AFTER THE WAR

Evening Star, Issue 16082, 6 April 1916, Page 9

AFTER THE WAR

„ 10 THE EDIXOK. Sir,—]a your leading article of the. Ist inst. your deductions from the cabled re-, port of Sir W. H. Lever’s speech, received a. day or two before, do not strike the writer as being logically correct, as you seem to have picked out one or two phrases and based your opinions on these without having due regard to the context. We all admit that it will be a difficult matter to hold out the hand of friendship to Germany for many a day to come, as she has proved herself devoid of the more honorable instincts cl human nature, as wo undirstand them.

Tim main points in TSir W. H. Lever’s speech, however, appear to ue: (1) That “ a prohibitive tariff wall against Germany we not only lower the vitality of our commercial instincts and Jure nitiire trade into neutral nations’ hands, hut wo show cowardice by assuming that the Germart is a better man commercially, than wc are, and that wc arc afraid of ‘him. j2) Britishers can, and, lot us hope, always will, take A drubbing in a sportsmanlike spirit. How much more so, then, should they, os the victors, take their victory in tile same spirit’]! In other words, it is incumbent that we should, read the. future calmly, and not allow ourselves to become biased by our present feelings of anger. A man' who loses his temper in an argument is already beaten, and so it is with Britain to-day. She must keep her. temper and her head. Without doubt Britain owes her present, pre-eminence, largely to her policy of Freetrade. Frcetrade has meant that she has thrown her industries open to the keenest of competition by allowing all and sundry to come in and compete with her on equal terms, with the jesult that she has increased the commercial virility of the, race.

To illustrate my point: Which makes the better and the stronger,man, the buy who is kept indoors and pampered, or the boy who is shoved out into the world to fend for himself? The former will become a weakling mentally and physically, whilst the latter will, lacking a- parent's cave, become a failure in the other direction, ff, however, the parent exercises a judicious care, that boy will benefit by being forced to lend for himself, and will develop into a, strong man both mentally mid physically. The same.; argument applies to our race Freetrade has its failings, the chief of which is that we are not completely self-contained ; but its benefits far and away outweigh its failings. The chief benefits are that it improves the commercial instinct, and practically makes Great Britain the hub of the commercial world. With regard to our future relations with Germany, the solution seems to be that we must still keep our Freetrade policy as a basis, but we must, make, such alterm tions. as will enable us to eliminate its weak points. To get down to bedrock, wc must alter our system of education. We must tench our children to think Imperially, and that the greatest blessing in life is'hard work and plenty of it. Pleasure is pleasure only, by comparison, and the less we. get of it the more we enjoy what wp, do get—a wise compensation of Nature's. Consequently, by working harder we are going to make our pleasures keener and healthier, and at the- same time- wo are getting the maximum individual effort. If we want to beat Germany and keep her in her place after tho_ war, the only road to success is not by tariff walls, but by ranking our individual citizen a moie capable man, willing and able to stand up in open competition and beat his opponent i.n level terms. The latter method is nationally healthy, whilst the former is decidedly' •unhealthy and j cowardly. Gum our children an Imperial | education, and wo, will have no need to fear Germany.

These, I take it. were the thmiahts underlying Sir W. H. Lever's .statements. —I ,nn. etc., H. H, Rattle. April 5.