FREEDOM OR SLAVERY?

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1934, Page 8

FREEDOM OR SLAVERY?

(To tr<Editor.). Sir,—Your leader in '.'. Saturday's issue showing the" different aspects of dictatorship is enlightening.'.". The tendency of | drift to dictators—one-man rule—has been , a nightmare to many hard-headed men; ' and unless the Press intercedes, our free-, dom will beidoomed. Even editors may be dictated io as to what they shall or shall j not print. Many suggestions have been 1 made as excuses or cures for-present difli-! culties; the most popular is petitioning' Parliament with requests that invariably have a boomerang action. We asked for a benzine tax—and we got it! We asked for a moratorium, with the result that! farmers have put themselves into other hands! We asked for a building subsidy, and within a. few weeks we harnessed ourselves with a liability of millions to build 1 what we have already a surplus of. A certain section clamoured for a tax on 1 incomes of Is in the pound: we were also granted that, combined with a "tag" as to where and when we could'work! One is apt to be designated a diehard, unable to adapt oneself to the new order of things. That, Sir, is the debatable point. At the races one sees "all up" on the favourite, but how often is popular opinion wrong? What prospect has a! young man of raising a loan to" go into business today, jvhen tomorrow the lender | may be politely informed that his rate of 1 interest shall be this, or that, or nil, with repayment of loan suspended? We have the agitator who advocates the State ownership of everything and everybody. Parallel with him we have another section of supposed higher ideals travelling on precisely the same highway to socialisation, confiscation, arid damnation, ultimately forfeiting the freedom our forefathers strove for. —I am, etc., . ■ FREEDOM.