PUBLIC OPINION

Hokitika Guardian, 30 November 1928, Page 8

PUBLIC OPINION

WORKMEN A*S FA RTXERS

‘\i never go into the mills in the West Hilling anil lack at a girl working at tin- looms without wondering whether those* who spend their lives in that way feel the monotony that I know 1 should feel it I had to do it. I think there is no system which we can devise in this country which will make occupations interesting to everybody, hut what we can do is to revise and promote the relations between the diHere 11b partners in industry so as to give the individual workman more ol a sense that; he is a. partner in the concern than lie is to-day,”—Sir John Simon.

MODERN LEADERSHIP

“Leadership to-day is largely a question of technique. If you know the science of your job you become a leader. If you can guide a discussion at a board meeting you become a leader. The old autocratic leader is disappearing,” said .Miss Mary Follett, the writer on sociological subjects at a recent Oxford Conference. “The sne ess fill leader now trains his subordinates to control the situation themselves, lie teaches them to use their own ideas, not his. I belong to a. generation which was taught that the leader is born, not made. We must teach modern youth that to-day. more and more, the world gives them their chance according to their ability. I know there are 10(10 instances of personal domination by aggressive men, but: it is true at the same time that there is a tendency towards group leadership n ihis new world of ours which is steadily growing.”

PARTY POLITICS

“We are sometimes told that the party politician surrendciiv. his soil 1 and sacrifices his principles when he labels himself Liberal or Labour or Conservative.” writes Mr Robert Lvnd in the ‘Daily Nows.” “But he does this only in the sense in which every mail who joins a committee does the same thing. He undoubtedly gives way on some points in order that he mar win the assistance of his fellowmembers on others. The people win denounce party politics have, as a rule, far more partisan minds than the most confirmed party hack. They mean by the abolition ol party polities the abolition of the party of their opponents. Party politics, on the other hand, was horn of the spirit of tolerance. To believe in it is to believe in fair play for the other side. It was introduced into England when ‘th/' country’ got. sick of executing ••'lid exiling men merely for the difference of a political opinion. Von can abolish party politics only at the price of reintroducing the penalty of exile or worse, as has been done in Tialy. ■ Hence T believe that what ‘the country’ wants most is the revival and perpetuation of party polities, and a general election as exciting as general elections were in the days of Gladstone and the days of Chamberlain.”

GREAT MOTHER-S

"As to character being duo mainly to one’s mother. 1 Inisy my belief on these of my own personal friends wlm lmve become celebrated,” writes Sir Alfred Yarrow in the "Daily Chronicle.” "1 have known manjy. and have no hesitation in savins that, according to my observations, their characters are mainly due to their mothers and their physical qualities to their fathers. At any rate, one does not find eminent men with a fool for a mother!”

AH I STOCK ATS AX I) DEMOCRATS. The disappearance of aristocratic influences in European life will have much the same effect in all. countries. Wo doubt if it will lessen the possibility of war. Aristocrats are, no doubt, militarists; but they have also a good deal of shrewd common-sense, and count the odds, whether it is a question of beginning or continuing hostilities. The bourgeois politician i« far more likely to be swayed by the passion of the hour and to yield to an outburst of jingoism. Politics will almost certainly be more corrupt under a democracy than under an aristocracy. On the other hand, they will be more humane, and new experiments will be more readily tried. The danger is that, as in ancient Hellas, democracy will, in the end, give place to an oligarchy of wealth. .Religion will not, in tlie end, lose. Aristocracy \va c no creation of Christianity. It is. in fact, a pagan survival. Catholicism sought to purify it by teaching it chivalry; hut the lessen was in the best of times imperfectly learned and the prineinle el aristocracy, with all its charm and attraction, remains pagan.”—"Church Times.”

