VOICE OF THE NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 284, 26 August 1922, Page 11

VOICE OF THE NATIONS

SAYINGS AND WRITINGS :: :: OF THE TIMES :: ::

“When Dukes were Two a Penny.” “There is even a regular tariff. The price of a knighthoed ranges from £lO,OOO to £12,000. A baronetcy i° scheduled at from £30,000 to £40,000. Then, of course, there are the higher realms, with prices in proportion. The aspirant is, further, very kindly furnished with a' catechism or questionnaire, which we have seen.” —London “Morning Post” in an article on the purchase of titles.

A Bungled Opportunity. / “Never before in this country have the motives of political idealism and practical economy operated so powerfully for combined support of wnat, by an overwhelming majority, is accepted as a distinctive national purpose. It ih not (only that the “next war"” with which the romantic people called Die-hards are so glib, is something that British trade and therefore British security cannot afford. There is also the sense that the greatest opportunity in history, already bungled and half wasted, foi organising the prevention of war, bought at the highest price mankind, was ever called upon to pay, must be retrieved and used.” —Mr. J. L. Garvin, on the Washington Conference. The Turning of the Worm.

“The aim of the Fascist! is nothing more than the re-establishment of law and order. They are made up from that great mass of citizens who, under ordinary conditions, stand aside from the bitterness and chicancery of political catchwords. They j ask to be allowed' to live their lives quietly and after their own fashion, and they, are resolved to punish those . who would make law and order meaningless. This Italian development looks very like progress to tne logical conclusion of political democracy as it has been developed in the last century. The position is due, of course, to weak government, but weak government appears to have become the corollary of democratic franchise.”—The Melbourne “Argus.”

An Unholy Alliance. “It is certainly true that the costs of installing the totalisator will be greater now than they would have been had Victoria kept pace with the other States and installed the totalisator many years ago. For that we have To thank the success of a most remarkable alliance between the Church and tho bookmakers. Every time the totalisator has been proposed this strangely assorted alliance has . been found in opposition. The opposition of the bookmakers is comprehensible. The money that the totalisator will return to the public now goes into their pockets. But the attitude of the churches is quite incomprehensible. They profess to regard gambling as an evil. The totalisator is a means of controlling and regulating that evil in such a way that the worst elements of gambling will be eliminated. What better method for moral reform can the churches suggest ? Pending the millennium is it not better to recognise and regulate the imperfections of human nature than to give them free play in the community?”—The Melbourne “Age.” The irony of Circumstance. “The Commission on Universal Suffrage has decided in favour of a law which will mlake the vote obligatory in all French elections. ’ They recommend the following penalties for abstention. For the first abstention the name, profession, and address of the offpnding elector shall be posted on the door of the town hall. For the second abstention the name shall be posted again, and a fine of five francs imposed. For the third, abstention tho peinlalty will Be posting the name, the five franc fine, and an addition ®f five per cent, to the non-voter’s income tax. On the fourth offence there will follow disfranchisement for five years. Blank papers in the ballot boxes will be added to the majority veto.” — The London “Times’s” Paris correspondetnt, noting an example of a world-wide neglect of what our forebears died to win—the vote.

A World-wide Quest for Fragments. “It is certain that dispersed all over the world are precious shattered parts belonging to the stone population of Reims Cathedral. No one has yet numbered this immense people, but the census is now bping taken. Everywhere in the great edifice, in the most inaccessible places, were communis ties of prophets and of, angels, of saints and of virgins, joining their eternal praise to the multitudinous hosanna of the architectural pile. . . , It appears incredible that the mere curio-hunter can keep such precious moroeaux on his mantelpiece. They have no doubt a marketable value. They are interesting—too interesting —as curiosities. But their rightful place in among their fellow-stones, and their true value depends upon their remaining where they were put eeven hundred years ago. Some of these missing arms and heads have been sent oack to the architect, who is endeavouring ‘ to reconstitute the shattered edifice. Ari Englishman who had purchased the head of a prophet in Italy has, on learning its origin, generqutsly brought it back to the ecclesiastical authorities. A number of Frenchmen have returned statues and portions of statues. A great assembly of hands and broken | limbs is to be sifted and classified.” —Mr. Sisley Huddleston, in an appeal for missing fragments of the Reims Cathedral. A Pace That Kills.

“Worry ii the best word to describe the mentality of anyone who directs a newspaper. It is a dreadful life—a galling [and killing life. Look at us! There is Lord Rothermere who, although he is compelled to take the greatest care of his health in order to face the task, yet shows the strain. Sir Edward Hulton is only just recovering from a prolonged and severe illness. Lord Northcliffe’s health has just suffered a severe collapse. Lord Dalziel only keeps going by living under a careful regime; and for myself, I find the life almost intolerable. I deny myself the pleasures of drinking and smoking, and I have to play games which bore me to distraction. I have to stand on a watchtower perpetually surveying my physique. .arid can never relax this vigilance.” —Lord Bgaverbrook, in the “Sunday Express.”

