"THE FORGOTTEN MAN."

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10108, 6 August 1898, Page 6

"THE FORGOTTEN MAN."

In a small book that should be more widely read, "What Social Classeß Owe to Each Other," by Professor Stjmner, there are two chapters on the "Forgotten Man /, He exists in New Zealand as well as in the United States. Some may ask, who is he ?. We will try to explain. The Government is called upon by many enthusiasts, socialists, and others to confer favours on the people—old age pensions, &c, &cv Wow the Government has no money except what it either borrows or raises by taxing the people. If it borrows, it has to pay interest out of taxes. Borrowing to pay interest cannot be prolonged for any length of time. Now, who pays the taxes ? He is the Forgotten Man. Amidst all the requests for Governmental favours there is no request to confer any boon on this man. Hβ is forgotten. Indeed, he is treated as if he had no rights, not even a right to live. Yet on his back is the whole weight of the Government laid. The men who are to get favours from the Government are the nien who are remembered. They give nothing to the Government. The Forgotten Man pays for all. What is taxation when imposed to confer favours on- a. special olass ? 1 1 : s simply transferring by the authori' y of the Government , some mouey

from some persons in the community, to others in the community. And on this transfer it is the man who has by force to give up part of his money to others that is forgotten. What arc the characteristics of this forgotten man ? His main characteristic is that he aska nothing from the Governmontbut to be left°alone. Then he is thrifty, saving his means so that he may nc-vc-r require to apply to the Government for aid. He is active, not lazy, nor is ho drunken or vicious. Every penny of capital he has he uses to get more capital. Hβ is selfrespecting and independent. He minds his own business, and he is not continually asking for doles or concessions from ' the Government. We might have thought that this man would be reckoned a good citizen, and that he would have been held in everlasting remembrance. But no, he is forgotten. The number of people who have schemes for radical reform and social improvement never think of him. We have all sorts of proposals —Old Age Pension Schemes, Shori Hours Bills, Inebriate Asylums Bills, &c, &c, Not ono of these measures is k> beneiit him. Those who propose these schemes treat him as if he never existed. He is the " Forgotten Man." And yet 13 be not the type of citizen we should like to see reproduced and become the normal citizen ? No country wants poor, or weak, or dependent and shiftless citizens. If it got such the degeneration of the State would have begun. What differentiates one state or nation from another now ? It is mainly, if not wholly, the type of its citizens. Given self-respecting, free, independent, thrifty, active men and women in the State, and that nation will be great and achieve success. And yet this is the typo of the Forgotten Man. The demands made on this Forgotten Man are, however, very numerous. Every penny the Government takes in the shape of taxes— and that is the source of its income— comes from him. The old age pensions, for example, will como out of his pocket. Those who have not money to pay for pensions cannot of course contribute to the Government fund out of which they must be paid. And the numerous things that the Government is called upon to provide really como from the Forgotten Man. The number of philanthropists who are ever ready to transfer the funds of the Forgotten Man to the weak, the poor, the unthrifty, &c, is legion. Will it in the long run pay the nation to overlook and punish this longsuffering Individual ? If his money is taken from him to give to the unthrifty, who had eqaal chances with "him, it is punishment that he is subjected to. We will suppose two men starting life together, both are physically strong, and both have equal intellectual endowments. One is thrifty, careful, active, steady; the other, lazy, thriftless, unsteady. At sixty-live years of age the nation gives the latter a pension, and makes the former pay something towards that pension. Why*? Is it desirable to , encourage the latter to forget the i former ? Such is the policy—it is sometimes called the philanthropy, of tho,nation. It.means that the good citizen' is punished and forgotten, the indifferent citizen loved and rewarded. We wonder if we see whither all this State interference and State philanthropy tend. What is the type of the future oitizen to be ? A careful, thrifty, independent, selfregarding man or woman, or a lazy, thriftless, careless person? That is the issue, and we are afraid we are allowing our humane instincts, as they are called, to blind us to the sternness of nature and to the consequences of our foolish love of the weak and useless and our punishment of the strong and useful. It is time the colony waked up to the existence of the Forgotten Man.