HOPEFUL SIGNS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 56, 4 September 1945, Page 5

HOPEFUL SIGNS

PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE

There were two hopeful signs in a world full of critical problems, said the Rev. Gladstone Hughes, preaching in St. John's Presbyterian Church on Sunday.

"The first is a more adequate understanding of the motives of evil, or, at least, of some of its manifestations," he said. "Our generation could say: 'We have seen evil in more horrible and more dramatic form than any previous generation.' They are, therefore, in a better position to recoil from it, to guard against its ravages, and to root out its causes both in their individual lives and in the life of the community. They have a more compelling motive to establish more just relationships with their fellow-men and with other nations, and to respect everywhere the fights of men."

The second was a growing sense of corporate responsibility. President Truman's refusal to institute courtsmartial to try the men who were supposed to be immediately responsible for the failure and tragedy of Pearl Harbour, he said, was something entirely new in the world. He gave as his reason the fact that the whole nation was responsible. That indicated a national desire to think straight vand to act with justice and charity. It might be possible to translate into, the national purpose the highest ideals and standards of conduct which are operative in the lives of individuals.