Me Smith Minor, struggling in the Upper Fourth with the trials of the English Essay, is a fortunate man to-day. His' predecessors, when commanded to express their views on such absorbing topics as the best form of gov platforms and endeavour desperately to avoid platitudes in talking to an audience which is usually thinking chiefly of the holidays—part of it with some apprehension, the other part with resolute exultation. Some years ago, a colleague of Mr! Baldwin—the late Earl Birkenhead—aroused a storm holding out the prospect of, glittering' prizes" to his youth-_ ful hearers, Mr. Baldwin less daring. He discounts, it is true, the glamour alleged to be clothing the dictatorship of the modern world's fancy, but he bluntly tells Young England to Javoid logic and to cultivate the acquisition of the hide of the rhinoceros. Since Emanuel Pycroft adjured his fi "buy a ham and see no better advice has been recorded. The chief fault of the dictator is his slavish adherence to logic and with that fault he associates an extreme sensitiveness which leads naturally to his re-Pression of journalistic enter-rise. Mr, Baldwin tells Young'
england to be confident in reliance on its national institu. tions and the native genius. Whether the modern school boy requires to be told to wrap himself in that rhinoceros' hide, some of his preceptors may doubt. The weary classics Taster, endeavouring to solicit for the beauties of Latin verse that enthusiasm which is. displayed kering with radio sels, in discussing the rival in merits of aero-engines, in dabbling in the mysteries of electricity, may be a little doubtful of Mr. Balwin's probable fate in the hereafter. Still Mr, Baldwin is on the side of the schoolboy's angels in advocating adventure. Plenty of adventure comes to the possessor of a thick skin; it is advisable, however, for him to take the precaution of becoming proficient in the art which the boxing-instructor is ready to dispense in the gymnasium.
The appearance of a member Jof the Cabinet at the microphone' in array against the forces of Communism and Fascism. in England must be taken to show that some anxiety over the activities of the shirt-wearers is the war, and he was consequently C'ment, the advantages able' to tae advantage of the Ueger over soccer, the greatest of /developing. Mr. Baldwin has a sensibly nation's unused credit in an Kits in history, had to rely on way. He has' attempt to buy the country's way [their own mother-wit, their in England the from depression to the paths of Negligent recollection of obiter study of "isms" is not subject to industrial and commercial well dicta thrown out in the daily any prohibitions. He also shows being. The work is by no means routine of instruction and their th; unless Young England, ended, In the first six months of this year the Administration will have to find no less a sum than $10,000,000,000, $6,000,000,. 000 of which will be new money, and_ $4,000,000,000 for the refunding of maturities. At any time the raising of such a sum would be a formidable task, but the Administration has gained the faith of the people at large, the recent movements to define within close limits currency fluctuation have restored a degree of confidence, and the success of any Joan floated in the United States by the government may taken for granted, Currency uncertainties may not be entirely dissipated, but, "the steadiness of the dollar has undoubtedly
auillity of public opinion, contributed largely to the tran-'The offering of $1,000,000,000, of short term certificates in January, at rates attractive to investors was an immediate success: indeed it was heavily oversubscribed, a good augury for the financing programme which the president and his advisers have in mind. But, as is pointed out by the February review of th. - National City Bank of New York, the real "test of the spending programme will not be in the ability of the 'Treasury to dispose of a given amount of securities, or even in 4 favourable showing for trade while the spending is in progress, but in the ability of the government to stop spending' when it wants to without bringing on a corresponding slump in' business." The bankers' suggestion there, that in his present programme the President be indulging in the unhealthy pastime of riding the tiger, may prove to be correct. They have professed consi able uneasiness all the through over the Presiden policy: which in effect does involve the establishment of a casual reading in the school library. Now, thanks to the radio and to programmes which the British Broadcasting Corp-Poration specially arranges for schools, Smith Minor can actually obtain the collaborative ser-woes of a Lord President of the Council for essay-writing. When he next has to write on one side of the paper only, showing care in punctuation, handwriting and spelling, "and to discuss the m of dictatorship as a form of government, he will be at no Joss. He will be able to take Mr, Baldwin's speech and either endorse its opinions in the ap-/proved style of a certain famous newspaper or exercise the Fourth Form's privilege and bluntly disagree with them. If Smith Minor has escaped from the freer atmosphere of the Fourth into the Lower Sixth he may be more self-conscious in approaching the subject. In the Lower Sixth the atmosphere may be less free but it also stimulates a studied seriousness which apt to find unexpected expr ion. In fact the Lower Sixth is likely to pride itself on its unexpectedness when it comes to essay-writing. It is probing the possibilities of undermining the prestige of the Upper Sixth. Therefore it may be glad of Mr. Baldwin's assistance. And the Upper Sixth, obviously, has to be either ponderously orthodox jor daringly iconoclastic. The Lower Sixth endeavours to show that the orthodoxy of to-day is the exploded banality of" tomorrow and that the iconoclasts who are about to become freshers are poor, limping creatures of fashionable impulse. In other words, the hope of England is in the Lower. Sixth, with Mr. Baldwin as chief prompter.
Mr. Baldwin has stolen a march on the more or less. distinguished figures who, in due! course, appear on Speech Day inherited faculty of distinguishing between essentials "and non-essentials and therefore avoids adopting the theatrical but dangerous mass-movement psychology of the "shirts," even English condition cannot' avert the peril of ci ar, He puts his finger unerring. ly on the weak spot of the dictatorships already established. They put on a pedestal a mortal figure who dare not leontemplate the form of his successor. It may be perfectly true to urge that the dictator's power is based on popular support and therefore is, in a sense, democracy' ju excelsis. Yet that support, when once secured for the object in view, is immediately tied and fettered by its own technique. It dare not! admit for the operation of government that freedom thought and conscience to which the individual will cling for all ime in passionate revolt, when his own personal affairs are. question. The tween discipline which is ordered comradeship, and dictatorship which is fanatical idolatry, stands clear, The former gives the true basis for the civilized state. The latter throws mankind back into the barbarism of forgotten. jages. Mr. Baldwin has sown the seed for Young England's cultivation of a healthy resistance to pernicious pessimism. Smith mor will make appropriate note accordingly.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.