Evening Post. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1937. BETTERMENT POLICIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 8

Evening Post. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1937. BETTERMENT POLICIES

Since Labour entered office as the Government of New Zealand it has assiduously sought to implant in the minds of the people the belief not merely that its own method, of social betterment is the best but that there is no other way. Rejection of Labour's plan, it is suggested, means loss of what has been achieved and actual retrogression. This claim cannot be substantiated. It implies a complete monopoly by the Labour Party of all the desire for social improvement and all the intelligence and energy required to effect improvement. It implies, too, that there has been no progress before Labour and that there can be none after. We do not think that even i the most dogmatic exponents of Socialism would attempt to uphold these propositions; but they are the, clear, implications of the Labour j claim to superiority in good will and capacity. The facts are that the world at large, and New Zealand in particular, have made remarkable progress, and that most of that progress has been under capitalism, with its incentive to individual effort and its reward for individual merit. As circumstances have revealed the need, undiluted capitalism has been regulated and modified by communal action. A community conscience has been developed and has resulted in organised public action to do those things which were formerly done by the individual. In place of private charity, a scheme of public benevolence has grown up and gradually extended. Public insurance has supplemented private thrift. There are many ways in which this.social betterment can be extended. Extensions are constantly being proposed and carried out, and the principal difference between Labour and those who disapprove of Socialism is one of distance and pace. Labour believe 9 that greater improvements can be . effected only by radical changes in the social and economic system and it would make such changes at once. On the other side it is held that changes should be introduced only gradually and when it is certain that they, will achieve their purpose, that change should not be made merely for the sake of change and that at all times the freedom of the individual should as far as possible be preserved. An able statement ,of the creed of those who hold that Socialism is neither the sole nor the best way of social progress was made recently by one who has himself made a substantial contribution to progress —Mr. Neville Chamberlain, formerly Chancellor of the Exchequer and now Prime Minister of Britain. Speaking at a National Government demonstration in London shortly after he became Prime Minister Mr. Chamberlain said that not foreign affairs, or Imperial relations, or industry would have tempted him, for its own intrinsic interest, to enter upon the thorny path which politicians have to tread. "What brought me into politics, and what has kept me there, was a belief that, through these and other means, it was possible for statesmen so to mould their policy as to make it possible to improve the conditions of life of the people of their country." Happiness sprang from within, but it might be fostered or starved by external conditions and in the model State for which they were striving they would like to see conditions so framed as to enable the State's subjects to create happiness for themselves. If they were to achieve those conditions the people must be strong and healthy. If they should fall victim to accident or disease they should have available the best of medical science. They should be able to Command an income sufficient to keep themselves and their families at any rate in a minimum standard of comfort. "'

They should have leisure for refreshment and recreation. They should be able to cultivate a taste for- beautiful things, whether in nature or in dft, and to opeii their minds to the wisdom that is to be found in bodks. They should.be free from fear or violence or injustice. They should be able to express their thoughts and to satisfy their spiritual and moral'needs-with-out hindrance and without persecution, i . ■

These are the aims of a Government which its detractors describe as Conservative and opposed to progressive ideals. Its ideals are* nevertheless, as high as thoso held by its opponents; but in pursuing its aims the National Government of Britain does not believe it either essential or desirable to turn the existing social order upside down, to destroy in order that it may have greater freedom to create, or to subject the whole community to, oppressive restrictions on the plea that this is necessary to the realisation of democratic progress. Mr. Chamberlain concluded his speech with a declaration of his party belief in gradual and ordered progress- as1 the reward of well-directed effort. The conditions he and his Government desired, he said, are not to be attained by the nostrums of our Socialistic opponents, not by the nationalisation of the Bank of England* or by attacks upon selected classes of the community, but we can continue our steady approach towards them if, by our policy, we can maintain the peace, develop our Imperial unity, enable our agriculture and our industry to flourish, and from time to time make such improvements in social legislation as may be compatible with the stability of the national finances. (In the last phrase is stated one of 'the key; conditions of true social pro-;

gross. It must be 'in keeping with financial stability. If, in excessive haste for betterment, the financial strength of the nation is impaired, the progress made will prove unreal. Both in Great Britain and in New Zealand it is safer to seek that which is attainable and to hold it, than to' destroy . the social and economic fabric by imprudent attempts -to create a Utopia overnight. The sincerity of the desire for social progress, and the prude*hce of the gradual method are attested in both Great Britain and New Zealand by the wonderful improvements of the twentieth < century. These achievements demonstrate that Socialism is not the only way.