CAMPAIGN AGAINST NOISE

Evening Star, Issue 22031, 17 May 1935, Page 14

CAMPAIGN AGAINST NOISE

A DIFFICULT PROBLEM MOST LIKELY SOLUTION PERHAPS AN ETHICAL ONE “ It is quite evident that large numbers of people, especially young people, enjoy noise. There are thousands who apparently cannot appreciate the simplest meal without the accompaniment of a band. There are other thousands who find the sea or the river or .the mountain top unendurable without a gramophone, and who demand a wireless set to mitigate the solitude and quiet of the motor car. To these bright spirits complaints about noise are seemingly meaningless or merely humorous —like jesting Dilates they ask: ‘ What is noise ? ’ And certainly wait for no answer.”—Sir Henry Richards. C. 8.. LL.D. “ But it is a question that we must take more seriously. What, indeed, is noise? ” asked Sir Henry Richards, chairman of the Executive Committee, Anti-noise League, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts. “ Let us be frank. Any exact, scientific, or satisfying definition is not possible. In this, as in other matters, one man’s food is another man’s poison. “It was Spurgeon who, being asked the difference between noise ■ and music, replied: ‘ “ Music ” is the sound which our own children make as they romp through the house; “noise” is the sound which other people’s children make under the same cix-cumstanees.’ I fear wo can get no further than saying that ‘ noise ’ is unwanted sound, and it is unwanted when it is too loud or too shrill or too sporadic and un-cei-tain. In other words, it is a question of volume of sound, pitch of sound, and ambiguity of sound—i.o., when it is uncertain or unexpected and lacks the soothing effect of ihythm. . “ The dictionary will probably tell yoix it is a glamour, a din, an outcry which causes disgust and annoyance, but perhaps we can leave it at that. “ Most of ns, who are neither physicists nor psychologists nor technicians, but ordinary people, know quite well what wo mean by noise, though it is quite possible wo become conscious of it gradually or in times of illness or mental fatigue. “ With most of us a half-conscious malaise develops into recognition of the source of the trouble and a realisation that large numbers of fellow sufferers have passed through a similar experience and are facing the same problem. I feel that it is a little unkind of a recent investigator to suggest that sensitiveness to sound is a sign of neurosis. “It is not a crime to be sensitive to foul smells or ugliness of any kind, nor do I esteem my sensibility excessive if I shrink from the torture of the Klaxon any more than when I feel repelled by a foul smell or the sight, let us say, of an empty salmon tin on a mountain height. THE VOLCANIC DIN. “ Recently the University of Oxford has been good enough to make a generous contribution to the expenses of the Anti-noise League. I interpret that gift as a sign that the teachers of that ancient seat of learning are well awaro of the need of some check on the growing plague of noiso, even amid their peculiarly favoured surroundings. Reading the reminiscences of Dr Farnell, the late rector of Exeter College, [ noticed that in the early part of his career he, attributed the too prevalent intellectual slackness around him to the Oxford climate, but in his later years he refers more than ever to another cause, ‘ the volcanic din,’ as he calls it, of the Oxford streets. “ On this particular topic I can talk with the knowledge of nearly forty years of educational administration, and I can say quite sincerclv that the noisy situation of our town schools results in a lamentable waste of teaching power. With open windows in hundreds of classrooms instruction is impossible. Tim windows arc closed, the air becomes foul, and lassitude is added to nerve strain. “ It would be interesting to know to what degree the frequent nervous breakdowns that now afflict the teaching profession are due to the roar of traffic or the din of industry. “ In any case, the loss of teaching and learning power must be enormous. Noise is an expensive luxury, and it discounts the benefits of the most efficient staff and the most elaborate equipment. MATERIAL, MENTAL. AND MORAL UNQUIET. “1. commend this question of noise to the consideration of the Board of Education and the Local Education Authorities. “ Is there no connection between the material and the mental and moral unquiet which shakes the whole world—that universal restlessness which seems literally afraid of quietude and reflection ? “Sound.and movement do appear to play an extraordinary important part in political developments, and great European convulsions are accompanied by ceaseless bands, processions, and dramatic salutations. Whether noise is the cause or effect of this world-wide abandonment of. the tranquillities and harmonies of life it is hard to say, but of this I feel convinced. A campaign for peace and quiet in our streets and roads is not without its political. and social significance. “ In theory, as I understand it, excessive noiso is hardly over beyond the roach of the law. In practice it often is. ' In order to bo within the reach of the law noise must amount to a nuisance in the legal sense or offend againstsomo statute. “ Nuisances are of two kinds, public and private; if public, it is a misdemeanour for which an indictment will lie at common law, but otherwise the only remedy is a civil action. We have, therefore, in one way or another, legal remedies which appear to cover all contingencies. And yet for a multitude of reasons these remedies are partially ineffective. i

DEALING WITH THE OFFENDERS. What are the factors which contribute to this ineffectiveness?

“ (1) The first is the cost of proceedings, a cost which may be worth incurring in the case of a nuisance that has come to stay, but not worth while in the case of a visiting nuisance, or, rather, a nuisance by a series of visitors who succeed one another in rapid succession.

“ (2) The second factor is reluctance to prosecute. “ (3) The third unwillingness to give evidence.

“ (4) The difficulty of catching offenders. especially at night. “ Finally, there is always a reluctance to enforce the law unless it is supported by public opinion. Sir Homy Maine long ago pointed out, ‘ for every man who keeps the law through conscious fear of punishment, there may he hundreds who do so as it were instinctively and without a thought on the subject.’ This law-

abiding spirit owes its origin very largely to the enforcement of law over a long period of time. Accordingly, laws but not enforced impair the law-abiding spirit. “ We come, therefore, at long last to the only real remedy in this country, the force of public opinion. Let me summarise the points on which we seek to concentrate public attention. “ Noise has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished. “ We realise that much of this noise is unavoidable, but we also maintain that much of it is quite unnecessary. Coincident with this rising tide of noise is the fact that in neither town nor country is there any harbour of refuge. GETTING OUT OF HAND. “ In the country remoteness is no longer a protection. In the towns our houses—light and airy as they may be —no longer mask the sounds, either of impact or vibration. “ Like ribbon development, this disease is getting out of hand. Noise, like other things, creates vested interest. Its harmfulness is scarcely in dispute. Unconsciousness of noise and apparent ‘ adaptation ’ to noise is no protection from its effects. “ The effects of noises have been described as merely ‘ emotional/ but emotion is only the end product of the process. Long before the emotions are' disturbed there are disturbances expressed in heightened pulse rates, irregularities in heart rhythm, and increase of pressure in the brain itself. “ Even to the so-called insensative temperament noise is harmful—to the sensativo it is torture, to the sick and ailing it may be fatal. “To particular sections of the column nit.v—to brain workers and industrial workers, noise becomes a. social wrong. Noise is indeed a social and civic evil. It.takes its place with bad sanitation, bad bousing, rural pollution, as a crime against society. Moreover, there are remedies available, remedies which, as a matter fact, are not unusually costly. “ In this campaign against unnecessary noise we are entitled to appeal to the highest feeling of a community. So much of the evil arises from lack of consideration and patience. “In bis - notable speech to the Church Assembly,- the Bishop of Ely appealed to the community in its attitude to the horrible figures of deaths on the roads. Ho rightly maintained that a little more Christian charity might almost solve this terrible problem. The same consideration and charity would go a long way to solve the noise problem ,as well. “It is a problem involving many considerations, medical, scientific, industrial, and legal, but perhaps, afte” all, the most likely approach to a solution is an ethical one.”