File:Canadian forest industries July-December 1919 (1919) (19908274814).jpg

Title: Canadian forest industries July-December 1919
Identifier: canadianforjuldec1919donm (find matches)
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors:
Subjects: Lumbering; Forests and forestry; Forest products; Wood-pulp industry; Wood-using industries
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Southam Business Publications
Contributing Library: Fisher - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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September 1, 1919 CANADA LUMBERMAN AND WOODWORKER POINT FIFTEEN Marie Corelli in Sunday Chronicle (Eng.) "Reconstruction! Reconstruction!" This has become almost a parrot cry. What we have called "civilization" has had its little house of cards blown down by a hurricane, and we stand, more or less be- wildered, looking at the bits of pasteboard lying about, and wonder- ing how we shall begin to put them up into some sort of shape again. "We must reconstruct!" we say, both in Press and Parliament. But how? Each man asks the question of his neighbor, and each offers a different opinion. The continuous uncertainty, suspense, and general muddle make up the finest possible hunting-ground for loose-minded agitators and blustering demagogues, who are, of course, paid for their agitations and demagogue-isms either by British malcontents or German agents, and pocket their ill-gotten gains as cheerfully as lawyers who, if they lose their clients' cases, lose nothing themselves. ***** Amid all the turmoil one man from America assumes, or rather presumes a dictatorship for the rest of the world—though why he should be permitted this privilege will ever be a riddle and a mystery, save to the sneaking devil of finance. With a quill from the American eagle's swooping pinion he sets down fourteen points of "reconstruction" which, like fourteen rays of light, are to emanate from himself as the central sun of social and political wisdom. There would be something humorous in this if it were not, as a whole, so desperately tragic. Think of it! One man, one poor, little, swiftly perishable microbe of humanity, setting down, as in a copybook for children, certain rules and laws for the brotherhood of nations and for the better behaviour of all the Cains and Abels of the race! In this moral attitude, self-assumed, quill in hand, the complacent Pronouncer of Platitudes has none of the greatness or wisdom so foolishly attributed to him; he merely makes one of the most pathetic figures in all history. He would seem to imagine it possible to succeed where the Divine Christ failed! Pitiful self-delusion!—immense effrontery!—the blind confidence of a gnat confronting flame! ***** For this simple platitudinarian of Fourteen Points, in his copy- book schemes for "reconstruction" and general fraternity, has forgot- ten the greatest point of all—the point which makes all such schemes impossible of workable fulfilment—Human Nature. Human Nature is the untamed, and possibly for ever untamable, monster of life—the half-God, half-devil, that rejoices in its dual char- acter and is at most times more satisfied to be devil than God—now revelling in the brute claims of its brutish desires, and anon springing to the pure height of a spiritual ideal so lofty as almost to touch the throne of God. No copy-book precepts will control this strange product of the unfathomable mind of the Creator. It has to fight its way alone. As it emerged from Simian and cave-type men to its present doubtful state of semi-civilized savagery, so it must emerge of itself, if at all, with such mental and moral consciousness as will persuade it that its human brothers are not survivals and would-be destroyers. The American Eagle will succeed in hustling this slow evolvement and most gradual phase of education—no, not if a hundred "Points" were culled from its wings instead of Fourteen. The unwritten, undeclared, and well-nigh forgotten number rules all the rest—Point Fifteen—otherv*rise Human Nature. Human Nature, with a devil-impulse, has sunk the German Fleet in the Scapa Flow. Human Nature has likewise burnt the French flags captured in 1870. "Vulgar spite," says the Press. Certainly. But spite is a part of the devil side of human nature. German human nature, which is, racially, fierce and cowardly at once, like Shakespeare's "bully Pistol." will eat its heart and all other hearts in its way for the purposes of vengeance. British human nature, easy-going and phlegmatic, is, after much ox-like patience, beginning to resent the irritating insolence of Gov- ernment control, which measures out its beef and denies it its beer, and means to "have it out with every man jack of the lot," according to street parlance, some day. Every nation is ill at ease—every man and woman strung up to an unhealthy nerve-tension. Yet we mildly prattle of peace—"when there is no peace;" no, not under any German signature. ***** And our "reconstruction"? What is it worth? Who will "reconstruct" the human nature of the beaten and baffled Hun? Who will temper the thirsty palate of the beer-loving Briton? Who will "reconstruct" the lost faith of Italy, and bind up the gaping wounds of France and brave little Belgium?—Belgium in particular, who sacrificed all to save her neighbors! There is no sign as yet of any such "reconstruction." Among ourselves there are evidences of violent hysteria, which displays itself in the delirium of our women who, casting off as much clothing as the police will allow, dance in a semi-nude condition night after night in public places, and offer themselves to immorality with- out shame; while the men, adrift from the clamour and horror of war, look about at home for something to kill—either their unfaith- ful women or their broken and disheartened selves. In this sort of plight human nature is reverting to brute instincts merely; and as a sapient evening newspaper remarked in its columns the other day:— There has been recently a considerable outcrop of crimes of violence which is not a little alarming, and it is to the interest of the community that the causes and possible cure of this social disease should be sought. O wise judge! O learned judge! It is, indeed, "to the interest of the social community" that the "causes" of the utter downfall of women's modesty and the evidences of men's callousness should be probed to their root. Look for them, then!—and find them in the weakness, timidity and inefficiency of the Church; in the criminal sufferance accorded to atheists and sexualists; in the indecencies of the "gutter" Press, pic- torial and otherwise! It is difficult to find a newspaper nowadays without a "snapshot" of a nearly nude woman; and this is the sort of daily pictorial provender sent into the houses of Britain for the en- tertainment of growing girls and boys! To quote again from the sagacious journal before mentioned:— The high spirits of youth, if directed into healthy channels, are an asset to the nation; allowed to drift they become at once a grave danger and a sorry disgrace to the community. Just so. And it is not any "League of Nations" or Wilsonian maxims that will amend social or political matters as they stand to- day both in Great Britain and America. ***** Intrigue and corruption are rife in both countries, and while in- trigue and corruption are tolerated by any statesmen such a thing as our "reconstruction" is impossible. ,It is a matter for each individual to consider deeply whether he or she is able and willing to aid in the task: by "reconstructing" him- self or herself. At the moment society is merely "running amok," and there is no self-discipline. Personally, I do not wonder at it, for the toler- ance shown by the public Press to atheism and blasphemy has de- prived religion of its hold on the mind and robbed the afflicted of comfort, so that one constantly hears people say: "Oh, what does it matter? Nobody cares whether you're good or bad, dead or alive— it's all one. The great unchanging Law of God, which never fails to recom- pense evil for evil and good for good, is seldom recognized or admitt- ed; humanity all over the world seems bent on the swift "rush" to its end! "Reconstruction" is a fair-sounding word—but the deed is in abevance. Some few things might be done for the help of the young—the bookstalls might be cleared of filthy fiction such as even Rabelais might have blushed to own; the Press might once more be clean, and refuse to deal with subjects only fit for medical discussion; and the stage might encourage legitimate drama decently clothed.
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A slcldway of pine logs in a Northern Ontario camp

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