PARADISE AND TRADE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6805, 8 January 1929, Page 7

PARADISE AND TRADE

MR SHAW’S ANALOGY. ADAM AND THE APPLE. LONDON, Nov. 27. An appeal on behalf of the distressed miners was made by Mr Bernard Shaw at Welwyn Garden City. “A nation which allows its men to go underground to live without ultra violet rays is in a condition bordering on lunacy,” he said. “I hope tho day will come when all the coalmines are shut up—l will not say with the proprietors inside. “There is plenty of power above ground waiting to be intelligently tackled. In the North of Scotland, by using turbines to harness the tide, you could'get enough power to run all Europe. There would bo plenty of work for the unemployed. Why don't we do it? Because we are people bordering on lunacy. lam always telling English people that, but somehow they seem to like it. (Laughter.) “This matter of the coal question is very simple. A large number, of persons are on the brink of starvation, and it is very difficult to get people to think, particularly business people, about such matters, because they are always thinking about trade. If you tell them 5000 children arc without boots and shoes, they take no notice, but if you tell them the export trade is down by £SOOO they think the countrv is on the verge of ruin. People allow this state of trade to come between them and the state of human beings.” Mr Shaw drew an amusing analogy between trade and the Garden of Eden. “A transaction in Paradise was a very simple one. Eve plucked an apple and gave it to Adam. He consumed it and got us all into trouble. The practical business man feels Paradise must have been a very cheap sort of place because there was no trade there. “If the apple had been sent to Arabia and exchanged for a pound of dates, this exchanged in Naples for macaroni, the macaroni sent to Spain and exchanged for olive oil; if after going all round tho world the apple returned to tho Garden of Eden as a pair of silk stockings and then Adam got his apple—then the business men would say, ‘Now I begin to understand why Paradise was so delightful. A4am sad Eve did a tremendous lot of trade.' (Laughter.) It would be very much bettor if there was no trade at dll and wc got the apple straight off the tree.”