THE MAIN PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 123, 26 May 1937, Page 10

THE MAIN PROBLEM

(To the Editor.) Sir, —For some considerable time I have been an interested reader of the various opinions expressed under numerous headings in your valuable journal, until I am impelled to voice ■ ah opinion. It seems that the declining birtli-rate, the housing, problem, the ■ rising cost., of living,,-, the ■ one big ; union, an adequate return to the farmer, and a host [ of other headings, ■• even as to whether old Liberals should, support National -or Labour, are. not ( really a variety- of .questions, but just ] one simple problem,, admittedly a big , one, nevertheless. This seeming multi- , tude of problems is: • the result or. i effect of one cause. The primary cause . of all those things at present exercising the public mind is selfishness (sel- , fishness being fear expressed), bring- . ing in its train-injustice and the multi- , tude of attendant evils. ~. , , I would certainly affirm the conyic- . tion that the cause of the declining , birth-rate and related problems is sel- , fishness in the , individual (fear ex- , pressed of the natural consequences of . the creative" principle). I would ask ■] of those who deliberately refuse to , assume their responsibilities in the . propagation of the race, by what right : ■ can. they'-justify, their existence, and what'::'claimv.cah;they make to. the , right of life? ..'>' \■ ■. i,. :■■ ■ ■: '■;;'.; '< ' Turning to causes1 economic; > here ( again I affirm,'the conviction, that i selfishness is the cause of our economic , complications.. It; seems the system ' operating in'respecl of the,elements of Nature is based on:.the "Maithusian Theory," i.e., population lias a tendency , to press on subsistence; i'ThiSiresults in a'sytem of -every main for .himself. ', The- power to change-the appearance. , and production of -things suitable for j the, subsistence oiman expands as necessity arises; through thought projected through man,!the one and only , thinking machine.: Hence we have . abundance for -all,'yet the operators ■, ■of our system, continue lo blame the ', Creator for creating a world incapable ' of sustaining the life.He decreed shall come upon it. The mindSi of such : thinkers are easily •'understood,, the main operating force is'"fear" (fear ■ that there will not lie sufficient to go round). Fear begets selfishness. Selfishness begets injustice, and so through ' the whole gamut of evils. Yet it has "been said, "The, world and the fullness thereof are mine," "The land shall not be sold for ever." When, and only when, man's statutes conform to those of natural law (I prefer, to call it Divine law), then, and then only, will there be justice. ' When men get rid of that "fear complex" and permit the ■use on equal terms of the elements of Nature then will alj be possessed of : faith, the faith that, begets hope, and : hope begets love.—l, am, etc., ; .:, , ' ■:■'.■■,■„■■ .''''■! T. GREGAN, : ' • [This-ietter'. has been abridged.—Ed.] j