NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23060, 10 June 1938, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NATIONAL THEATRE

With the handing over of the titledeeds of the sito—a ceremony picturesquely staged as between Sir Robert Vansittarfc and Mr. Bernard Shaw —the 29-year-o'ld project for a British National Theatre takes a step forward, notes the Sunday Times. Mr. Shaw said quite truly (and not for the first time) that people do not want a National Theatre any more than they wanted the National Gallery or the British Museum, and yet it really comes within the same class as those unchallenged national institutions do. When the theatre has been established we shall wonder at the curious distinction which modern England has drawn between painting and sculpture, as arts which the State should endow, and drama, opera and music, as arts which it should tax. Such a distinction is not drawn in Europe generally, and it is hard to see how it can be defended. Meanwhile there it remains, and only private generosity seems likely to cure us of a national blindness which has now lasted for about a century.

"BE FIT TO BE HAPPY"

"We on the National Fitness Council do not want to discourage individualism, and we hold no brief for any particular sport. We advocate every possible form of indoor and outdoor recreation, and our only urgent plea to the public is 'For goodness sake do something,' " said Lord Burghley, himself one of the greatest athletes Great Britain has ever produced, in his capacity as chairman of the Publicity Committee of the National Fitness Council. "The feeling among many of the public that the Government's Fitness Campaign is not a wholly disinterested matter, and that military efficiency is behind it all is quite a mistaken idea. I think people should seek to be fit first of all for the real pleas are to be obtained from physical fitness. Physical well-being is one of the main factors in happiness, and a happy individual is far more valuable to himself and to the community as a whole than a discontented one. I think all of us owe a duty to the country in which we live, to give of our best to that country. Work and play are complementary, and I have 110 doubt at all that a deficiency of one produces inefficiency in the other."

NUTRITION AND THE NATION

Following the recent scientific discoveries on the relationship of diet to health there has been a spate of literature on food, writes Sir John Orr, the eminent authority on nutrition. The great output of literature, which in some form or other reaches all classes, is a reflection of popular interest in the new ideas of food and health. It is important that the public should be well informed on the subject. Food is probably the most important factor in health and physical fitness; the "raison d'etre" for an agricultural policy is the national food requirements. The importance of food in trade is indicated by the fact that Britain spends nearly a third of the total national income on food, and as about 50 per cent of the total family income of the poorer half of the population is spent: on food, the price of food profoundly affects the standard of living. The new ideas of food and health, which have set up higher standards of food requirements, are already forcing us to review the national economy. If the danger of war be averted, food in relation to the standard of living, to agriculture and to trade will become the dominant issue in politics. If war should come, food will become as important as armaments. MORE PUMP PRIMING President Roosevelt is now fully embarked on his programme to cure the growing disease of bad trade —or "recession," as it has become fashionable to call it —in the United States, notes the Sunday Times. His chosen remedies are very similar to those which Mr. J. M. Keynes has long prescribed for a similar eventuality in Britain. In the forefront come steps to expand the bank resources of the nation by "desterilising" a mass of gold and reducing the amount of the reserves which banks under the Federal Reserve system are obliged to keep. Behind these come measures for expanding expenditure on public works, to which over £3OO millions of public money will be assigned. Lastly, more than another £3OO millions will be spent on direct relief to business and the unemployed. The first might be summarised as in- ' flation, the second as relief works, and the third as doles. All three types of remedy were utilised before, when Mr. i Roosevelt had to deal with the great depression in 1933-34 at the beginning of his first term o£ office. On the earlier occasion prosperity returned, and Mr. Roosevelt got the credit. But, in fact, it returned at that time not only to the United States, but to nearly all the countries of the world. And there has since remained an open question whether its return in the United States was really more helped or hindered by what the President did. The new experiments, if they are allowed to be carried through, may go far to determine the true answer. AMERICAN MARKET DOMINANCE The domination of tho world commodity markets by American demand, writes Mr. Douglas Jay, city editor of the Daily Herald, has never been so powerfully demonstrated as in the past nine months. A shrinkage in American industrial activity has brought down prices of almost all the leading commodities by 50 per cent and more. Few people realise the extent to which the world's economic life is dominated by the United States. From a third to a half of the v/orld's out- i put of most of the leading commodi- j ties is consumed in tho United States, j Tho following figures show the proportion for each of eight commodities in tho latest year for which figures are available (United States of America proportion of world consumption):— Copper, 1937, 37.3 per cent; lead, 1936, 27.8 per cent; tin, 1937, 43.9 per cent; zinc, 1936, 34.0 per cent; rubber, 1937, 49.8, per cent] tea, 1936, 9.4 per cent;, oil, 1937, 65.9 per cent; wheat, 1937, 17.8 per cent. It will be seen that in the most recent year the United States consumed around. 50 per cent of the world's consumption of oil, rubber and tin. and between 25 and GO per cent of copper, lead and zinc. Probably United States' consumption of consumers' goods as a wlioln is in the same sort of proportion, and of capital goods other than armaments probably greater. These figures show why it is that the fortunes of United States business dominate the economic life of the world*