What Slate Control Leads To

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 81, 6 April 1938, Page 6

What Slate Control Leads To

(To the Editor.) Sir, —State control, or Socialism, is, for the majority of people, acceptable because it is the line of least resistance. On the other hand, true democracy, which favours private enterprise, is the law of the survival of the fittest. Which is right? To the average man social security and plenty of leisure as State control offers appear very good. Whereas private enterprise favouring business competition and with it the need to toe the line always does not appeal to many. Which prospect brings greater happiness? It depends on the state of mind of the people which they accept. The population to-day has lost the pioneering spirit, the motive that drove men to work and to carve out homes for the future generation.

There must be a motive to take its place. That motive has changed to a desire to serve the State. The ideal is the spirit of service for the State. The ideal appears good, but there is a weakness. Life may appear all happiness, but it is not! Life will not be lived to the full. With no hardships, no worries and with the battle for existence lessened, men will degenerate to a weak sort of parasites clinging to the State for support. The spirit of freedom will be lost, together with the love of independence. The State is not more important than the individual, because it is the character of each person who comprises the State that gives the country its real strength. Certainly this pounds, shillings and pence civilisation tends to lead us astray (the church should look after that tendency), but State worship will lead us further astray. With State service as an ideal men will not be men as individuals, but as one man. All will lean to the State for control. Does a self-respecting man seek State assistance willingly? No! It is an insult to his ability. Under the present Government's policy of over-spending and overtaxing, men have no option. Men's minds and bodies will not be their own.

But what of democracy? It is because it is so easily abused that it fails so often. It calls for men with the highest motiyes and ideals. The best man always wins in private enterprise. With the freedom democracy offers, all life has to give can be had for the striving. But what do men strive for? The greatest gain is character; is the man himself? What he has counts for nothing compared with what he is. It is the free will desire to serve, to give something worth while to the world. That is the characteristic of the greatest men.

What virtue is there in service if service is compulsory? If a man has a limited outlet for his energy and initiative his possible achievements will be reduced, his ambitions stifled, and his character will suffer consequently. With Socialism men will no longer be fearless, determined and self-reliant. They will all be children dependent on

(he State. With private enterprise as the principle of the land, the poorest man has the privilege of working and striving for his own cause. He is his own salvation.

It is not right the State should stifle freedom in any form. Man has a will of his own. It is his most sacred possession. If every individual cannot develop himself and iiis position, he cannot live the life he would like to live; there is something very wrong with the social order. The knowledge by each man that he can control his own destiny and is master of his fate keeps civilisation alive. The realisation of the lack of that right will bring about the down fall of nations.—l am, etc., I.E.V.