' tellectual,

-PAGE FOUR THE GUARDIAN

Autlmrlzeil as Second (Jlsss Mall Post Office Department. Ottsws. The Island Gusrdlsn uublislilng-Co.

Editor nml Managing Director. Inn A. Burnett. Associate Editor. Frank Walker.

CIRCULATION ”Cuvors Prince Edward lllsnd like the dew"

"The strongest memory Is weaker than the weakest Ink". 1,

I

l

CHABLOTTETIHVN THURSDAY. NOV. 26, 193:: Maritime llnlon , -j l

(mcc more the threadbare project of Maritime Union is being mooted. This time by Dr. G. B. Sandford of Edmonton, plant pathologist at the University of Alberta and originally from the Annapolis Valley. it seems to Dr. Sandford that New Bruns-. wick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Is- land would be better off financially and in many other ways if they were to incorpor- ate into one Province.

Just why this should be so is never mad: clear. There is sometimes talk of high overhead of government of such small areas and populations. It is far from cer- tain. howcvcr, that having a central Mari- timc government would result in any eco- nomics of administration. The some detail- ed administration would still be necessary and in fact additional subordinate author- ities would certainly have to be set up in addition to those now existing.

The Legislative Assembly of this Prov- ince, for instance, deals with a great deal of detailed local matter possibly be handled for so large a unit as the combined Provinces. It would be neces- sary to have not one Island government but three county councils, an increase in governmental overhead rather than a re- duction.

There is something to having a united voice at Ottawa. but that voice would not be stronger than that of the three Gov-

ernments speaking in unison as they can.

well do when common problems are at is- sue.

Finally those who are at a distance from these shores may forget that Confed- eration was accepted as an alternative to Maritime Union and was promised to give these Provinces by the sea a better deal than that proposal. It would indeed be iron- ical if having accepted the larger union the Provinces were then to lose their identity in the minor union for which it was a sub- stitute. -

I Ieathy'sTl;ItIcIsms

l i resulting jargon emanating from education-I, I l l

which could not .

"anti-intellectual. anti-cultural and amor- al." These serious charges are discussed at length by Dr. Ixleatby, but can only be re. ferred to here in passing. They form the most controversial part of her book, and are supported by a formidable array of re- ferences.

Dr. Neatby deplores the influence of Professor Dewy on modern educational concepts. ”He has been looked upon," she Says. a fountain at which every novice l'nUSt drink: in truth he is no fountain, he is rather a marsh, a bog where armies of school teachers have sunk, and, one migm add, many of them have never risen, but speak with muffled accents from the depths." Several examples are cited of the

al sources on this point.

Dr. Neatby finds no fault with the die- tum that "matriculation requirements must: not hinder the development of a curriculum sufficiently flexible to provide for the needs of non-matriculants." No indeed, she says; why should they? ”But one would like some assurance that, in. the minds of ex- i perts, the converse holds true. No such as- lsurance is given. What is not said, perhaps because it is not perceived, is that the ldemocratlc socicty' in the name of which education is being steadily watered down lives only on the creative efforts of the gifted few in all forms of endeavour, and on the ability of the majority in varying degrees to inspire, support and use them."

In calling for a re-direction of education- al aims Dr. Neatby points out that our western society is a product not only of modern humanism but of Judiac morality, of Christian love, of Greek philosophy and Roman law. ”But we are increasingly an unconscious product of these things. In the excitement of the modern age and the pur- suit of nationalism, democracy and mater- ialism we have forgotten where we come from and what we believed in. Ours has be- come a rootless as well as a faithless so- ciety." Modern educators and their systems are but a symptom of the malady. Even so, some symptoms require to be treated as if they were a disease. ”A serious attempt ito revise our current educational systems in the light of human experience might do much to put new life into our vague and visionless society." The key to the problem is in the hands of the teachers, and it is to this vitally important class that Dr. Neat- by's arguments are directed. Whether or not they will find them agreeable to their views and experiences, every teacher and educationist should endeavour to read and study their implications.

l

EDITORIAL. NOT ES .

A roast of meat has turned up in Jer-

It has been said that a conservative is one who keeps the reformer from going too fast and plucking the fruit before it is ripe. This definition is hardly adequate for Dr. Hilda Neatby, Professor of History at the University of Saskatchewan and the only woman member of the Massey Commission on Arts, Letters and Sciences, who as a conservative in education is not only bent. on slowing up the reformer's pace, but on changing his direction as well. In "So Little for the Mind", recently published in Toronto. she has written the most vigor- ous indictment of modern educational

,melhods yet to appear in Canada.

