The Dominion THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1919. AN APPEAL TO COMMON SENSE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 279, 21 August 1919, Page 4

The Dominion THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1919. AN APPEAL TO COMMON SENSE

The speech which Mr. Lloyd George delivered in the House of Commons on Monday • dealt with matters which do not concern Great Britain alone. On the contrary the formidable problems on which he invited the nation to concentrate are uppermost -to-day in practically all countries, and in their essential _ aspects are very plainly in cvidenco here in New Zealand. As compared with this country, Britain's economic and social problems are, of course, upon a very much greater scale, and in (heir detail features show greater extremes and contrasts. But in general chavacfccr and in tkc # conditions of their successful solution the immediate problems to be solved m Great Britain and in this, country ave for practical purposes identical. The cardinal fact- is as clearly

established hero as it is in Britain and in other countries that the one

vital condition of national progress and welfare is the establishment of

a rational basis of co-operation, and that until such a basis is estab-

lished we must expect either to jnark time or to slip _ backwards. Much help is to be derived from a dispassionate survey of local conditions in understanding just what Mr Lloyd George is driving at.in what is best summed up as an appeal to the common sense of the British nation.- Some of his critics blame him for withholding his speech—which admittedly deals with questions of capital importance—until the end of the session, for not announcing a settled trade policy, and so fortu._ Probably few speeches dealing with issues as momentous have ever contained as .little of what is commonly called

"settled policy.'' With the noteworthy exception of an announcement in regard to the coal raining industry, which foreshadows an attempt to organise it much more effectively than is possible in existing conditions, and a to the general limitation of working hours, the British Prime Minister submitted little in the way of explicit policy proposals. Looking at what ho did say, however, this can hardly be set down to weakness or of initiative. The big p,oint he made and justly emphasised is that there are vital conditions to be satisfied > before any hopeful attempt can bo made to repair the wastage of war and build a better future, and that the first of these conditions is the recovery of a,healthy national spirit. Undoubtedly much that now seems almost hopeless in the outlook of Groat Britain and other countries is accounted for much less by concrete difficulties than by the conditions of nervous strain and exhaustion to which Mr. Lloyd George directed attention. As he truly observed, "everybody's nerves were jaded and torn after the strain of the war. Everybody was complaining of everybody else, and some complained of Providence. But these tendencies were worldwide and would pass. The world was suffering from shell-shock on a big scale." Proof of the accuracy of this diagnosis may be drawn readily enough from our own experience in circumstances very much less trying than those that arc now being faced in Great Britain. It may be true, as the British Prime Minister has said, that the nervous disorders which remain as a .pronounced after-effect of tlio war will pass, and that the complaints and fault-finding now so general mean that the national safety-valve is in operation. Apparently it is in this .belief that Mr. Lloyd George is content to let somo of the biggest problems of the day stand over for the moment, though it should not be forgotten in tiiis connection that during the session about to end the British Parliament dealt with a series of measures which in number and importance stand as a legislative record. Much remains to be done, however, and evidently Mr. Lloyd George is not without hope that in the near future the temper of the nation will lend itself much better than it does to-day to the promotion of constructive reforms. It is nevertheless manifest that such conditions as now prevail hold grave dangers and oppose the most serious 'obstacles to- reconstruction and to all purposeful activity. "Grousing" has always been morn or less conspicuously an attendant feature of British life and activity. During the war it afforded fighting men in all fields in slack time occupation, and in some cases a vehicle for humorous expression. It is a phenomenon to interest psychologists as well as practical statesmen and politicians that since hostilities ceased "grousing" has exceeded all reasonable bounds and become an almost universal obsession. In Britain, as Mi:. Lloyd George points out, complaint and fault-finding have of late been carried to such an extreme as to convey an impression that the Government "was guilty of nothing but mistakes, scandals, and inefficiency, putting nothing on the credit side." The very fact that complaint is so general suggests that its root cause must be looked for rather in a temporary loss of national balancc and failure of reason and common sense than in shortcomings of political policy and administration. Much the same conditions are in evidence in this country, and the need disclosed is in both cases the same. It is simply that people in general should be at least as ready to co-operate in remedying what is unsatisfactory as .to indulge in negative fault-finding. No one observing without prejudice the state of

public feeling in this country will bo inclined to deny that there is great need of just such an cmphatic appeal and warning as Mn. Lloyd George has sounded in the United Kingdom. Here as in Great Britain there arc many legitimate causes of complaint, and it would be foolish to attribute all the criticism and fault-finding that arc ripe to jangled nerves, the result of war ttrain and reaction. But these factors enter, and it is necessary in our own interests to recognise that fault-finding, which in moderation may bo a corrective and a useful .stimulus to reform, becomes simply a vice if it is allowed to get out of bounds. In that case it serves only to poison the outlook and to paralyse useful activity. At the moment in this country there is an unhealthy tendency in politics and in detail national activities—notably in industrial relationships—to find fault with everything and good in nothing.. This tendency must be reversed if we. arc to open an era of progress.. Most people agree in a general way that great changes arc called for in the interests of a better industrial and social life and improvements in other directions. These aspirations will not be realised by giving rein to political and other animosities _ and to exaggerated partisanship. The conditions nearly all desire to attain will be attained only if the bulk of the people contrivc to pull together, and this implies first and foremost an escape from tho present atmosphere of petulant complaint and poisonous suspicion and a ready cooperation in establishing broad grounds of harmony and united activity. The need _is great and imperative, but it is difficult to state it in plainer terms because the change called for is essentially one of temper and It is hopeless to expect anything' from the extremists of one class or another, but it is quite time sane and reasonable people, who constitute the great bulk of the community, began to view the position dispassionately and in its true perspective. Granted th& right temper' and _ an open readiness to deal _ fairly with realities instead of yielding to prejudice questions of practical policy will not long 'await a settlement.