NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22205, 4 September 1935, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

HERR HITLER'S " BEST SELLER " July 17 was the tenth anniversary of the publication of Herr Hitlers autobiography and political manifesto, "Mem Kampf," of which 1.930.000 copies have been sold in Germany alone. The royalties from "Mein Kampf" and Herr j Hitler's interests in the publishing house ; have made the Chancellor a rich man, j notes the Berlin correspondent of the 1 Morning Post. The Lokal Anzeiger j observes pertinently to-day that "no one | who has not read Adolf Hitler's 'Mein j Kampf' knows what National Socialism I is and what National Socialism wants." jAs the successive editions of "Mein ! Kampf" have come out, Herr Hitler i has introduced several small changes j into the text, but he has not altered j the following sentence: "One must be | quite clear that the lost territories will . not be won back by solemn appeals | to the Lord God or pious hopes in a ] League of Nations, but only by force of ; arms." CHURCH NOT LOSING GROUND "Those who say that the Churches are losing ground are ignorant of the facts," asserted the Rev. M. E. Aubrey, general secretary of the British Bap- | tist Union, speaking at the annual assembly at Plymouth. "It is true that we have a recrudescence of a sort of paganism in this and other countries and a lamentable dearth of Christian instruction and knowledge. It is also ; true that Christian standards of thought and reality have come under fierce assaults. But we should not exaggerate our difficulties. The facts are that in ! thi3 country interest in religion is real and widespread. If people do not attend church services as frequently as : they did, they listen to broadcast ser- : rices and addresses and they read and probably think more, though it is cer- | tainly hard to get young people to commit themselves and accept the responsibilities of church membership. Nevertheless, in spite of this and constant revision of church rolls, our church membership does not fall back." THE PACE THAT KILLS The craze for night life and the passion for always "going somewhere" was criticised by Dr. Alfred Cox, general secretary of the British Health Resorts Association, in an address to the Royal Sanitary Institute's Health Congress at Bournemouth. "We talk a lot about | the stresses and strains of modern life and try hard to convince ourselves that we work harder because we make more fuss about it," he said. "But many of these stresses are self-inflicted, and I cannot raise any sympathy for the folk who voluntarily continue a noisy and alleged strenuous city day life into an equally noisy and strenuous time to amuse themselves at night. Many can no longer amuse themselves —they must have a crowd to help them to do it — and we are in real danger of so Americanising our lives that homes may become a mere adjunct to the garage, with a bed to sleep in during the early hours of the morning. Fashion is a tyrant which, of course, must be obeyed, but the human body being what it is we shall have to pay the price of fashion. The price of always doing something or going on somewhere is a restless, neurotic life in which an increasing number of people do not know what they want and will not be happy until they get it." MARRIED WOMEN TEACHERS The decision of the London County Council, as the largest authority concerned, to revoke its ban upon the employment of married women as teachers and doctors is welcome, says the Manchester Guardian. In doing so the council reverts to its practice before 1923. The argument then prevailed, and rightly prevailed, that circumstances of exceptional unemployment do not warrant the establishment of a bad precedent. The matrimonial ban would exclude from both professions many women whose services are of the first value. Where it has been enforced it has had the entirely uneconomic effect of terminating the work of a member of the community who has had a long and expensive education, who' has usually come to the full maturity of ability, and who has not infrequently been replaced by someone less competent. If the precedent thus set became at all widespread the effect would be to deter from entering the teaching and medical professions many brilliant young women whose work might be of the greatest value to State and municipality. The only valid test of a teacher's or of a doctor's value is his or her skill in work, and to introduce in the case of a woman the question of her husband's ability to support her can find no defence in logic or principle. LIMIT OF HUMAN ENDEAVOUR During the last two decades track athletes have received a world-wide impetus and countless men (and women) all over the world have taken up athletics strenuously, notes Mr. Guy Butler, joint holder of the world's 300 yds. record, in a recent article. A natural consequence has been the application of science to the technique of running, hurdling, jumping and throwing. As a result of the immensely increased numbers and improved methods, the standard of athletic accomplishment has risen rapidly. Some believe the human machine to have reached or nearly reached its maximum physical output; some assert the contrary. A few years ago Professor A. V. Hill, the eminent physiologist, made a number of interesting experiments on runners and evolved, among others, a theory that the speed of a sprinter is governed by the viscosity of his muscles. It was his opinion that if man ran very much faster things would begin to break—which is, to a certain extent, borne out by the increasing tendency of athletes to muscular breakdown. I fancy, although I have not asked him, that Professor Hill would view as impossible the reduction of the world's 100 yds. record to 9s. I myself, says Mr. Butler, have a strong feeling that the last word has by no means been written in the matter of athletic records, and would wager that in the next 25 years they will all be broken at least once. For the factors, human and material, which govern performance are not fixed, and so long as they rertiain variable there is the possibility, if not the probability, of improvement being made.