Nov. 14.
MucH has been written on the psychology of the crowd, by scientist and philosopher alike. But there is one aspect of its behaviour that has received little attention, Probably the scavenger could tell us more about it than could the psychologist, for it is a trait that touches him much more closely than it does the student or professor. The quality in question is the unconquerable propensity of crowds to leave behind them a litter.
Newspapers in England have commented on.crowd untidiness particularly with reference to the Empire Exhibition at Wembley where the disordered heaps of rubbish left by visitors contrasted so strongly with the ordered beauty of the Exhibition itself. But the practice is not confined to Wembley. There are few public parks where the populace does not leave its ugly impress in the form of banana skins, orange peel or scraps of paper. Nor are less artificial areas immune. Sea beaches and their immediate surroundings too often bear witness to the fact of a recent public holiday, with empty sardine and fruit tins, broken victuals, litter of all sorts. But perhaps it is in the cinema theatre that the "many headed" really achieves its best—or worst. Emipty chocolate boxes, silver paper, peanut shells everywhere, discarded programmes: the theatre is a sorry sight, The British Empire has to deal with many serious problems, and at such a time it may seem absurd to make a fuss over Peanut shells. But one cannot help being glad that public attention is so far roused in regard to this apparently unimportant matter of littering up public places that the Manchester Municipal Council is holding a conference to discuss the problem and to try to find some way of overcoming the national bad habit. Some sociologists attribute the evil to the drabness of towns and their inartistic arrangements, There is something in the conditions of modern life, they say, which makes people indifferent to public tidiness. It seems, however, rather unfair to lay the blame at the door of our unbeautiful cities while it is rare to find a single well-known beauty spot where the tripper has.not made his presence felt by the remains of meals and scattered pieces of paper.
The main reason for all this promiscuous disposal of litter is simply thoughtlessness and {ts handmaiden selfishness. People appear to think that,.- because they have paid for a seat at a show, - they are justified in giving the cleaners as much work as possible, Certainly the great majority would never think of littering up the floors of their own homes as they bestrew those-of the theatre, Here is a chance'for parents and guardians, Cleanliness we know is next
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.