LEADERS' THOUGHTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 35, 9 August 1913, Page 9

LEADERS' THOUGHTS

TOPICAL QUESTIONS (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 27th June. THE KAISER’S OARSMEN. Emperor William 11.. at the NorthGerman Regatta » “Germany has secured her place in the sun, and that not upon the bloody field and by the sword, but thanks to the wise, moderate, and yet powerful policy of the Emperor, the unity of the German Princes and races, and the scientific education and essential efficiency of the German people. Your Magnificence (the Burgomaster) mentioned just now the utterance of Admiral Seymour in 1900 (‘Germans to the front’), when the united white races had to measure themselves with the yellow race. I wish to put the finish to it by adding that the saying will hold good as long as such men as the late Herr Burchard can be found among us at the front. And now for the living! Thanatos, turn they face away! We are gathered. here once more on the blue water to measure our strength in storm and tempest and the breeze. Among the acts of homage to me at my Jubilee, I stiD see clearly the day at Grunau when the , representatives of more than 50,000 German oarsmen, with 630 boats and 3000 rowers, were present. From homes on the Rhine to homes on the Pregel they came—and from waters where, as the representative of the German rowing clubs could tell us, Germany has more rowing clubs than all Europe put together. That is a success of which I am proud. When I came to the Throne there were eight schools which devoted themselves to rowin. Now there are 360. That gives us the youth that we want. Not supermen, but healthy men, with healthy limbs and healthy moral views. And now this scene on the Elbe. Only to think of all that has happened here! It is my desire that the next 25 years may maintain the same ascending curve. That can only be if Heaven allows iis to enjoy peace as we have enjoyed it hitherto.” POLITICAL IDEALS. Lord Selborne- at the Junior Constitutional Club : “We (the Unionist Party) do not believe in the equality of men and women, because nothing; in Nature is equal, but we do believe that every Englishman or woman has an equal right of opportunity to rise to any height to which intellect and character will carry him. We believe that this right flows naturally from the duty which each one of us owes to his country. Each of us has received a priceless inheritance from his country, and what he should study is not how to get the most he can for himself out of his country, but what is the best he can give from himself to his country. The public enemy is the man (or woman) who leads a purely selfish life and gives no thought to his country or to his fellow countrymeii, and the richerthe man the greater his selfishness, because the more he has received from his country. That these considerations are of greater importance now than ever before in, the history of our country becomes evident when we pass to the contemplation of the great movement of the age in which we live. I mean the deep ground swell of labour unrest. It is of great importance that at this moment all should understand and sympathise with the meaning of the movement which we ijall ‘labour unrest’ and, understanding and sympathising, it is of supreme importance that they should have the courage to tell their poorer fellow-countrymen that real happiness lies not in materialism, but in duty fulfilled, and that this faith applied by the whole nation to the whole nation will give them, that fuller share of life which they seek. Nor can there be a shadow of doubt what should be the message we should deliver to the well-to-do classes. Noblesse oblige. I have spoken as an Englishman about England, but all that I have said is equally true of Wales, of Ireland, and of Scotland.” THE SEVENPENNY BOOK. Mr. Hall Caine, to the Associated Booksellers:—‘‘lt was to master the passion for reading books without buying them that publishers started the sevenpenny bound book. It is quite the most wonderful thing in the history of books. As one who has lived half his life in foreign countries, I say without fear that is nothing to compare with the British sevenpenny book in any other part of the world. Its influence in educating as well as amusing the public must be incalculable. If in the course of time-the British public is not the most widely-read public in the world it will not be the fault of British publishers and booksellers, who were giving them the masterpieces of literature, beautifully printed and bound, each at the price of a glass of brandy. But all this has its serious economic aspect for authors, publishers, and booksellers. The sevenpenny book is not an article of commerce which can stand by itself and give a living wage to everybody concerned in producing it. We cannot live by* the sevenpenny book alone, and, therefore, it is like the ivy, very beautiful to look at, but depending for its sup-, port on the thing it clings to, and rather apt to kill that thing in doing so. ’ I advise booksellers to turn their wives into readers, for if you want to know what the great wide public is going to say about a book (especially a novel) try it on a woman. And when I have had success it has always been from women that the first fruits of it have gome to me.” A COMEDIAN IN THE PULPIT. Mr. Harry Lauder, at Castle Green Congregational Church, Bristol: —‘‘Don’t forget, love, sociability begin at home, and I want to tell you, as a man who has had a vast experience over the world, there is no social life to be compared for effectiveness and beauty with that of the happy home circle. There are no friends like your father and mother, your sisters and brothers. I have no patience with the lad who cheeks his father and mother. I am proud to say I have a son who never spoke back to his mother or father in his life. To begin with, if he had done it and the comedian’s severe expression provoked a laugh which set him smiling again. “Look on the sunny side of life. I have always lived on that side of the street.” UNIONIST LAND POLICY. Lord Lansdowne, outlining Unionist policy:—“l have been told recently that we ought to be able to produce in these islands half the supply of wheat necessary for the people, but we produce only one-fifth. There are about three million acres of land fewer under cultivation than thirty years /ago, and the number of people employed on the land must have fallen in proportion. It should not be beyond our power to alter this condition without bursting up any system or any institution. I do not think that we want any further shocks to public confidence and particularly to agricultural confidence. I shall never Bay a word in derogation of the old British system of landlord .and tenants as

we have known it in past years. Where that system is properly administered I do not think you can have a better one. It has been vindicated by every commission of enquiry with regard to agricultural affairs. But I feel strongly that the time has come when we ought to supplement that admirable system by something of a different kind. Our opponents are in favour of a policy of tenancy as distinguished from a policy of ownership To that policy we oppose a policy of actual and complete ownership. We believe that ownership is better for the man; that nothing will make him so independent, so self-reliant, give him Such interest in his farm, such a sense of citizenship, as complete ownership of a few acres of land. This is not a mere dream. It is done in other countries. In Belgium and Denmark something like 88 per cent, of the land is cultivated by men who own it, the remaining 12 per cent, being in the position of tenants. With us it is exactly the opposite. We have 12 per cent, of ownership and 88 per cent, of tenancy. Wherever there is someone willing to sell, and a tenant farmer ready to buy, the Government should advance all the money at the lowest rate they can afford.”