THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14854, 20 December 1913, Page 16

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS

(FROM OTTO OWN COBRESPON-ENT.) LONDON, November 7. WOMEN TO THE RESCUE. Mr John. Bryce, on the education of girls: "The first fruits of the report are seen in the foundation of two women's colleges—Newnham and Girton —which have become the parents of other colleges. From that time dates the immense improvement in the standard of women's education. It is true of boys as well as girls, and of education in all its grades, from tbe elementary school to the professors of the universities, that education is an underpaid profession. I am told that at ilnis moment tho so-called human or literary subjects are being ground to pieces, so to speak, between two milestones. Tho one is the study of natu.al science and the other the passion for athletic sports. It is somewhat curious that in the universities of North America, where the pressure towards the 'profitable' studies is just as great as here, the number of men who pursue literary and humane studies has diminished. But these Western universities admit women as well as men, and the women students have taken up classical subjects wheie the men have dropped them, and now there are in many cases a larger number of women learning Latin and Greek than there is of young men learning those subjects. It is well that those studies wliich have meant so much for many of us should bo saved by. finding support among women. I venture to hope, therefore, that ono of the services which the schools and colleges for women will render is to rnaiiitain tho interest in literary studies." SOCIAL SERVICE. Mr Asouith, at the Cavendish Association: "I will not be tempted into the interesting speculation now far, either in the sphere of politics or religion, tho waste and the heat engendered by party and sectarian friction are compensated by the value of the work done and the progres made. That is not so simple a calculation as some people think. But thero is no renson in nature or in experience why men should not accomplish great things under the stress of common convictions which for the moment and for the purpose in hand are neither competitive nor aggressive. There is no department of local administration in Great Britain, where men of the public school and university are not needed, and indeed, necessary. Such service is nothintr but a simple recognition _of. Lhe special claim which the community has on those who have had what is callod a liberal education, and who possess any available surplus either of moans or of leisure. It is, if I may use the expression, a voluntary tax upon what in our consciences we must most of us admit to bo in a large measure the unearned increment of- social advantage. (Laughter and choens.) Again, equally important to society and equally a matter of obligation, is the service which such men can render in breaking down what is artificial and separative in class distinction. The best substitute wo can find for what was good in the old social relationship is direct first-hand personal intercourse, free from either patronage or servility, never degenerating on either side into that worst of all things—flabby and insipid geniality, and always growing in insight, sympathy and mutual respect." THE COMRADESHIP OF CLASSES. The Archbishop of York: "The country manifestly Has great need at the present moment of the service of those to whom .great privileges havo been given—privileges of position, education, and opportunity. "'■ c* are approaching a time -of almost unexampled change and fatefulness for our country. We are all conscious of a deepening and widening chasm between the wealth, an_ opportunities of the few and the poverty and lack of opportunity, of the many. A great social problem'l__i got to be faced. Are we going to leave the great mass of our working, men to face it in their own way, unaided by the comradeship of those, to whom this country has given more than it h_s given to them? Can anyone be surprised «.that, when, the gift of education such as it is, is" given to the masses.of our working 'men and labourer-, there should have come homo with extraordinay force a sense of the iniquity with which our public life is filled ? I do not myself believe that they resent the inequality in individual work or wtolth: what they resent is tho inequality of opportunity to touch and Teach those things upon which the worth of human life mainly, depneds." THE USE OF TALENTS. Lord Selborne: The great danger of the age is niaterialism.,. There aro those who haye inheritd money or made money, and who think nothing but how they can enjoy it exclusively themselves; and there is the man in business, whose only idea is how to get rich quickly. It is the same through all ranks of society. It is just as immoral for the workman to break his bargain in order to get better wages as for the employer to commjt acts of injustice in order to -»t greater profits. A man cannot purchase; his discharge from duty >to his neighbour simply by an expenditure of money. The problem is to try to centre the balance between the rights of the individual and the responsibility, of the whole nation. There are a number of toilers and manual workers who are more or'less educated, and are conscious that they possess power, and are determined to acquire a fuller share of life. (Cheers.) What is going to happen? That will depend very largely on the part that those who possess tho greater average of talents take in that movement. If they stand aside and say they are not their • brother's keeper, the future is dark and the prospect black, but if only the whole nation would accept the Christian message; the duty of each man to his neighbour, the responsibility of eflch for the talents he possesses, then that movement would have itmoral and intellectual side, and wo can prophesy that nothing but good will come out of what we now call industrial unrest." (Cheers.)

HEREDITARY RELIGION. The' Bishop of Oxford: "Tho principle on which religious education must be conducted, if it is to be satisfactory, and if it is to bo permanent, is the principle that the children shall be brought up in the religion of their parents. On that principle we take our //tand. Wo do not believe that religious education can be conducted on the basis of the State or tho County Council providing a kind of religion which no ono can object to. A religion that no ono objects to, we belie*'e, is apt to have least in it. But, also, wo do not believe that there is a kind of religion that nobody objectto. and therefore any attempt on the part of tho State to enforce some kind of uniform education is a great injustice. There are some of us who take objection to that colourless religion. We desire that children shall be brought up in the religion of their parents, and we claim, as Churchmen, nothing for ourselves which we do not desire to mafnlain for all others. That principle is what we stand on."