LET GEORGE DO IT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXXII, Issue 2803, 20 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

LET GEORGE DO IT

BUT BE SURE IT IS THE OTHER GEORGE. Mr George Bernard Shaw is sorry he is not 18 years old. If he were 18 now, he told the world recently, he would go east and grow up with the country—in Soviet Russia. Being 75, Mr Shaw feels that he just can’t manage it; but he advises all the young men to go and avail themselves of the marvellous opportunities in the land of the Red Bear, which he says—with a sly and subtle chuckle — is “ representative of the most advanced civilisation the world can show.” Oh, dear 1 What a pity Mr Shaw has not made some revelation of what these opportunities are. Still, if we all despair not, we may hope to find out all about it in the book which he has announced he will write. Before packing up and taking a boat to Russia, the bright young men will do well to wait and read the book. Of course, if any of the bright young men decide to go to Russia, they must be prepared to find that Soviet economics are just a little haywire. You see, Mr Shaw doesn't mind that in the least. He has lived 75 years, and has made a good-sized fortune in a benighted capitalist State. He is a clever dramatist. His books have had a good sale. He has piled up a very considerable stack of money —and the capitalist State didn’t take it away from him. Indeed, it has been Mr Shaw’s privilege to spend his money just as he saw fit. He could buy a pair of shoes, or a bag of scones and a package of tea, or a pound of butter or a new shirt, without standing in line to get a properly-countersigned card from a frowning bureaucrat. Young men who haven’t yet made their fortunes—oven young men who haven't any prospect of ever making a fortune —would do well to think over these things rather carefully before embarking for Muscovy. For better or for worse, most young men have a hankering to work for themselves as far as possible; and, failing that, they crave the privilege of spending their wages when and as they see fit Of course, when they get to 75, and are successful playwrights or something like that, they may be more inclined to go in rather earnestly for sociological crusading and large-scale experimentation—or, rather, more inclined to urge others to have a try at some wild and highly-sacrificial adventure.