The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1931. LEADERSHIP UNDER DEMOCRACY

Hawera Star, Volume L, 16 January 1931, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1931. LEADERSHIP UNDER DEMOCRACY

Delivered every evening by 5 o'clook in Hawera. Manaia, Kaupoltonui, Otakeho, Oeo. Pihama, Opunake, Normanby, Okaiavva, Eltham. Ngaere, Mangatoki, Kapouga, Awatuna, Te Kiri, Mahoe, Lowgarth, Manutahi, Kakaramea, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Whenuakura, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Expectation was at its height throughout the United States when so experienced an organiser as Mr. Herbert Hoover arrived at the White House. Yet once again it has been seen that while the possession of a great reputation may be ah inspiring thing, the task of living up to it may become, after a certain point, impossible. It cannot be held as President Hoover’s fault that his country, since he took office, has passed from prosperity to hardship. But coincidences are often called consequences in the rough school of politics, and many who cannot blame a man for failure to prevent, become .impatient later when they find he is unable to cure. A magic word was looked for, but Mr Hoover had none. Early in October, with the day of elections not far distant, he delivered a series of speeches in which it was expected that some valuable disclosures would be made. Yet, in the result, nothing particular was said. The President’s speeches were remarkable only for the subjects they avoided. He made no references to excessive protection and its effects, no reference to any detail of international finance, no reference to prohibition. All of these were, and still arc, subjects of great practical importance, far too weighty to be dismissed as mere political topics. Nevertheless, Mr Hoover avoided them, and confined himself almost entirely to platitudes. It is usually quite safe to do that; but not in times like these. Less than a month after his recitation of innocuous commonplaces, the electors showed their sense of disappointment by their wholesale desertion of President Hoover’s party. These things have their lesson for a wider area than the United States. They apply, in fact., to the whole world. All countries are suffering, and all are looking for a leader. Were one of the true, authentic type to appear, he might, it is conceivable, open the way to universal relief. It is true that the exact methods acceptable to one race might prove intolerable to another. Yet success of any sort gives something of a general example; and, more than that, the world is now so closely bound into one economic relationship that recovery in one quarter quickly spreads to the rest. Even in earlier ages Europe felt throughout her entire structure the effects of the Crusades, the Black Death, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks. Judged in terms of travel and trade, the world of to-day is a very much smaller place than Europe was in medieval times. 'Modern nations, however, have not learned to obey under any conditions loss stringent than those of an armed dictatorship. Reluctant to bo coerced into comfort, the world requires to be convinced. Hut platitudes, even pious ones, will not accomplish this. In Australia the best citizens are also lamenting the absence of a "true leader,” though perhaps they would not recognise such a leader were he to appear; maybe it is a "magician” they still sigh for. ITowcver that may be, it is certain that some Australians are far from satisfied with their present leadership. Says one of the big organs of Conservative opinion in the Commonwealth: "Never have great national interests been so shamefully betrayed for the sake of petty and sectional ends. A temporary standardbearer, entrusted with the welfare of this Commonwealth, flinches from fulfilling the pledges of himself, his absent chief, and his Cabinet colleagues. Do our times hold forth no better hope than this? The citizen, especially in difficult times, ought to be able to turn to his Government for an example. At present, however, the(

average prudent citizen, cutting his coat to his cloth, is giving an example to the Government, an example shockingly ignored.’’ The newspaper referred In calls upon Mr. Scull in to “enforce Ihe pledged word, and put firmness in the place of feeble fumbling. ’ ’ But, under democracy, the path of “leaders” is not smooth when affairs are ill with the nation’s trade. It is of no avail to call to high heaven for a leader so long as every private in the ranks leaves all the thinking to the officer commanding, but reserves to himself the right of approving or vetoing that officer’s decisions.