai asset which they so plainly are. "If that be our attitude towards obvious ability, it is not surprising that we simply ignore qualities of a more everyday stamp, taxing their possessors into childlessness, handicapping those with tiny families in their quest for decent homes and 'adequate schooling. "When we seek a better England we shall act nuiie otherwise. Super-man is not the offspring of a super-tax. "Even now in Paris the municipality is selecting the best couples for its houses, giving them additional accommodation, without additional rent, for additional children."

BEST BRAINS FOR INDUSTRY. "English industry is engaged in buying up the best brains of the country," says tiie Chronicle. "One of the latest captures of "big business' is Dr. A. W. Crossley, who was Professor of Chemistry at King's College. He has been appointed Director of Research to the British Cotton Industry Research Association. "Amongst others who have joined the industrial ranks may be mentioned Mr. R. E. Slade, formerly at the University College, who was appointed'head of the British Photographic Association, and (Sir ' Herbert .Tackson, late of King's College, who has joined the directorate of the British Scientific Instrument Research Association.

"So serious has the question become for the universities that the governing bodies are considering the whole question of salaries which can be offered in ■the future for professorships, lecturers, and demonstrators. Tile feeling is that unless a more favorable revision is made 'big business' will attract all the best men from the academic positions;

BIG SALARIES. "Discussing the question with a Daily Chroniclo representative, one who is closely connected with the administration of the London University pointed out the gTeat difference in salaries offered. The minimum for a professor today is only £6OO a year, and the same man in industry is offered £IOOO, and in some cases considerably more. In fact, some of the enormous buivness corporations, particularly those who have merged their industrial relations, offer almost unlimited prospects to the right men.