If I Were Prime Minister—

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 477, 5 October 1928, Page 8

If I Were Prime Minister —

THE SUN is offering a prize of £lO for the best reply to the Question; “1 Vhct Would 1 Do if I Were Prime To-day tee publish the tenth of the entries. The competition is “open to all comers and closes on October 20.

(By

SIMON McDonald )

It is a mistake to assume that the problem confronting the Prime Minister is purely material and economicThere is no complete and final solution along these lines. The State is the individual in the mass and has a heart, a mind, a soul. All the political activity that finds expression in statutes, and in the creation of administrative machinery, avails but little unless inspired by ethical and spiritual motives. Righteousness the nation, and if I were Prime Minister I would just tell the people that popular elections, party organisation, Parliaments, and the exercise of political power are

all vanity and vexation of spirit as long as we shut our eyes to the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount, and refuse to apply the golden rule: Do unto oilier a as ye would have men do unto you. The physical needs of the community are well supplied. Anyone in New Zealand who is willing to do with his might what his hand findetli to do, need lack none of the necessities of civilised life. I have never seen a man brought up to habits of industry and thrift seeking work. I have seen hundreds suffering as the result of idleness, self-indulgence, alcoholism, and the refusal to concentrate on making themselves reasonably useful members of the community. These, like the poor, will always be with us, and they are, doubtless, fit subjects for humanitarian experiment and endeavour. My early studies in Presbyterian theology left me with the conviction that man, so far from being prone to evil, turns instinctively to light rather than to darkness, but he is a free agent, and when he is idle, wicked and useless it is from deliberate choice; it is not from any inherent inability to choose the better path. As Prime Minister it would be my duty to point out that in looking to Parliaments and legislatures to make everyone good and prosperous and happy, people are deceiving themselves. The mode of choosing our political rulers, the constitution of Parliament, the custody and distribution of public funds, the appointment of officials and the devices employed to influence the course of legislation, have merely become the means to gross material ends. Out of the welter of passion, prejudiced appeals to the cupidity of the majority, which are tlia chief features

or a general election, emerges a Farliament of SO citizens, who exhibit in full measure the weaknesses, follies and frailties of mankind. Flattered, cajoled and threatened in turn by opposing elements in the community. they shirk responsibility: they are weak when they should be strong: they are amenable to the influence of organised wealth, and they are intimidated by the disapproval of the mob to whom they look for votes. As soon as they meet in Wellington a great trek sets in all day long, a procession of job hunters, placeseekers, raiders of the Treasury, unsuccessful speculators desiring to transfer their liabilities to the State; greedy monopolists in liquor, commerce and finance jostle each other on the steps and in the corridors and lobbies of Parliament, each seeking his own advantage while professing to have the good of the community at heart. As Prime Minister, I should try to cleanse the Temple qX this rabble and proclaim the futility of applying political remedies for evils that will only disappear with a change of heart in the individual citizen. I would tell the people straight-out that no legislation and no departmental machinery will protect the self-indulgent from tlieir own excesses, will recoup losses caused by unsuccessful speculation, bad judgment and improvidence, or will save inefficient and unenterprising businesses from the incompetence of those in charge of them. Instead of temporising with the whole tribe of opportunists, who are eternally calling upon the Government to save them, I would tell them bluntly that “within themselves deliverance must be wrought,” and that no Government can do half as much for them as they can do for themselves if only they had the will to be self-reliant. The economic problem which everyone expects the Prime Minister to solve is as old as time: it merely varies in acuteness. There must always be two divisions in the community—the people who fix their own wages, emoluments and rewards, and the people whose wages are fixed for them. The latter look to political expedients to compel a more liberal distribution in their favour. The former would move Parliament with a view to securing a tighter hold on their possessions, and accumulating mort. If, as Prime Minister, I could persuade both to do their duty to each other, there would be no more industrial war, no elaborate regulation of the lives, working conditions and standard of living of the people. They would by common consent be in agreement that the first charge on the surplus wealtli of the community should be adequate provision for the wagereceiving division in sickness, distress and old age. There would be no watering of capital, no dissipation of excess profits in industry till the future of all those engaged in producing them was assured. Once the workers of the country realised that increased wages and a liberal superannuation allowance depended on increased production and the elimination of waste, we should see the beginning of a new era; and if the wage-paying division could be made to see that the possession of wealth imposed on them a stewardship for which they must answer, not only on the Lay of J udgment, but at the bar of an enlightened public opinion which would ostracise a man who allowed greed, selfishness and the lust for power to blind him to the obligations of his trust; it would be the first step toward a new relationship between employer and employedMy task as Prime Minister would be greatly simplified. We should have a peaceful, contented and prosperous community, the members of which cooperated whole-heartedly for the common good. In the absence of innumerable deputations, I would have time to think out means of aiding and encouraging them.