The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, FRIDAY, SEPT. 4, 1942 OUR VAUNTED INDEPENDENCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 100, 4 September 1942, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, FRIDAY, SEPT. 4, 1942 OUR VAUNTED INDEPENDENCE

IN a war for world freedom, which is the dictum that has been so widely coined to characterise, our part in the piesent great struggle, it is perhaps well at times to look about us and take stock of the fast disappearing margin of independence which remains to the credit of the average individual. Government control, so fiercely contested in happier and less worrying times, is reaching down into our very homes, governing our food commodities, governing our occupations, governing our leisure, our spending power, our clothing, our movements, our communications a,nd, even our method of conducting our own businesses. To-day the young boy and girl leaving school can only get a distorted view of the. world of business, which is far.from normal. The boys, eagerly mopped up labour-starved employers, enter a brief business-life with an exaggerated idea of their own earning capacity due to the bloated wage level which now applies to experienced and inexperienced alike. At eighteen they must be prepared to drop their employment and undergo territorial training for an indeterminate period. The girls also come under the same compulsory service, scheme leaving the frantic commercial executives no alternative whatsoever to make good the widening gaps in their staffs. But what is going to be the effect in the lono- run 7 No completed apprenticeships are possible. Our young people by dint of the castiron official grip dictated by the nearness of danger go obediently from one phase ot life to another, to the detriment of their own individual progress and at the sacrifice of initiative. In the civilian world life is not very far removed from the army. A veritable flood of 'controllers' have been let loose, with unlimited powers, born of emergency. The yoke "is, we admit a war-time expedient, and probably essential under the extreme circumstances in which the Dominion now finds it- ; se if. What we are apprehensive of, however is our ability to throw off this yoke, once peace is restored again. Only the complete interpretation of the word 'Democracy can save us in the post-war days to come and with our present habit of uncomplaining acquiescence to each and, every enactment the government sees fit to enforce, verily we will need some John Hampdens!