Breeding Better Men. “The improvement of the human race, if not the further evolution of man, will depend in part upon enlightened human effort. To us it is given to co-operate in this greatest work of all time and to have a part in the triumphs of future ages not merely by improving the conditions of individual life and development and education, but much more by improving the ideals of society and by breeding a better race of men who will ‘mould things nearer to the heart’s desire.’ ” —Dr. Edwin Grant Conklin, Professor of Zoology, Princeton University. A Reactionary Cry.

‘.‘England is at heart to-day as religious and as devout as ever she was, but she shows it in ways vastly different, but no less real, than, was the case 400 years ago. It is pitiable to hear men —and women—cry. ‘Back, back,’ in religion: it is puerile to hear them applaud discarded shibboleths and phrases: it is incomprehensible to think that by such means they hope to win England for Christ, when in art, literature, science, psychology, in everything, the cry is ‘Forward, forward, let us range.”—“One Who Wa» There,” writing in the “Yorkshire Post” of the recent Anglo-Catholio Congress. Russia’s Ray of Hops.

“I am now for the fifth time m Russia since the revolution, and have had ample opportunity to observe tho country in the highest exaltation of victory and the blackest misery and despondency caused by defeat, disillusionment, and famine; but never have I seen a more confident, a more assured and hopeful, Russia than to-day. I felt this wave of optimism even on the journey. At every station we met cheerful people, bright looks, and friendly attitude. The reason? We grasped it looking out through, the windows of the railway carriage; it is the excellent crops and the unusual number of well-oultivated and promising vegetable, and potato fields. The crops are good., the harvest looks like being excellent [this .year.”—The special correspondent of the London “Observer.”

Coal and High Economics. “The coal industry is suffering because the world is economically sick, and suffers all the more, because of its prime importance to a world economically sound. In the hist resort the reestablishment of miners’ wages at a tolerable level resolves itself into a problem of foreign policy. The statesmen who met at Versailles were men of their time, heirs to an epoch of unprecedented economic expansion. They had learnt that trade nad become the world’s law, so that its forcible stoppage involved much legislation rigorously applied. J hey assumed, llwrefoire, that, when their obstructionists! laws were cancelled, the threads of trade would knit together of themselves. That, terribly false assumption has vitiated tile whme of their work, and is mainly responsible for the present economic distresses both abroad, and at Home.” —fne London “Observer.”, Mazzini the Prophet.

"The map of Europe as we see it to-day is the map of Joseph Mazzini. Ho was the prophet of free nationality, but a free nationality based on right, based on duty; above all the rights and duties of individuals, the rights and duties of races, tho rights, the duties, and ideals of humanity. lhe liberation movements or the last oO years throughout Europe were inspired by his fervent teaching. You will find in every land where there was a great national struggle for freedom that the young men, more particularly those who took an active part in the promotion of those movements, used the writing of Mazzini as their text book and their New Testament. They carried those books with them, they read them; they re-read them; they quoted them; and you will find that the thrill that came from the words of Mazzini was what gave nerve and power to the men who had been struggling for centuries for de emancipation of suppressed nationalities of Europe."— Mr. Lloyd George, on the Italian patriot of ’fifty years ago—Joseph Mazzini. Cold Facts for France.

“It has been suggested that th© fall in the value of the German mark was deliberately engineered in order that Germany might escape her obligations. But that theory did not bear examination. Such a policy, would literally be suicidal. Germany’s case would be that of a debtor who kills himself in order to avoid paying his creditors. Frappe may hold out to the uttermost and may threaten Germany with dire pains and penalties, but it seems as if in the end she will have to bow to the logio or facts and as Britain and Italy are prepared to do. to cut her losses, or a substantial proportion of them. ifie “Sydney Morning Herald.

“Black Irish.” “The personal beauty of tee true Celtic Irish of both sexes is unsurpassed by that of any other people. Th© conventional ‘lrishman’ of the comio papers, with his long upper lip and simious aspect, is borrowed from the stock which the Celtic invaders found in the island, and is no mors like the handsome Celt than the latter is like the Solomon Island negrito. The Celt is and has always been a courageous and honourable fighter—standing up boldly to his foe. The aboriginal abounds in savage stratagems, luring his enemy into ambushes and shooting him from behind a hedge, or catching him unaware and stealthily assassinating him —just as th© Indians of the plains did until the “pioneers” took measures to end their methods. It is between these two quit© distinct and very different elements that the struggle in Ireland is now going on. It is a contest between civilisation, culture, honourable principles on one sidg and savage instincts and passions on the other. This ought to be recognised when tee condition of Ireland is referred to; and we are in honour bound to admit that to include the Celtic Irishman and his as yet uncivilised neighbour in a common condemnation is as senseless as it is unjust.”—Admiral Sir Oyprjan Bridge.