A FEW QUESTIONS TO THINK OVER.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 November 1921, Page 9

A FEW QUESTIONS TO THINK OVER.

FROM “THE SILENT PARTNER.” We have had passed on to us an American production, “The Silent Partner.” They certainly do things slick and pointed in “The States.” This little brochure is so chock full of good ideas, presented brightly. Why is New Zealand so dull? Oh, there we are on to it. It is “question time.” and we are taking advantage of the forms of the House to ask a few “in writing.” Our readers may answer for themselves, or, if they want to, write their answers to the Press. We should certainly like to read some of the answers. FACING THE FACTS. / Spending money for fun and investing to improve yourself are the two roads that men travel. Are you on the right road? What do you think in these hard times ?

1 If you consider your job a hard lot, ■ then the bent back of a galley slave has * nothing on you. It is all the way against the tide. Get interested and en 1 thusiastic over your work, and then the ’ hours will glide and your raft will ride with the tide. What is the recipe here—grouching or pluck? What is the true meaning of selfish- ' ness? Does a man -want to go to Heaven alone, or to hell alone? Is not sel- ' fishness a form of social suicide involv- , ing self-annihilation? Do you respect and honor womanhood? i What made Abraham Lincoln the great man he. was? Imagine, if you can, a loose-jointed lad, a rail-fence-like, ungainly, shapeless, indolent, queer-look-ing boy, wearing a scarecrow shirt and a coonskin cap. He became the saviour of his country and the greatest of al* Presidents. Abe’s mother made his soul. His first love, Ann Rutledge, made his heart, and Bis wife, Mary Todd, made his ambition—made up his mind for him—probably having to nag a bit to do it. What a glory had these three women in making such a man. Men, do you honor womanhood, or have you forgotten your birthday? Does the world owe you a living? How many there are who think so of themselves. Why? The poor old earth would have kept on spinning if we had never been born. If the world owes you anything, what have you paid the world for it? What one agency will help to bring about more intelligent co-operation between what we are wont to call the. two classes —Capita] and Labor? What one thing will contribute more than any other thing towards producing more, which means reducing the cost of living? The “middle class” constitutes some 80 per cent, of this country’s population. What plan can be introduced to success-

•fully loan to this great majority power to persuade the maxi majority in the right way? What will give the common people their rights? How long will the unorganised, suffering public remain the submissive, passive party of the third part Is it a* fact that there exists in this country a set of men who are working to influence other mon; and that these men are part of a band of organised revolutionary leaders who are spreading their venemous tracts and working their treacherous tongues in an effort to cause class hatred? When Capital attempts to crush -Labor, it stamps out its own harvest. Whenever Labor tries to strangle Capital, it chokes itself. What would we do with the one without the other? The life and the blood of the one are the blood and life of the otifer. Can you separate this one class without injury to both sections? Are you not one in necessary industrial co-operation? Are the discouragements you encounter, the mistakes you make, the bumps you. get, the best part of your education ? If you have half an hour to spare, is it fair to ask an qqual amount of time of your busy friend to be waited on you? Can Society be so organised that everybody lives at the expense of everybody else? Ts there a union big enough to blow such a bubble? To the above we add only this one: — If we all had everything we want how long would we want everything we had? -Is he not the most religious man who does his own little work and leaves it to God to look after the big things of life? (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)