Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, MAY 30th, 1919. A WORLD UNSTRUNG.

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1919, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian & Evening Star FRIDAY, MAY 30th, 1919. A WORLD UNSTRUNG.

More than eight decades ago, Daniel Webster, the statesman and orator of ! the United States, painted the following word picture of his country, and the j vision is on a par with tile actual unrest ! of the whole sphere to-day. The able . speaker had been reviewing the eco_ j noinic position of the States, and by sta- i ( tistics lie showed the effective result ; on labour, united with and acting upon i capital. He asked liis auditors, he was ; addressing the Senate, to look again, and j behold credit, mutual trust, prompt and punctual dealings, and commercial j confidence intermingled as indispensible j elements in the general system. “Look j yet once more,” ho added, with greater j emphasis, “and you will perceive that j general competence, great equality in i human condition, a degree of popular knowledge and intelligence, nowhere surpassed, if anywhere equalled, the prevalence of good moral sentiment, and extraordinary prosperity are the result of the wliolo. And yet,” he thundered scornfully, “there are persons who I constantly clamour. They complain of oppression, speculation, and the pernicious influence of accumulated wealth. They cry aloud against all banks and corporations, and all the means by which small' capitals became united ■in iorder to produce important and ■beneficial results. They carry, on a mad hostility against all established in. stitutions. They would choke up the fountains of industry and dry all its j streams. In a country of unbounded ] liberty they clamour against oppres. sion. In a country of perfect equality, they would move heaven and earth against privilege and monopoly. In a country where property is more equally, divided than anywhere else, they rend the air with the shouting of agrarian doctrines. 'ln a. country where the wages of labour are high beyond all parallel, they would teach the labourer that he is but an oppressed slave. Sir, what can such men want? What do they mean P They can want nothing, sir, but to enjoy the fruits of other men’s labour. They can mean othing but disturbance and disorder, the diffusion of corrupt principles and tlic destruction of the moral sentiments and moral habits of society. 'A licentiousness- of feeling and of action is something produced by prosperity itself. Men cannot always resist the temptation to which they are exposed by t-he very abundance of tlie bounties of Providence and the very happiness of their own condition.” If those words were true of the United States upwards of ninety years ago, how much more true are they of the general conditions of the world to-day. True, are they not, of our own country to-day. Unquestionably a spirit of unrest dominates the land. But our country is fundamentally sound, and we must not succumb to despondency or abondon effort to retrieve .the menacing position. It is the time to analyse conditions, search for causes, find the root of tlio distress existing in men’s minds, and apply tho remedies not likely to produce beneficial results. The whole position might be examined in much detail, and it is being so examined, but we need not fear like Macaulay and others who had visions in their day that tho Empire was going tlo fall asunder. Dark though the outlook was, when tho Great War broke out; a shaft of light shot across the sky and illumined the position, and gave a better understanding of the whole prospect. An old spirit was revived, or rather quenched the spirit of unrest which for the time being was the more assertive. That spirit was patriotism. Patriotism is ' the basis of our institutions, and from it springs loyalty of action, and the great driving force to do all things necessary for the world’s salvation. At the call to arms there was nothing wrong with the spirit of the nation in the aggregate. Lot us 'continue to cultivate that spirit and on the rich land continue to sow more and more good seed so that a hardy annual crop will be ever recurring.