“HAVES” & “HAVE=NOTS”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1939, Page 6

“HAVES” & “HAVE=NOTS”

POSITION OF DEMOCRACIES. There comes in the life of,.most individuals a time when suddenly and perhaps to their own surprise they find themselves looking no longer forward, but backward, when change presents itself as something disagreeable, and the best thing to hope for is a quiet life in which they may keep what they have without striving for more, writes “Scrutator” in the “Sunday Times.” That is the state of the great democracies today —Britain, France and United States —and it is one that carries with it very real dangers. The defence has great advantages over the offence in the military sense; but diplomatically the advantage is with the offence. There are usually more people in the world who are discontented with things as they are than satisfied; still more important, the hope of positive force is a greater stimulus to effort than the chance of merely keeping what is already in possession. The “haves” are under a constant temptation to wait obsequiously on events, to procrastinate, and to avoid forcing issues which may after all be evaded. But the “have-nots” must win and keep the initiative in order to have the slightest chance of realising their ambition. It is easier with nations as with individuals to rise from below than to maintain their position at the top. The moral is that the satisfied and therefore non-aggressive Powers have not less but more need of new methods and of greater effort than the aggressive Powers which have the motives of ambition or revenge.