Roosevelt in Africa.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIIC, Issue 14211, 28 May 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

Roosevelt in Africa.

NOT UP-TO-DATE. A London correspondent of the "New Zealand limes," writes: — Mr Reosoveit, who has spent his j long holiday in thing up to tiie French j idea of an Anglo-s>axon sportsman— I "it is a fine day; let us go and. kill ! something"—has returned to civilisa- | tiou, laden with his many trophies of j slaughter. i The long list of animals slain by the Roosevelt expedition has not gone uni criticised in England, popular though the personality of the ex-Prsident appears to be. A letter from a naturalist in one of the London papers this week voices the feelings of many. "To the lover of wild life it is," bo . buy.?, "a matter of regret that one who 1 is for ever teaching .obvious morality to a- weary world should have nothing I better to do with his spare time than j put elephants and lions out of the way. Wily people who profess' to be fond of animals want to ■ kill them I have never succeeded.in discovering." A protest like this is interesting in its general aspect, because it raises a very big question. There has undoubtedly been a considerable growth of the spirit of humanitarianism in England in recent years. It is shown in the awake-ning of a social conscience among well-to-do people , in legislation such as old-age pensions, in the feedI ingof starving children at the exj pense of the rates, in the agitation • against the workhouse system, in cru- ! sades against the traffic in worn-out [ horses and the slaughter of birds for ' their feathers, and in periodical protest against the cruelties of so-called "sport" such as fox-hunting, pigeon shooting, coursing, and the torture of carted stags. These are the more obI vious signs of humanitarian spirit, j though, of course, it shows itself in , many other directions in public a»d j private lifo.'

is it a healthy spirit or is it not, '■ Ibis wave of profrst on behalf of all i Ihsf is weak, poor, defenceless-' Does < il mean that tho twentieth century < man is growing tame, soft, .sensitive 1 ■ and degenerate? Or is it a growing ! recognition of the great unity or one- ! | Moss underlying all forms of life. j throughout the world, throughout the ; i universe? j Men and women will answer that : question according to their philosophy of life, if they have one. The Christi ian will find it difficult to reconcile, ; cruelty or callousness with his ideals . jof love and brotherhood. The Neitss;schean, on the other hand will tell you j all these latter-day protests are so much | "sloppy sentiment," a sign of degen- ! erncy, and pernicious in its effect 0 on i the race. Nietzsche had no patience , '■ with ideals that aimed at tho eradiea- ■ i tion of pain. "To be brave is good,"". Ihe declared. "Let the little "girlies : .- say, 'To be sweet is good.' " He in- I . sists always on the value and neccs- j i stty of pain as a beneficial influence i | m tire development of human charac- i ter. I But the world, rightly or wrongly I is moving in the opposite direction — I | towardls liumanitarianism. Nietzsche ' | himself, I should imagine, while ap- ; J proving of the hunting of big game be- i caus of the elment of danger in it \ would have despised such forms of so- j called sport, as coursing, and pigeon I shooting, where there is no danger to ' tihe sportsman—nothing but cruel t slaughter of the hunted prey. Whether the modern humanitarian sentiment is j only a wave, destined to recede in the ; course of time, no one can say, but i it has meanwhile advanced for enough ! to make slaying-trips in Africa appear ; to many people in England, an old- ' fashioned', primitive form of amuse- j ment for a cultivated man. So too, in politics, the old indivi- ' dualistic spirit is very much on the i wane here. Mr Harold Cox spoke I truly this week when he said that anti- i Socialists could not trust either the j Liberals or the Tories of to-day. Roth I the great parties have sun-ended the ! ed collective principles which a genera- ■ | ed collective principles with a genera- I | tion ago would have been laughed to : I scorn. In the last Parliament both ; I parties voted for old-age pensions and ; j free meals for school children, and both ' ; appealed to the country with collecti- ! : vist programmes. But Mr Harold j ! Cox, the individualist, is being left be- j i hind in the advance of modern s'enti- • ment. The old age pensions which he | deplores are approved by the solid mass of the people, and he is but a voice in the wilderness against them. Already individualists pure and simple are be" ; j coming sufficiently scarce to be looked j upon as "characters" of more or less ■ j eccentric views. Time was, not so verv ; long ago in England's history, when it ' was the other way round, and eoileeti- j vist ideas were laughed at by the multitude and solemnly denounced by the wiseacres. There may come a reaction, of course, towards individualistic ideals. But the point is that the present generation at any rate it awakening to the ! possibilities of collective action in clearing up the waste and refuse, straightening out the muddle, and remedying the injustice of the ages individualism. The social conscience, i once awakened, does not easily lie | down, and the orderliness, economy and efficiency of collective administraI tion appeal strongly to the well-train-j ed twentieth century mind. And the I slaughter of wild animals in African j jungles appear a childish ambition to I men who are out to fight the abuses of our social system and put an end to destitution and all its miseries and shames.