"LAUGH MAKER."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 235, 4 October 1937, Page 9

"LAUGH MAKER."

LONG GOOD CHEER. MR. SAVAGE'S CHANCE. NO OFFENCE INTENDED. A PHILOSOPHER'S VIEWS. Passing through Auckland on the Aorangi to-day is a man whose sincere regret is that he cannot on this occasion stay in New Zealand long enough to see how permanent are the laughs that the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, has brought to the country. It was not satirically, not cynically, but in all seriousness that he expressed this regret; it was not superficial, derisive laughter that he meant, but rather "good cheer," for he believes that the Labour movement can be productive of more lasting cheer than can any other trend of politics.

This man is Laszlo Schwartz, eminent Hungarian caricaturist, humorist and violinist, who is '"laughing around the world." Mr. Schwartz is on his fourth world tour. He has visited New Zealand twice before, but those were in years prior to the Labour regime. This present trip is dedicated to his various writings and caricatures—shortly he intends to publish a book "Laughing Around the World." Critics in many countries have paid tribute to the sharpness of his wit in talks and writings, to the brilliance of his lightning caricatures and to his skill with the violin. He has composed and published songs and lectured on Hungarian music and folk-art. Politics and Humour. Gathering the laughs of the world, Mr. Schwartz has made a serious effort to probe the roots of humour. To do this he has interviewed leading men and humble men to seek from them humour characteristic of their countries.

'For example," he said this morning, "to me, politics are not just politics. I believe a good statesman can be more instrumental in bringing real laughter to a country than all the caricaturists, all the humorists, all the Charlie Chaplins, all the circus clowns—because the laughter which a statesman brings is permanent. A good humorist is a good humanist; a good humanist is a good humorist. "So few statesmen, you see, realise how valuable humour is. When I tell people that the University of Florida has established a chair of humour most of them look at me with incredulity in their eyes. They don't seem to realise how wonderful the world would be if we had more humour of the lasting, not the transient, kind —humour not only on the stage but in every phase of life.

"Mr. Savage may not realise it, but in a way he could become the greatest laugh-maker in the history of New Zealand. I do not say that at all in a belittling way. I say it with all the tribute one humorist can pay to another. In fact if I was in Mr. Savage's position I would create a Minister of Humour, to cultivate good cheer from every angle. Take marriage—there should be a test of humour before that step is taken. If one of the parties has a sense of humour, that is well; if both lack it they are heading for the Divorce Court. They will be unable to make their compromises cheerfully, and, after all, that is the story of success and failure all through life—your ability to make compromises with a grin instead of a groan." Labour Movement's Mistake. Even Mr. Lang in Australia had shown great surprise when Mr. Schwartz asked him whether Socialism was capable of creating a greater number of laughs than was capitalism. With wise cultivation, the Labour movement could be supreme as a producer of lasting laughs. "I believe," he added, "that the movement, generally speaking, has made one of its greatest mistakes so far in being too damn'd serious!

"A man gets most laughs out of life in his social functions—when he cooperates—and the fact that there is so widespread a co-operative movement to-day proves that the world is hungering for more humour." If every New Zealander could only get one minute's peep every day at what was going on in parts of Europe he would go down on his knees and offer thanks for his escape, declared Mr. Schwartz. Humour was embittered in the European countries where dictators ruled. In Germany they called it "humour of the gall." A man who had the capacity of laughing at himself, however, couldn't possibly become a dictator. The first thing a dictator did was to produce petrified puppets; the last thing he would do would be to give good cheer. Italy, for instance, was putting bayonets instead of violin bows into the hands of her boys. China's remarkable philosophical sense of humour should be one of her strongest weapons against Japan, considered Mr. Schwartz. There, as with the American negro and the Jew, were laughs which were the reflex of sobs.