TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14758, 30 August 1913, Page 10

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

"When Professor "W. H. Tho 1). Kouse writes of "Our Melancholy Melancholy Kymnal," Hymn. he does not object so much to the gloomy tone of the hymns themselves as to the gloomy effect produced by reading them. Ho has examined critically an English hymn-book, and has been overcome with melancholy. "They aro .so well meant, and so badly expressed ; so pious, and so ridiculous; they are sentimental when they should be impassioned, grovelling instead of penitent, incoherent when they ought to be simple." They violate even the simple rulo that as wo are to sing them, hymns should be capable of being sung. "Who could sing, for example, that creaking line—'The inestimable treasure cf a soul that ever lives' ?'' Professor House urges that men should study the hymn-book in order to discover how many examples may bo described as incoherent babbling. Even those of a better class may yet bo nothing but a eataloguo of thoughts. "Some have half-a-dozen verses all of a model; as 'This is the day of rest, this is the day of joy, , and so on through the whole list of tho virtues or blessings. Tho Dnxology is a godsend to such hymns; this, or an allusion to death, is the only possible way to end them, elso they might go on from here to Mesopotamia." Tho idea of death is often brought in without obvious need, but the reason seems to be a feeling that as tho hymn is coming to its end death will round it off nicely. Other hymns offend by being only scrmonettes in disguise; and seine are r.i elan-holy discourses, such as the hymn for St. Bartholomew's Day. which expends stanza after stanza in dully enquiring what in tho world it can find to say about him. One happy item ran be noted—that two hymns which this critic picks to pieces, line by line, are hymns so seldom heard that we may suppose, discriminating congregations quite agree- in disdaining them ; while tho hymns mo.it praised in his article, "O God, Our Ileln in Ages Past," "God Moves in a Mysterious "Way," ''Ye Holy Angels Bright,'' "Again, as Evening's .Shadow Falls," and "All People that on Earth do Dwell," are popular enough to prove that congregations also recognise ''the requirement of unity, pimply and consistently expressed." Tho truly pupiilar hymn, in fact," is frequently tho very good hymn. It is only in the rubbish department of "Hymns. Ancient and Modern." or in some extraordinary collections put forth as mission hymnbooks, that wo find religiously preserved tho connection between piety and doggerel. There is no rea«ou, however, that the rubbish department should bo reproduced, and add to the weight of the church-going hymn-book with each new edition that appears. Professor Rouse pleads lor a thorough sifting process at once-; and for a selfdenying ordinance that will save .much necessity for sifting in future. "Let it bo understood that if to write a hymn be the ambition of every pious man, it is his duty as an honest man, when written, to burn it." Eagli.sh people who are Comfort made nervous by the many for tho criticisms fired at Ad.Nervous. miralty methods, may derive some comfort from the fact that in the opinion of more than ouo German critic all is not well with tho German Navy. It is complained that tho German Admiralty persistently lags behind other nations in increasing ships , armaments and adopting technical inventions, and that consequently the German fleet compares badly with certain other fleets. It is no accident, says Rear-Admiral Foss, a wiiter of numerous naval technical works, that the Admiralty was late in adopting tho water-tube boiler, tho floating dock, the submarine, and the

