VOICE of the NATIONS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 189, 12 May 1928, Page 17

VOICE of the NATIONS

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

Overworked Rivers. “Generally speaking, the rivers are tending to become overworked.” writes Major 11. Hardy-Syms, F. 5.1., in “Garden Cities and (Town Planning.” “On the one hand, almost universally their capacity is being reduced and restricted by embanking, while on the other, much more water is finding its way, or, rather, being directed more rapidly to the rivers, owing to the enormous and continual increase of impervious surfaces all over the countryside. In time of heavy rain, water from these surfaces runs at once in a concentrated direct course by drains without appreciable loss by evaporation, instead of the more leisurely infiltration and seepage of the natural process, accompanied by a higher percentage of loss clue to evaporation and absorption by crops. Tarred roads, paved yards, and new houses all mean rain water discharging to watercourses or sewers more rapidly, and every new wharf or bank for reclamation means less elbow room for a river in time of stress. In other words, the sectional area and discharging capacity of rivers is becoming less, while the volume of the hourly storm run-off draining to them from constant catchment areas is tending to become greater.”

No Warfare in Science. “There is no warfare in science; there is universal friendliness and an interchange of discoveries. Whatever is done in one nation is public property to all the nations of the world. There is a great feeling of amity—a renewed feeling of amity flow. I hope many things of international friendship. I do hope that war between civilised nations is of the past. We ought to have got beyond that. It settles nothing, but produces untold misery. The victor is disappointed: the whole thing is a mistake. Armed forces you must have because there are uncivilised parts of. the world to be kept in order. That is all right, it is not right for the resources of science to be prostituted to destruction.” —Sir Oliver Lodge.

The Commons and the Prayer Book. “The House of Commons, which has already rejected the measure, may well see in the changes now made no sufficient reason, for again presenting the -Prayer Book measure for its acceptance,” says the ■“Morning Post.” “In the case of any ordinary Bill, the reintroduction of proposals already considered and adjudged on an excuse so unsubstantial, would be regarded as not quite respectful to Parliament; ami even in the case of this Prayer Book measure, the House of Bishops seem to us to be going on assumptions which are'' ill-founded. It would be, we think, a disaster both for the Church and for the State if the measure were once more rejected, after being sent forward by the Church Assembly. Believing then, as we do, that the chances of this new measure Jn the House of Commons are made, not less, but more remote, by subsequent, events, we must hope once more that rejection may take place rather in the councils of the Church itself, than in the councils of the State. Thus, and thus alone, we may avoid the conflict charged for both Church and State with many and great dangers.”

The Need in Journalism. “What is needed in journalism is a certain consciousness—not a class consciousness, but a general consciousness of what we owe to mankind, still in the making, in giving such light and leading a’s we can to concord and collaboration for the general good. Public opinion is in the long run the sovereign power in the government of men. No agency in the world is so concerned with the shaping and directing of public opinion as is the newspaper Press.”— “Christian Science Monitor.” Child Mind as Weil as Body. “To ensure that a healthy outlook is fostered in children, the prime necessity is that the body and the mind should themselves be healthy. The child should be encouraged to interest himself in the world around him; to concentrate on the task in band; to exert himself to overcome difficulties; to appreciate the value, not only of his own health, but the effect of his presence and personality on those around him. Hence the importance of cheerfulness and courage. He should gradually assume his right share in responsibility. He may begin by having certain duties in connection with order and cleanliness of the school; then with ‘things going right' in the school; he should learn to be, as occasion demands, either a follower or a leader. The illimitable effect of moods and. actions on the world must be explained, find that to be sulky, to brood, to be irritable, greedy, seeking only his own advantage. and the like, have not only a deleterious effect on his own health and character, but have a definite influence on others, and may be positively harmful to them.”—From a British Official Health Brochure.

Bishop and Law-breakers. The Bishop of Gloucester, in bis letter to “The Times,” is even more emphatic. He says“We must drop entirely the repeated accusation of being law-breakers. The Anglo-Catho-lics are no more law-breakers than Modernists who explain away the creeds they repeat, or the devout, evangelicals who neglect the onlaindd services of the Church in favour oi praver meetings; they fire uo more law-breakers than the Early Christians who were put to death in the name of the law: or the followers of Wycliffe; or the Puritans under Laud;; or* the Wesleyans. What has happened is that there has been in the Church of England a succession of great spiritual movements, and that the Prayer Book of the sixteenth century is too strait for the needs of tbe present day. It is not possible to administer tiie law of the Church, any more than a law of the State, which is 250 years old.’ f

