THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19785, 10 May 1926, Page 13

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

PRIVATE THRITT. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 27. Sir Oliver Lodge on “Death”: “ The body is rather a nuisance to get rid of, and when the separation takes place we should try to regard the process with intelligence and not with emotion. Don’t be afraid of the word ‘ Death.’ There is in a way death, but there is no extinction. Whatever you think about the body don’t think about the grave with emotion. Think of graves as little as possible. There has been too much superstition about graves. There are no dead in the churchyard. 1 have never been to see my son Raymond’s grave in Franco. He lias asked me not to. If people would get over the trouble of waiting for a general resurrection and all that mediaeval superstition, they would begin to regard death as an adventure, an episode which is bound to come, something we may be ready for and welcome when it comes, and not be fraid of. \\ e don’t fear when we emigrate. We work upon the fresh conditions before us with interest and not with apprehension. That is how I would urge you to look forward to death. What happens to us elsewhere depends on what we have done here and according to how we have made use of our opportunity we may go up or we may go down. Matter looms far too high in out attitude here. Let us not take a pitiable outlook. Lift up your hearts, ‘ greet the unseen with a cheer.’ Nothing is too great or too good to be true. The possibilities open to us are beyond our imagination.” GOOD FRIDAY*. The Bishop of Swansea on the observance of Good Friday: “ May I, in the name of the Church ot England Men’s Society, again appeal to the men of the Church and nation to lend their aid in rescuing Good Friday from the ignominy with which that most sacred day in the whole year has, by some strange perversity, come to he treated? The response made to the society’s appeal last year, by sportsmen and others, gives full warrant for the belief that the conscience of the rtation and its innate sense of the decency of things is about to assert itself in this matter. The striking revolt which took place last autumn against the degradation of Armistice Day has its significance. If the better feeling ot the nation declared it to me intolerable that the commemoration of our loved ones should be made tho occasion for mere revelliugs, how much more may we anticipate that the deliverance of the day of our Redeemer's dying from the contempt with which it is so commonly treated is now at hand? Organised football matches, the opening of kinemas, the advertisement of golf competitions on this solemn day are an affront not only to church people, but to all who recognise the inconsistency and discordancy of this modern method of ’ keeping Good Friday.’ ” SEA-SENSE AND COMMON SENSE. Mr Bridgeinan, First Lord of the Admiralty, speaking at a dinner of the R.N.Y.R. (Auxiliary Patrol) Club: ’’lt is necessary that all who believe in the navy should exert themselves to oppose what seems to me to be really a dangerous feeling that is coniine- over the country at the moment —namely, that both the army and navy are obsolete; that the next war is going to be fought in the air, and that’ there is no need tor any other defence. 1 have no doubt whatever of the value of the Air Force, and that its value will increase, but 1 hope tho country will realise that it will be a very long time before that force will be able to undertake tho .defence of the country. With the cry of economy there comes the great danger that certain people who know nothin--- about it—Little Englanders and other discreditors of this country—will do anything they can to persuade tho country to save a few millions at the expense of the navy. I hope that bodies such as this club will exert themselves to see that tho soa-sense is kept in a reasonable and sound condition. Sea. sense is commonsense. YVe have to look at things as they are and not as they may be fifty years hence. The programme the Government laid down is tho minimum programme for the safety of this country on (he one-Power standard to which vve are committed There is always a little danger in talking about the one-Power standard. That only exists in regard to battleships and ships of large size. It will be a very dangerous thing for'this country to allow "it to he thought that we can be satisfied with a one-Power standard in cruisers for example. In cruisers we want to feel that we are. at any rate, superior to other countries and are able to afford protection for our trade.’’ Mr Tom Mann, at a national conference of the Minority Movement: “There has been too much yielding to the Capitalists by trade union officials and the rank and file. We, the men and women, are going to put a stop to it. Let no rran mistake us; we are out to fight the Capitalists. The arm and closed list in our banner indicate our attitude towards the boss class There is no hope unless we can fight and beat them. Class consciousness has been reached by a large percentage, and we care nothing for those who warn us to bo careful. In recent months some trade union officials have traded upon our kindly concern and determination to help in building up the unions. Ihey have taken -> mean advantage of it, and are punishing their members for it. If they persist, we shall know what to do. We are out for militancy: we are out for the workers, and if the hour comes we will die with them without asking anyone’s help. .... With regard to the military, we shall claim the right of interchange of opinion with them, and see they arc still without class in outlook and readiness for action. Our object is the full and complete control of all industry by the workers." SLAY’E REGULATIONS. Mr Saklatvala, member for Battersea, on lire Union Jack: ’’ihe British trade union movement has no hope through tho Parliamentary process or gaining victory over the master emss while British Imperialism exists, it means 16 millions of coloured human beings exploited and working under slave regulations in the mines, in the iron and steel works, and the cotton and jute mills, and on ships, clocks, and railways ,of the so-called British Empire, and the minority movement will have to take direct action to stop this exploitation. In the eastern territories where coloured labour is hopelessly exploited and literally starved to murder and death; where, through slave regulations, natives are working a 10-hour clay for bd or Bd. I say the Union Jack is nothing but a symbol of murder and robbery. And I say that the function of the Union Jack in ’ other people’s countries is to destroy the happiness, the liberty, and the economic rights of the British working class, representing 80 per cent, of the population. It is our duty as a trade union movement and as a majority of the population to demand that this Union Jack shall cease to function in any country outside tho territory of Great Britain, and 1 have no apology to offer for this statement. Mr A. M. Samuel, M.P.. Parliamentary secretary of the Overseas trade Department, on tho subject of “Other People s Money’’; , , , , "People in this country seem to be following the American example, and are carrying to an extreme the practice of huepurchase which often means pledging future income up to the hilt so that nothing is left for emergencies, H an economic crisis takes place in a country where a largo body of the purchasing public are indebted to shopkeepers and manufacturers for goods obtained on the deferred payment system, a dreadful ora-m may take place. r lho moral I dravv from this is that purchasing on t.ie U.l -o system, however cheaply can borrow the money, is not an unmixed blessing :nui may be carried much too tar. I think (here is some truth in the charge that soem to have forgotten tho virtue of saving. and that some of us have lost .ho power to say ‘No’ to ourselves in matters of pleasure. Money, which in my young days, used to go back into the business if profits were made, is now often dissipated on a two-seater or a month's holiday at Cannes. Estimates show that the sa*mg> of 15 000.000 small investors amount to a •urn of £1,750,000.000. This looks n substantia! total, hut it averages out at only £ll7 per head Surely this is not enough, and it ought to be at least doubled. “A most desirable form of saving is lhat men should entrust their savings to sound, well-managed concerns m which tnev themselves are employed It makes for efficiency in those concerns, because where a man's savings are there his •-art is. It makes for peace in those concerns, for where a man's money is there his desire is that things should work smoothly. 1 take full account of the high taxation discouragin'- or preventing saving, hut that does nol alter the fact that private saving is a public virtue, and we can «e!l servo our country by denyuig ourselves measures in order to place the price of thc-m at the disposal of comnisK*''-