turbine. He criticises the policy of the Admiralty in trusting to the alleged superiority of the Krupp "gun, and malting this confidence the excuse for I not increasing the calibre. Ho I,as no doubt that the shells of the Gorman Dreadnoughts arc far less destructive than British shelis. It is interesting to. noie the criticism of the German method of making guns, for hitherto German opinion has been quite certain that, it is superior to the British method. Captain Persins. another ciitic of note, admits, that the Knipp claim to superiority is made doubtful by the adoption of P.utir.h guns in many navies, end thinks that Ivr.ipp's attach too much importance to durability. "A boa ten navy, destroyed by tne enemy's artillery, will find little consolntion in the fact that its Suns are still iireable.' . Captain Persius follows Admiral Foss in charging tho Admiralty with systematic dislike of progress. '"Publications under official influence ekaracterise all foreign innovations as costly experiments which Germany has no need for. it being German's interest to continue at her own predetermined work. The German system, however, involves what it tries to avoid: heavy cost and email utility. Knipp's are largely responsible. Just as German aviation progress has been hampered by belief in the superiority of the Empire's air-fleet, ko blind faith in Kr.tpp guns lias led to systematic under-arma-ntent." So while certain English critics bid us look to Germany for ideas, certain German critics are holding up our Navy as an example to their own Admiralty. Something very like a A revolution in the .Revolution world's cotton-trade is in promised by the disCotton. covery of a German scientist, Mr Waldomar Schiitze, who was recently in London pushing his scheme. Mr Schiuzo believes that he, will bo able to reduce the, cost of cotton-production by onehalf. As the cotton-crops of the world aro valued at tomo two hundred millions sterling annually, the importance of .such a reduction is obvious. Mr Schiitzo's method is supported, the •'Westminster Gazette" says, by high scientific opinion, and tho discovery has been granted letters patent not only in Germany, but in all countries which possess patent laws. His proposal is a simple one enough. Tho cotton plant exists in a wild and in a cultivated state. Tho wild plant is a perennial witli a life of from 20 to 2o years. It is hardy, and immuno from insect pests and frosts, such as prevail in tho cotton districts of America. Tho cultivated plant, on tho othei hand, yields only a email crop after the first year, and is very liable to tho attacks of insects, so that it is treated as an annual, tho plants being burned and rooted up after each crop. This annual process is enormously wasteful of labour, and in areas whero labour k scarce, prevents any great expansion of tho amount of cotton land. Mr Schiitzo proposes, first of all. to sedaro immunity from cold and insect pests for tho plants by grafting a selected species of cultivated cotton plant upon some wild species. The next process is to grow from the seeds of tho new plant, and .on this stem to graft cuttings from tho mother plants. In this way a plant will bo produced which yields heavily and for a long period, and is attacked neither by pests nor frosts. The annual processes of preparing tho ground, lowing, and clearing aro thus dono away with, the result being a great saving. The effects on tho cotton-trade, should this process work out as anticipated, would be that its dependence on America, with its fluctuating artl uncertain yield?, would ha reduced, and that the cotton areas of the African colonies, where tho only hindrance so far has been the difficulty of procuring adequate labour, cotdd bo developed, to their great prosperity. In a few years tho production of cotton could be doubled and even trebled. Even in countries which American most loudly proclaim their Society. democratic principles, •class distinctions, and rigid ones too, aro usually found to exist, and tho United States, though it has no- titled clashes, yet has its "Society, , ' abounding in nicely graded distinctions and social barriers.' Mr A. Maurice- Low describes amusingly in the "Morning Post" how the "Society l, cf one city looks down en that of other cities. People, from places of which tho European has never heard will tell him with proper pride: '"There is a good deal of social activity in our city, not, of course, as fashioimblo as New York and Washiri£ton, but where birth counts an something." From which the penetrative observer deduces a profound \.lb'.lain in his informant's heart of the "nouvcau riche , ' of Xew York ami the mushroom aristocracy of "Washington. Xew York prides itself en load- , ing Society becauso of its wealth, but ]io.:ton, we are toL!, ''turns up its col-let-tiro novc in line, contempt. ,, Philadelphia, ngcin, sneers at Boston on (.ho .score of provinciality, and at Now York for its vulgarity, and so on, East and West, North and..South. In Washing- ! ton social grading is quite a serious and complicated matter, for Society there is us much a part of the serious business of life as a Cabinet meeting. Owing, however, to tho fact that there is no social court of last report, and no accepted tr.blo of precedence in questions of official rank, confusion often results, accompanied by ir.uch heartburning. The President, cf course, eciHos fh"t, and after him tho VicePresident, s.nd Ambassadors, as the prr- ! KOf.ivl representatives of Royalty, lint after that claims for precedency begin ito multiply. Cabinet Ministers have their priority disputed by tho Associate Justices cf the Supreme Court and t!:o members ul the Senate, and some unseemly squabbles occasionally reuilt. Only a littlo while ago the President gave :i reception in honour of the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs,, to which the members of the Cabinet and somo Senators wcro invited, and tho next day cno of the "Washington papers told of tho intense indignation of the Senators because tho members of the Cabinet were given jirecedtr.ee. If tho newspaper docs not exaggerate, the.ro appears to have been much heat over the matter, and the Senator is even reported to have threatened to necept no more invitations to the White House, it "a mere Cabinet official were allowed to out-rank a Sen-.itor. The lot of the Washington host or hostess who is not thoroughly versed by long experience in tlie-e nit-e points ot etiquette, must be unenviable.