OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 184, 2 May 1931, Page 20

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

The Passionate Reader. - ' “Passionate readers are a species apart,” Mr. Holbrook Jackson says In his “Anatomy of Biblomonla,” "finding their sustenance in the printed word, as plants imbibe air and fishes animalculae; they do not look upon life with their own eyes, but through the the eyes of books, as through an optical glass, magnifying, intensifying, distorting or glorifying, according as they fancy itj or sometimes they eschew all common affairs and use books as kaleidoscopes to make for their own delight fantastic patterns which they use as substitutes for life. They become natives Of a world, of books, creatures of the printed word, and to the end cease to be men, as, by gradual metastasis, they are resolved into bookmen: twice-born, first of woman (as every man) and then of books, and, by reason of this, unique and distinct from the rest,"' - • A "Neglected Text Book.” : - :

“In ths natural sciences we see to-day a remarkable confluence of all the sep- z urate streams of knowledge and inquiry. Matter is gravitating from all directions toward what a layman might describe.as the most'mysterious and ‘spiritual’ of-its forms. Is there not traceable a similar ■ convergence and focusing together of all the various studies and sciences which have to do with human activity—economics, sociology, politics, psychology, and the rest? Are we not waiting for. the moment when an age already driven out of the habit of virtual godlessness by science and experience alike will acknowledge that all these departmental efforts, to find and smooth the way of human life are ‘comprised within the single science of theology’—that science which still has- for its classic, though' neglected, text book the Christian Scriptures, the record of .God’s supreme revelation of llimself Bishop of Ripon.’ Domestic Service.

Domestic service may give wages and conditions superior to those of factory work and yet fail to attract because it does not offer the same kind of standards of-hours and right to an independent, free life which most kinds of industrial employment give. There is little real reason why, domestic service should not be made both economically and socially attractive if we start out from ■ the idea that it lacks something which even the poorest factory job has and we try to supply it. Bitt there is a good deal of ice to be broken, and a good many traditional views bn both sides of the kitchen threshold will have to be readjusted before we can look confidently on domestic service of the old type offering much of an outlet for surplus female labour. —“Manchester Guardian.”

\ ; ... A Sight for'Gods and Men.

“What a spectacle for the man ip the street, for the worker, who is threatened by unemployment, and who must contribute from his miserable pence to a war budget of' 1,200,000,000 francs, without counting the gendarmerie and the military-items scattered in other budgets,, above all, without counting the; crushing burden of the debts left to us by the last war which was .to end war; what a spectacle, I say: M. Hymans rer turns from Geneva with one of the 27 olive-branches of the European Union, and during this time M. de Broquevjlle, his colleague during the war, demands an additional 1,300,000,000 francs, for armaments and fortifications,” writes Emile Vandervelde on Belgium’s policy .in the “Labour Magazine.” “The Disarmament Conference is convened for next year, and meanwhile, In an atmosphere poisoned byfear and reciprocal -mistrust, all the Governments, apart from a few neutrals and the British Labour Government, are vieing with one another and Increasing their armaments;” - -

A Convert to Tariffs. “'fhe historic and sound objection to tariffs that no one had the- intelligence or pluck to take them off at the right time, might bo got over if they were made dependent upon the very -change' in the price level which had made them necessary. Economists had always recognised that a properly arranged tariff might secure gains for a time, or prevent damage, but up to now these advantages had never 1 been worth, the risks involved. Those risks arose first from the universal experience, that a tariff could not be properly devised and politically undebnuehed—would not, in . short, be economically wise; and.second, that no political machine could be trusted to remove duties at the economic moment. These risks were as great as ever. But the points to Be gained were to-day. very great, and the risk of doing nothin!! were so serious that these old risks must be faced.” — Sir Josiah Stamp, hitherto against tariffs, reported in the “Oldham Standard.” : - . A Duke on Women and the Church. “We say young, men receive a call to the ministry. How do we know that young women do not abb receive a call to God’s service? If it be right .to'rejoice and welcome young men Who. look to the Church as their vocation in life, why should it not be equally-’right to do the same in respect of young women? Are we really t<? believe that just because a woman Is a woman she must be "for ever denied the opportunity to serve God from within His Church? Surely not; fo»|t has been written, ‘AU are equal in the sight of God,’ It is common-’knowledge that there are mission societies;' and church councils and committees open to women —but that is not the same thing, if women were eligible to the eldership and occupied ,seats in Kirk Sessions, H is almost certain there would he a greatly awakened Interest in the activity Of the Church.”—The Duke of Montrose. ‘ Hot Water.

“The methods of heating water I consider the most important question of the day, It affects people’s outlook, tempers, and general comfort, • Until a really satisfactory method is found, I don’t think there will be any ‘centre of rest,’ l could expand at some length on the various ways of achieving hot water—-kettles, geysers, caliphonts, electric tanks, coke burners, kitchen ranges, and the ‘Constant Hot Water’ much advertised by the bouse agent, and which is seldom constant,'though sometimes hot, and anyhow a rare feature In fiats. The whole question is one i consider fundamental to- the happiness and cleanliness of .the human race, hence, mj: Interest-in discussing It-with both friends and acquaintances."—Miss Rose Macaulay.

