LEADERS OF THE WORLD

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 June 1930, Page 8

LEADERS OF THE WORLD

WHERE ARE THE YOUNG MEN?

“The world is being ruled to-day by its old men. Few of the young hold foremost positions, either in politics, in literature, in business, or in any of the arts. Most of the members of the British Government are well above sixty, says a writer in “My Magazine.” “Mr Ramsay MacDonald is 63, Mr Clynes 61, Mr Snowden 65, Mr Arthur Henderson 66, and Lord Passfield 70. No one can complain that these men show-any lack of energy, despite their years. Three younger members of the Cabinet, Lord Thomson, Mr J. H. Thomas, and Mr Tom Shaw, total 168 years between them. Miss Bondfield, the greatly-re-spected woman member of the Cabinet, is comparatively a junior at 56. “The Conservative and Liberal leaders are nearly all well over 60. Mr Baldwin is 62, while Sir Austen Chamberlain is 66. Mr Lloyd George is 66. “Who are the younger politicians who may be expected some day to take their place? Sir Oswald Mosley, 'who is often patronised as though he were an inexperienced youth but is generally admitted to be the most brilliant of the younger men, is 33, the father of a family. Mr Jowitt, another young man for whom there are high hopes, is 44; while Mr DuffCooper, the rising star of the Conservatives,, is 39. Mr Wedgwood Benn is still regarded by some as a junior, actually he is 52. “Sir Robert Peel, after a brilliant university career, entered t Parliament at 21 and became Chief Secretary for Ireland when 24. At 27 he reorganised the Metropolitan Police. “Gladstone, an elegant, earnest, and high-principled young man, entered) the House at 23, and was known all over the kingdom within a year. Mr Winston Churchill saw active service in five campaigns before he was long out. of boyhood, and took his seat when 26, already a popular hero.

“Members of Parliament are now. as a rule, over 40 years old. The younger representatives of the people’ are expected to behave themselves quietly and modestly and to serve e long apprenticeship before asserting themselves. If they are restless and their friends are in power they are given minor posts, as Parliamentary Secretaries to Ministers/ which ensure them hard work and little chance o! distinction.

“In the earlier years of the Victorian Era youth certainly took a larger public place in public life than now. Spurgeon was a lad in his teens when he drew all London to hear him, Sunday after Sunday, at the Surrey Gardens Theatre. There has been no youthful preacher in our day approaching his fame. It may be said that there has been no youthful preacher of any prominence in recent years. We like our religious teachers to be mature.

“It is very hard to believe now that early in Queen Victoria’s reign the most influential newspaper in the world had as its editor a young man .of 23. Delane splendidly justified the choice, and in a very short time placed his paper at the highest pinnacle it had ever reached. “In literature men made their mark much earlier in the Victorian Age than when he was 21. Dickens stepped to fame when he was 24 with “Pickwick Papers.” Browning had made a great success at 25; Disraeli attracted the attention of the world as a novelist when he was only 20. Disraeli became wearied of public prominence before he was 21, and retired for nearly three years to the Continent. His political fame came later. “John Galsworthy is 67, and Rudyard Kipling is 64; Sir James Barrie is nearly 70. Sir John Lavery, the ■famous portrait painter, is 73, and Sir Reginald Blomfield, the distinguished architect, is the same age. Sir Edwin Lutyens, who planned the cenotaph, is a youth of 60. Professor Fleming, the wireless pioneer, is 80. The most influential writers of today are nearly all in the fifties or sixties.

“In business the elders who two generations ago gladly surrendered control to their sons or assistants be-

fore they were 50 or much older now remain actively in full work for perhaps 20 years. Men live healthier lives than in the old days, take more exercise, and are more careful of their food, and give themselves more holidays. They are. able to keep on at an age when work would once have been a burden to them, and are glad to do so. “This is not true of England only, but of the world. Famous travellers now in the sixties refuse to rest on their laurels. Dr. Nansen was planning new explorings at 68. Germany, building up her fallen fortunes, looked to Hindenburg, ovei’ 80, to lead the Republic. The outstanding leaders in France are all old men; Poincare is just on 70, and Clemenceau died at 88. The greatest exception to this rule is Mussolini, who is still in the middle thirties.

ij “With age efficient and active today as perhaps never before, the battle for youth to make its mark is naturaltly more strenuous. Men and women i are going to have longer . time foi’ maturing. In some ways this is good, ;but not altogether so. The world > needs the optimism, the energy, and the fresh view-point which you can give. It is the young men who see visions, and it is for the world to

give youth its full opportunity while age yet fulfils its destiny. “One thing is clear. The young who wish to reach places of influence and power must strive harder than ever, watch opportunities, economise time, concentrate effort, and go bravely forward. The next great advance fn the world, not in invention or material progress but in human good, will come when youth, impatient or shortcoming, strikes out boldly tor better things.”