Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 30 July 1938, Page 6

Timely Topics

» “An art critic of a newspaper,-if he |is to deserve the name and the vast ’.influence he exerts, should be select- • ed with the same anxious (the ART care as that applied to the | CRITIC■ election of a University I professor,” says Sir Wil- • liam Llewellyn, President of the British Royal Academy. ’ "When he has been 'appointed he | should be allowed sufficient time to vform and deliver hi? opinion on what ihe is asked to judge. Our Press is not backward, as we all know, in aupportI ing good causes. Can we hope that fit will try to restore British Art criIticism to something of its former status. I am sure that the time is ripe | for the change, and that there is a f large public whose curiosity and inItcrest have been stirred by visiting ? permanent and temporai’y exhibitions, fbut who are waiting for some clear, | well-informed, well-balanced 5 criti- | cism, which will deepen and cont tinue their interest and make them • feel that by following intelligently the art movements and productions of the day they are botli educating themselves and assisting in something that is of the greatest importance to the well-being and prosperity of the nation.” «! ig ® !S “In the long run,” said Dr. J, R. Condliffe in his Halley Stewart lecture on “The Distribution of Power an d Leadership,” WANTED — “power 'and lead’erLEADERSHIP. ship in the economic as in any other field of human endeavour depend less upon circumstances than upon men, and less upon numbers than upon quality. The essential problem confronting this or any other country ip . its effort to raise and make more,.secure the standard of life of its people is the development and training of men and women capable of grappling with changing circumstances. In the difficult period through which we are passing it is the country which most successfully enlists capacity wherever !it is found which stands the best | chance of survival. Leadership,is more necessary than ever, but it must be leadership based, upon, and drawn from, an educated and stable, democracy. The day has gone by when, a privileged c'aste can command the acquiescent following of ignorant masses with any hope of final success. The problems with which we are confronted are problems of adaptation to a rapidly ch'anging world. > - •••' “It is-not by clinging to past privileges or by attempting to ' retain and protect group interests threatened by their failures to keep pace with the times, but by shrewd adaptation and foresight that economic leadership is won. It cannot be kept in cold storage but must continually be rewon. Such a task demands that a nation must use all its capacity.”