THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 124, 19 February 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

"The no-blest word in the catalogue of social virtues is ‘Loyalty’.”—Ruskin.

"Hiller is doing just the reverse to what be expected to do. He only makes ns more determined than ever. I never thought that I should ever live to enjoy seeing so many wrecked Junkers, .Messerschmitts, Heinkels, etc., strewn about the countryside. It makes me wonder whether I am becoming a trifle barbaric, too.”—From a correspondent’s letter from London.

"We are witnessing in Europe a plot to murder civilization as systemati eally carried out us the bombing of Britain. The tragedy is too vast, too grotesque, too overshadowed by lhe battles in the foreground, to be fully taken in. It is proceeding nevertheless with relentless cruelty. Just enough filters through the veil of silence and censorship to make us aware that conditions in every occupied country are infinitely worse than we know or can imagine. "We are living in hell,” says a letter smuggled out of Warsaw and published in New York, and this statement of a group of tormented but defiant women applies not only to Poland. It is a literal description of the existence of millions of people immured in the Continent which has cradled the culture, the law and the humane tradition of mankind.”—“New York Times.”

"Our fathers devised a. certain constitutional machine which they believed would safeguard thi: independence, and at the same time permit the tasks of government to be adequately performed. That machine may have been too narrowly constructed ; in the interests of efficiency it may have to be drastically remodelled, for, as 1 have said, there is no plenary virtue in any one device. But what we must hold fast to is the truth that no machine can be per-, niitted to impair the freedom of the spirit and weaken the citizen’s responsibility toward that conscience and that reason which are the gifts of God. The danger, as I see it, comes from two sources. One I should call the peril of Mass. In our modern state, with its vast aggregations of human beings, we are apt to think too abstractly. Phrases like ‘the workers.’ ’the proletariat,’ ‘the bourgeoisie’ ‘the intellectuals,’ obscure reason. Instead of a number of living, breathing, enjoying, suffering individuals we think only of broad classes, and generalize about them with a fatal facility. It is due partly to a false scientific standpoint, which likes to deal with human nature in the lump. It is a dangerous tendency for the result is that the State is apt to be thought of as an end in itself, and .not as something which exists for the betterment of each citizen. The human lx'ing is obscured by the inhuman mass, —’.rite late Lord Tweedsinuir (Mr. John Buchan).

-The inability of the (American university) student, to realize the extent, to which purely American interests would suffer as a result of a British defeat is more puzzling. This failure, however, is also characteristic of many sections of American opinion. How far it can be attributed to the school histories, many of which have shown an cnti-British bias, I do not know. But it is certain that our American historians have not been willing to emphasize the plain historical fact that iu the past our security in the Atlantic has depended upon the existence of the British fleet, aud that with the rise of Japan aud the creation of the problem of Pacific defence the British Navy has necessarily become a vital part of American security. Uf all this the undergraduate, like many other Americans, have been completely unaware. It has taken a sense of imminent danger to awaken us to the truth. During the past twenty years there has been too much- stress upon the clever methods by which material success or high position can be attained and too little attention paid to the principles Ilia! make for good citizenship. There is need of constant historical emphasis upon rite efforts and sacrifices which iu the past have translated American ideals into fact.”—Principal Charles Seymour, President of Yale University (U.S.A.), in the “New York Times.”

"'I spy strangers.’ This formula, so typical, of Parliamentary tradition, symbolizes the inherent right of lhe House of Commons—as was its practice in olden times —to conduct its deliberations in private, b’vr a century the House lias recognized the presence of strangers, whose exclusion it had long maintained by Sessional Order, and though it lias never rescinded formally its decisions against the publication of debates, it has since I lie IStli century ignored them. But still it reserves to itself the right to sit within closed doors, shutting out public and Press. By ancient usage, secrecy could lie secured at any lime without tin order of the House. It was sullicient for E single Member to esp.i strangers. Thereupon the public and Press galleries were cleared. Later the existing title was adopted—and subsequently became a Standing Order—-by which tlte clearing of the galleries requires the assent of the House. In the present war recourse Ims been made frequently by the Commons to secret sessions. When half a dozen such sessions had been held in less than a year, differences arose about their propriety, and a debatable motion was submitted by Mr. Churchill in July, 1940. to test opinion. When discussion bad lasted a considerable lime, an unofficial Member brought, it to a close with the traditional phrase. '1 spy strangers' 'The Speaker having nt once put the question Unit strangers lie ordered to with draw, the House by a majority decided that they should.”—Sir Alexander Macintosli. in the "Daily Mail YemBook." Love. Utiii'k and Fttilli. Love, Hmi outreaches to the humblest things; Work that, is glad, in what it does and brings; Ami Faith that soars upon unwearied wings. Divine the Powers that on this trio wait. Supreme their eonquesi over lime and Fate; Love, Work, and Faith—these three alone. —Author Unknown.