VOICE OF THE NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 97, 19 January 1924, Page 13

VOICE OF THE NATIONS

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

A Wonderful Age, “Sometimes it is the war, someI times it is the Treaty of Versailles which is blamed for the condition of Europe Jio-day, but in one sense the two factors are indistinguishable. Thb war was wasteful both of life hnd wealth, it destroyed the political fabric of great empires, it sowed the seeds of an almost , universal financial disorder, above all it produced a mentality of its own. That mentality, in the conditions brought about by the war, did much to determine the main lines of the Treaty of Versailles.* It is not difficult to sustain the argument that the peace delegates in Paris fell below the height of their responsibilities and opportunities, that in the end they gave to the world a worse peace even than the world deserved. But it would be idle to pretend that they were in the full sense free agents. In anv analysis of the main features of th'e Europe established by the peace treaties, it is necessary to regard the war and the treaties as belonging to the same set of continuous and often inseparable factors.”—“Th'e Round Table.” The Peace Prize. “Mr. Yeats is to be congratulated almost without reserve, on lifting ti • substantial stake (the Nobel Peace Prize). He is a poet of real greatness ; prose, too, he can write, like an angel. The one resei re is—what about Mr. Hardy? The only English or Irish writei, besides Mr. Yeats, who has borne off this mead is Mr. Kipling ; and, splendid as are- the moments of genius in both Mr. Kipling and Mr. Yeats, would anyone whose sense of literary quality is fully instructed and wholly judicial rank either of them beside Mr. Hardy ? Be this, however, only a momentary grumble. Wo mav well b'e thankful that in choosing for the Nobel Prize a writer from our islands, the jury, have at any rate chosen one of tho four or five greatest.”—“Manchester Guardian.” ' Another Chanoe for Free Trade. “I am a Protectionist, I believe in Protection, and I- am convinced that a well-devised system of tariffs upon imported manufactured goods would at least assist us to overcome our industrial difficulties; but I do not consider that the country should be asked to change abruptly the Free Trade principles which have -prevailed among us for eighty years, without the most careful and prolonged exploration of the alternatives. One fact is abundantly clear. Whether it was through Free Trade or not, this country was able to provide, through taxation and loans. £10,000.060,000 for the waging of the Great War. Pronounced Protectionist though I am, I feel that L'ree Trade should be given one more chance until the nation . has had time and opportunity to make up its mind. ’ Lord Botliermerc. Says Mr. Asnuith, < “The cause of unemployment is one quite apart from tariffs.. It is. the contraction in volume of international exchange, due not only to the actual ravages of the war, but also to the chaos now protracted over five years The more the facts and figures were examined, the more it became clear that what, above all else.. Great Britain needed was not tariffs, but the free course of trade, the restoration of economic security, and the reopening of the closed markets, of Russia and Germany.”—Mr. Asquith. The Capital Levy. “The Capital Levy is ‘impracticable’ in the ordinary sense of the word. It is ‘practicable’ upbn an altogether lower level of equity, yield and efficiency than has hitherto contented us, and it is practicable even on that level only if certain essential political conditions are present. These conditions are not present in any proposals now actually before us. The peculiar difficulties of the Capital Levy fall mainly under two heads: valuation and collection. The valuation of wealth looks simple, but often involves some of the most difficult matters the human mind can attempt. I have formed the conclusion that any scheme which must rely upon ; capital valuation of highly uncertain ; annual yields as its main feature is | a third-rate taxing expedient only to • be resorted to when all else fails. —Sir Josiah Stamp in the “Spectator.” The Woman of Thirty. “Thu woman of 30 and over, you see, is coining into her own. Thirty is the time of life when she really begins to grow, when she is interested in growing Life begins to mean somei thing to her; she understands it. Today there is nothing surreptitious about her interest in and curiosity about life; she goes about the business of living frankly, freely honestly. Tho world has been trained to> this • change—and it is a very teachable world—and it is beginning to expect things of, the woman of 30 and over. It’s finding her highly interesting. And what is more important. the woman of 30 and over is finding herself an interesting person t<. herself. Tho release of the suggestion of inferiority has opened" many wells of unsuspected strength and beauty.” —Miss Rebecca West, the critic and novelist. Two Swiss Experiments. “Within the last year the Swiss people have proved their political sagacity on two occasions. They rejected the Socialist Initiative for a Capital Levy, and they rejected with equal firmness a reactionary measure which had been passed by Parliament, and which was framed to make a political strike a criminal offence. When the Swiss are askeo to decide by means of a referendum some great question cf critical importance, they always seem to display unusual political sagacity. I am sure that the same result would follow in England, onco the referendum was adopted. There is nothing peculiarity elevating in choosing between two gentlemen, neither of whom -will probably have much effect on the country’s future. But an electorate which is required to pass judgment on a great measure and to act as the final court of appeal will inevitably develop a new conception of the dignity of the vote, and an instinct for sound politics, which can hardly be expected where tho people are only in nominal control of their destinies. —Arnold Lunn, in “The Spectator.”

