TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 87, 15 April 1903, Page 1

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

So far as the expression of public opinion is concerned, ifc is difficult to say whether the election of the Mayor and Borough Councillors this taonth has any special interest for the burgesses. An ordinary observer of municipal affairs would not even be able to say whether there is likely to be any attempt to alter the lines upon" which the interests of the Borough have been conducted during the last year. It may be hoped, however, that, though no sign of opposition has been made, the electors aro possessed of a full sense of interest in municipal matters. It is preferable to aasume that the policy pursued by the present Council has met with satisfaction, and that there is no desire for a change, than that there is a lack of observation and spirit among the general body of citizens. The work done in municipal circles during the year has been of an important character ; and ib will be interesting to see if any antagonistic issues are raised. But it is getting i late in the day.

It is a remarkable letter which Presi dent Roosevelt wrote to the authoress of "The Woman Who Toils," the book which has attracted so much attention to the voluntary sterility of the American-born woman. Introducing his subject by saying that the question oE race suicide is fundamentally more important than any other question in his country, the President goes oa to say : "Aneasy, good-natured kindliness and a desire to be 'independent'— that is, to live one's life purely according to one's own desires—are in no sense substitutes for the fundamental virtues, for the practice of the strong racial qualities without which thero can be no strong races—the qualities of courage and resolution in both man and woman, of scorn of what is mean, base, and selfish, of eager desire to work or fight or suffer, as the case may be, provided the end to be attained is great enough and the contemptuous putting aside of mere ease, mere vapid pleasure, mere avoidance of toil and worry. I doyaofc know whether I most pity or most despise the foolish and selfish man or woman who does not understand that tho only things really worth having in life are those the acquirement of which normally means cost and effort. If a man or woman, through no fault of his or hers, goes throughout life denied those highest of all days which spring only from home life, from the having and bringing up' of many healthy children, I feel for them deep and respectable sympathy— the sympathy one extends to the gallant fellow killed at the beginning of a campaign, or the man who toils hard and is brought to ruin by the fault of others. But the man or woman who deliberately avoids marriage, and has a heart to cold as to know no passion and a brain so shallow and selfish a;j to dial ike having children, is in effect a criminal against the race, and should be an object of con temptuous abhorrence by all healthy people. Of course no one quality makes a good citizen, and no one quality wiil save a nation. But there arc certain great qualities for the lack of which no amount of intellectual brilliancy, or of material prosperity, or of easiness of life, can atone, and which show decadence and corruption in the nation, just as much as if they are produced by selfishness and coldness and ease-loving laziness among comparatively poor people, as if they are produced by vicious or frivolous luxury in the rich. If the men of tho nation are not anxious to work in many different ways with all their might and strength, and ready and able to fight at need and anxious to bo fathers of families, and if tho women do not recognise that the greatest thing for any woman is to be a good wife and mother, why that nation has cause to be alarmed aboub its future." President Roosevelt; is himself tho father of six children, and thoroughly believes in large families.

The lot of a labor agitator is not an easy one, if reliance may be placed on the statements of Mr D. P. Fisher, a former labor leader and member of the Wellington Conciliation Board, who has sought the protection of the Bankruptcy Court. His trouble began with the maritime strike of 1890, and for twelve months after that, he says, he did not earn a penny. He asserts that a dead set was aiado against him by employers generally, and none would employ him. " Few men," he says, " can realise the amount of torture I have endured. I have not been treated like an ordinary debtor. I havo been treated as one who was, and still is, responsible for all the forward movements made by labor siuce 1890." He did not make this charge against every employer, as many of them wtre just and most honorable, and to those he felt thankful. The case has created some interest in Wellington.