KI.KCTIOXS 'YD PUBLIC OKI XI OX. "Fleotions and Parliament do not. primarily serve the purpose of determining public opinion in arithmetic terms; they constitute an elaborate system of political tests which, just a« Civii Service examinations, are irrelevant in most of their apparent searchings. and yet fundamentally effective. The capacity for expressing in «>■ articulate form that which germinates in the minds of other people, and for co-operating with other men. is continually tested in British public life. Undoubtedly most dictators have pub-

lie opinion behind them when they iirst seize [wwer, and they usually plead this for their excuse. Rut dictatorships offer no possibility for •change or for a. free renewal of the mandate: they realise the precept which Mathiavclli gives to prophets to acquire power while men believe in them, so as to be aide to enforce faith after it is gone. Tt is change which constitutes the very nature of representative and responsible government, and, curiously enough, under the present system of party polities the chances of change decrease witli the arithmetic accuracy of election returns, for tin* great mass of the electorate always votes the same way, and changes occur only in a narrow margin, whose oscillations acquire under our present system a conveniently disproportionate importance.”—L. lb Namier, in “The Nation.”

FACTS AS THEY ARE

Sir Josiah Stamp, at one of the meeting of the Association, said: — “During the past two or three years business men have reminded me ol the small hoy sitting in the pantry. Tie stretches out his hand lor the tart and withdraws it because he feels the sharp pangs of a previous orgy. Business men wanted to move, but their memories have prevented ihoin.” Fennomists must remember that -the average man would run just as fast from a harmless collie as from a real wo.i! il he thought that the collie was the wolf. Business men are aflected by the facts as they think they ought to he, and not always by the facts as they are. It must la* realised under schemes of industrial rationalisation that with the growth ol industry altei each successive depression the work oi reconstruction inevitably heroines a bigger job. involving more capital and greater risk.

BUS IN MSS AND SCIENCE

“The course of events ha- determined that we as a people must live not on the land hut on our brains.” said Sir Arthur Keith, speaking at the TiriLish Asm. meeting. People talked about tin* industrial Revolution; it was not so much an industrial revolution as a complete change. Tn very essence and bedrock of the life of our people we were a pastoral people who suddenly launched out into something different. Our standard of life is no longer our acreage, hut our brain capacity and our science. That is why the business man of England must hack science. People say that w-e are overcrowded. Me shall never be o\eierowiled until we reach the limit of our mental capacity. We have not yet- reached the limit. Wo can do much more. It is mental capacity which is the backbone of our nation. Business men today constitute tilarmy in the field; men of science are the army in resoi’ke, and I think yve are making the ammunition of the army in the field.”

BRITISH ELECTION PROPHECY “Wo remain of the view that the Unionist Party will lose more seats than its managers sup]X>se. But we see no sign whatever of a Unionist debacle as in 1023. nor anything like itWe believe that at the worst the l njonists "'ll nnmbor half tin* House or s„ nearly half that the result of the General Election may very well lm in effect—under the throe-party system—more like a tie than anything known since the memorable situation at th end of 1885. That situation chan"' the yvhole face of politics for many years, and so, though in an utterly different- yvay. it may he. again. At least yve must all begin to prepare our minds for thaj> possibility.”—Air J. L. Garvin in “The Observer.”

FREE- TRADE AND TARIFFS

Br.th free-traders and tariff nddirl.s are given to greatly exaggerating their case? That free-trade made possible the enormous growth ol the country in wealth and population during the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century should bo .selfevident; hut that is contributed at the same time to a lop-sided and unhealthy development ol national life is not less so. In the same way. protective tariffs in certain countries have visibly hindered the growth of wealth and population in some countries and benefited them in others. The truth seems clear that tariffs have not necessarily the magic results for good or evil tliat protectionists and free-traders respective!' attribute to them. Whether the fiscal policy of a nation should proceed in one direction or the other is a mere question of the balance of expediency, and must depend on the circumstances of the time and the place. Looking at the matter from this point; of view. 1 would not refuse the benefit of the “Safeguarding” Act to the heavy industries in the abnormal circumstances of the present day. There is *0 0(M " tain amount of plausible argument for it as well as against it. and when tilings are as had as they are at picsont. reasonable people will not refuse to try an experiment which offers any chance of improvement. But such a step should nnlv be regarded as an expo, iment. the full consequences, direct and indirect, of which wilt he reviewed within a limited time.”-"Scrutator” in London "Truth.”