TOAST OF THE PRESS

Evening Post, Volume 32, Issue 32, 6 August 1931, Page 20

TOAST OF THE PRESS

THE CHANGING WORLD

SHAW AT A LUNCHEON

JOURNALISTS FUNCTION

(From "The Post's" Renr«ientatlv«.) LONDON, 10th June. ' Mr. G. B. Shaw was the'chief guest at a luncheon given by the London District of the Institute of Journalists. He proposed ''The Profession of Jour-, nalism." * ' ■ ''Journalism. ' largely' provides the minds for the public 'off this country," he said, *'and. most'people have minds ■which have,been made up on a model which is Beveral hundrod years out of date, or else they have no minds at all. (Laughter.-) -The difficulty about that 5s a difficulty which' in modern scientific language .''phraseology I must call the time-lag< . < "Take my own case., lam a journalist and,'nothing else. lam not one of those men of letters who devote their lives to saying things beautifully, and not caring what they are saying, provided it 'is something well worn. (Laughter.) * I do not bother myself about that. "What I have got to do is to tell people the facts about life and its meaning in our 'own time, as we exist; and my business is to' impress all this as forcibly; as I possibly-can and as intelligently. ' That is"" tot :Bay, I am a journalist. "I had rather a rough time, and unfortunately Naturo has constituted me in such a way that when a thing happens I perceive that it has happened. Most people take a period according.to the subject. ■ Most of the people with the least time-lag it'ake about twenty years, and most of the newspapers take twenty years, like the rest. (Laughter.) Imagine me trying to make my living as a journalist, and my always being '-.twenty years ahead of the newspapers. ,(L~oud laughter.) "The whole difficulty is that the public have got a terrible time-lag, and the great duty of journalists is,'if possible, to abolish it. They must make people understand that the world is continually changing, and there is no good trying to go on with the ideas that were obsolete before they were born." {Laughter.) t RUSSIAN SOVIET. , Speaking 6i the Buasian revolution, Mr. Shaw said: "The PreßS has.not yet recognised that that revolution has taken place. In 1878, when Lord Salisbury was the "English Foreign Ministor, ho had, for any aristocrat and a diplomatist, an exceptionally intelligent mind; but he refused to allow England to be represented at the French Exhibition because Prance was a 1 repiibli& He was convinced' that the Bourbons, or at least the "Bonapartes, jvould come back and organise the return of the old regime. He was nearly, a century out \oi Sate." ~ , > ' "... Washington, you will remember, was one of the blackest scoundrels that ever existed, and Tom Paine was anl! atheist whose books the police chassd'about, ft took W a very long time to recognise that the United States was a republic come to stay. Lord Salisbury probably never found out that;-the French republic had come to stay. "We have no,t found out-yet that tile Eussian Soviet has come to stay, and as a consequence we have thrown away not only one of the most magnificent commercial chances that any of us could ever hope to1 see in our lifetimes, but also -the -great opportunity pf-helping- to buHd up this republic." 1 ; >E&forring to Germany and Austria,

Mr. Shaw begged those present not to start a time-lag about the Customs "Union, lately effected botweon them, be'eauso it was bound to come, and not only an economic but a national union as well.

"They arc bound to unite,", he said. | "Every person who has not got a bad time-lag must havo recognised at once that they havo done it, and we nave got to accept it. We havo not only thrown away a tremendous commercial opportunity, but thrown away a political friendship which may bo of the greatest possible valuo to us. Our political -friendships in the futuro cannot bo with the Plantagencts, the Bourbons, the Valois, and tho Komanoffs. They will bo with modern republics, and a largo number of them involving, like our own country, a very great deal of Communism which we cannot possibly do without for a single week." Speaking of tho wireless as a possible competitor sto journalism, Mr. Shaw-said}' ' \■■ , J'Tou cati hear exactly what sort of man:'it'is who is speaking. People for whonftwe 'write never know the sound of our-voices. I even think that journalistsv ought to bo made to go about the city in a'largel car in the style'of a circus, labelled, .'These are tha .men whose leading articles you havo* been, reading.' " (Loud 'laughter.) "The moral of it,all is that we have got to abolish: our time-lag, face tho future, and stop dreaming about1 tho past. I beg to propose the Profession of Journalism. God help it." ,'' And with a great laugh the toast.wag duly' honoured, , ■ , Sir Thomas ,Wilford, High' Commissioner for New, Zealand, was among the guests. V, Y\- ' ' ,',._,, ME. SHAW'S DELUSIONS. . The "Daily Telegraph" takes ■ Mr.Shaw to task'-for'loose thinking and inaccurate statements. - , "Many of us (says the 'Telegraph'),' may fail to discover the' importance, of this or that new fact till we see it in the distance. Quite 'as many of ,us are inclined to exaggerate the significance of the new until the perspective of time has reduced it to its essential futility. - Mr. Shaw prides himself on his ability to see at once that-a-thing has happened. But it is of-even more importance to. see it of the right size. "His examples' of the blindness'of the others were not fortunate. He told us that the late Lord Salisbury 'refuged to allow England to be represented at the French Exhibition of 1878,» because in. his aristocratic. stupidity ■'he could not perceive" that the French Be-, public had come to stay. It'happens, ho\gever,"that the United Kingdom was represented at that Exhibition,' ■ a Eoyal'Commission, with the Prince of Wales as 'president, organising the display at a charge on the public .funds^ Mr. Shaw is no nearer reality in ,his< contemporary history^. Our.failure,to see the trite value of the Kussian Bevolution has, he instructs us, lost'us a , magnificent commercial-opportunity and- an invaluable national friendship. The magnificence of commerce with those Awhoi only 'engage* upon if in- otdor, r as' they give ample notice, to i 'destroy the business and the peace and order of the rest of the, world' is not seen; by jl those who see things* as they are. In Nhf6 sentimental adoration of Bolshevism Mr.:Shaw<-displays' himself suffering painfully from-this delusion of •the'*time lag!*'* ' •

Newtowa Alpha Branch, G.U.0.0J?,, held its1 usual meeting;last, week, ?Bro. Dandy, N.G., presiding1 And BroVKnight, P.N.G., supervising. ■ -Bros.. Murphy and Harnor (Loyal William' Bain Branch) were among the visitors. 4 Bro.1 Byde, District "Master; and Sister Hooper," District Trustee, paid an official visit and were accorded lodge honours. A number of visitors from the Star of Newtown also attended.. Two^members' were, reported on < the sick list and payment was pawed accordingly,, \ .. Harmony,- concluded a• very pleasant evening. N' v ", i )