VOICE OF THE NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 15

VOICE OF THE NATIONS

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

Children Before Kinemas. "Nothing, indeed, could be more deplorable than that the deluge of foreign films should be, as it is bound to be, ‘an influence upon children tending to weaken national characteristics.’ It is still more deplorable . that children s minds should be polluted by trash which has everything to be said against it on moral and artistic, as well as on national grounds. If the film shown is British, so much the better; but m any case there should certainly be some proper and adequate control over what is seen bv crowds of children e\er\ week.”—‘‘Daily News.”

The" Larger Humanity. “We hear men talk of the old-time subject of humanism. We listen for the dreams of the new day., Wq welcome every fresh view, appreciation, or development of the spiritual wealth of mankind We hear what science is doing and will do to make our riches available The more the better. Even so, the old word seems never so elear as now, that what man needs above anything else is not even wider science, but a larger humanity, sympathy, friendliness;'' in short, the enterprise of the world of men living together in love, and trying out daily the height and depth and wideness of love, as if supplied from eternal fountains.”— “C.F.D.,” in “Unity.”

A Wicked Monopoly. “The League of Nations is setting itself seriously to the task of breaking the Dutch monopoly which restricts the output of quinine with a view to keeping up the price and providing a dividend of 3C per cent, for the shareholders. It tried first to influence the syndicate and to persuade the Dutch Government to regulate the actions of the syndicate. The excuse that it received ‘was that the ring was acting simply to ‘stabilise the market.’ The Lccgue is now having to ‘ find means of breaking the. ring by other methods.”—Leslie Aldous in ■ “The Women’s Leader.” Consistency.

“We have little pity for the person who professes fine and altruistic principles and affords us no example in his conduct. This comes too near to hypocrisy to be other than hateful. And though tmne of us, perhaps, can really make our practice entirely consistent with our principle, we can see to it that there shall be no real divorce between them and display that essential consistency which is not only ‘what men like,’ but without which no peace or order is possible in society, and do it, moreover, without sounding that most irritating of all slogans, ‘I always trv to be consistent.’ ” —“A.M.” in the “Birmingham Post.” The Modern Boy.

“The modern boy is a fine fellow’. You can trust him far more than you can trust the modern man. But his nerves are not perfect There is something subtly wrong with the nerves of the bov born during the war; and I am afraid the boy born after the war, who will be arriving at school in about eighteen months’ time, will be even more nervy. He needs careful handling. . The modern boy is much more civilised than his grandfather was as a boy—more civilised even than his father. That is why birching is going out of fashion.”— Dr. Norwood in the “Evening News.” The War on War.

“War is as bad now as once when cannibalism was the end of it, or when hands and feet were cut off and eyes put out and babies spitted, >v e can do no more good by trying to lop the branches. We must bend our minds and souls without deviation to hew it down bv the root and extirpate the last fibre that feeds it from the darkness below. Unless we abolish war itself, bv no means on earth can we lessen its instruments or mitigate its horrors. Often a dreadful necessity in the absence of a system of international justice, its object was always large murder, and is now the murder of civilians in the mass, men, women, and children together. Its means necessarily include every device which can inflict slaughter, mutilation, torture, and destruction.” —“The Observer.”

To Bridge the Gap. “Profit-sharing is not a panacea for all the difficulties and problems that face modern industry. It is, however, a means of bridging in some degree the gap that so often separates capital and labour, employer and employee. It can introduce co-operation where antagonism may exist —co-opera-tion to attain greater efficiency, and give better service to the customer and the community who require the goods produced or the services. that may be rendered. The world is crying .out for lower costs, which can be attained bv higher efficiency. Therefore, when profit-sharing is successfully established, the three parties interested in all industries, the employer, the employee, and the consumer, will each benefit in various ways.”—Mr. W Howard Hazel! in the “Quarterly Review.” Francois and the Franc.

“The French peasant is the master of the situation. In times of crisis agriculture is generally found to triumph over industry, and country over the town. No doubt the cost of living- may rise, but this only means that the peasant will receive a higher price for his foodstuffs. W hat now of the future? One direct and immediate effect of a French. national bankruptcy would be that it would practically sweep out of existence one entire class, and that class is the backbone of the French people. It is the most intelligent, the most pub-lic-spirited, and the most balanced, the one most essential to the political stability of the country. Tt is the class of ‘rentiers.’ who draw their ‘rentes’ from Consols and shares. It is the class which from patriotic motives lias invested their savings in war loans It is the million officials who have to live on their meagre salaries Tt is the small tradespeople occupied mainlv in those French luxury trades which will be paralysed by the collapse of the franc Taken in the aggregate that class numbets many millions, who will swell the rank’s of the proletariat.”—Professor .Charles Jfarec!a ; in “The Scotomas.“

