QUAINT IDEAS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 112, 14 May 1934, Page 9

QUAINT IDEAS

Miss A. E. Phillips, president of the London Teachers' Association, in her presidential address at the annual conference, caused laughter by quoting from evidence given before a . Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1879. The inquiry concerned extravagant expenditure by the London School Board, and a witness said::—"Geography, sir, is Tuinous . in its effects on the lower classes. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are comparatively safe, but geography invariably leads to revolution. ... Physiology, besides being costly and useless, is an immodest subject. When the Author of the Universe lid the liver of man out of sight He did not want frail human creatures to see how He. had done it. . . . Grammar is an enervating exercise which the good sense of vestries has excluded from all parochial discussions. The whole effect, sir, of extra subjects is to diminish the fierce virtues of an ancient people. ... The dominating qualities of the race are passing away | day by day."i

pathetic towards Eoosevelt 5s internal policies,, was supremely concerned with his attitude to war debts, currency stabilisation, and tariffs. Here the American citizen could not see eye to eye with the foreigner. He perceived the debtor Powers spending vast sums on armaments, and could not realise that under existing circumstances debts could only be paid in goods, which America did not want. As to currency, America, like Britain, insisted that the individual nation must determine the time and level at which it, Bhould return to gold. The President's refusal .to- commit himself and the United States to a stabilisation policy at the London Conference of June and July, 1933, was a great disappointment to European Powers and to some of his closest advisers. As to tariffs, President Eoosevelt bowed for a time to the insistence of the adherents of high tariffs, but has recently requested Congress to agree to give him power to negotiate reciprocal trade treaties which must involvo an important modification of that policy, such as his own Democratic Party has for a long time favoured. PARTIAL SUCCESS. The National Eeeovery Administration and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration havo worked with partial but by no means completo success. Under expectations of inflation, stocks and commodities, had a sharp speculative rise, which could not bo maintained. "New Deal" plnngers such as Crawford were wrecked in a second slump. On the other hand, the great activity of General Johnson at the head of the N.E.A. led to the organisation of the great industries of the nation as they had never been organised before. Codes were applied in many industries, and the Blue Eagle campaign was supported for a time with intense patriotic fervour. Three types of agreement were established in lcsYng industries, permanent codes, voluntary re-employment agreements, and modifications of such voluntary agreements. Evasions, however, became only too frequent and varied. In some directions much industrial trouble was encountered, and tho means of assisting agricultural industries, by restriction and destruction of output under Government guarantee, was obviously uneconomical, though possibly necessary for the time. The farm belt, in the grip of mortgagees, demanded currency inflation, but up to the present with limited success.