The virtues of the new education, Dr. Neatby says. emerge naturally from the humanitarian philosophy of the eighteenth century. The average progressive school is not, as certainly many traditional schools were, an abode of darkness and cruelty or. at best, of dull and meaningless fact grind- ing. Rather it is a place where all children find sympathy, understanding, and encour- agement. What is wrong with this? Noth- ing, except that A great additional load is thrown on the educational system which undertakes to care adequately for all, the dull, the lazyand the misfits as well as for the bright and the industrious. It faces a threefold task.

First it must accept, and afford some sort of training for, every child above a very low intellectual level. This has meant an enormous and rapid increase in num- bers in all schools, and fl vast increase in

the numbers of intellectually incompetent in the high schools. Secondly, the school must convey to these swollen numbe'rs a

mass of information useful and even essen- tial to theni, of which their grandparents never even dreamed. Thirdly, the school should, In addition, convey to all, insofar as they are capable of receiving it, the in- cultural . and moral training which-represents the best in a long and honourable tradition of Western civiliz- ation. - I II: is in the latter requirement, which Dr. Nearby regards as of prime importance, that , modern educstlonlsts have fallen saw . Imtudsot using their enormous new mg I Jiieiguterlal squipment, knowledge g V to cope with the correspondingly mad: :zcmuE"aii..inteiiectu.u and spir- AV 0 - Nhsve uikenthe easy t ring on "the obvious, xv Immediate." As I re-

-..

iicho after 4,000 years. Service seems to be bad everywhere. O O - I

Sir Frank (Francis Bernard) Dicksce,l English painter, was born this date 1853.) He belonged to the symbolic school of paint- ers, and combined skilful draughtsmanship with subdued and tasteful colouring. His jmany works include, "Evangeline", "Fu- Eneral of a Viking", "The Passing of Ar- thur” and "La Belle'Dame sans Merci."

O I! O

The ten million dollar loss by the Gov- ernment on farm price supports, -or even. the forty-two million dollar loss if 1'oot-and- pmouth emergency measures are included, amounts to only a dollar or three dollars a head for the Canadian people. If price supports prevented farmers from reducing :production and sending up prices the aver- ,age consumer got the best. of the deal by far.

The advice of Agriculture Minister Gar- diner, derived from a Scots grandfather, is ;that farmers should find what their farm ,was best suited to produce and then keep ,on producing it. With the necessary and understood qualification that the product must he in demand at a generally profit- iablc price the advice would seem to be good. In again, out again tactics are hard .to follow successfully.

C I O

. The problems of hard currency and ; soft currency, the dollar area and the ster- jling area are of great importance today land the report made by the Hon. Lewis W. Douglas, former U. S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, to the President is recognized as an outstanding exposition of the problems involved. The Bank of Mont- real has done a public service in publishing verbatim the significant portions of the re- port in its current Business Review.

on 0 0

That gasoline tax and iliquor profits have sunk to the ”minor source" classifica- tion is some of the surprising information contained in an analysis of government fl- nances published in the Saskatchewan Economic. Review. 'It is, perhaps, also sur- prising that governments ever considered them as major sources of general revenue. The gasoline tax was originally thought of only as a means of highway upkeep and the handling of liquor was not at first in-

irler and mass slaughter.

GU ARDIAIEI. wCHARI.O'l"P.'.'l'U”W or

By! The I Seaside

. 25,

795

The Passing Scene

What Is this thing called Mc- Carthyism we sreyhearlng so much about these days and which . threatens to stir up bad feeling: in 'government circles on both sides of the American-Canadian border? There is no point. In con- sulting a dictionary about is for the word has not yet. been given an omclal place in the English- speaking vocabulary. It will, how- ever, be found in the new editions. much to the chiagrtn of the many thousands of honest. and fatrmlnd- ed Mocarthys who are scattered all over the globe and who, it. is safe to assume, would angrily repudiate

any spirltual- kinship with the "nery seniwor” from Wisconsin. Nor 'could. we expect. any clear- cut definition from the more out- spoken political enemies of that gentleman-Mr. Truman, for ex- ample. From them we should get such phrases as "the technique of the Big Lie", "the method of the smear", and "assumption of guilt before trial". While these phrases might. tell part of the story they would not tell the whole of it and, in any case, the language is a bit too rough for general use.

The senor himself and his ardent. disciples would probably say ft is "s good American system" of dealing with traitors. This would confuse us all the more for. lwhatever Mocarthyism may be, it. is not. good. It is not. typically American, and Lt is not exactly I. system. Moreover, it ls not. used against traitors excfustvely, or even -J . chiefly.

