The Daily News. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1922. WHAT AILS THE WORLD?

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1922. WHAT AILS THE WORLD?

The Trades Union Congress at 'Southport, after listening to a fighting speech by Mr. Walter, who is reported to have made little impression on the delegates, had the satisfaction of hearing some particularly appropriate remarks by the Mayoress of the town (Mrs. Hartley), which evoked loud cheers from the assembly—and they well deserved the compliment. It was, perhaps, fortunate that the Mayoress, in officially welcoming the delegates, arrived too late to hear Mr. Walker’s address, and so was able to ignore his tirade, as well as to impress her hearers by some home truths they will do well to ponder. According to Mr. Walker, the workers are as much to blame for the present unrest as any other section of the community, because they have so patiently watched the weary succession of conferences on reparations, indemnities and territories, each shelving the real issue, and each pretending to face difficulties by disregarding them.”' Wl).at this modern Solomon would : do to obtain real peace, would be to revise the Versailles Treaty, withdraw the army of occupation from the Rhine provinces, and re-establish goodwill on the Continent. That is what he considers would be a commonsense policy—give Germany all she wants, antagonise France, and pave the way for a new war, greater and more frightful than the last. It did not seem to occur to this demagogue that such a policy would be “pretending to face difficulties by disregarding them.” But then he has no faith in Governments. nor would he assist France to become the dictator of Europe. He does not even believe that the British Coalition Government wants “a clean, honorable peace”—whatever that may mean. Mr. Walker not only wants the business settled, but says: “We are going to have it settled,” and the method whereby that is to be accomplished is by driving the Government from power. He did not mention who was to replace the present Government, blit the inference is that as he and his friends possess the secret of arranging the affairs of Europe satisfactorily, then naturally they are to redeem the world from unrest, unemployment and all the ills from which it is now suffering. On this programme the voice of Miss Hartley fell with refreshing inspiration. “What ails the world?” she asked, and followed up this very pertinent query by stating that “they were all trying to obtain something for nothing, and excessive selfishness was the root of all the evil. They were asking for impossible things.” Unconsciously Miss Hartley administered a scathing rebuke' to Mr. Walker and those who hold the views he set forth. No contrast could be more marked than was presented by her applied common-sense and the spurious counterpart claimed by the trades unionist in his opening address. There is all the material for one of the most forceful sermons that could be preached to all sorts and conditions of people in that incontrovertible truth that “excessive selfishness is the root of all the present, evils,” but if that is not to emphasise the situation, the indictment that “they were asking for impossible things” leaves no room and no occasion for anything else to be said. What ails the world is undoubtedly excessive selfishness, and no section of it more than trades unionists, who only see and recognise their own interests or what they regard as their interests —being utterly callous as to the interests of any and every other portion of the community. Selfishness, even if not extreme, and the propensity to ask for the impossible, are not exactly the nfialifieation which pre-eminently fit Labor to evolve a new era of peace and goodwill that will settle all difficulties and troubles, in-

dustrial, political, national and social, nor will they enable com-mon-sense to prevail. It is hopeless to expect any real improvement in world conditions until selfishness and asking for the impossible are relegated to the scrap heap. There is a lamentable absence of any indication that the age of reason has arrived, but the erisp and incisive philosophy of Miss Hartley, if disseminated as it should be, will do much to bring about a better understanding as to what is needed to remedy the world’s Ailments. To pour out the vials of wrath on Governments and advocate wild schemes that will increase chaos and unrest can only make confusion more confounded.