BUSINESS TALKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 300, 17 December 1921, Page 5

BUSINESS TALKS.

■ -■ m - ' I.—WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO DO WITH THE WORLD? (By C. A. WILSON.) In starting to write a series of articles on business topics—upon how to better "the business machine—this may seem a round-about title. But, after all, the same applies to world-wide life as to I that of the humblest individual on the globe. What is the object sought? If we know that, if we have a clearer vision of what the future should hold, we. are no longer the sport of forces apparently "blind. We look ahead clear-eyed and unafraid,, because each _nd (everyone of us knows Qiis own powers in any given direction. Given the impetus, the key-note, the prompter's cue—what you will—given the stage on which to play our part, and j we have it in us to s. chape our actions that onr present achievements could be dwarfed within one generation. A gTeat many people are saying and writing that the world is in a state of chaos. Some look for almost immediate annihilation, others for some outside agency which will .it once relieve some from all further anxiety and reponsibility, while smiting others such a smite that the subsequent proceedings will interest them no more. But let us forget that this is a very old world indeed. Scientists tell us that about 12 million years have elapsed since life appeared on our cooling planet. In "the long, slow, upward process, mankind has had to learn and unlearn many, many times. It stands to reason that upon his dawning yet immature intelligence a sudden light would dawn, and he would follow it until some superior intelligence discovered it to be erroneous and set up a new standard. Newton from the fall of an apple, Franklin from the.flying of a kite, Watt from the bubbling of a kettle—these and thousands more have blazed paths for those who followed, have made clearer and clearer the steps that lead upwards to our final communion with Nature on a plane of equality and understanding. Down through the age-s we have discovered and used the stores of natural wealth prodigally—in the centuries past the rough and tumble of life used human beings just as lavishly. We have ruined stores of coal, great forests, rivers of oil, we have changed climates and depopulated huge areas by our mistakes. In the ghastly wars which have devastated the earth from time immemorial we have poured forth blood like water, and in our frenzy have seized and flung wealth untold into the devouring maw of war. Pestilence and famine, civil strife and grinding taxation have burdened humanity as the direct c_use of misguided action on the part of someone or another of the earth's nations. In the arts of peace we have been no less wasteful. Every large building claimed its killed and maimed, largely due. of course, to crude engineering methods — the Great Pyramid alone, a token of kingly vanity, cost 30,000 lives and the best efforts of the Egyptian Nation during 25 years. Right down the line the multitude have beeen willing to sacrifice the future for the present—to choose tho easier path. But, fortunately, whjrever a part of the machinery creaked, some born engineer took it upon himself to climb up with an oil can and -a spanner to set it right. If the Ship of State looked like running ashore, a muscular hand reached out for the tiller, put his heart into the job, and fetched her up to the wharf 6afe, though battered. In all countries, at all times, lovers of their kind have kept the flag of progress flying. Scientists have studied and discovered improvements, philosophers, poets and artists have prepared the human understanding for higher things than mere selfish individualism. And so we come to-day to the close of a great struggle which leaves the world's people white, and spent, and shaking. Amidst the ruin of their dreams, in their anguish of souls at the loss of loved ones, their cry goes up: ''Is this all of life? What arc we trying to do? " In this world we have everything necessary for human happiness and progress. Our material resources of the first part may have been squandered, ibut what of it? Science is showing us that what we once possessed was not one fraction of what we now hold, and that we are on the eve of discovering sources of potential energy whiefi can transform our lives. We have the earnest investigators, the self-sacrificing men of science. My theory that we are all part of the earth, and that we neces sarily react to the earth's constituents and its forces, would seem to be •borne out by the fact that each section of Use community has its own developed or latent powers in relation to the manipulation of certain materials. To hasten progress, we require to develop in each and every individual, so far as is humanly possible", those natural gifts he or she possesses, in order that the proportion of our nationally efficient individuals may be raised to the greatest extent. In such a scheme, individual development is followed by national progress on the highest plane. The end sought cannot be achieved by force, which creates troubles that consume energy and retard progress. Neither can they be obtained by the perpetuation of the self-seeking spirit, by the exaltation of certain individuals as a necessary corollary in the abasement of others. It must be a general uprising of beneficent forces, a clearer understanding of each other, an accepted recognition of the right to comfort, happiness and self-development that we will win our way to national progress. Our times demand constructive effort; we have evolved to a certain stage, and will have no difficulty in progressing further, to the betterment of all mankind, if we secure the co-operation of the best brain and muscle In our community. Hence, the best way is to blaze the trail for those to whom life is one I dark dense forest, to show them that there are heights as well as hollows, clear open spaces and smiling skies as well as brambles and crashing branches, and that some day, by our united endeavours, we may transform the wild and tangled hillside into a pleasant place where all may sojourn in harmony. Between that plan and the wilful) setting of a match to the undergrowth, the people themselves must choose. For it is they and their 3 who lose by an error in judgment due to lack of knowledge