MEN AND MEASURES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 8, 10 January 1934, Page 6

MEN AND MEASURES

Political ,'history . reveals some oscillation between the idea of "men, not measures" and the' counter idea | of "measures, not men." The latter was heard in New Zealand when the great Liberal wave that began in the nineties burst into half a score of major, measures, every one of which filled a ,gap, and not one of which permanently solved, any problem. The course of the Arbitration Act has hot been as'the extremists on either side expected, and the Arbitration Court satisfied neither of the partisans, and left economic laws much as it found them. Old age pensions, certainty have filled, a gap, but are based on fluctuating general revenue,- without any financial foundation of their own, and represent no Self-supporting, abiding principle. The famous cheap money created dear land, and when v the political successors of Liberalism gave the farmer the freehold as borrowing security, his suicide rope was, com-1 plete. Something good might be said ; of every one of the spate of mea-1 sures, but not one of them established a new principle. The political architects builded they knew not what, but filled thfe gap for their day and generation.' "Measures, not men" is rather a joke when one remembers that the driving force behind most of it was the great personality of Seddon, a leader if not an economist, and a shrewd judge of what could hit the moment.

The quest for measures, once begun, is never-ending. Lawmaking feeds-on itself. One, aim now is to create a, new financial system, or a | new banking sy9te'm,, or at the very ! least a central bank. One of the ! central questions is the proportion of political appointments to nonpolitical on the controlling body; jand it is important, because if there | is a majority not, influenced by | party politics, then there is a chance, not merely for measures, but for 'men. And just here it is important jto note , that the Commonwealth I Bank, the direct result of the Australian Labour demand for a State Bank, and enacted by Parliament under a Labour Government, has been conspicuously a success of personal leadership by successive controllers of banking eminence. One of these, Sir Robert Gibson, has just i died amid the praise of all sections 'of banking and political opinion at I home and-abroad, all 'sections recognising that--an institution which, a quarter" of. a century ago, was exjpected to be revolutionary, has, in- | stead of that, fitted itself into the I order of things by a gradual growth, co-operative and not subversive. Clearly, it has been a case of men rather than measures. Both sets of extremists who" watched the architects build,' and who prophesied, have been wide of the mark., A bank created to' curse remained to pray. I The faithful of the older generation kneel at its shrine, and its pride is an Australia reviving, saved by bank strength, not by any banking revolution. The main fact is that the Commonwealth banking legislation was a measure that permitted leadership by men, and the men have pulled the measure through. There is no magic in a system, bul there can be vitality in a system that has gradually been adapted to successful management by man. Nearly all fcuch systems are slow growths, and'cannot be rebuilt in a day. In an old banking order, the flexibility of the system and the resource of the management come to be co-ordinated. The Commonwealth Bank proved to be a step forward, but, if politicalised after the manner the extreme State-bankers desired, could easily have been a disruptive force, making impossible that bank strength which in the storm has been Australia's sheet anchor. By disappointing some of .the prophets of its birth, the Commonwealth Bankr—with the aid of the late. Sir DenisorT Miller, Sir Robert;; Gibson, and" others—has gained, in the course of years,«public confidence. 'Protected against political influence, 'the New Zealand | Reserve Bank may do likewise, in time; but, as a political plaything, never! The Bank of England, still i the world's model, grew up in centuries. It is not a model easily copied. It does not owe its success ito political architects; and no committee of politicians, even if it spent a year in the bank's vaults, could come out here, pass a Bill, and create a Bank of England ready made. The most i that can be done here is to build a framework —a measure to be applied by a man—and to await results, taking care that the measure contains no impossible obstacle to the authority and responsibility of those who have to carry out the job.