TOPICAL ITEMS

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume LXIV, Issue 6576, 13 October 1939, Page 4

TOPICAL ITEMS

BEHIND ME HEADLINES

The world isn't as dark as" the gloomy Mr Wells would Have his readers belidve. And youth is seeking constructive channels lor its endeavours —No cannon fodder. Dean Inge has 1 long enjoyed the reputation of being the gloomiest Englishman, but he has a competitor, H. G. Wells is out to outgloom the Gloomy liean. In his latest book he jumps out from behind a corner and shouts a very loud "boo" at the world in genera,!. Mr Wells say that civilization is headed for destruction, and "humanity will end in the disease-soaked ruins of a slum." This sounds pretty bad. It ought to establish the famous author's right to a high rank among the prophets of disaster. But Mr Wells'.: dire predictions are, after all, only a guess, and since he has started this guessing game, we are going to do a little guessing ourselves, with just as much conviction —and maybe more—than Mr Weils himself. For every guess of Mr Wells, we have a counter-guess, which we call a certainty, so here goes. The Future of Man To begin with, we should say that humanity is not going to end as he says, for the simple reason that it is not going to end at all. We don't believe, as Mr Wells believes, that the race had its origin in a cave, and we are equally in disagreement with him concerning man's final address. We don't believe man is going to end, because we know that life is eternal. We do not believe that intelligence is going to vanish, because we know that it, too, is everlasting. We do not believe that we are headed for a slum, because living conditions are better today than they have been before in all history, and we intend to make them better still. As for disease, we are learning what io do about that, And What of Youth? Mr Wells seems to be very much concerned with what the world's young men are going to do. He thinks they are largely unemployed, and consequently bored, and that they will probably explode and blow up the universe. It happens that within the last few days I have talked with several people who are very interested in what the young people are thinking and doing, and who have taken some pains to find out. The picture they paint for me is a very different one from Mr Wells'. It is true, they say, that many young I men and women have not found the I work they intended to go, but many [of them are using their time to get a truer perspective on humanity than youngsters usually have. They are thinking. They are asking, why ? They

are reaching conclusions that are sometimes startling?, but upuaily honest. Some of them are bored or-dis-illusioned, but most of them are courageously facing their problems, determined- to find the 'solution: They will ,iind it. . About one point; the young people are quite definite. They are not going to be cannon-fodder. Maybe, Mr Wells, they are not such fire-eaters as you think. They are se'eking constructive channels, in which to release-.their abundant energy. The channels exist, and they will find them. ! Invention arid Ethics : Mi- Wells is not the first person to point out that man's inventive genius seems to have developed faster than his ethical sense. Having conquered the air, man proceeds! to use his nowfound dominion for the purpose of bombing women and children. Yet this is only half, or maybe less than half the picture. He .is not using his new airplanes only for bombing. For every bomb that has been dropped, a thousand passengers have been carried ori peaceful planes, and a million letters, many of them bearing good tidings, have been transported through the air. Even admitting that inventive genius has outstripped ethical sense, does this mean- that ethics can't catch up? Not at all. The consciousness of man's brotherhood with man is spreading rapidly around the globe. Why do you think, Mr Wells, there hasn't been a general war in Europe? It is not becaust. the Nations, all Nations, are determined not to have it? Is this not a recognition of the common interest—if not brotherhood—of all mankind? This is the kind of thinking that leads, not to a slum, but to mansions in the skies—By Rex Miller in "Christian Science Monitor."