A Fiscal Patriot. “Believe me, I am fighting for my country. If I thought a tariff would strengthen this land, add to its power and might and riches and the happiness of its people, no consideration of party would stop me. It is because in my heart I believe that it would be a curse, a disaster, and a ruin, and because in my heart I love my country, that I ask you to oppose it.”—Mr. Lloyd George. “In a Vicious Circle." “We are jn a vicious circle in which continued unemployment adds to the cost of production, and by adding to the cost reduces our power to compete and reduces the sources of revenue. This circle can only be broken by a policy which will provide remunerative and economic work and thereby put people into employment, and reduce the burden of rates and taxes. The Government policy alone attempts n practical solution. There is no means except a tariff by which we can keep the larger share of our own home markets., There is no weapon except a tariff which will enable us to reduce foreign tariffs and get a larger share of foreign markets. The revenue of the tariff is required in order to supply the resources for Empire development and! create , a growing trade within the Empire, both by the development, for which finance is needed?, and by the preference which will be given under the tariff. The revenue is also needed for the assistance of , agriculture, the prosperity of which is an asset no country cam afford to lose.” —The President of the Board of Trade, Sir Philip Lloyd-Greame, in the “Times.” The Basis of Free Trade." “Free Trade is based on two fundamental truths, which, stated with their due qualifications, no one can dispute who is capable of understanding the meaning of the words:—‘l. It is better to employ our capital and our labour in trades where we are relatively more efficient than other people are, and to exchange the products of these trades for goods in the production of which we are relatively less efficient. 11. The second great principle is that there can be no disadvantage in receiving useful objects from abroad If we have to pay at once, we can only pay with the export of goods and sendees, and the exchange would not take place (subject to the necessary exceptions just stated) unless there was an advantage in it. Every export which is not. paid for by an import represents a decrease in the capital available within the country.’ ” —Mr. J. M. Keynes, in “The Nation.” Arts Sneer at Business. “ ‘Why is it that the literary men always sneer at business, business men and efficiency?’ The efficient man knows exactly what he is doing, and the exact reason for which he is doing it. lie can at any moment justify his presence as a thread of the social fabric. ‘I am doing this and this,’ he says, and is inclined not infrequently to retort, ‘And what are, you doing?’ It is the form of attack that the literary man most resents It is illogical and in his view unjust. But he finds it hard to combat it. It is not easy to say off-hand what actual good, what actual purpose literature is serving; ,it is not easy to find for it a utilitarian justification. And so he defends himself with an attack. H» satirises efficiency. He pretends to despise the thing of which he is more than a bit afraid.”—Lady Rhondda. Women and .the British Elections. “One of the reasons why experts in the political game are unusually cautious about forecasting "the result of the present election is that they have not yet discovered which way the women are likely to vote. Thors aie about eight million women voters, and it is a safe assumption that if they take generally a women’s view cf the' issue they will dominate the election. This suddenly organised attack on tree trade is not an ordinary party question at all. It touches directly the everyday life of the vast majority of women on whom is laid the duty, in Mr. Baldwin’s phrase, of keeping the home fires burning.”—“Dapy News.” Christianity and industry. “Looking dispassionately and without party prejudice at tho facts, the Industrial Christian Fellowship is forced to the conclusion that the present unexampled and precarious situation is largely due to the neglect of Governments to attempt the application of Christian principles to practical affairs. We arc convinced, as plain men :lnd women, that mercy and justice and honest dealing, so far from being ‘impracticable dreams of fools and fanatics,’ are not merely the right, but the only practical policy between classes and nations, as they admittedly are between decent individuals and m reputable business life.”—brom a recent manifesto by the Industrial Christian Fellowship. A Fiscal Absurdity. “The notion of protecting ourselves against German competition is a wild absurdity. The question for us and for all Europe'is not whether the Germans are going to invade our. markets, but whether by any means whatever we can save millions of them from being starved to death during the coming winter. Unless Poincare can somehow be checked the catastrophe is imminent, and nothing can stop it but a grand rally of all the peoples on our side of the world who are willing to waive politics for humanity.’’— Mr. J. A. Spender, in the “Westminster Gazette.”

A Single-Minded Man. “Of all the figures I have known in public life, Dr. Clifford was, I think, the most single-minded—l had almost said the mofct ingenuous. Ho had no ambitions, except to be always speaking to the people and for the causep he"loved. Perhaps this continual act of service was a little too public; a little more of the pulpit than of the study, and of the platform even more than of the pulpit.”—H. W. Massingham, in “Tlie New Statesman.”