Losses Sustained It would be malicious to By Book Trade experienced by the Dock attribute the great losses
trade in the Great Fire to a nemesis which has remembered its refusal to submit to the purchase tax, observes the "Economist." Certainly, General Goering has done far more to "destroy culture" and "prevent the spicad of democratic ideas" than could possibly have been achieved by Sir Kingsley Wood's modest proposals, Abou: 20 publishing firms have been either completely destroyed or very severely Aemaged in recent raids, Simpkin Marshall, the biggest wholesale booksellers in. the English-speaking world, lost its stock of between 3 and 4 million books. However, the destruction of Simpkin Marshall has produced another cooperative experiment in the book trade, which follows hard upon the formation by n'ne publishing firms of a Publishers' Guild to sell cheap books on a ce-operative basis. The Publishers' Association is to buy, on behalf of the whole trade, the good will, and what other asses remain, of Simpkin Marshall through which about 10 per cent. of the books reaching the retailers formerly passed. Book Centre, Lid, which, incidentally, deals with the distribution of the new Guild's cheap books, is to pass on the orders it receives to the publishers, collect the books from them and dispatch the books to the retailers, There will thus be no question of a vast quantity of books being held in one place, as in the case of Simpkin Marshall, The increased cost of replacing the burnt books, where they are replaced, will prevent the new experiment from cheapening the price of books to the public—the price will, in fact, probably go up. And there are still independent wholesalers to be contended with, though these have, it is true, given their approval to the new arrangement, But when the effects of the destruction have worn off, which will certainly not be in time, it is possible that this ce-operative distribution will be aptly situated to pave the way to a cheaper retail price, which even the publishers now realize is generally wanted.
Philharmonic Dr. Malcolm Sargent has been touring the music-halls On War Tour England and Scotland with ihe London Philharmonic Orchestra occupying ihe complete bill and giving twelve symphony concerts in each town per week, The balls Were almost always packed to capacity, he told the Listener," and I have heard shouts of excited rapture from the gallery at the conclusion of a classical symphony, which the music-hall comedian might well envy. No remark could please me more than that of one of the Stage hands in Glasgow who, after a concert, said to me, "You know, Doc, you're going over real big. Your only rival on the "alls is George Formby." After a concert one night a friend of mine went into the next-door pub to get a firsthand impression of the reaction of the rougher elements in the audience, Over a glass of beer he got into conversation with typical British navy. He asked, "What have you been doing?" "Oh, I've been to the music-hall; I always go on Wednesdays, but this week they've got a blooming symphony orchestra." My friend said, "How did you like it?" The navvy replied, "I've never heard one before, it's great! It's made me a bit thirsty because I usually go to the bar once or twice during the show when there is a ¢urn on that 1 don't like much, but this time I never left my seat once." "What did they play?" my friend asked, "Oh, lots of things, but the big turn was a Tschaikowsky something symphony. You know there's one thing this ruddy "Itler's done for me, I should never have known, but Tve found out tonight that I'm a blinking "ighbrow." What happens when there is an air-raid warning? On one occasion it occurred just as we had finished. The police told me they would be glad if I would keep as many as possible in the hall It was a dark night and there were difficulties in the streets, Well, we played everything we could think of, and at 1 am, there were still over 1,000 people in the theatre, and my arms were aching so much from stick wagging that I gave it up in despair and had to fall back on telling funny stories, On another occasion I received an intimation from the wings just before we were commencing Beethoven's Seventh, I turned to the audience, told them ihe situation, and added, "You know you may all be blown sky high; I may be blown sky high; the orchestra; the building. It's a wonderful thing to realize there's only one thing here that cannot be destroyed; that will last for ever." I picked up my score and said, "Here it isi The music of Beethoven. And I feel we cannot do better than play and listen to it."
Dafina made of the probable causes of A careful analysis has been Juveniles juvenile delinquency, writes Harry Roberts in the "New Statesman and Nation". Dr. Mannheim concludes that poverty lies at the bottom of the great majority of the cases—"it may be the ultimate cause of physical defects and educational backwardness as well as of family quarrels, of the premature death of a parent, of bad housing conditions or unsuitable employment," In the table of immediate probable causes the two items that stand out, so far as boys are concerned, are "Home Conditions in General" 133, and "Unemployment" 108, while "Mental Disorder and Mental Inferiority" are believed to be the probable cause of delinquency in 144 cases. The figures for the girls are somewhat different. "Home Conditions" still top the list with 75 cases, whilst "Mental Disorder and Mental Inferiority" are held to be responsible for 58: but to "Unemployment," only 5 cases are held to be attributable, As to "Sexual Offences," "Girls, and Male Prostitution" are to be found to account for only 13 cases out of the 608 boys: whereas, "Female Prostitution, Immoral Tendencies apart from Prostitution, and Influence of Man" are thought to be the prime cases of 69 cases of delinquency out of the 411 girls, The statistics confirm the conclusion that poverty is the basic cause of many petty crimes and of not a few larger crimes; but even were poverty abolished, the problem of more serious crimes would remain, An outstanding characteristic of grave criminality is a deficiency of social feeling and impulse in the offenders; but, nine times out of ten, I think that this deficiency will be found traceable, not to any inherent defect, but to the faulty' notions and egoistic habits of those with whom, as a child, the criminal came most intimately into contact. Not only economic system but also. our educational system and our family conventions are hopelessly on the wrong track. All of us start with a strong natural urge to action and to self-expression, Unless we are given opportunity and encouragement to satisfy this urge along legitimate and socially desirable channels, it will flow into illegitimate and socially undesirable ones, A complicated industrial community, such as ours, cannot be healthily carried on without common rules. The most effective measures for the prevenfion of crime consist in the provision of alternative outlets for creative activity and self-expression, and the cultivation of the spirit of soda loyalty and camaraderie, Human life is one of continuous compromise and expediency. We all have to do lots of things that our inclinations and our idealistic dreams would have us avoid. We need to bear all this in mind if we are going to consider these questions of crime and punishment soberly and intelligently, 'A CHINESE DIARY, May 3.—Chinese calligraphy is an art unique in some respects. Unlike other Chinese arts, it is not susceptible to any Western influence, but is very closely associated with Chinese literature. A good calligrapher must have a deep knowledge of the classics, so that a "sense of poetry," as the Chinese call it, will be reflected in the characters which he writes. Hence it follows that a specimen of handwriting by a person who possesses no kung ming, or literary honours, is apt to be neglected by the public re-gardies of its intrinsic merit and, as Hanlins and Chinhsiens become fewer year after year, Chinese calligraphy, it is generally believed, gradually loses its former excellence. The unsettled condition of the country is also partly responsible for the lack of really beautiful handwriting nowadays, as masterpieces in Chinese calligraphy are often the result of years of painstaking practice in surroundings which are not disturbed by the events of the outside world. It is said that Wang Hsieh-chih, the great Chinese calligrapher of ancient times, perfected his art by leading the life of a recluse in a garret for ten years. Under modern conditions such seclusion would be utterly impossible. Chinese calligraphy, moreover, offers so little inducement from a pecuniary point of view that it is generally neglected by the younger generation. It is my personal view that in order to save it from oblivion a movement should be set on foot immediately to revive popular interest in an art for which China has been specially distinguished for many centuries.
—csw.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.