INTERMINGLE JEST WITH EARNEST
SIR,—No one admires your contributor, Janus, more than I do, despite his habit, periodically, of disconcerting me by an irruption of what I can only describe as Plymouth Brotherhood which raises a temporary spot on his mind. In The Spectator of January 21st, for example, he comments on the effect on our daily papers of the small increase of newsprint they have recently received, and, on the whole, appears to be displeased by it. The " spot " is to be found in the following passage: " It, of course, provides more news-space, but the value of that depends on the nature of the news served up ; if it is an Aly Khan-Rita Hayworth splash the gain is small." But is it ? The function of a newspaper is to report human activity, which includes the folly as well as the wisdom of the world. Should we not receive a false picture if we were told only what interests the earnest-minded people who are, we may warrantably believe largely to blame for the mess in which we all are ? Is not Janus making a prime mistake in thinking that folly is unworthy to be reported and that -the queer quirks of people are not fit to be noticed ? What dreams we should have if we spent our waking hours in pondering over all those excessively initialled organisations which are now doing their damnedest for us! Is it any stupider to read about Aly Khan and Rita Hayworth than to read Sir John Boyd Orr's horrific forecasts of world famine ? Sir John is rapidly becoming sociology's Fat Boy, and seems to have sadistic desires to make our flesh creep. • If I have to choose between him and Dick Barton, I will choose Dick Barton without a qualm.
My dismay at finding Janus once again letting a Plymouth Brother bounce about in his body changed to delight when, turning over a few pages of The Spectator, I came upon Mr. R. H. Cecil's delightful article, As To George Padmore. All, I perceived, was well. The practice of Janus was better than his preaching. - He may have suffered a qualm or two about printing this account of a worthless fellow who had the deplorable habit of kicking policemen on that part of their body which is intended by heaven to be kicked and, more reprehensibly, of smashing plateglass windows, though that act might be defended on the ground that it- provided much needed employment for glaziers. Could not Mr. Cecil have spent his time more profitably in telling us about a young man who devoted all his days to thought about the League of Nations ? But Janus, glory be, did not yield to such morbid ideas ; he accepted the fact that it takes all sorts to make a world and that the way to the better, if better there be, exacts a full look at the worst. We learn at least as much from the follies of our neighbours as they learn from our high-minded solemnities.
I remember, Sir, an occasion when a little girl came into the local branch of the county library to borrow a book for her mother. When she was asked what kind of book was wanted, she replied that her mother was rather tired of love stories. The voluntary librarian picked up a volume and 'said, "Well, here's- a book without any love in it!"
The child looked dubious. " Oh, I think mother would like a little love,"
she exclaimed.—I am, Sir, yours very respectfully, ST. JOHN ERVINE. Honey Ditches, Seaton, Devon.
[Janus writes: If the papers want to say that Aly Khan seems to be thinking of marrying Rita Hayworth let them say so by all means, but when it comes to sleuthing the enamoured pair from country to country and continent to continent, with daily reports on the progress of the romance, I should have thought that even Mr. Ervine might begin to be a little sated.]
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