Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1943. POLITICS AND REALITIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1943. POLITICS AND REALITIES.

TTOUBTS as to whether a general election in these times would serve any good purpose must have been deepened m many minds by the damour of bitter and ratlied con nsec wrang mg in which-the campaign is developing. It would dial dly be possible to imagine anything less calculated than this campaign either to speed the war effort-though all. parties are in favour of doiiw that—or to assist wise preparation lor dealing with t problems that will arise when victory has been won. 1 Some candidates are making thoughtfu and cons ructive use of their platform opportunities, but on the whole the campaign is producing much more in the way of extravagant claims and vituperation than of dispassionate and profitable discussion. Far too much emphasis is being set on party and tar too lit e, not only of the needs and interests of the people of the Dominion, but on the high degree of unity they have achieved. Partv antagonisms, particularly in the fantastic lengths to which' they are developed in election campaigning, fortunately are reflected only to a very slight extent in the (lay 10 da .\ life of the people of this country. Most of us no doubt have om individual ideas as to the way in which various’national and community problems should be handled, but few of ns fee inclined on that account to engage in some sort of feud against those with whom we are unable to agree. Alter all, the essence of civilised and democratic life is not regimented agreement, but rather a spirit of give and take and of working compromise. Most of the differences of opinion that exist m regard to questions of national moment have to do with method rather than with fundamental principle. Only an inconsiderable minority of New' Zealanders, for instance, are in any degree opposed to a progressive elevation of living and working standaids throughout the community, but as to the methods of achieving the results very generally desired there are great and legitimate differences of'opinion. A readiness to examine and test competing methods would do a good deal to abate the current, fuiy and bitterness of political controversy. r loo often tlieie is, m place of this dispassionate approach, an attempt to claim for methods that quite possibly, or quite obviously, are capable of being improved upon, the recognition that is due only to established principles. It has never been clearer than during the present election campaign that too many political candidates, including some of long Parliamentary experience, are showing a poor appreciation of what is best in our national life and are allowing themselves to be carried by foolish and artificial antagonisms. In these circumstances the electors are set a difficult task, but it is clear that the Dominion more than ever needs in its Parliament men of a genuinely progressive and co-operative spiritmen who will seek and help to establish the broadest piaeticable basis of working agreement, instead of seizing on every opportunity to exalt their own party or faction and to vilify those who do not see eye to eye with them. _ Even from a purely domestic standpoint the desirability of the greatest attainable measure of political harmony is selfevident. It has to be considered also, however, that hopes of future peace and security admittedly are. contingent on the ability of great and small nations to combine and co-operate in a closer and more intimate relationship than has ever hithei.to existed. Hopes of development on these lines vvoukl.be dim indeed if it had to be concluded that advanced democracies were incapable of adjusting their internal political affairs in any other way than that of the comic opera variety of civil war to which we*are being treated at present ‘in New Zealand.