POLITICAL PRINCIPLES

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 74, 20 December 1937, Page 6

POLITICAL PRINCIPLES

" No one will deny that governments are less corrupt and more efficient than in Adam Smith's day, but can it be said that they have shown a corresponding growth in wisdom? The increasing complexity of business activities, duo to the great strides made in science, in technology, and in the sub-division of labour, is an argument for less rather than more interference on the part of the State. In time of trouble there is a natural tendency to turn to outside agencies for help, when in truth we know that there is no help save in ourselves, in our own virtue and in our own will. " Salvation is not to be found in political machinery. To suppose that tariffs are going to recover for us our lost trade, or that by currency manipulation we can restore our former prosperity, is to dwell in a world of illusion. Whatever else may be said for it, it is certainly not economic in a time of depression to relax individual effort, and to weaken the driving force of competition by a resort to' Protection. Circumstances may change, but human nature does not, or, at any rate, only very slowly. Principles, if they are sound, are immutable. They embody the gathered-up wisdom and experience of the past," and are not lightly to be east aside like a suit of clothes, because they have ceascd to suit the fashion of the day." — 'English journal.