“STATESMEN WILL PREVAIL”

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 53, 26 November 1928, Page 13

“STATESMEN WILL PREVAIL”

Sir, —In perusing the opinions expressed by a number of your correspondents on the political situation, while all are fair enough in their deductions on the position, it seems none of them can rise above the petty trifles of party politics to a higher train of thought. After all said and done, it does not cut any ice what is said and done inside . the House and outside prior to the elections, as everyone conversant with Parliamentary tactics knows quite well everything is fair iu politics as well as in love and war the world over. Underlying the motive of either side (I mean Reform and United) is the best of intentions for the well-being of the people. I have that much faith, anyway. Some smallminded people would probably term my frame of mind as being unsophisticated, not so. The sincerity of this motive is generally reflected in the personnel of the members elected on either side, and it seems to me the positive duty of both these parties to rise about paltry sideissues and come to a working agreement, if not for all time, at least for the next three years—anything rather than put the country to the cost of another election, which would do nothing to prove more than is known at the present time.

All that is wanted is a big fire, and while toasting their toes round the same hearth a spirit of give and take and a mutual regard for the opinions expressed all round. There is nothing insurmountable in the settlement of their respective policies, only that the objective is approached from different angles. And to my mind the first man on either side who takes an initiative in this. direction will prove himself a big man, irrespective of what rank he holds on either side. I believe Mr. Coates and Sir Joseph Ward both big enough in experience to make this possible, and if your good and well-intentioned correspondents would hold off for a while they will probably see a little sweet reasonableness prevail and the country saved a lot of unnecessary expense. , ~ Both these parties have constructive policies, constructive and not destructive, of the kind tried out by the well intentioned but misguided revolutionaries Lenin and Trotsky, whose primitive ideas were to break down before they had a substitute to build upon, and it would seem not a very hard matter to compromise on these policies. And H this were done with a certain amount of discretion it would certa nly meet with the approval of the electors of either party. That is the real issue and that is all that matters. The sinkin” of personal ends will prove the man. I think Webster’s definition of a polltician, if I remember rightly, reads: A politician—a trickster or a statesman. Statesmen will I think prevail in this case.—l am, etc., , <wonK AHFjAD .” November 20.