VOICE of the NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 84, 7 January 1928, Page 15

VOICE of the NATIONS

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

New Methods. The most depressing feature about many of the staple trades is not their actual slackness, but the expectation of a full revival under their old organisation. That would be on a priori grounds an improbability. The world that came to an end in 1914 will never come back. There has been too much alteration in human minds and habits, in economic facts and possibilities, in political arrangements and mechanical resources, for any system of routine to retain its old adequacy. The working side of life cannot escape similar transformations to those which every other side so abundantly reveals. That is why no real confidence can be attached" to any outlook which seems to envisage a returning past instead of a developing future. Given the best opportunity that reviving markets can provide, no adaptation of old methods, however liberal-minded, can either make the most of them for industry as a whole, or add contentment to the siiare which goes to Labour. As long as there is no conception beyond the painful recovery of old standards in real wages and the reduction of industrial" friction to a minimum, hope can find no firm footing.—The “Observer.” The “U.S." To the student of contemporary politics there is no study which surpasses in importance that of popular government in the United States. It has a supreme theoretical interest. For the American Constitution is a masterpiece of political wisdom. The American experiment in democratic government lias succeeded, where most similar European experiments have signallv failed. And the success is all the more instructive because the American experiment was made under the most unfavourable circumstances ami with apparently the most unpromising human material, the flotsam and jetsam of twenty races. Nor lias the study of American institutions a less urgent practical importance. We cannot afford to ignore the United States. For the economic hegemony of the world has passed from the old continent to the new. If America needs Europe, Europe needs America a great deal more, and our ignorance of American conditions has already been attended with disastrous results. —Charles Sarolca in the “English Review.”

Foot Sloggers. Mechanisation is something like abracadabra, one of the fine words of to-dav. It takes its place .with “rationalisation” and “implement,” as something which suggests immense possibilities and bewilders a timorous intelligence. It has proceeded so far in the equipment, organisation, and training of our 'post-war Army, that certain seers have hailed the doom, of the infantryman, much as Fox hailed the dawn of the French Revolution Yet the infantryman exists, and it is now laid down in “Infantry Training, 1926,” that “the rifle and bayonet are the principal weapons of the individual infantry soldier; the victory can be completed bv means of those weapons only.” In 'other words, all the tanks and gun-lorries and armoured cars leave to the infantryman what lie has held all through the days of Napoleon and Marlborough, of Caesar and Alexander and Joshua— the honour and the dutv of winning a battle and holding what he has won.—The “Morning Post.” British Forests.

After a sleep like unto the slumber of a Rip Van Winkle, broken only bv the burst of activity set. up bv the cry of “British Oak for British Ships, immediately alter the Napoleonic Wars, and the persevering efforts of the devoted few who have done their utmost to keep alive the. practice of forestry in the British Islands, the conscience of the nation was at last awakened to the importance of afforestation by the dire necessities <>f the four years following the calamity of 1911. It could liardiv be otherwise; British imports of forest produce, mainly timber and wood pulp, had before then mounted to over 15,090,000 tons yearly with a relatively negligible home production, and in Hie emergency there was none but the privately owned lauded estates to bear the weight of the felling axe, for of the three million acres of woodlands in Great Britain .the State owned a paltry 2.t per cent. With financial stringency looming inevitable, to expect the ish landowner to continue to bear the burden of timber production, even <-i the entirely inadequate scale of past vears, would evidently be to.expect too much, and Hie truth of these apprehensions was soon proved.—W. L. lax lot in the “Contemporary Review. Party Spirit.

The human race is essentially conservative; about its habits of belief. Few would nowadays assert that its beliefs were dictated by “reason” (whatever that mav mean), or even largely influenced thereby. Human beliefs are best understood as responses of human nature to the conditions of human hie, and while the conditions are stable, so are the beliefs. We cannot change them at will, and do not want to. bo there need be no fear that our religions and superstitions, our metaphysics anti delusions, could suddenly be overthrown bv anything that could conceivably happen. ’ For • ven if something so destructive had happened, we con Id not be forced to believe it. It would always have to be reported, and we should always be at liberty to .disbelieve the report, if it did not suit us. So our beliefs are never merely forced upon us; thev are always more or less of our own iiiakng, and our choice is usually the decisive factor in their adoption. This explains how it is that there ire so many questions about which men obstinately refuse to agree. Wherever a question really arouses party spnit, each partv becomes more or less blind to what is sect by Hie opposite side. Party spirit creates divergence everywhere: different versions of the truth and lessons of history, different selections of data, different observations of fact—nay, even differences of perceptions. For perception is always inteipretation of the present in the light of the past, and to different eyes the same situation looks different. —I'. C. S. '•.chiller in the “Nineteenth Century and After.”

