PRESS OPINION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 103, 3 May 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

PRESS OPINION

YOUTH AND NATIONAL SOBRIETY A loud cry has been raised within late weeks regarding anti-temperanc.e activities among some seel ions of American youth. There are young people, doubtless many of them, who are unsympathetic toward the prohibition statutes of the land. It would be idlo to deny this. The proponents of national sobriety have at no time maintained that youth is unanimous in its support of prohibition. However, the frequency with which it is being assert ed that young people are rising up with a crusading eagerness to defeat the high moral purpose of the Eighteenth Amendment calls for a word of commendation for the hundreds of thousands of American youth who are staunch defenders of prohibition. Take, for example, the situation in the colleges. It is alleged that fraternity and sorority houses are centres of a considerable amount of drinking. Aside from the fact that on an average only about one-half of the students on a given campus are members of these secret, organisations, it is probably true that a disinterested fact-finding commission would dicover that even in them conditions have been greatly exaggerated, while there is hardly any question but that the groat majority of American students are sober and lawabiding. Let those who doubt this familiarise themselves with the editorial opinion and the news contents of such student publications as the I ntercollegian, the Student Volunteer Bulletin, and the International Student. Here it will be found that a majority of American undergraduates, while looking the facts squarely in the fyee, are committed to the fundamental premises of prohibi-

tion. Forums ami discussion conferences are being held at frequent intervals on Scores of American campuses under the sponsorship of the Intercollegiate Prohibit ion Association. Cooperating with this association in these citizenship activities are such organisations as the student departments of the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., the Student Volunteer Movements, international clubs, the Epworth and Westminster and other religious and social foundations. No one can truthfully characterise these young people ns sour-laced reformers, with a grudge against mankind. They are the citizens of to-mor-row who have definitely weighed the pros and cons 01. constitutional prohibition and have come to the conclusion that national sobriety is conducive to the economic prosperity and the social welfare of the American people. If there is a crusade of youth against prohibition there is also a much more powerful crusade of youth in favour ol' prohibition. This latter named movement got under way at the International Convention of the Christian Endeavour Society in Cleveland, ().. in tin* summer of 1927. Again, in 1929, in Kansas City, 12,000 members of this organisation. of high school and college ago, rose to their fei't in a pledge of personal allegiance to the prohibition laws of the United States. During the approaching summer, while strenuous efforts w.ll probably be made to marshal a contingent of youth in opposition to national temporaqee. scores of America's young people wili be enrolling, of their own volition, in summer conferences and institutes of one kind or another, where sober citizenship will be extolled and where loyalty to the Constitution will bo hailed with enthusiasm.— Christian Science Monitor. THE U.S.A.’S DEFICIT Even Croesus has crashed. I’.>r v»*ars the wealthy post-war United Slates never thought of a Treasury deficit. The chief worry was to fix annually the amount of rebate of taxation, gi\ing back to the taxpayer what Croesus considered he did not need. But with the advent of unemployment, the pitcher went often to the well, which has been found to be by no means bottomless. Now Croesus announces a deficit, with a demand for rigid ec uiomy in State serxices so that some measure of service may be found for those dismissed from private employment. Senator Borah, it is cabled, tried futilely to ascertain where some of the money has gone ot is going. Other people too may be curious Io know more about the measures which the United States adopted against, unemployment and which arc said to have caused “real alarm.” So far as th<» cabled news has disclosed, the measures seem to have been palliatives with a capital I’. Perhaps the South Island Main Trunk railway ami the rounded corners of city roads (those corners which distress Mr Ransom’s inartistic mind) will prove to be a mere erh > of the corners that. uiMtployed are rounding in U.S.A., squares they are circling, and the circles they are squaring. On the other hand, it may be that Mr Hoover has reduced waste by subsidising work done, under private direction. Every- , body would like to know whether America does these onerous things belter.—Evening Post. VICE REGAL APPOINTMENTS As soon as the Vice-Regal appointment becomes political tile public respect for the incumbent will diminish. Neither socially no >n public affairs will he enjoy the prestige which British nomiu(‘es command to-day. Coining from England with a mandate to preserve a due and appropriate detachment in the execution of his duties, the Englishman who becomes a Governor of a Dominion has no difficulty in avoiding political embarrassments. The Australian, reared among the people, calling the dustman and the office janitor by their Christian names, would find his position a great deal more delicate. Even in the apparently simple business of compiling a list of those eligible for Government House functions, all sorts of social problems would appear. Bis Excellency’s late neighbours, though of no particular social standing, might successfully urge their right to be among those present, to the exclusion of someone who, in an official capacity, might reasonably huve expected to be invited.

