"LACK OF LEADERSHIP"

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 40, 17 February 1933, Page 5

"LACK OF LEADERSHIP"

THE WOELD SITUATION

DUTY OF THE CHURCH

(By Telegraph.) (Special to "The Evening Post.")'. ,'. ■.-;'; AUCKLAND, This Day. : "The cause of the world's economic troubles today is a breakdown, in:onq organisation and co-ordination. A' root cause of that disaster is individual, com.* munity, and national selfishness, and it is the plain duty of the Church to call attention to. thia fact, and to plead fbij . ... a reversal of policy," declared the Bey* A.- J. Seamer last evening in the course; of bis inaugural address "as newlyelected president of the New Zealand Methodist Church Conference, now de« • liberating in Auckland. "We live," said ■-•- Mr. Seamer, "in a glorious age of life and movement. Indeed, the progress made during the last century in pro* duction has • been too rapid for c»-or* dination. Our greatest intellects have concentrated on.-too narrow a range of subjects. The many potential leaders and statesmen have become experts, mere specialists, and have joined tha the ranks of those who 'know more and more about less and less.' Hence, for; lack of leaders possessing a balanced philosophy of social economy, the.civil* ised world finds itself in a maze of difficulty and distress" : .. The problem confronting, them, thai, •• president continued, was not a single one merely,'or: even a series of separata and distinct problems that might b& solved by tho experts in their particular Subjects, but it was a combination of inter-related problems arising front' a; faulty perception of basic principles, and rooted in, questions of personal and community relationships. These interrelated problems, including reparations, war debts,. disarmament, tariffs, .'ex* change, currency, unemployment, ' and industrial principles, were.an aggraya* tion, on a world-wide scale, of "thY momentous problem.of distribution. ■' ; Admitting ;that some of^the. suffer" ings of the time were but growing patliS in tho process of human, development, it must at the same time be emphasised that others were the result of artificial and irrational conditions. The causeCbfi 90 per cent, of life's failures was lack of co-ordination—lack of organisation; in harmony with God's immutable laws, and.His greatest- law was love. The old! theory that we do the best for others when we-do:the bestforourselves must: • go, and nations as well-as individual* must learn that it is.only as we do ovu;best for others that, we do the best for} ourselves. If human relationships .were) • organised on \Christian lines,, and th« motives of sharing, service, and; brother* hobd substituted for the motives of Self* interest, self-advancement, and: profit ; an atmosphere would be created' -iai I which.the world might approach withia measurable distance of a-solution of "if» ■ economic problems. \- . .. ;--":.- - TUNDAMENTAI. RIGHTS. 7 . Emphasising the contrast between: thai world's potential wealth and sufficiency, and the dire need of thousands of their, fellow-creatures .the speaker observed' that while it was not necessarily.the. Church's duty to originate or support; any one political policy, or system of economics or- exchange or currency, it was undoubtedly her duty to insist that measures-/be taken; to provide for all men certain fundamental rights—the right bf every man and woman to enn ployment, to a living wage, and. during periods of unavoidable unemployment, to.-provision by the Government, and not by charitable organisations/ for; ;. essential personal and family needs, an-1 that this provision be made in such a! way as not to rob the recipient of selfrespect, for that was the greatest prica; that a person, or a community could pay for the right to live.. These.basic Christian principles, had been so largely; ignored by modern civilisation that to* day situations existed which not onlyj caused unnecessary suffering but wera actually destructive of personality, and1 °- the Church dare not be silent in tha i matter. 3?or some considerable timo splendid leadership in relief work had 5 been given by church social aervice and I kindred, relief organisations. It was indeed to be feared that the very fact that this work.relieved the more acute fea< ' tares of the situation had tended to disguise the urgency for the solution of. the real problem. I>r the relief method was but a palliative after all, and left the root causes untouched. The conference would, be discussing the pro^ blem 'and would' doubtless arrive ■at some very definite decisions concerning it. . • ■"■■.;:.. ' ■ : ■■ .-■ ■■':■■■■■■ "Let us lift up our hearts," the presi*. dent appealed, "and refuse toibe east down because material disaster, tha effects of ; which are shared by tha ChuSrch, has overtaken, us. Let ns only fear that we, by not bearing our full share of the sacrifice of readjustment, may prove ourselves unworthy of ourj name. The central fact in. Christianity;. was 3 tragedy,- but it became history's I greatest triumph because the Man of Galilee willingly bent His neck to thei yoke. -Was-not the Church 'cradled' in. ; adversity and^ sucgled ..on pain,', and must not; Christian civilisation approximate to the same experience ere'it become worthy of .its name?"- """