Violent Language. “I see no difference to principle between advocating acta of violence and using words of violence,” says Dr. Richard Roberts in the “New Outlook.” "It seems to me that an • orthodox politician who uses words of violence breaks the democratic covenant as surely as a revolutionary radical who advocates acts of violence. The part that fierce personal denunciation plays in our political life is as dangerous to the integrity of democracy as the provocative utterances of a wild anarchist .There is no difference to principle between the man who hits his opponent with heated opprobrium and the man who hits him on the head with a club. And if a Communist or anarchist uses violent language on the platform, be is no worse than; the Conservative or Liberal who does the same thing. Ido not know of any reform that Is so greatly needed in our political life as the elimination of denunciation and all fortns of verbal violence from public debate.” The Architect.

“Of all artists the architect has the greatest influence ou our everyday lives,” writes Mr. Chester H. Jones, F.S.A., in the "Cornhill Magazine.” “His. buildings line the streets which he has failed to plan, and .punctuate the countryside which he has failed to ■save. The alarm-clock, which wakes us in the morning, brings us face to face, with his art, and we look upon it till we rewind the alarm-clock in the evening. The works of the painter can be turned to the wall or relegated to the public art gallery; the works of the musician can be.left unplayed ;i but the works of the architect are always with us.” Women and War. ♦

“The women of this nation realise,” said Mrs. Manning, M.P., in her maiden speech in the House of Commons; “that they see to-day growing up a generation which does not know the meaning of war, because it has never seen war—a generation of young men and young women who, if they are brought in the future to the verge of that cataclysm which we had to face in 1914, will face it as we faced it in those days, believing that it will give them the tang of a high adventure, believing that it will give them the opportunity of a supreme sacrifice. They will not see the horror, because they have never known it,.and, like us in 1914, they will plunge over the brink. We, the women of the nation, desire to see such safeguards as shall protect that pathetic innocence and that pathetic inexperience.”

Lowest Tax in the World, "Sometimes in this House,” said Mr. Mander, M.P., speaking in Parliament,’ "and quite recently, we have heard the cry raised, that the League of Nations is costing us a tremendous lot of money. Is it realised in fhis House and to the country that we are spending 1000' times as much on preparation? for war as we are in preparing for peace through our contributions to the League of Nations? Out. of every pound'that-Js' spent by the/State 14 shillings goes either in payment for past wars or .in preparation for fresh wars. Only 1/6 goes for education and only one-eighth of a-farthing is the contribution to the League pf Nations. If wo consider these figures we cannot but feel that there is tremendous room for the readjustment of the proportion that is spent as between preparations for peace and wpr.” The American Dilemma.

“America qinnot be a world-power In the economic sense without becoming a world-power in the political sense, with.air the obligations and responsibilities which that status involves. As one American writer pithily expressed it: ‘We are. trying to run a twen-tieth-century industrial world with eighteenth-century political ideas. . . The United States continues to live in the intellectual atmosphere of Jeffersonian 1 individualism. Its administrative system is roughly, the same as in the days of Jackson. Its philosophy of international relations is inherited from Hamilton. It repeats the Declaration of Independence as if nothing had happened since 1776. . . . It

does not see—at least it will not admit —that the advice contained in Washington's farewell address Is,as obsolete as the stage coach. in which he rode from' New York to Philadelphia.’ “The Round Table.” The Hope of Russia.

“Russia cannot be destroyed. Her dynasty, her nobility, her intelligentsia, and many of her best workmen have been decimated, terrorised, or exiled, <so that these valuable political ami Cultural forces are temporarily in abeyance. But the 120 millions of Russian peasants remain where they wdre, and, in their immense majority, what they were. The Russian peasant is patient, long-suffering, and strong. He lives now under the shadow of alien fanatical Qommunispi apd, being practically reduced to serfdom, ja yet’ to suffer under a process of tyrannical vivisection during the newly - invented Bolshevist quinquennium (1929-1933). This also, he will outlive and see its end, But until be obtains what he bus always wanted—‘land and liberty’— and as long as Russia’continues to be half-starved, half-ruined, ’ financially unreliable,, half-paralysed as to her 'import and export trade, and. totally addicted to revolutionary Communist propaganda ‘abroad, while foreign Governments are toying with the Bob shevlst menace, the world will know no security and no rest.’’ —Mr. V. Tcharykow, in his book, “Gllmp'ew of High Politics." . Spiritual Bankruptcy. ’

“Nature was never meant as an auxiliary to our banking system, but that by co-operation with her we might have more life and fuller," said the Rev. Arthur Hird, at the recent Free Church Council Conference. "It is evident that >ve have ample power for all the ndeds of mail. Is It not equally evident that we have more power than we know what to do with? It is Imperative that we find out what we-are going to do with ft or it win do something final to us. No Malthusian caleu lations of growing population can make our flesh creep, and the eugenists leave us unconvinced on this point, \Vc can always produce enough food, clothes, shelter... But if we become spiritually bankrupt we may—indeed, must —ruin ourselves just as effectively, nay, more disastrously, than if we starved for lack of bread.”