The Southland Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1942 The Collection of Patriotic Funds

Southland Times, Issue 24889, 31 October 1942, Page 4

The Southland Times SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1942 The Collection of Patriotic Funds

THE raising of patriotic funds by taxation was discussed on Thursday at a meeting of the Southland Provincial Patriotic Council. Although some of the delegates felt that they were not authorized by their zone committees to vote on this question, a motion favouring the proposal received strong support. The attitude defined at the meeting is not merely a local development. Similar resolutions have been passed by councils in other centres; they are clearly the expression of a widely held conviction that the present system is unsatisfactory. And this becomes, in effect, an admission of failure that should bring with it a sense of humiliation. It is not the patriotic councils and their voluntary workers that have failed. Few men and women have worked harder for the war effort than those who have organized ways and means of extracting money from the general public. They have tried, at first with enthusiasm and later with a quiet pertinacity, to build up their provincial quotas. There is no pleasure in asking people for money. And the collectors have found, in more than three years of canvassing, that the money comes always from the same pockets: that some doors open willingly to them, and that others remain obstinately closed. The value of the services provided from the patriotic funds is not merely a question of material benefits. Gifts are doubly acceptable when they seem to bring the warmth of a friendly gesture. They are reminders that the people at home are thinking of their troops overseas, and are doing what they can to translate sentiment into action. How different must be the “gifts” of an organization that works mechanically, as part of an expanding bureaucracy! The money is easier to collect through taxation; but the spirit of the enterprise dwindles to a drab, routine efficiency. Yet the money must be found, and if the civil population as a whole is failing to perform its duty there is no alternative to taxation. The change would simplify the system of collection, and at the same time lift a thankless task from those who now give more of their time and energy than most of them can afford. If there are individuals who feel no obligation to help the men in the armed forces the nation’s conscience must operate on their behalf.