Q 0 O O

3 14 A new I received s. mug while ago from an American clergyman

PUBLIC FORUM

This column ls open to the discussion by correspondents of questions of Interest. The Guardian does not necessar- ily endorse the opinion of correspondents

A GIIOULISII FIGUIII

Sir,-The Ideological gangsterlsm which Stalin did so much to con- solidate and expand is now t.r.V1n-S; to confer immortality on its fore- most champion in the form of I. mausoleum. Btstel-y tombs do not neceusrlly insure the deaohless memory of those who slumber be- neath them. - . Stalin was s ghoulish tyrant who filled the earth with blas- phemy, cruelty, lias, slavery, tor- lure and murder. All tyrannles perish. "Passion raves itself to rut"-and tyranny burns itself out. It will take generations. possibly centuries, to erase the harm that he did. And one of the most hor- rendous crimas of which he was guilty -was that of causing little children to be atheism.

His enslaiement. of 800 million people puts him in the malodorous company of Tiberius, Caligula. Genghis Khan, Nabuchodonosor. Artaxerxes. Antiochus Eplphanes. and the other experts at race mur- Stalin was an atheist, an anarchist, a political nihilist, a ruthless icono- clast. who shattered crecds and de- molished cults. Like Attila the Hun and Genseric the Vandal his passion was to.destroy, to l'l.llIl, to decivilize. Attila. and Genscric were barbarians. so was Stalin.

I am, Sir, etc.

Charlottetown. ,

mowaatntvcezrv.

l 9

Old Charlottetown : (And i-. ii. I.)

5'3.7.'?DI7

;? 3

IRREGULAR MAILS

"We have again the s.rrival of the Courier from Cape Tormentlne. without the Halifax Mail; so that out. of the five trips performed this season, he has been three times unseccess- ful. This I!,'I10 doubt. extremely annoying, on many accounts: but. apart from other oonsiderations

to an-no.unc2

whether the Courizr brings I. re-

llsve Your ("zines

DRY CLEANED

PRESSED ONLI : at

ma-wsv (ll.EANIl1RS DIAL 7387

Refrigeration

SALES and SERVICE Repairs To All I".'ikes

MOTOIIS

Rewinding .snd Repairs

ELEGIEBICAL APPLIANG

Jepslrs

Electric

i IMO-IIH.

Palmer I M.

. , . R

indqctrinated in .

w'. J. ENFLIGHT i

tit. is worth keeping in mind that. every trip costs the country sixi

Pounds. which mustl be paid. turn mall or not." --Royal Gmette J n. 1835.

.,1 .5. 1. Tans-Csmds Air Lines cx- litc results of pert. predicts that s little later in many cases on passenger slrcraft. will be fly- ing at 1,000 miles per hour. Ot- tawa. to Toronto in 15 minutes. Makes Toronto awfully close. doesn't it? -Ottawa Journal

some tl.000 ..minds of Canadian honey have been sent. to France. Austria. and Italy for use if three homes for children established in those countries. Not. much imagin- ation is required to picture the delighted way in which the young- stera overseas will receive the gift By way of oontrast, we have the picture of warehouses and store shelves in Canada. filled with honey which Canadians have been un- willing to pumhmse. -Fort William Times-Journal

When a baby refuses to eat. spinach it may really be because he simply does not like the taste of the stuff. But. before he is many years older the grounds for his dislikes will probably be much more flimsy and by the time he zrous to manhood most. of them may have no real foundation at. all. It is good for us once in a while to stop and try to analyse. why we think we do not like some particular thing. And if we are, honest. with ourselves we may be- more than mildly surprised at

.1? fm

stars

Love is dull

w,rong.

The Age Old St

I Blessed be the mime of God forv (ever and ever: for wisdom Ind might are his: and he chsngeth the l times and the seasons: he rcmoveth

kin(;'.s. and settcth u i

klngs:,. he i

iaknowledxe to them that know un- ,dcrst.andlng: he rcvcsleth the deep pand secret. things: he. knnweth what I! in the darkness, and the llighl. ilwcllcih with hir".

mfblotes B);-The Waxn

, .a;5.',,.- -2,

.

ROTATION Even the owls sip lyrical when the moon's right. And we have no patience with the

'On a dusty night.

And age may outslngyouth;

For there is no measuring s song, 1Nor counting upon truth.

I

Allis well, and then a flood of loss

g Surges upon delight.

. While the rose buds upon the cross. And the blind have sight.

flwoicning wisdom vanishes And dusk brings dread lTIlllf. stalwart sleep banlshes Ere primes are said.

mum wudnm "M" I ' mm mm l He who is sure, has all to learn: lw-ho fears. but fears in vain.

T For never a day does the your turn. lam it shall turn again.

.

