OBITER DICTA.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18129, 19 July 1924, Page 12

OBITER DICTA.

<ByK.> When the printer decides that it is the turn of the Woolstofl Borough Council or something, and that I must get out of this corner, as he did last Saturday, I am, as a rule, uneasy about the state into which the world will hare got Itself in a fortnight. But for onco I am surprised. One comes back expecting to find that the patient is much worse, that there are weeds, as it were, in the garden, thSt there are ware going on and that social degeneration has reached the point at which Dean Inge's best appears to be but euphemism. Brazil does its obscure worst, but there uro no new wars in Europe. The AH Blacks have begun to win their matchos in time to forestall a motion by Mr Wilford. The Prohibitionists and unti-garablers are silent. Nobody has had a word to say about the modern girl and her hair and her cocktails. In a word, we are back, suddenly, in the peace, thick and slab, of the ******* torian age. Even the weather. Tho Commission on Feeble-Mindedness and Sex Perverts has, it is true, been trailing through the land to remind us that in spite of appearances life is real and earnest, but none of us have minded that. None of us, that is to say, except he who suffers from the Galsworthy complex—he of whom it may be said, if one may still quote Philip Guedalla, that "the sight of a butterfly makes him think of wheels; and he can hardly bear to look at a fly without thinking of the cruel, cruel amber." His name, of course, is Legion. But he does not, for the moment, count. We are having the silver lining, which, though it postulates a cloud, is pleasant.

This peaceful, even genial, epell of weather and events has affected the Tramwayß Manager, if he is correctly reported in the following letter sent to me by a correspondent: Dear "K,"—Aa "The Press" has tafcen its turn at criticism of our tramway 1 thought you might be interested in tha following notes of » recent after-dim** speech by its general manager on the subject of publio criticism of public utilities. After eaying that no publio officer of sense resented reasonable criticism which made for good, he quoted H. E. Fosdick to the effoot that the acutest eoonomio unrest was to be found, not in the non-Christian world, but in Christian countries where social and other privileges were more widespread. The more people were educated; and civilised, the greater the demand fox still man education, etill more leisure, still more equality, finishing with a quotation from Spencer: "The more things improve the louder become the exclamations about their badness." And so, the manager said, when anonymous newspaper correspondents snipe; when the heathen in the tramless wilderness rage and when the Burgesses' Associations, by resolution, imagine vain things, he comforted himself with Spencer's opinion and adopted Coufi'e philosophy: "Everyday in every way we are getting better and better." Concerning Dr. Fosdick I know nothing, except that he is one of those American heretics who are not firm on all the clansea of the Apostles' Credd, and that the Rockefellers have jtiat given a million or so io the Seminary where he;lectures. But Mr Thompson, if my correspondent has not misrepre'-' sented him, cannot expect me to bo. content With a bit from Dr. fosdick when what I really want is a seat, of rather two seats, on one of which I can put my feet while listening fc to him lecturing in between stops. It is perfectly true that the moire you have the more yon want, thai "l'ajjpfitit vient en mangeant,'' that discontent is the engine of progress. But this doctrine, in! some of its variants, can be Stretched too far. Kind-hearted liars tell me,, when they hear me play goif, that "the more you go off, the more you are coming on*" And one thinks of these people when one is urged to believe that the louder the growl' of

; the Tramway BottdyJjJH ,better the trams mmtraj Perhaps, however, wittfl son really meant was tftffilf the criticism of the JH .highor the civilisation 3 I tho needs of men—are elevating us. ThU little like Moses, wh&jJgi countered his old frUtgfj rich in tho provision plained that he had «qfe| growing wise, and taat]u| wise through eating |f|j| And he sold Moses a ttilM goldfish. Moses took Hail returned to comphUa tktijy it and found it was a htm did I tell yout'* $2 "you are growing *§£§ you see." If the Tragi intends to continue •"« method of elevating &d lar principle, by ineretaf| content, and making one stood before, we sh«M much better and so preajftg walk. ■* Mr Wilford has di*Mfrj| Liberal Party as good a 4t£ been found for the trsMfcjj gathering of Liberals at Tsj place near the Trenthaajii on which one may lose ttj one's illusions—he pronosjfi fact that the Liberal ptj tacked "from both sides sfilji portance. Tho same thing, and with pua£ fain would linger over M sitting in the middle of Ujj being run over by the VIM east, and rising up jast 'M knocked down by the. Bel west, and limping hom* f friends the broken hat, I knee, the discoloured signs that he has beeataW inent part in Events, Bst s l always suggest arniea t* if arnica I can give Mr WJM| surance that he is net wjjfe off than the Liberals is (Ski too, are daily explaining recognising that they *rs>cj Spender's words, "the nafj ping boy," and the best tin age is to write in. Haiti articles, that "it is community to safeguard al bers, or, rather, to hefyi tf guard themselves, ffmte which attend life in an m ety, and to guarantee worker a reasonable seddi hood," and that nises that it is the dnty < munity to ensure that its'! so organised and citizens will. be dered, in their legitimats-S Mr Asquith's model U\'M Mr Wilford has declared ji ingly f or the says; and someone «fedlig the way. This eaabjegg plete his policy by sayiflgfjj In conclusion, new anecdote that'f<3i|S| this week's which should.be ignored, by the ComfflSj Feeble-Minded and &$M tional Council, is count for one-third «f 4 ||| of women. The the same bodies wtf IAM that in America \hjsmk a crisis over a Eve were not legally aS anecdote concerns j ,|||l ing of Charlie Glya. . Said Mrs ■ M dear, so this linl Do yon look nearly, so fnany ? would." To this o#jffl have responded pwnrttififl ■ »» »«■