MODERN GOVERNMENT

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 197, 18 May 1936, Page 8

MODERN GOVERNMENT

“People Not Given Honest Chance to Earn” UNEMPLOYMENT MENACE “1 trust that this means that our Press is at long last going to speak plainly about the duties attaching to private ownership of wealth,” the Rev. Father J. A. Higgins, S.M., director for Archbishop O’Shea of social science studies in the Wellington diocese, said yesterday in an interview in which he commented on the leading article entitled “Modern Government,” published in "The Dominion” on Saturday. “There is much in the leader that is laudable,” he said, “but there is much also that) is obscure; and development of what is involved is highly desirable. “It is good to realise that one of our most important dailies is admitting that': ‘No modern political party would have the slightest hope of winning an election on purely moral grounds or its attachment to fnndametnal principles.’ And the leader also admits that it is not. easy to see how matters so evil can be cured. Yet one important point is mentioned: ‘Our education system reflects the materialism of the age. Religious teaching has been banned, and ehical teaching is of a perfunctory kind? I submit that, consequently, the obvious thing for ’The Dominion’ to do is to support those schools and colleges which have not banned religious teaching and are not perfunctory in the ethical training they give their pupils. When our dallie" set out on a campaign against irreligious education and in favour of support for schools which have clung to God and the Redeemer of the world, they will be doing constructive work for our national welfare. Something for Nothing. “It is tune, I agree, that there is danger in giving people something for nothing. As Christopher Hollis says in fiis latest work, ‘The Two Nations,’ ‘you have on]y to look at the rich to see that.’ But Is there not greater danger in giving men nothing to do that is humanlv worth their while? There has been, and there is, fearful danger in unemployment; and New Zealand has been forced to give people ‘something for nothing’ simply because New Zealand (our Governments, often supported by our dailies) has not given her people that which all men have God-given right to—the honest chance to earn their worth. ’The Dominion/ obviously, would not countenance letting the unemployed starve, neither would it assert that the unemployed are individually to blame for their unemployment, which should be regarded as their fitting chastisement. We cannot have it> both ways: either New Zealand provides the conditions in which all her employable men may earn a livelihood, for themselves and their dependants, or we must provide for them by the dole or sustenance. And if the latter be our choice, it is vilely unjust not to give sustenance which is truly sustenance.

“But there is another aspect of ‘giving something for nothing’—whenever a person receives from any transaction more than is his due, he receives ‘something for nothing.’ Injustice gives to some what belongs to others. ‘The Dominion’ is not, I am sure, so exceedingly foolish as to presume that justice controlled industry and commerce under modern capitalism. “In this connection, I notice, the leader says: ‘lf it were true that poverty is the result of capitalism, then logically it should be impossible for any poor person to escape from his condition by his own efforts and become a prosperous citizen. But we know that many do.’ Now, I know of no intelligent) person who asserts that the modern system of capitalism Is so evil that no poor man can make money. I know of plenty of very intelligent people who assert that the system condemns many to poverty. And the poverty of many is obvious. It is interesting to note that John Maynard Keynes in his latest work, ‘The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money,’ says: ‘lt is certain that the world will not much longer tolerate the unemployment which, apart from brief intervals of excitement, is associated —and, in my opinion, inevitably associated —with present-day capitalistic individualism' (page 381). Under Governments, supported by some of our dailies, our unemployment figures reached 70,000 Slumps and Booms. “It is good to note that ‘The Dominion’ says: ‘Much of the unsatisfactoriness of modern government arises from the acceptance of the idea that, people’s troubles are caused by circumstances beyond their control.’ Excellent. I bope that this means that Wellington’s morning daily is going to lead the way in destroying the unspeakable lie, so often told, that slumps and booms are due to the action of economic laws over which we have no control. “Splendid, too, is this leader’s advocacy of duties instead of rights; but, of course, of all duties. I trust that this means that our Press is at long last going to speak plainly about the duties attaching to private ownership of wealth; is going to teach the longoverlooked truth that the more a man owns the greater becomes his duties to his fellow men; is going to teach and to demand the practical application of such duties. Let our dailies do this very constructive work, and gradually citizens will cease to regard much private wealth as so highly desirable. If we are going to,talk duties, and we must, let us be honest and talk ail duties.”