TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19889, 19 May 1936, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

America s World Conscience . “What will the American people do? Will they be deceived by empty formulas and false phrases, the effect of accepting which will be to wreck their own national ideals and to add to their own domestic, economic, social and monetary problems, or will they require their government to move forward constructively in co-opera-tion with the civilised nations of the earth to protect the peace of all and to increase the prosperity of all? The alternative is clear. It is neutrality with morality or neutrality without morality. To choose the latter means, despite all phrases that may he used and all rhetorical exhortations that may be hurled about from the platform and the Press, an eventual and perhaps speedy involvement in any international war that may come to pass, whether it be economic or military.”—Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler. Propaganda and Truth.

“Does Truth, as a matter of fact, always rise again? Isn’t it sometimes counted out?” asks Mr Will Irwin. “Will it always operate in the long run? Certainly truth—or perhaps I should say fact—is woven of very tough fibre. Also, so long as we have a free Press and free speech, the corrective for any one-sided presentation of the news, while it may work slowly, seems to work almost automatically . . . However, the question whether Truth rises again usually generates very little anxiety in the bosom of the insincere propagandist. lie can do his work while she is down. He is striving for a quick effect—to ruin a disarmament conference on behalf of a munitions maker, to win an election on behalf of a party, to pass a Bill on behalf of a corporation, to stir up a revolution on behalf of a faction. The sense of truth works in the period of sober second thought. All he needs is to generate an intoxicated first thought, and to maintain the mood in his public until his end is accomplished. That is dangerous enough, of course. It remains to be seen whether in free conditions propaganda, conceived and executed as propaganda, will work over the long pull.” Zeppelin Aircraft.

The new Zeppelin airship, the Hindenburg, has again crossed over the Atlantic. 'Her prospects in the competition for transatlantic traffic are creating speculation. In speed she will be completely out of the race with the aeroplanes, for her top speed is expected to be about 84 m.p.h., states an English journal. Her best chance of attracting traffic will lie in the number of passengers she can carry and the attractions she will be able to offer them. She is provided with twenty-five two-berth cabins, though by day she will he able to take 150 passengers into the air. These fifty passengers will naturally have much more comfort than can be offered by even the largest flying-boat. The habitable section of the Hindenburg is arranged in two decks. On the lower deck there ore a smoking-room, chartroom, officers’ mess, kitchen, and lavatories. On flu* Graf Zeppelin smoking is not allowed as the ship is inflated with hydrogen and the fuel is blaugas. The Hindenburg is inflated with helium, which is non-inflammable, and the engines four Dieseltype Daimlers, run on heavy oil; they will develop a total of 4400 h.p. The cabins are arranged in the centre of the upper deck, while ou one side of them is an ample dining-room and on the other a lounge. Both these compartments have windows let into the outer fabric so that the passengers can look down at the view. The crew’s quarters and the luggage-hold are ait of the passenger accommodation.