NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20987, 25 September 1931, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

INTELLECTUAL REACTION. "People begin to get tired of drifting, of not knowing where they are going; and they begin to want to read books which will not only ask questions but try to answer them," said Mr. Geoffrey Faber, a London publisher, in an address to booksellers. "I do not mean political, social, economic questions only; though I am sure that tho next 10 years will see a very marked increase in tlio sale of such books. I think there will be a big swing back toward religion, perhaps even philosophy and poetry, a reaching out for some firm ground to stand on, a realisation that it is not enough just to have a good time, that life must mean more than that, and that the twentieth century has not yet done much to give it a meaning. I think this reaction toward seriousness is going to be helped by sheer boredom with too much easy mechanical amusement. Cars, cinemas, wireless—how exciting and absorbing these things are for a time, and after a time how easy it becomes to have too much of them."

THE FRENCH PEOPLE. "Ours is a people which charms and disconcerts," says M. Andre Tardieu, former Prime Minister and now Minister of Agriculture in France, in a recentlypublished book. "A strange people, of whom it is impossible to say—neither does it know itself —whether it prefers to see its best men rise from tho ruck or destroy one another. A people quick to great sacrifices and rebellious to small ones; that assails its chosen representatives with so many contradictory demands that they often, like the catoblepas, spend their lives contemplating their feet before eating them! A people in part responsible for the internal waste of forces that it could so fruitfully use outside itself. There are 40 or 50 million of them, who by their virtues merit far, far more than the fate they make for themselves, and who could, if they would, mould a destiny a hundred times better. What do they lack ? The sense of the possibilities innate in France, and of the bond that unites theso common possibilities for tho happiness of every Frenchman." DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA. An explanation of the popular share in the government of Russia was given by Mr. Bernard Shaw in a letter to tho Times last month. "It excludes from official authority and from the franchise the ignorant, the incompetent, the indifferent, the corrupt, and the pugnacious and politically incapablo masses who, though they revel in a party fight or any other sort of fight, can make no intelligent use of their votes, and are the dupes of every interest that can afford the cost of gulling them," ho wrote. "Responsibility to such innocents is no responsibility at all. Tho threat of it kept tho oligarchic statesmen of tho nineteenth century in order; but the execution of the threat has proved its worthlessness; and now politicians who spend Monday in making promises, Tuesdays in breaking them, and Wednesday in being found out are re-elected by enthusiastic majorities on Saturday. Responsibility to the Communist Party is real responsibility: its members know their business and cannot bo humbugged. They are all under skilled criticism, and havo not to waste their time and means 'nursing' constituencies. Failures and recreants can be promptly scrapped. Party opposition for the sake of opposition is punished as sabotage; and attempts to paralyse tho Government by constitutional safeguards' against tyrannies that have long lost their powers arc not tolerated. Pious fictions like 'the people's will,' 'public opinion' aro not admitted as excuses for faineant statesmen. Liberty does not mean liberty to idle and sponge. The political machinery is built for immediate positive use; and it is powerful enough to break people who stick ramrods into it. In short, it is much more democratic than Parliament and party." RESTLESSNESS AND NOISE. Addressing a gathering of teachers in London, Lord Gorell said that from the dawn of history until about the middle of the last century tho one factor dominating human life was the lack of means of communication in regard to both body and mind. The invention of steam railroads had been followed by the telegraph and telephone, tho internal combustion epgine, making possible the motor-car and tho aeroplane, and wireless and broadcasting, and for the first timo in history mankind was now faced with a totally different world. Tho past was full of dangers, but people more or less know where they were. At present no one could sty anything about almost anything in tho world. The whole of it was •filled with chango and uncertainty. The first fact which faced them was tho restlessness of everybody. How often peoplo said, "Oh, let us buzz off somewhere," without having any idea of going anywhere in particular. Referring to tho prevalence of noise to-day, he said the new world liked it. Ho knew one writer who had done distinguished work, though only about 22 years of age, and, it was stated, could write well only when the gramophone and tho wireless wcro both on together in tho same room. In this strange world, but possessing a knowledge and unity that it had never before possessed, they had to consider how best they were going to link up science and soul. It was for the new world and the teachers of it to seo how far they could be co-ordinated.