NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23266, 8 February 1939, Page 12

NOTES AND COMMENTS

THE BUILDING SPIRIT In answering the question, "What's Right with America," Miss Faith Baldwin, the novelist, said:—We are young, we make mistakes, we fall in with the procession, shout catch phrases, believe in rumour, are impatient. With our hearts set upon progiess we dislike to wait for growth. Wo take fire from the current "isms" and work ourselves into a lather. But underneath —well, there is a spirit which does not die, a building spirit, which has hope, which looks forward, which is proud of its heritage and operates superbly in the face of disaster.

LITERARY CRITICISM The charge that literary <;ritics today lack the proper tools was made at a recent session of the Modern Language Association of America by Professors Tlieodoro Spencer and Harry Sloehwer. The professors laid the blame for this upon the teachers, saying that they poorly prepared their students and that, as a result, literary criticism was "impoverished and rickety." "The critic," they said, "should seek to raise the level of the reader's enjoyment and to bring out the different relationships surrounding the object he is studying and to communicate to other individuals understanding, discrimination and enjoyment." In a period when literary criticism has come to mean little else than book reviews, such a pronouncement is welcome and pertinent, remarks the Christian Science Monitor. Professors Spencer and Sloehwer have reaffirmed the words of George Saintsbury that criticism is "The discovery and celebration of beautiful things." The true critic is not merely a "recounter," he is a "recreator." Through his words a work of art takes on added meaning and significance. Further than that, his is a duty to evaluate and judge so that in a world of change there remains some basis of form, both for the artist and for the spectator. FOOD SURPLUS FOR RELIEF One of the horrible ironies of to-day's situation is that there is an enormous world surplus of food simultaneously with widespread and unsatisfied hunger, says the New York Times. For instance, the world carry-over of wheat, as of next July, is estimated at 1,105,000,000 bushels. The recent action of the United States Government through the Surplus Commodities Corporation and in co-operation with tho Red Cross, will narrow the area of this ghastly paradox. The Government will turn over to the Red Cross, without charge except for conveyance and processing, 3,000,000 bushels of surplus wheat to be used for nonpartisan civilian relief throughout Spain. What the situation now demands is a system of relief m which other countries may join with the United States, in which other needed commodities besides wheat may be supplied, and in which there shall be no breath of any kind of partisanship. It is not beyond hope that such a co-opera-tive effort may smooth the way toward peace. We have, at any rate, no right to place our sympathies with either faction above our sympathy for suffering humanity. Sincere supporters of Franco, sincere adherents of the Barcelona Government, can in this effoit join hands. They will be giving succour to the innocent and helpless, in the presence of whom tho fury of controversy should now and always be sdent. IN A FREE SOCIETY

Freedom to criticise is both the safeguard of personal liberty and the source of progress in knowledge and in action, writes Mr. Wickham Steed in the Press. And it carries with it the main attribute of any free society —the toleration of opinions which many, perhaps most, of its members may think wrong. If they tolerate them while thinking them wrong; if they refrain from using violence to suppress them; if they seek to overcome them by -argument and persuasion, they recognise that human minds may honestly differ and that it is safer for all opinions to be measured one against the other than that one of them should be imposed by force or constraint. Political freedom does not consist in like-mindedness. It, consists, negatively, in agreement to difier, and. posithely, in the recognition that differences of view within a community make life richer than uniformity. A society is free when its customs and laws leave scopo for individual thought and personal action, and restrict only -those aspects of freedom which, were they unrestricted, would prevent others from enjoying freedom. An individual in a free society is not free because its laws and customs arc those which he might prefer, but because ho has as much say in public or social affairs as any olio mnn can have if all are to have their say and yet live and act together.

MANNERS OF SPEAKING

Tlio House of Commons never appears to better advantage than when nil occasion arises which momentarily puts an end to the fret and fume of controversy, writes "Atticus ' in the Sunday Times. Such an event occurred on Thursday, when Mr. Chamberlain moved a resolution to place a statue of the lato Lord Oxford within the precincts of the Chamber. I could not help contrasting tho oratory of the four men who spoke oil tho motion. Mr. Chamberlain's attitude is always tho same: "I do not ask language to do more than present the truth as ] see it." Mr, Attleo does not like tho colourful phrase or the poignant touch. With modesty and dignity ho appears to say: "I knew this man, I watched him, I have studied his career—and I feel that he was a good man, worthy of the gratitude of this House." Sir Archibald Sinclair is always attractive. Tho rolling tribute and tho epic phrase are no trouble to him. He does not suffer in giving them birth. Ho has brought them with him as a laurel wreath to place at tho base of the pedestal. Mr. Lloyd George is unlike any of the others. He does not speak of history with'awe. He is history, and ho knows it. Ho many of his contemporaries have passed away that his mind would be in perpetual mourning unless lie thought of them as still part of the Parliamentary scene. Thus, in tho very midst ot paying tribute to the statesman whose career he broke he took a sly dig at Mr. Gladstone as if the Grand Old Man were Bitting behind the despatch box t