The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1919. THE NEED OF THE HOUR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 66, 11 December 1919, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1919. THE NEED OF THE HOUR

The shortsighted people to whom this election campaign is only an occasion for mumbling over tho dry bones of the dead-and-gone party warfare would be wise to look abroad. If they did they would see that national unity is the need of tho hour, not only in this little country, but in practically all countries. They would see, too, that in all lands success or failure in approaching national unity is the measure of progress and achievement. A large proportion of the peoplo of Russia are at the bottom level of Jiuman misery chiefly bccause ob-, stacks to national unity are greater and more formidable in Russia than in almost any other country 'in the world. On the other hand, nations like the Poles and' Czccho-Slovaks, though they are as yet prccariouslj established in their new-won liberty, are able to look forward confidently and in assured hope because their peoples are united and. sustained bv loyal devotion to their national aims. ■ Everywhere tho same story is told, and everywhere unity is the watchword of the greatest statesmen of the age. In a spc.cch to the Liberals of Manchester, which is renorted' in to-day's cablegrams, Mr. Lloyd George laid due emphasis on the fact that the need of unity is as great in the most advanced democracies as in the nations that arc only beginning, after long bondage, to know what freedom means. There is all nossible weight in his declaration that continuance of national unity is still as necessary _as in war time, and that party strife should not yet be resumed. There is much point, too, in what he said about the United States: "Party strife in America had resulted in jeopardising peace and endangering the League of Nations in a country which took a prominent pa v t in promoting it. Was not 1 h'■= p. warnintr thnt we wve not throurh the wood!" The British Prime Minister's words had immediate reference to the enforcement of neace, but the facts lie threw into liWi relief carry a wider warning and a wid n r lesson. It was pever plainer than it is to-day to Mvwe who are not blinded by party blinkers or by nrenidir; that a .tviHturning point has been reached in human 'experience; it Wfl* ncv»r nldinar that strife and t'>i'n ; on within the bodv politic are f "t-l to human progress and that unity is th» key to nrnirress.

Tlies'" enforced b v so '"-'li l, prravnn'nc in -i-oHd In-'lr"- Vive till l ''' fi'H b""a"<l in Nov Zp" 1 ""'!- Tt; is wtninl'- not a Rood rewn 'for iwirljntr { -lif wholesorii" imtnilti! of Hie 'imn Ik-ih o"r ornbloniß arc cosy n<"l onr' lot, nleasanter than those ofstniwlins European countries. It. is still two that there are ifrnsit and difficult problems to l>e solved and much to lie done for the welfare of the Dominion and its people. II; must appeal to any man or woman of common sense that the' pconle of _ a i'o>im; democracy so pieced, with its future to make or mar, have nothing to gain from disinterring tlio futile controversies of the distant days be-

foi'o the war. People whoso inclina- J tions lie in this direction ai'e quite obviously the dull creatures of habit. If they wero able to look either back or forward with clear vision they would betako themselves to more purposeful activities. Let any rational man or woman recall for a moment the conditions in which Parliament used to work in the years before the war—the endless hindrances to useful activity, the eternal wrangling over non-essen-tials, in which whatever party happened to be in Opposition spent hours and days in furiously attack-! ing what it would just as readily have defended had it happened to be in office. Can any intelligent human being, concerned for tho welfare of the country, seriously wish to reoall such conditions? Yet it, is precisely to this end that the. Wardict Party and Press are direefincr all their ae-' tivities at the present rnomerifc. Looking only at the conations that exist and have to be farrd their attitude is inexplicable. TV country _ asks work und not words of its political repressntatives, and it was shown last session how the needs of the country might be satisfied. Awakened at length to the fact that the people demanded honest service and meant to have it, Parliament applied itself boldly and with energy to a roeord programme of legislation,. It was a performance worthy of The new spirit that is lighting up tho world. What is to be said or can bo said of n party that wishes now to reverse the wheels of progress and resume the futile wrangling, that formerly brought politics and politicians into contempt? Tlib kindest thing is perhaps to adopt the dictum .of a Labour candidate who spoke on Tuesday night. The Liberal Party, he declared, from senile decay- Nothing less, surely, is implied in the utter failure of its leader and his followers to rise to the demands of a new a'pe, in which the only test of a political representative is his ability to render honest and loyal service. The wildest claims of the Wardists, even tho narrow self-seeking which so plainly dominates their attitude, aro merely pathetic when it is considered how far and how obviously they have fallen behind in the march of progress. This, of course, applies to the party as a party. Amongst individual, Wardists there are some signs of awakening. The latest is a straightforward declaration by Mr. J. Craigie, a supporter of Sir Joseph Ward in the late Parliament, that he is standing as an Independent and favours the formation of "a new Government composed of the best men from both sides of the House." This is a healthy sign of the times. It is because the Reform Party | many months ago declared for political readjustment on these fines that it stands to-day in tho van of progress. It is because the Wardists as a group failed to rise to tho same conception of public service that the}' are as a party so obviously destined for the political scrap-heap.