NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20889, 3 June 1931, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A MATERIALISTIC HERESY. " Dare the Church withhold the support in the fight against unemployment, which she gives to the fight against the liquor trade or the bookmaker?" asks the Rev. David McQueen in the Scots Observer. " She could stand boldly for a higher standard of living. ... a higher standard by which to treat our neighbours, as well as a higher standard to treat ourselves. Love in place of hale, forbearance instead of bitterness, unselfishness in place of greed, and other points that could be suggested are involved in this. It is because the nation has been trying to build a higher standard of (material) living in a low standard of spiritual living that its economic walls have collapsed. A new doctrine of work is another point which the Church could drive home. Work lias to be divorced from its incidence of material gain and (hat attitude created toward it which will see in it the highest form of self-expression. That materialistic heresy that labour is the economic exploitation of the working classes has to be exploded. Daily toil of any description has to be given its place in life as part of (he expression of a man's spiritual being." TRANSFORMING CHICAGO. " The city of Chicago enjoys an unsavoury reputation, but Chicago, on a plan laid down by one of the most brilliant town planners who ever lived, has been putting into operation some remarkable schemes, with the result that this city is being transformed into an efficient and, I am told, beautiful city," said Mr. Arthur Greenwood, Minister of Health, in tho House of Commons. " Let me quote an illustration which bears upon the economic value of wise planning. It is said that the Michigan Avenue improvement cost 16,000,000 dollars. By increasing property values more than 100,000,000 dollars, it has paid for itself six times over. Owners of properly who paid special assessments have received back in the increased value of their property 12 dollars for every dollar they have paid toward the improvement, and when the taxes have been adjusted to the new values the city will get an additional revenue of 4,000,000 dollars annually, a sum which will be equal in two years to the public's share of the cost. All this in addition to promoting the convenience of the 3.000,000 residents of Chicago. That, it seems to me, is sufficient 1 justification for bold and comprehensive town planning schemes and is a challenge to the great cities of this country."