Zaghlr.: Pasha. it is impossible for ary imr-minded person not to recognise arid respect m Saad Zaghlul Pasha the lofty qualities of a patriot. It would be unprofitable now to inquire how far, in common with many politicians wlio nave suffered less for their cause, lie was swayed by motives of personal pique and love of office. Although he himself experienced the shock of a madman’s attempt at assassination, there is no reason to' suppose that he connived at such methods himself, or to deny him the title of an honest fighter. Too often the clamour for liberty and independence in the East merely spells a demand for the name of external independence spurred on by the anticipation of the enjoyment of the fruits of government by an oligarchy of the higher castes or of the lawyer class. — The “Yorkshire Post.”

Constitutional Changes. Of all the Second Chambers the English House of Lords is to-day at vice the most distinguished in personnel and in Constitutional powers one of the weakest. Yet of all the Cwist'iutions in the world that cf ’nigl.nid would seem to stand most in need of an effective Second Chamber. . The reasons are not far to seek, and inuy be summarily stated. Jn no other country can fundamental changes in the Constitution be so easily effected. In England, as is well known, we have no “organic” or “Constitutional” laws, nor does there exist any special machinery for Constitational revision. Whether it be proposed to disestablish a Church, to double the electorate, t:» abolish the House of Lords, or to pass a Town Planning Act, the same machinery is employed. Some of our most important “Constitutional” changes have come about without any legislation at all. NT legislation lor instance, v.ns required to bring imo being an Imperial War Cabinet, nor would a:iy Lave been required bad that Cabinet, as was in fact intended and mino-inccd, become a permanent part of the Constitution. This is what me lawyers mean when they speak of the “flexibility” of the English Constitution—flexibility which depends mainly upon the iegai sovereignty of Parliament—the complete absence of all legal restraints upon the ac* : mi of the King n:- • Parliament.—Sir Min Marriott m the "Fort nightly Rev tew.”

The Russian Army. 'The Red Army of the Soviet, controlled by the Cheka, is sufficient to keep down the Russian people, but it is not sufficient to fight- with any real chance, of success, against the modern armies of European Great Powers. As most of the officers of the old Imperial Russian Army were killed in the Great War and by the Bolsheviks’ Cheka, there are not sufficient chiefs to lead the Russian Army. There is also a very great lack of officers of inferior ranks, such as captains and lieutenants. In this age of technical warfare a man intended for an officer must have a certain amount of general education, and the very class of' educated Russian from whom young men could be chosen for officers has been extinguished by the Bolsheviks. Giving to the lack of captains and lieutenants educated well enough for modern warfare, the Red Army has not been scientifically trained. Furthermore, facilities for producing the enormous amount of material required are lacking in Russia and cannot be established under the Bolshevik system. Filially, Russian railways have been 1 allowed so to rot that it is doubtful whether it would be possible for the Russian Red Army to move effectively. Even if the' Russian Army could inarch up to the front, it would be extremely difficult to manoeuvre it, as rear communications would not be sufficient for foodstuffs and ammunition supplies.-—Arnold Rechberg ill the "Empire Review.” Sunstroke and Headstrokc.

Every summer the daily papers publish accounts of people who. have been overcome by heat. These seizures used to be called sunstroke; they are now described at heatstroke or heat apojv lexv. It would in all probability be correct to distinguish between sunstroke and heatstroke, because the influence of tlie direct rays of the sun upon pepole who are unaccustomed to it differs in kind from Hie influence of heat only. Heat plus light is recognised thereapeutically as affording a stimulant more powerful than heat alone, but one which is different in kind as well as in degree. So far as our present knowledge goes, however, it is onlv possible to recognse that excessive heat, whether or not it. be accompanied by excessive light, is liable to break down the mechanism by which the temperature of the body is regulated, and thus to give rise .to symptoms which are always alarming and sometimes fatal.—Dr. Leonard Williams in “Tlie Empire Review.” Pleasure in Work.

The exhibition of Industrial Designs arranged by the Royal Society of Arts, at tlie Imperial institute, furnishes many pleasing examples of the art of advertisement, which were submitted in competition for tlie prizes offered by various industrial firms and companies. Here are designs tor advertisements in the Riess, for posters, show-cards, coverings for packages, and the titlepages of books It would appear that the unnatural and artificial quarrel between the uses of trade and commerce and the art of the designer is now being composed, with excellent results. The misunderstanding of the true relation of industry to art is expressed in the familiar words. Applied Art, wlncli convey a fallacy, for Art cannot be applied like an ointment or a coat of paint. For the man who makes an advertisement is by virtue of bis task a maker, and a maker is an artist. He may or may not achieve excellence, but he is an artist none the less, whether he likes it or not. It is in the hope of encouraging excellence that the great commercial Imuses wisely offer prizes (or the best advertisements. In so doing, they respond to tlie needs ami desires of their customers, whose attention is always attracted to beautiful things rather (han to ugly compositions. What advertisement has ever been more successful, for instance, than the reproduction in colours of a fine, picture by a famous artist proved to be?—The’“Morning Post.”