NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22045, 27 February 1935, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

BRAKE OF PREJUDICE

Most of our troubles are due to casuistry, writes Professor A. M. Low, in his book "Our Wonderful World of To-morrow." Men, and particularly women, seldom play tho game of consequences. One-half the world is living in tho present, the other in the past. In hard fact, the future is all that matters to us in work, play, happiness and life, whether we recognise it or not. Tho greatest discovery of science during the past decade is that we know nothing. Dogmatism is the last thing which should infect a true scientist. Facts are dependent upon the number of people believing them to be true; the theories of yesterday are the facts of to-day; tho marvels of this morning are next year's bedtime story. To-day's best is much too bad for to-morrow. Tendencies are more interesting than events and much more important. The tendency for man to shirk brute strength and exertion should have shown car makers the necessity for servo brakes. yeara ago, and his unwillingness to make movements with levers should have resulted in the adoption of a universal gear long before the present time. The greatest enemy of progress is prejudice, asserts Professor Low. It is a greater danger to civilisation than armament manufacture, malaria or debt. It has retarded the growth of the railway, tho bicycle, the aeroplane, and the motorcar.

A TILT AT ECONOMISTS "Tlio turbot has both its eyes on one side - of its head and looks at things from one side only. That is much the way the theoretical economist and the professors look at commerce," writes Sir Arthur Michael Samuel, formerly Financial Secretary to the British Treasdry and Minister of Overseas Trade. "They imagine markets based on ideal non-existent conditions. Or they concern themselves with completed action, and devise 'plans' for distributing existing wealth. 'Planning' id a magic work with some. You cannot build a successful export trade on that or run an export business like au automatic lathe. You must have the experience of having been abroad, and of having for long periods watched your market and your distributor, and seen # the type of person who is likely to buy from your distributor. I seldom read of a professional economist showing us how to start successfully a new trade or business, or how to increase the profits of an old one. In this world, where the greatest prizes are given for initiative, we require to be taught how to start new and profitable enterprises. Post-mortems, though necessary, can be overdone. Let the economists now admit that economics is not an exact science with exact laws, and that industrial and financial events, commercial successes and failures are not always due to causes purely economic. Human factors which are variable and often incalculable affect both the phenomena and the results which are the subjects of economic study."

ROOSEVELT ON RELIEF WORK

"The lessons of history show conclusively that dependence on relief induces spiritual and moral disintegration, which is fundamentally destructive to the national fibre," said President Roosevelt in a recent statement. "To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit which is inimical to the dictates of sound policy and a violation of the traditions of America. Work must be found for the able-bodied destitute workers. No wise man has any intention of destroying what is known as the profit motive, because by the profit motive we mean the right by work to earn a decent livelihood for ourselVes and our families. We have, however, a clear mandate from the people that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates an undue private power over private affairs and to our misfortunes over public affairs as well. The ambition of the individual to obtain for himself his proper security, reasonable leisure and decent living is an ambition preferable to an appetite for great wealth and great power. I am riot willing that the vitality of our people be further sapped by the giving of cash or market baskets for a few hours of weekly work cutting grass, raking leaves, or picking up paper in public parks. We must preserve not only the bodies of the unemployed from destitution, but also their self-respect, their self-reliance and their courage and determination." FREEDOM AND OPPRESSION

"There are times when the adjustment between the individual and society seems to be settled and satisfactory. But these periods have never lasted. The adjustment has only been temporary. It is not open to dispute that we are in the midst of one of these periods of readjustments to-day," said the Marquess of Lothian, in his presidential address on "Liberty and Collectivism" to the annual conference of English Educational Associations. "I venture to think that our present chaos is not the beginning of a decline, but, if enough of us keep our heads, is the prelude to an adjustment which .will lift the human race to a level of achievement and true prosperity such as it has never achieved hitherto. For the moment chaos seems to have snatched from mankind many of his, recent gains—especially in tho field of freedom. Democracy, whiph seemod so triumphant in 1920, 'has disappeared, except in a few favoured lands. Individual liberty, once the treasured aim of all reformers, has been officially abandoned and brutally trampled underfoot in three-quarters of Europe and in much of Asia as well. Dictatorships have created tyrannies not only over the body alone, but over the human mind—the real test of a tyranny —in the names of proletarian freedom and of racial solidarity and power. But I do not believe that these reactions toward barbarism will bo permanent. Indeed, already the signs are high in the heavens that the nations which have been faithful to liberty and the scientific spirit are making better headway through chaos and depression than those who have surrendered their thinking and their freedom into dictatorial hands."