EASTER AND ECONOMICS.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 59, 25 March 1937, Page 4

EASTER AND ECONOMICS.

Easter is a Cfiristiun festival. But it has lost much of its Christian significaiice in this modern world in which "holiday" is mnch more readily comprehended than "hdly day." Mankind in general thotigh pays little heed to the origins of the many benefits to which preseiit generatioiis are heir. There are those to tvhom the story of Calvary is merely a record of the exefcution of an estiinable mtin who had offended the ecclesiastical heads df his eountry, and had been handed over by them to their Rottiaii sdasterB for punishment as an alleged traitor. To sudh persons the incident is merely a miscarriage of jultice, regrettable, but not unparalleled in the course of'the ages. Some few will set aside the story as a fabricatiOA by utilreliabie and unscrupulous clerics. Our Jewish brethren regard it in aftother Way. While tiiiprepared to acknowledge Christ ds the promised Messiah, they are yet quite ready to speak of hira as a marvellous spiritual leader, the gre&test of moral teachers, and the victim of unscrupulous clerical hatred. Then there is a vast host of people, aVGwedly Christian, to whom the itory of the Great Sacrifice remakis a living symhol to guide men along the way of self-denial toward the ideals inspired by a loving God. lf the world is a better plaee to-day than ifc was two thousand years ago even the hardest cynic cannot deny that the gi'eatest and most enduring influence for good came from the story enshrined in the celebra.tion df Good Friday and Easter. The evils that Jesus denouilced, greed and cruelty, still remain but in a inultitude of ways are being driven from the hearts of men. Individual man no longer Openly declares that his own satiSfactions and desires come first. Under the banner of nationalism it is still possible to preach a policy of greed — ''what we want we'll take" and 'Svhat we have we'll hold." Even national policies though are based upon some appeal to moral rights. Our -economics are now" clothed in a mantle df morality but we have not learned . to .accept the simpler eeonomics of the young earpenter of Nazareth who had not the opportunity of studying the worlcs of Adam Smith and Mili. His revdltitiGHary xdeaS borrowdd nothing from Karl Marx. Dr. William Phelps, philosopher and authority on English literature, at Yale University, said scsttie time agd — = Jesus knew more about political economy than all the professors in all the colleges in the world, and he knew mere about the human heatt than Shakespeare. The reference almost in oue breath to political economy and the human heart has a significance worthy of exploration. Many a promising plan for the material betterment of mankind has foundered on its author's lack of understanding of those faetors which may be summed up as the ''human heart." The feelings, motives, affections, joys and Sorrows of mortals constitute a more important part of economics than do statistics on the balance of trade, employment, credit or agricultural production. Control of the latter — in other words, the planned economy on which so much faith is being pinned — depends on the ability of men to control the former. "Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adtil- . teries, fornications, murders* thefts, covetousness, wicked" ness, deceit, lasciviousness ..." Thus Jesus saw his problem in economics. It was a problem in morality — in the control of those things commonly called "human nature.'* Not all the specialists in tariffs, in currency, taxation, manufacturing have ever put enough technical wisdom irito human law td make it equal to the task of administering economic jtistice or guaranteeing economic Security. It is necessary to use the best knowledge we have, but there is no such thing as a technical wisdom which would be adequate, The answer to mankind's need lies too deep. No ready-made solutions are at hand fpr our problems of getting and spending. We fight for freedom and surround ourselves with a network of regulation and organisation, Good Friday and Easter give ns a respite from the daily tasks and also an opportunity to recall that somewhere in the message of Easter is to be found the key to the greater freedom and fuller life that eludes our politicians and economists