TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20266, 7 August 1937, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Opposition to War . “Governments, practically without exception, have been extolling peace and proclaiming peace, but their carefully-planned and appallingly costly preparations for wars have gone on apace. On the other hand, there exists in practically every land, and in some lands to a very large and influential extent, a deep-seated popular sentiment against war. “The reason why this strong and widelydistributed popular sentiment counts for so little in controlling public policy is that for the most part it contents itself with emotional outgivings and outbursts. It is opposed to war; it will not countenance war; it will take no part in war; it will permit no one to make economic gain out of war; but it is singularly hopeless and helpless when confronted with the task, first, of lessening and then removing the causes of war, and, second, of building up those public institutions of co-operation and judicial process which are the only possible substitute for war. “If Governments could only be made to understand that the public opinion of their several peoples is not only opposed to war but is definitely insistent upon policies of social, economic and political co-operation and of substituting judicial process for threat of force in the settlement of international differences, then progress would be made." —Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. The Path of Reform.

“ A conflict of opinion always arises when a great new idea appears. When Lord Lister introduced modern antiseptic surgery, his ideas, which wore contrary to what had been taught in the medical schools, were opposed for a long time by many surgeons of his day. After the discovery that germs were the cause of diseases like cholera and dysentery, and that these germs were conveyed by water and food, it took nearly a quarter of a century before this simple truth was fully understood, and public opinion became strong enough to enable those in authority to spend the necessary money on modem sanitation to get rid of these diseases. It i s always the same with any new idea, especially if the acceptance of it means that, something has got to be done about it. But the new knowledge of nutrition is now becoming generally accepted, and getting past the period of conflict. Something is already being done to get it applied, and more is foreshadowed for the future."—Sir John Boyd Orr, in the Listener (London).