NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22608, 22 December 1936, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS

CUSHIONED EASE In novels set in the future one is constantly finding predictions concerning the development of society, the changes we are to undergo as science and Socialism and even Communism progress; but the changes are psychological rather than physical, writes Mr. E. V. Lucas in the Sunday Times. \ct there can be little doubt, I think, that as motor-cars multiply and more and more people sit in padded seats to travel in comfort —and not only to travel, hut to go in this way on every little errand —so will those people and their descendants become more and more lymphatic and corpulent and out of condition. Already in our harbours and estuaries there has been time to note the disappearance of the broad shoulders and powerful arms of the watermen, who have done no lowing long enough for deterioration to have set in. NOURISHING BODY AND SOUL Nearly a million pounds' worth of produce has been gathered in England this year from the allotments of unemployed men in the scheme organised by the Society of Friends; and the weather was not favourable for good cropping, notes the Times. r lhe number of men with allotments exceeded 135,000— nearly 15,000 more than last year—and for all of them the chance to cultivate a plot of ground has brought relief from idleness, a pleasant and fruitful occupation beneficial to muscle and mind, and an augmentation of the family resources that must be measured in terms of quality, as well as of quantity. " They work in their gardens " —whereas, without allotments, they would idly fret. The allotments restore to their holders something which they lost with their jobs—the pride of achievement. Worse than the poverty of the wagelcss man is the barrenness of his life when ability to work and the desire for independence are frustrated by the failure of employment. A useful occupation is wholesome for mind and spirit; and an allotment nourishes body and soul alike. FALLACIES IN COMMUNISM There are elements in Marxism, as romantic as Utopian liberalism, against which Christian pessimism is a wholesome antidote, writes Dr. Reinhold Niehuhr in an article comparing the attributes of Communism with those of Christianity. The Marxian is wrong in assuming that (a faulty sotfal mechanism is the sole cause of injustice, and that the elimination of capitalism will completely destroy both the will and the power of men to exploit their fellow-men. Marxians hope for an ideal social order in which not only social conflict but every form of national conflict will disappear. They have, in other words, a basically romantic e conception of human nature, in spite of their provisional realism. They do not realise that social judgments •will be determined by interest even in a society in which interests arc basically more equal than in the present society. They do not see that even if a society succeeds in equalising economic power, political power will be required to perform this task, that this power may be and will be disproportionately held, and that such disproportions will bo new occasions lor injustice.