NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23034, 11 May 1938, Page 14

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NO EASY WAV It can't be done! Get-rich-quick-without-effort delusions have captivated men and women to their loss and disillusionment, writes Mr. Grenville Kleiser in the Ulster County News. The get-something-for-nothing craze is simply self-imposition. It's a false idea and an unwarranted expectation. It can't be successfully done. The principle of honest returns implies an investment of time, ability, or money. Economic prosperity is based upon constructive labour. THE PURGE IN RUSSIA Stalin's purge has now roped in all the "old Bolsheviks," Lenin's friends and helpers, men whom Lenin—a very shrewd judge of character—trusted far more than he ever trusted Stalin, against whose promotion to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party he indeed left a strongly worded note of advice, notes the Yorkshire Post. Otdy two alternatives remain. Either we must suppose that for the past fifteen years or more nearly every leading Bolshevik—including ambassadors, generals, editors, industrial executives and evQii the chief, Yagoda, of Stalin's own secret police—have been consistently conspiring to wreck the Russian regime with the aid of foreign spies. Or we must conclude that Stalin, a terrified dictator, is engaged in an utterly ruthless campaign to exterminate every conceivable challenge to his own autocratic power. In either case, the outlook for the unfortunate people of Russia appears to be equaHy grim. CONSTITUTIONAL PARALYSIS "Constitutional laws, like any other laws get out of date," said Professor J. L. Brierly, in a recent broadcast talk. "When a constitution is drafted, it is a sheer impossibility to foresee the future conditions in which it will have to be applied. Let me tell you of a very serious situation which has just arisen in Canada. Canada, as a member of the International Labour Office, has made certain treaties dealing with labour matters; but the Courts have held that the matters dealt with fall within the sphere of .the provinces to regulate, and mot of Canada as a whole, and she now finds it impossible legally to carry these treaties into effect. Such a situation could not have been contemplated when the constitution was framed, because at that date Canada was a colony with no treatymaking powers. Yet now that she is a nation, she finds herself paralysed in the exercise of one of the essential attributes of nationhood, by a document which it is not quite impossible, but certainly immensely difficult, to change. This international disadvantage of federal systems is perhaps their most serious disadvantage to-day when international relations play so vastly increased a part in the life of States." ,--j t MINERAL SANCTIONS "The traditional idea that ultimate military power is mainly measured by size of population has delayed recognition of the overwhelming concentration in a few States (notably the British Empire and the United States) of real war povrer under modern conditions 'i conferred by the control of mineral resources," said Dr. C. K. Leith, professor of geology, Wisconsin University, in a broadcast talk. "It is simply impossible for the rest of the countries of the world together, regardless of their great areas and population, to build up ultimate war power to more than a small fraction of the scale of the dominant group. The problem is Ijow and if this power can be collectively used. In advance of war, it is difficult to secure a popular mandate on a physical problem of this kind. Yet a realistic view is that sooner or later war may have to be fought collectively by the 'have' nations in defence of their material and ideological positions. If this'is true,-is there not some way to use the great power in our hands to preserve world order, by force if necessary, in the hope that it will limit and deter aggression, and that, like the police powers of the States, it will seldom require the ultimate use of force ? In urging considers tion of this procedure I am not attempting to formulate a panacea for war. My purpose is rather to call attention to the fact that events have brought minerals to the front as a leading cause of world unrest; that Nature's distribution of minerals confers immense potential powers on a few nations; that in the not unlikely event of the failure of peaceful methods of war prevention, the use of this power by these few nations may be forced in self-defence, raising the question whether such power may not be used affirmatively and collectively to maintain order." NEW DEAL IN AMERICA "America is moving in economic reverse," said Mr. John L. Lewis, prominent United States Labour leader, in a 8.8.C. broadcast talk. "Our consumers' goods industry began to slow down in June, 1937, and by October of the same year our heavy industries began to feel the icy hand of a depression. Since that time the drift has been constant, while the number of human beings thrown out of employment was augmented day by day. In the months that have ensued neither industry nor Government has come forth .with constructive proposals, designed to meet the problems of the depression. The Federal Congress, lacking leadership in continuous session for months past, has failed to devise or enact a single statute that would cause a glimmer of hope to penetrate the minds of millions of despairing Americans. Meantime cavilling and confusion prevails, and our statesmen; and those carrying the responsibilities of the nation's manifold enterprises, are reviling each other with anger and bitterness. Meantime the population suffers, and a creeping paralysis progressively impairs its function. What is to be done? Reason calls for a change. More rational policies are indicated. America is menaced, not by a foreign foe but by the more fearful enemy of domestic strife and savagery. It is time for Americans to co-operate; it. is time for Americans to recognise each other's right of individual existence; it is time for Capital to recognise Labour's right to live and-par-ticipate in the increased efficiency of industry and the bounties of our national resources. It is time for Labour t/O recognise the right of Capital to have a reasonable. Return upon its investments;, and! for statesmen to recognise their nation's peril and decide to co-operate with labour and industry, to rationaliso a nation's processes and alleviate a nation's distress."