Where Conferences Fail. “Here is where all conferences and committees fail. They meet each other, one to force the other forward and one to force the other back. They are combatants from the start, they talk about dollars. One side tries to get the other side's dollars away from it bv disputing that side’s ownership of the money; equally disputatious and material-minded, they, simply shut out anv high considerations. And the result is what anyone might have foreseen. We must’ get a higher meeting ground. We have got to get together to consider what complete industrial justice is, regardless of which side will be most affected by that justice when it is arrived at. We must keep it high and above bur pettv selfishness and ambitions. We must, indeed,. have but one ambition—the noble ambition to be one of the creators of industrial justice.”—Mr. Henry Ford in the “Humanist.” Liking Our Enemies.

“It is time that somebody started a perfectly new adventure, the adventure of seeing what would happen if we stopped hating those we cannot like, and began to treat them as well as if we liked them. I believe it would be a tremendously interesting and fine adventure, full of thrills and surprises, of new dangers to be faced and new prizes to be striven for. Best of all, it would be a Christian advefiture; and if it failed or if it won, it would mean that Christianity had failed or won.’ — Evelyn Sharp in the “Manchester Guardian.” Political Plagiarism. "In politics the man -who delivers the goods does not always (perhaps in actual historv not often) reap the reward, but the goods, if genuine, always in the end reach an address where thev are eagerly taken in. Political parties are small things really. Each machine holds but a small, and not always a stable, fraction of the whole people. Outside and apart from. the partv machines are the real political forces in the country. Political parties, are powerful not in the numbers of their stable' partisans, but in _ their power of appeal, and the capacity to appeal depends upon the capacity to read the mind of the 'man or woman outside the machine and to appraise the value of positive ideas. Party fortunes depend largely on successful plagiarism, and constructive ideas find hospitality and welcome.” —“Monthly Notes.” Towards Peace. .

“The signs increase that violent counsels are losing what little weight thev ever had with the wage-earners and’ their leaders, and that the futility of expecting anything good to come out of perpetual strife between Capital and Labour is becoming more and more widely felt and admitted. Trade, moreover, is improving, and that is always an effective incentive to industrial 'peace. We have weathered the long years of depression, and we are not likelv to hurl away the tatdy chance of returning prosperity by plunging into an insensate conflict. The outlook for Britain in 19'16 seems to us propitious.”—“Sunday Times.” Safety First.

“ ‘Safetv first’ is a silly phrase. It may be all very well when you are crossing the road and find a tramwaycar on one side an omnibus on the other, a motor-cyclist behind, and a cart full of apples in front, but it is a rotten phrase to instil into the minds of the public and of youth. Nothing venture, nothing win. Don’t be content with a safe job that can be. got easily and held easily. If there is no opening in this country, don’t be afraid to go to the colonies.. Nothing big was ever done without risk. Keep some romance in life and work upwards towards an ideal.” —Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. "Man Made the Town.”

“What .was rcallv our objection to the social growth represented by our great towns with their factories and enormous concentration of population ? He thought it was that the industrial town had got no unity with nature. It was necessary to feel a part of the great universe, to see the clear sky at midnight sparkling with stars, and feel oneself part and parcel of that wonderful and inspiring beauty which was cretion itself.”— Mr. Ramsay MacDonald. Aerial Organisation.

“There is now one key to aerial progress—organisation It is organisation which has brought safety to the railways, and it is doing the. same for the airwav; while organisation on the widest scale will enable more and more people to take to the air, and fly ‘on business or pleasure from country to country, without undue risk to themselves or danger to those on the earth.” —Mr. 11. Harper, in the “Daily Mail.”

“The Real China.” “To the great majority of the Chinese people, the hard-working, thrifty, honest peasant and small trader, the status of the foreigner is a matter of complete indifference. His problem is to earn bis daily rice in peace, and without the undue taxation which he now endiircs on the part of. any and everv, pettv and great, official, in his locality His patience and industry stand unshakable in that shaken land. He is the real China, which will assuredly win through in due time. It is he who maintains for China an honoured place among the nations.”—Lady Hosie in the “Daily Mail.” The New Recruit.

“After a generation and metre of disastrous estrangement, there is an opportunity for the firm restoration of Anglo-German friendship. Next y e *> r Germany will be a full member of the League 'of Nations, and consents to a system of arbitration with all her neighbours. Nothing less than a t;cw soul is brought into the worlds. crusade 'for peace bv these beginnings. The possible developments are too vast a subject for discussion here. For one thing, the movement for disarmament, with the participation of the United States, will gradually take more practical shape For another thin?, the idea of the economic union of Europe now becomes one of the great causes of the twentieth century.—Mr. Garvin, ill “The Observer.”