BOOKS OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 58, 1 December 1917, Page 13

BOOKS OF THE DAY

The War and the Nation. There is an abundance of food for profitable thought, not only by parliamentarians and public men, but by tho averago individual member of tho community, in Mr. W. C. Dumpier Whetham's now book, "The War and the Nation" (John Murray; per Whitcombe and Tomb?). The author, who i 3 a fellow and senior tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, and an F.R.S., admits that "while on grounds of reason" he had "a healthy mistrust of all political parties as they existed before tho war, lio is fain to confess that his "prejudices, both inherited and acquired, make him a Tory." Few "good" Liberals, howevor, would, I fancy, find much fault with Mr. Whethani's "Toryism," seeing that the author defines a "true Tory' as one who "regards the State with its ancient institutions as a living, complex organism, ever developing to meet the growing needs of a changing time, and working in harmony for the good of all, not as isolated individuals, but as members one of another." Even a Fabian Socialist could accept such "Toryism", as this. Indeed, Mr. Whetham, in his' examination of presentday and after.war problems, adopts many of tho planks of the saner Socialists. He is, for instance, a warm advocate of State, aid to scientific research; he would havo the. mines, the railways, and canals nationalised; ho is all for increased national efficiency, and it is clear that ono lesson of the war has been for him that British industry and commerce can benefit, rather than bo hampered, by State intervention. Where, however, the Fabians and Liberals who find their journalistic scriptures in the "Daily News" or "Manchester Guardian" will refuse to follow, him is in his strong advocacy of what has come to be known as tariff-reform, to this particular school (not so numerically strong as it was before the war) a thing accursed. "Effective organisation and fiscal protection, have," ho says, "kept German land under the plough, while laissez-fairo and free trade turned English land to grass." In tlie chapter entitled "The War and the Race" Mr. Whetham speaks out gravely and courageously on the problem of the decreasing birthrate. regards this as one of the most important matters which will call for attention after tho war. He says: Tho fall in the birth-rate, especially of tho upper and middle classes and of the Bkllled artisans, which became evident in 1876, began to affect tho relative num. bor of those fitted to carry on tho professional and higher commercial work of tho nation about the year 1900 as their sonß came of age. ft .has now gone so far that it will probab'ly constitute tho chief obstacle to any future progress, And again (after advocating something like State encouragement of larger families by subsidies w.hcre needed), and preferential income tax treatment for parents with more than a certain number of children, Mr. Whetham says — But, when all possible readjustment of taxation has been carried out, it remaius true that economic causes are not only the only ones at work in our diminished birth-rate—and a change of psychological attitude in tho classes affected is needed. Potential parents tf sound stock must be educated to their importance for tho future of the nation and of mankind. Patriotism, as the war has proved, remains one of the strongest motives, and when it is clearly understood that tho welfare of the country and the Empire dcipendß on an adeqnato supply of satisfactory men and women, we may hope tho supply will bo forthcoming. • • • Early marriages benefit the population in two ways. They increase tho number of. years of potential parenthood,"and,.in natyral circumstances, the number of children in: tho family., Hence the marriage of men of twentythree or twenty-fouf, who in pca«e time might have remained bachelors till the age of thirty or forty, may do much to recuperate the ravages of war in the upper and middle classes. Such marriages, then, should be warmly encouraged. Mr. Whetham has much to say on what he holds to' be very necessary changes and reforms in the British system of taxation and in banking methods, and his remarks on land settlement, though primarily, based upon conditions dissimilar in many respects from those which prevail in a new country such as New Zealand, will be found, on certain .points, usefully suggestive to readera. As a contribution to the literature of "reconstruction" Mr. Whetham's book is both interesting and useful. (Now Zealand price, 7s. 6d.).