(who I am certain does not devi- gfut... atosfnahlonofsninohfrom the

' political or social centre) gives in good inkling of what. McCs.rt.hytsm may be doing to the old American I principle of freedom under the

law. This is the letter:

"I have Just returned from u re- W? '9”'"uW'I5- plomal meeting Attended by repre- '" '” may I75 sentstlve ministers and laymen of

mm m” We T?” T9350" 01 9”? several denonflnatlons. The routine supposed dislike is not in the thing WM much the same as mull but but in ourselves and that it is one on new diyemion cropped up gn of these three: s desire to attract sttmitwn. Sn.ob- C I -rh , mg g 1;,

bery is illustrated by the man who "my O D0 0 6 game says emphatically: Will!-'16?-" HP 01106 hmrd -somebody ersl hundred people present. Solar proclaim that. all Wagner's works 3,, I mum dei,e,-mine not A 5011. were pompous and "popular" and tary one was unearthed during the that the real lover of music en- week, which Wu unugmg 1;, View loyed something more subtle. B0 of the charge made by one of the WT Wm W9?” 155931 l0 anything sensxt.or's officials that there are by Wagner-and thus he has mim- cd the delight of the Siegfield Idyll, thizerg among the clergy of Amer. which is far from pompous and 1”,

as subtle as anybody could wish.- From an editorial for young peo. ple, Hamilton Spectator. -

..&?&9

Habit. snobbery. the form of s witch-hunt. I. la. Mc-

" I was to 11nd s. real live Communist. I dim” 1139 or fellow-traveller among the sev-

at least. 7500 Communist sympa-

"Blshma, oxnsm. who was much in the news s few weeks ago when he successfully defended hlmselfln person before the Congressional -sub-oomnitttee on un-A:merlcan- lsm, was not present. However. his name came up many times and he was commended for fighting back so vigorously in behalf of s prin- clplo which will like to think is Just as lively as ever in this coun- try,--the principle of fair play and decency.

"There was a lot of playful ban- ' tor and nonsense about. this witch- hunt; business evident in the con- vention hsll, but I can tell you that. the issues now confronting us

.

By Observer

nmm.

"A COBBODING BLIGIIT”

nil in no Joke. Probablyrno: one half of one per cent of the Ame,-I lean people are behind Ihg un: American methods now belu: used by some congressional committee. but. the fact. that such melt-0...; could make any headway at all 15 causing a lot of worry to the gym m3.l0T1l-Y of our people. There mu-L have been something wron: um. our political thinking all aIm'.: or this thing could not have si,qQ.,.,l in the first place.

"It is difficult to put in no-,1, all the alarming aspects 0; ,h',, Mocart-hv investigation nltjfh0d5 and probably it. will bc iim-4. years before the tale can be told Meanwhile something like R cor- rodlng hllght is falling ovgr our way of life. For the first time in modern history there is an air oi suspicion in our social i-claim. shim. The old style Libcr :,.m which helped to make this tiollrllrv great 18 some underground. as ,1 were, for no other reason than that. many outstanding Libel-ah hate to be involved even Indlrrrllv in any sort of political (iDn'.Tflll.. ersy.

"Probably not one in a t.haus:ind is linked even remotely with Com. munlst. thought or practices but in some quarters, anything mi downright Fascism is suspect am of course, any Liberal. worth 21.; salt. must. be just as anti-F a as antl-Communist. What. th. ef. feet. will be on our young people; normal concept of teamwork mm. in the game and on their tcxt. books ideas of the American Way (Lincoln, Jefferson-, Hen-ry, M11 the rest.) no one can forsee, hm 1. is not. likely to be partlcuinrlv good.

"To make mattem worse or at least. more confusing, people who know Senator McCarthy psrsor.a'.Lv say that he is s rather charniing and kindly fellow. There is :15 question as to his sincerity. He, sees himself as a. man of desttnv. If a. hundred men must. be drag- ged into a net on the off-rh.-mu that one of them might turn out to be a Communist. sympathizrmn let it be. His joy over catching one is so intense that he pays no heed to the plight of the other 99.

"Then, too, there is the question of what. would happen should pub- lic indignation bring about lhr political liquidation of McC'aruu- and all h.ls works. would the re- action take things to another ex- treme and thus more it easier for Communists to sneak into our in- stitutions? I can toll you that Americans are facing a. real inter- nal crisis. but there is still hopc that; wisdmn will find. A way to preserve our ancient. freedoms without at the same time Jeopard- izlng our security".

These, of course.1i.re the new of one man, but I have is feeling that they represent the kind of thinking that is going on in most American group: at. this time. It so. the present phase of semi- offlcisl compromising with me totn.litu.rtan temper will pass be- fore it. has had time to do ll'l”9DU- able harm. We must hope that things will turn out that way for much depends on the issue ms every free man on this earth lmi R. vital concern in it.