VOICE OF THE WORLD

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 111, 13 May 1933, Page 16

VOICE OF THE WORLD

A member of a delegation of farmers . from Ulster who visited Applying Denmark has been givKnowledge. ing his opinions of the Danes in the "Farming Journal" (Belfast). The following arc quotations from the article:—"The people seemed to be well dressed and there was none of that idle ne'er-do-well element that is only too common at the street corners of our own cities and large towns. . . . Every inch of land seemed utilised for cropping. . . . As far as we could see the greater number of the farmsteads had been built inside a period of approximately the last fifteen years. . . . Nearly every farmhouse has its telephone. . . . Before visiting Denmark some of us were led to understand that the standard of living was much lower than at home. This did not appear to be the case. If anything, I would say tho opposite is true. People in all walks of life seem to be well dressed; they seem to consume more food and have a greater variety of it than is usual hero .... they rise early and work late, and in working at their daily occupations it seems to be not only their means of livelihood, but their recreation and enjoyment as well. They love the beautiful; they have a constant desire to improve on past attainments and do everything better than before. They have an appetite for learning and self-improvement that could probably not be excelled anywhere in the world. The lessons they learn in satisfying this natural appetite for learning they put into practice. Here is the secret of Denmark's success and the means by which Denmark's agricultural produce has conquered the markets of the world. In all the methods relating to production and nearly all the methods of marketing and distribution, there is nothing known in Denmark but is already known at home. The difference lies in the fact that the Dane applies the knowledge that he has learned, and, speaking generally, we not only lack the Danish appetite for learning but we also are far too slow to apply that knowledge which we already possess or can get for the asking. In making sweeping and far-reaching statements like these I realise that I may be poking a hornet's nest and bringing down criticism on my own head, but that is how the whole position appears to me, and on that opinion I take my stand whether it is palatable or not." ♦ * • "What is happening to the scent of the flowers?" asks Dr. The Vanishing Frederick Graves in Scent. "Chambers' Journal." " When I was a child a pot of musk on a cottage window-sill or a box of mignonette would scent the whole room—even the entire house. But now the rose, the violet, the carnation, the sweet brier, even tho sweetpea do not seem to exhale that strong and characteristic perfume of the oldtime blooms. Wallflowers are growing scentless, and it is said that' in some districts the lily of the valley has lost some of its one-time strong scent. One can understand how the highly-culti: vated and hybridised forms -of the garden and greenhouse bloom have lost some pf their properties, since it seems that Nature will not stand too much interference, and wo must pay in some form for the extra size and colour, etc., of the show bloom and the gorgeous new varieties. But the humble wayside flowers of the countryside? Why is the wood violet, the meadowsweet, the honeysuckle, each in its turn, with many others, apparently gradually growing scentless? Is it due to some change in our climate, the greater chemicalising of our atmosphere, the busy fertilisation of the bees and other insects? iAnd if the last, how is it that it should be happening only now?" *' * • For various reasons industrial research is hot undertaken in Industrial Great Britain to anyBesearch. thing like the extent : that it is in competitor countries such' as the United States of America and Germany, state Professor N. E." Gibbs and Mr. A. J..V. Underwood, of the London University, in a leter to "Tho Times." In some instances this neglect of research has been due to an excessive individualism on the part of manufacturers engaged in the same,industry. A further factor has been the failure of some research organisations to justify the expectation of those who established them. Generally they failed either because they were badly conceived or because they were entrusted to workers who, either by temperament or training, were not suitable for the work. A manufacturer lias been known to establish a research laboratory much in the spirit of the, man who mounts a beautiful mascot on the radiator of his car; it looks well, and might biing him luck! Another has regarded his laboratory •primarily as a special show place with 'which to impress visitors or prospective customers. In many cases the failure of a research laboratory to be of real service to industry has been due to lack of industrial training and outlook in the members of the research staff.

Replying for the Government in the second reading debate Agricultural on the Agricultural Marketing. Marketing Bill in the House of Commons,, Mr. Ormsby-Gore said that Socialism provided no alternative to the Bill. Socialism had been proved in practice to make a hash both of production and distribution. The Government believed that if the State itself went into business, either as a land owner or a middleman, it would make a failure and hash of it. One of the most suc-cessfully-conducted Government businesses was the Crown Lands Department, yet the income account showed receipts of £32,697 and payments of £66,886 on the farms in hand. That was a loss of £34,000 on the nationalised farms. All over the country land was steadily deteriorating as an inevitable consequence of the fall in prices. In this Bill the Government was, quite frankly; building "on the foundations laid by Dr. Addison in ; his Bill. The catastrophic fall in agricultural prices was the major cause of industrial unemployment. They had got. to shed Victorian economics once and for all and to go forward to the organisation of markets and a world .planning in those matters. That would be the great thing that would prevent the hideous spectre of State Socialism coming about. The Government was quite determined that it was impossible to expect producers in this country to work marketing reform successfully if at any moment they could bo overwhelmed by unexpected gluts of imports. But while Clause I gave powers to the President of the Board of Trade, the Government meant to continue wherever possible to work by voluntary agreement with the foreign countries, as had been done in the case of meat and was being negotiated in the case of butter. It would only be in exceptional cases that there would be final reference to the Board of ■'Trade-, for executive action. It was quite obvious that they could not have import control regulations without corresponding market regulations for" the home product. , . ;; • - '* , *-' ■■ . "During the short time I was in ,- , .■Geneva,'.' says > Mr. 8. Geneva Lacks Bruce, Australian MinisInitiative, ter in London, in a letter ' to the Australian Prime Minister covering his report on the Thirteenth Assembly of the League of Nations, "I was very much impressed by the distinctly, European character of all the proceedings. This was particularly in evidence in the Economic and Financial Committee, and, while I felt called upon to challenge the apparent tendency of European countries to disregard the interests of nonEuropean, members of the League, several of my colleagues found it necessary to take similar action in other Committees. I cannot help feeling that the principle of the universality of the League should be more in evidence at Geneva, and that, in this connection, the interests of overseas countries will need most careful watching in the future. I feel perfectly convinced that the principles for' which the League stands ar© sound, but I think greater efforts should bo made at these annual conferences to translate theory into practice. The outstanding feature of Geneva today is the facility with which formulas are evolved, but in my opinion it is not sufficient to pay merely lip service to the ideal. Transcending all other considerations must be the fixed determination actually to achieve, and in this respect there appears to bo a definite disinclination on the part of the majority of States members to take the initiative." ♦t * ' In a farewell speech in London, Mr. A. W. Mellon, the AmeThe Enduring rican Ambassador, who Bond. has now relinquished the post, said: "I do not need to assure you that, whatever administration may be in power at Washington, the-- corner-stone of America's foreign policy will continue to .be friendship and close co-operation with the British people. During the two years when we were associated together in the war, we found our spiritual union with you a happy one because both nations held the same beliefs as to fundamental things such as honour, liberty, and honest dealing between men and nations, and 'a decent regard for the opinion of mankind.' These things are not less important now than they have ever been, nor arc England and America less necessary to each other if, by working together, we are to make our standards of conduct prevail throughout a disillusioned and chaotic world. Eeal friendship is based not on expressions of mutual regard, which may mean little or nothing, but on working together in some common task towards some not impossible ideal which, as one of our great masters of English prose once said, can carry us year after year through the routine work which is so large a part of life. It is on such a basis, that our friendship rests, and it is the best and most enduring bond that can exist between two great and independent nations." I