If the Australian Government insists on conducting the experiment, these i ami other disadvantages will appear. ■ They will have the (‘fleet of confirming the value of the old system, but, even ; so, the failure of Australians as gov- > eriiors of their countrymen will be no reflection on their ability. There could be no more difficult position. Given tin) same responsibilities in another colony, an Australian who failed in Australia ; might succeed admirably by reason of i the very detachment which at present makes Englishmen the best Governors of the Dominions. A New Zealander • once became Governor of Jamaica. Possibly an Australian may yet become Governor of British Guiana or Sierra Leone.— Auckland Sun. FRANCE Ono of tin* outstanding happenings, at the London Naval Conference, was France's failure to barter her inclusion in the proposed Treaty for a guarantee from Britain and the United States which should give her perpetual security from aggression. Ever since lhe World War. she has been trading politically upon her insecurity in the face of possible Gern in revenge, and it must be admitted that her policy has served her well. Besides playing the part of the unprotected female, she—in the part of Europe’s “Marianne” has acted the part, of the impoverished who must be excused from paying her debt s. The result has been that, (under Article N V I of the League’s Covenant) half the world is the guarantor for her safety; she is not urged to make a serious effort to liquidate her enormous indebtedness to Britain; she annually receives the major part of Germany’s payments imide in reparation; she has more fully .('covered from the effects of war strain than has Britain; and commercially and industrially she is in a flourishing condition. But there is a, fly in “Marianne’s” ointment. Her family decreases. The number of deaths in her household exceeds the number of births. Iler population is being supplanted by foreigners. In tho South of France there are. said to be oxer 300.000 Italian settlers, on land abandoned by French folk. She is making for importing, next month, 50,000 labourers from AnstroHungary, to assist in her agricultural and other industries. She is forming in her African Empire a black army, not so much for tin* protection of that territory as for the protection of France. The condition of France to-day is somewhat like that of Rome in her decline; she is beginning to be dependent on the strength of aliens. She clamoured for protection, nt the Versailles Conference, in 1919; she clamoured for protection at the London Conference just closing. Why does she not roly upon herself for her protection? Because she knows that she is a declining nation; because she sees the Teutons and the Italians increasing and multiplying. while her own race is dwindling ami soon will-be proportionately so weak that she is alarmed at lhe prospect in front of her. To such a pass has b.rth-cont rol brought France’

DOMINION FINANCE Clever but specious is a term which may b.> used to describe Sir Joseph Ward's statement of the Dominion finances published on last week. It is a typical example of window-dressing, w ith the most attractive goods given the best positions. Of course it. is commonly done; it is all in the political game. Criticism is equally part of tho game and need not bo withhold on the ground that the Minister of Finance is a sick man. although the Hon. Mr Witch appears to think that the Reform party in Parliament showed exceedingly bad form in criticising a taxation Bill introduced by Sir Joseph Ward when he was in bad health. Tho statement issued on Thursday commences with a renewed attempt to show that the Reform Government left to its successors a legacy of unsound finance and an unhealthy position which it had attempted to bolster up. An (M'casional deficit, oven of half a million, is no proof of unsound finance, nor need it be regarded as unhealthy. As a matter of fact the finances of the. Dominion were never sounder or healthier than when Mr Dowuie Stewart: handed them '.ver '<» Sir Joseph Wa rd.— Ta ran aki Hera uI. FATAL ACCIDENTS People are gradually waking up Io the. fact that a commun ty may lose, in a comparatively small number of years more lives from accidental causes than it lost in the whole of the Great War. Growing consci nisness of this fact is making the community more alive every day to the need for a determined efl’ort to track down the causes of accidents and to eliminate them. New Zealand is more fortunate than Great Britain. America, and most other countries. inasmuch as the number of fatal accidents caused through motor vehicles does not seem, over tho last, few years, to be greatly on the increase. The number of people, in New Zealand so killed last year was lOS. One fact stands out. h >wever, when a survey is made of the nature of these accidents. This is lhe increase in the number of fatal mishaps where motor cyclists are concerned. Whereas motor cyclists were rarely involved in fatal accidents at. tho beginning of the year, they are now well to the fore, and show indications of playing an even greater part in making up lhe totals. Apart from mishaps where death for one or more has been the result the number and frequency of really serious accidents is stated 1 i bo increasing from month to month.—Taumarunui Press, Tie: Are you fond of moving pio turns, .lean? She (hopefully): Aye, Sandy. Then maybe, lass, ye’ll help me get half a dozen doon out o’ the attic. Late arrival: Full up’ But there’s a space there quite big enough for a table for two. Head waiter: Sorry, .sir, that L the dance floor.