The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1920. “SAVE THE PEOPLE”

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10615, 14 June 1920, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1920. “SAVE THE PEOPLE”

•v. Fciv, we believe, will quarrel with the declaration by the British Prime Minister, at a meeting last week of the Union of Welsh Independents, that the special task of the Christian Church in relation to reforms is to create such an atmosphere—both nation#! and international, for that his speech implied—as will make reforms possible and the perpetuation of evil impossible. Great confusion and conflict of purpose, added Mr Lloyd George, wore paralysing goodwill in every land; and he instanced particularly the case of Germany, where the elections just held had shown a distracted people split into hopeless contending factious, without any cleat purpose, and with no ascendant voico of note. So far, ho stated, they had avoided that catastrophe in Britain; but it was spreading throughout the world, and the churches alone could save the people from the disasters which would ensue if anarchy of will and aim continued to .spread. Undoubtedly, Mr Lloyd George has, with unerring touch, placed his finger, on the toot cause of the groat unrestindustrial, social, and political—and the consequent evils, national and international, that arc afflicting the world to-day. That root , cause is clearly to be found in the world-wide confusion and conflict of purpose, and the resulting paralysis of goodwill in every land. Ho has, ns unerringly, indicated the remedy. The existing confusion and conflict of purpose can only bo overcome, order can only bo evolved out of the present chaos, by the patient, steady, purposeful building up of such a spirit of brotherhood within each nation and between all nations as will make the present groat self-seeking, the present profiteering, naked and unashamed, the present preying of individual upon individual and of '.nation upon nation, a thing distasteful —nay, a thing abhorrent—to the great mass of the people within each nation, and therefore to each nation as a whole.

Tho first thing needful, in short, in that spirit of team-work, the sad lack of which, within tho nations and between tho nations, Mr F. G. Dalzicll has so often deplored in our columns. To-day we are all of us, both as individuals and as nations, far too selfregarding, far too little regardful of tho interests of others. Both nationally and internationally, in our overkeen anxiety to conserve our own interests and to save our .precious selves, we are in gravest danger •of losing ourselves, because of our neglect as individuals of the vital interests of the nation as a whole, because of our neglect as nations of tho best interests, the rights, and»the liberties of humanity tho world over. • In indus-' try there ought to be a brotherly emulation in well-doing, an , earnest desire, a generous determination, to increase productioii as m#ch as possible, so as to increase the supply of goods—good things—of every kind and bring down the soaring prices which aye doing more to-day than any “Red Fed.’ 1 or Bolshevik propaganda to create unrest. But, instead, wo find, on the ouo hand, tho land monopolist holding idle, or putting only to very inferior use, much of the beat land of this Dominion and of every other “civilised’’ country;»while, on the other hand, wo have Labour leaders preaching, and, only too often, workers practising, a go-slow policy, as dishonourable morally as it is economically suicidal. Monopoly prevents the development of a large part of our natural resources; go-alow hamstrings the man-power of tho nation, and results in tho very inadequate development of those natural resources to which labour and capital are allowed access; instead of making common cause against monopoly to clear tho ground for increased production, worker and employer fight each othol - , thus still further retarding production; and then, to crown all, th’e profiteer, in order to bleed tho people of tho last farthing, hoards up and corners as much as he possibly can of the very inadequate supply of goods produced under these very unpropitious conditions.

Land monopolist, Labour leader, worker, employer, and profiteer—-all are seeking their own individual interests; and meanwhile, for want oi duo control and guidance, tho good ship of State, bearing .within her the fortunes of them all, is like to drift upon tho rooks. Internationally,, it cannot bo denied, the position is much the same. Indeed, it is to bo feared that it is, if possible, even worse. Well, then, may Mr Lloyd George cry aloud for tho creation of such an atmosphere, of goodwill as will make the present most dangerous, state of affairs impossible, and render possible those fundamental, far-reaching reform*? which alone can make safe for humanity, for freedom, for right, for our Christian civilisation, tho world wo live in. The creation of such goodwill is, no doubt, a task for which the Christian churches ought to bo peculiarly fitted. But wo must confess that one would have much more faith in their fitness for the, task if the Christian churches, as between themselves, had shown more of the spirit of brotherliness, and had evinced a greater capacity for that organised team-work which is the great need of the present day. "Wo must confess, too, that wo would have greater faith in Mr Lloyd George as a prophet of the now dispensation of goodwill and team-work if he had

not sacrificed on the altar of party—and of a fake coalition party at that

—the great talents that were meant for mankind. His linking up with the Tory party at Home savours of a desire to save tho ‘'interests’’ rather than to save tho . people; and his “khaki” election, rushed on with indecent .liadto and conducted on an electoral system which utterly failed to secure diie representation in Parliament of eacli school of political thought, is, without question, responsible for much of tho political confusion and the industrial unrest now prevailing in the Old Land. He knows how absolutely essential to true Democracy is a sound, just, scientific electoral systepi. He knows that to secure the greatest possible increase of production on sound economic lines, we must, in the language of hi? Liverpool speech of December, 1908, the December immediately preceding his Land Tax Budget, “open up to the people and to tho children of the pcoplq, the inheritance given them from on high.” If, therefore, he genuinely desires tho creation of such an atmosphere of goodwill as will make reforms possible and render the perpetuation of evil impossible, bo, must cut adrift from tho coalition which is now working in tho selfish interests of privilege and monopoly; ho must, by example as well as by precept, sound a ranchneeded clarion call for generous, selfdenying team-work in the best interests, nationally and internationally, of each and all.