MAN AND MACHINERY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21775, 14 October 1932, Page 5

MAN AND MACHINERY

LOST JOY OF CRAFTSMANSHIP LESSON FOR GENEVA. (From Odr Own Correspondent.) LONDON. September 2. The “ proud progress of discovery ” was the theme of Sir Alfred Ewing’s presidental address to the British Association which is holding its 101st meeting at York. “ An old exponent of applied mechanics may be forgiven,” he said, “ if he expresses something of the disillusion with which, now standing aside, he watches the sweeping pageant of discovery and invention in whicn he used to take unbounded "ft is impossible not to ask, Whither does this tremendous procession tend? What, after all, is its goal? What its probable influence upon the future of the human race? The pageant itself is a modern affair. The cornucopia of the engineer has been shaken over all the earth, scattering everywhere an endowment of previously unpossessed and unimagined capacities and powers. Beyond question many of these gifts are benefits to many, making life fuller, wider, healthier, richer in comforts and interests, and in such happiness as material things can promote. “ But we arc acutely aware that the engineer’s gifts have been, and may be, greatly abused. In some there is potential tragedy as well as present burden. Man was ethically unprepared for so great a bounty. In the slow evolution of morals he is still uufit for the great re-

sponsibility it entails. The command of Nature has been put into his hands before he knows how to command himself. Geologists tell us that in the story of evolution they can trace the records of extinct species which have perished, through the very amplitude and efficiency of their personal appartus for attack and defence. This carries a lesson for consideration at Geneva. But there is another aspect of the mechanisation of life. A LOST JOY.

“ Man finds that while he is enriched with a multitude pf possessions and possibilities beyond his wildest dreams, he is in a great measure deprived of oue inestimable blessing—the necessity of toil. He has lost the joy of craftsniau-

ship, and in many cases unemployment is thrust upon him, an unemployment that is more saddening than any drudgery. “Where shall we look for the remedy? Some may envisage a distant Utopia in which there will be perfect adjustment of labour and the fruits of labour. Even so the question will remain, How is man to spend the leisure he has won by handing over nearly all his burden to an untiring mechanical slave? Dare he hope for such spiritual betterment as will qualify him to use it well? God grant he may strive for that and attain it. It is only by seeking that he will find.”

Sandalwood was burned in a chapel at, Brookwood, Surrey, for the funeral of: Sir;j Dorabji Tata, the millionaire , Indian iindustrialist. After the coffin had been; placed in the mausoleum, the Parseeal present entered and each in turn placed, upon it a sprig of red or white flowers. White-robed priests conducted the ser* vice.

German societies for the prevention, of cruelty to animals are advocating - rubber shoes for horses instead of the iron shoe# in general use. It is contended that; apart from the fact that they are much more comfortable for the, horse, rubber shoes are also cheaper, last longer, and prevent: horses from falling on slipjieiT asphalt. -* ,';