YOUTH IN POLITICS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22469, 13 July 1936, Page 12

YOUTH IN POLITICS

Sir, —To quote Mr. Doidge. "Youth will bo on the march politically from the North Cape to the Bluff." He has said it, but thoir march will be with the Government. Mr. Savage and his colleagues do not preach class war. no more do they want to steam-roller, with legislation, the people of this country to a common x level. The object of it all is to givo the able man a chance of realising his ambitions. Mr. Doidge's policy is "Every man for himself, and tho devil take the hindmost." Very excellent for those who are not hindmost. Tho Government's promises are alluring. They are things that cannot be dished out liko charitable aid. They are things for which we, supporting the Government, must strive. The object of youth today is to servo their country through tho welfare of their fellow-beings, not to strive for the single "glittering prize" represented in the amassing of a personal fortune. The object of life is to bo happy, not to slave for money. No one can be happier than in the happiness of their fellow-beings. Tho youth of to-day is educated to expect something from the world. The Government need have no qualms about the next election if youth has tho casting vote. State control may tend toward uniformity, but Nature is ever varied, and each child is born with a different mind, which, educated in the schools of to-day, follows its bent and the scare of mass production is nullified. Even if minds were stereotyped, as seems to be the fenr, it is far better that they should be stereotyped in one common ideal, instead of two opposing factors, capital .and labour, as they are to-day, leading to mad, bitter, useless strife. The youth of New Zealand don't want to "live a champagne life oil a beer income." They want the heritage that is rightly theirs, that which they have been educated to—leisure to pursue the finer things of life. They could not do that upon the elastic hours and the meagre pittance that up until now have been theirs. What is more pitiable than to see beautiful boys and girls slaving themselves into an early grave, trying to save enough to tido them through old age. They become liko soldiers who have been mortally wounded —east asido because thev aro no longer of any use in the struggle, it is tho right of evorv citizen who has served the State well to receive tho duo that is his. The old-age pension is not charity, it is an honour. M. H. A. Hodgins.