IS THE RACE DOOMED?

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1935, Page 4

IS THE RACE DOOMED?

In addressing the British Association Commissioner D. C. Lamb, of the Salvation Army, is reported to have said, “The race is doomed. Calvin and Darwin have destroyed us.” As a means of making his point Commissioner Lamb’s dramatic announcement no doubt had considerable effect, but the assertion should not be taken too seriously. That the existing economic system throws 25 per cent, of the workers on the scrap heap is’not an original theory, and is frequently advanced in political circles throughout the world. Assuming that there is some truth in it, it is extremely difficult to believe that acquiescence in this system is the result of subtle reasons on predestination and natural selection.” Probably not one per cent, of people know what “predestination and natural selection” means, much less allow such reasoning to affect their lives. Commissioner Lamb was on safer ground when he drew attention to the evils of overcrowding in the large centres of population, and the destruction of the flower of our manhood in warfare. Neither state of affairs, however, is by any means new. They have existed for hundreds, even thousands of years, and in proportion to the population there is probably less “overcrowding” in the main centres of Britain to-day then for some time. This does not mean, of course, that there is not room for considerable improvement, but the British authorities are facing the overcrowding position boldly, and in the matter of warfare prevention the League of Nations and its activities speak for themselves. Perhaps Commissioner Lamb's most significant remark was his reference to the deliberate destruction of food and payment of premiums to producers not to produce while millions are poorly clad and underfed. There is no doubt that the practice referred to, popular as it has been recently as a means of maintaining prices, is fundamentally wrong. Moreover, if it continues the day of reckoning will assuredly come. Hungry and underfed people will not go on indefinitely watching the destruction of what they so badly need, and they will have right on their side. The point is closely related to the question of quotas. For the sake of the bulk of humanity man must find some other way out of his present troubles than stifling the production of needed foodstuffs and' clothes.