Selected Reviews

Northland Age, Volume XII, Issue 46, 26 August 1943, Page 4

Selected Reviews

GETTING RID OF DESITUTION

It was Major Eric Knight, the nov elist, who, in discussing humanity’ habit of making war, pointed out tha “there is nothing in war that then is not in human nature itself,” wh< also said, “When we have made peao better, then only will mankind trul; regard war as something worse.” Whatever peace we make in thi future, it will have to be better thai war, to keep the world out of war Better, that is, for the majority; no better for a mere handful. Sucl efforts as those observable in th< Beveridge Plan, therefore, have i direct bearing on peace and war During his 30 years of work on hii plan, Sir William must have studiec the long-range results of poverty. It is usually a hungry and sufferinf population that follows sheepishly an; leader who promises to feed it, whe ther he be competent or incompetent The suggestion that social securit; “stifles initiative” is easily challenged It would have required not only blind ers but ear muffs too, to walk througl British slums in prewar years anc escape the fact that poverty, no' financial assistance, was what “stiflet initiative,” encouraged vice and hin dered education. Charles Peguy, the French write; who was killed in the Battle of th« Marne, in 1914, whote an essay or destitution which answers a numbei of the questions of the ultra-conser-vative mind on the subject of sociai security. For one thing, he pointr out that the removal of extreme poverty and the equal distribution of material things are not to be confused Fraternity from time immemorial, ht reminds us, has demanded the sharing of the necessities, whereas the belie! in equality is neither very old, economically, nor universal. He goes s< far as to say that the effort for equal ity i n a material way “never inspirec anything but questionable, particulai revolutions,” including an Englisl revolution “which bequeathed to the modern world such a nationalistic imperialistic England,” and an Am erican revolution “which established such an imperialistic and capitalistic republic.” It is, he grants, our preliminary duty to rid our fellow men of destitution, and he says, “When all men are provided with the necessities, the real necessities, with bread and books, what do we care about the distribution of luxury?” A decent subsistence level, moreover, would appear much easier to establish than a concept of luxury, which varies in a thousand different environments and social groups. In a system of competitive opportunity, some persons would consider it worth while to work hard for a de luxe limousine. Others would prefer some inexpensive little car, or none at all, with less labor and more leisure. Peguy’s illuminating comments sum up to the point that equality in distribution of goods is something far less important to consider than the immediate obligation to rule destitution out of society. There may be isolated individuals who refused to abandon the particular causes of their personal poverty, possibly idleness or drunkenness, but on the other hand, there are plenty of persons in Great Britain and other lands to whom a little more security would mean greater incentive to effort and progress, for whom peace must be made preferable to war, when the present struggle has been brought to a victorious conclusion. Wartime operations in the Egyptian desert, particularly in the destruction of scrub which held the soil in place, have increased the frequency of dust storms from normal average of five a year to fifty-four for last year.

Lloyd George was asked by a friend if he would like to live his life over again. “No,” he replied, “I should not like to go over it again. What is behind me I know. Before me all is new. 1 want to go forward.” * In the famous church of St. Mary Redcliffe, at Bristol, is a stone tomb to the church cat, which died in 1927. The cat made its home there for fifteen years, and usually slept in the pulpit when the vicar was taking the services. ft One of the most curious differences between men and women lies in colour preference. There are three women whose favourite colour is bright red to every one who likes crimson best, for example; with men the proportion is exactly the opposite. ft When a heavy bomb had landed on a field close to an English Service establishment, the farmer wrote to the authorities : “Since the bomb that fell on my field was obviously meant for your establishment, I should be obliged if you would despatch a working party at your earliest convenience to fill in the crater.”