BUSINESS AND POLITICS.
EXAMPLE OF LINCOLN. (To the Editor.) Should, we have, more business- men in Parliament? Because a man has shown marked ability in "feathering his own nest" or "pushing his own wheelbarrow" will he I necessarily make a successful statesman? Was not the greatest statesman America ever had Abraham Lincoln, a hopeless failure as a" business man? Yet he did more for humanity and raised the prestige of America higher in the eyes of the world than all the "successful business men" Presidents put together have accomplished since. Have not all our <*reat achievements, inventions and scientifie°discoveries been accomplished by thinkers and idealists who died, for the most part, poor men? They were real altruists, animated solely by a desire to serve humanity. What have the "business men" done but to commercialise these discoveries for their own profit, and, as far as possible, monopolise the benefits which were intended for the masses of the people? Who are the men responsible for the present chaotic conditions of society? Who are the people who are hoarding "old supplies, cornering-markets, gambling in food-, stuffs, engineering trusts and combines, exploiting cheap labour, and generally doin f ' their best to cripple civilisation? "Business men," of course; individuals who revel in what they are pleased to call "big business." If your readers wish to see government br "business men" let them visit the United States and see graft and corruption in ite worst forms. Then let them come back afld thank God for the decent folk of New Zealand who still value character rather than business acumen as the true measure of a statesman.
R. C. SIMMONS.
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Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 6
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273BUSINESS AND POLITICS. Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 72, 26 March 1931, Page 6
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