SOCIAL CONDITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 108, 9 May 1930, Page 14

SOCIAL CONDITIONS

HERE AND ABROAD

rAN OPTIMISTIC VIEW

An optimistic view was taken by Mr. Will Appleton, who recently completed a world tour, when speaking on world social conditions at a meeting of the Wellington Advertising Club last evening.

Contrasting social conditions in America with those in the Old Country, Mr. Appleton said that the main difference between the American idea and the English idea was that the Englishman did business in order to live, whereas too many Americans lived in order to do business. Even the Americans were beginning to realise that life should consist of more than hurry, flurry, and scurry, nnd that there existed something besides business. "There are many men too busy almost to eat, they bolt their food, smoke cigar after cigar as if life depended upon finishing them, and speak in that quick, nervous tone which doctors know so well as. a perfect symptom of a man who is "riding for a fall," he said. In England it might almost be said that insufficient attention is given to business affairs, and what is needed is that the Knglishma" should concentrate more on his business problems, whereas the American should think less of dollars and more of his fel low men. Even in this country more emphasis might be placed not upon how much men are worth, but what men really are, because after all, it is the inner things of life that make for character.

Sir. Appleton contended that there was no necessity for people in New Zealand to become unduly pessimistic. Contrasting the lot of folk here with those in other lands, the speaker remarked that working conditions generally were much more satisfactory in this little Dominion. Wealth in the main was very evenly distributed, and while perhaps it was not possible to build up fortunes so rapidly in New Zealand as iv other parts of the globe, the great bulk of the people were much' better off. It was inevitable that we should get lower prices for our produce, but on the other hand we would have to remember that during the past fe\fr years we had done vdry well indeed. New Zealand, in common with the rest of the world, would have to produce more, but he was quite satisfied that with greater attention to topdressing and that kind of thing, we would more than make up in production what we lost in value, so that ultimately the Dominion, from the producing point of view, should come out just about as well as it had done in the past. Wages might have to come down, but that would not be a great hardship because world prices for practically every commodity had now receded almost to the 1914 level.

"What we have to fight in New Zealand," stated the speaker, "is this wave of pessimism. It is true that we have a certain amount of unemployment in New Zealand, but this is nothing compared with what is prevailing in other parts of the globe." Mr. Appleton said he was very pleased to see a leading Wellington business man, Mr. Albert Russell) had endeavoured to stem this tide of pessimism by starting the "Good Morning" Club. "One way in which we can stem the tide to some extent in regard to the price of one of our • most important primary products is to discard the use of artificial silk, which, after all, is a very indifferent substitute for wool. If we could get every man, woman, and child in this country to use wool and in turn to persuade other people that' it is the most healthful garment, the demand for wool would quickly be stimulated, and prices rise, perhaps not to their old level, but certainly to a basis that would be more economical to the producer.