A Great Opportunity. , “Sir Alfred Mond has seized a great opportunity. Already he has had the vision to declare that economic unrest has its root in the worker’s dissatisfaction with his own status. Now he proposes to transform that status within the vast amalgamation of which he is the bead. Two qualities distinguish his co-partnership scheme. First, a financial advantage, definite, substantial, and permanent, is given to the employee as against the ordinary investor. Secondly, tho immense capital of Imperial Chemi-, cals permits this advantage to be given on a scale truly nationaL Sfif Alfred is not a member of the Government. But he wields a power in industry greater than that of any Minister and he is using it with ad eye to the public welfare and in an effort to give body to the hope everywhere cherished after the war.”—• “Daily Express.” The Sermon on the Mount.

“Quite recently I was startled by, some words I received in a letter from a friend of mine, who is not quite the ordinary man-in-the-street, but a distinguished literary man in the United States. ‘I remember a few months ago,’ he wrote, ‘hearing someone say that the time will come when' we will tune in and hear Lincoln’s speech at Gettysburg. Shaving a. couple of mornings ago, the thrilling thought came to me that, maybe, some day we could hear Christ’s sermon on the Mount. Certainly a startling and daring thought, showing the length to which the imagination of man has reached under the stimulus of these new discoveries. But supposing we did hear the Sermon on the Mount spoken as it was first spoken with its message to humanity? Should we, after our first emotion, pay any more attention to its precepts? Should we be any meeker and kinder in our human relationships? Should we be less greedy and passionate, and selfish and cruel? We may still read the Sermon on the Mount, but it doesn't seem to make much difference to our way of life, taking the present stage of Christendom. Would hearing it again change the moral standards of mankind?”—Sir Phillip Gibbs. Company Mergers and the Public. “It is debatable whether some recent mergers have operated for the benefit of the public. The great railway groups are not held by many traders to Be as efficient in service as were the smaller companies. Banks which have by amalgamation removed the recognised control from a particular trading vicinity are accused of having introduced a more rigid trading relationship which adversely affects both customers and staff.' These matters are arguable. Certainly the textile trade with its dependence upon originality of design and pattern might soon overpass the point which divides the advantages of merger from its disadvantages. As a people we are not regimented and disciplined in trade as are some other nations. If amalgamations can affect working economies without imposing monopolistic discipline upon the consumer or a deadening regimentation on the worker, it would be folly for any merely sentimental reasons to oppose them. But no amalgamation or proposed merger should be viewed without very critical examination in order to detect potentialities not only of .economies, but of definite disadvantages first to' the public and eventually by a natural reaction to. those combining.”—“Yorkshire Post.”-

The Delusion of Bigotry. “It may be truly said that when the devoted Anglican, or Methodist, or Baptist, or any other, cherishes the notion that if only all other Christians shared his convictions, and endorsed his attitudes, the millennium M ould be at hand—he is as deluded as the child who, because he loves the grass-green fields, wishes all the light Were green about him day by day. The seven distinct colours are beautiful enough in a rainbow—but the world’s work cannot be done in its light, be it ever so brilliant. As each colour contributes its share to the beneficent whole which brightens our life, so may there well issue from tbe different creeds and lives of ‘the seven churches’ a truer and fuller witness to Christian truth than could ever lie borne by any one of them aloue.”—Dr. Ballard.

Business and the Empire. “The prosperity of the nation and of the Empire hangs upon the economic use of its material resources. If private ownership is to continue to be the basis of our economic life, the individual owner of wealth and the individual owner of a business must recognise that in return for public recognition of his right to remain in possession, he has a national duty to manage his private property and his business in a rational way, with an eye to the welfare of the whole community. Private waste is a sin against the public good, and private mismanagement of a business or industry is paid for not only by the individual, but also by the nation at large.”— “The Round Table.”

Food, for Thought. “In 1926 there was a remarkable increase in the claims for sickness and disablement benefit. The record of 1927, however, has proved to be even worse than that of 1926. If 100 be taken as the normal figure for claims, the index for 1926 is 113.5. and for 1927 it is 117.75. It is not in tlie interest of anyone to try to hush up the fact Unit there is an excessive amount of malingering, under cover of medical certificates too indulgently granted. It looks as if the industrial distress of 1926 had encouraged nullingering, and that the practice then acquired has been improved upon in the past yearX'Wheii public money is being distributed, there are always people who will take unfair advantage of it, and although the Insurance Fund is only in part public money, it is an open chest for those who can wangle a medical certificate.” —"The Scotsman.”