NEW ZEALAND LEGION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18089, 16 May 1933, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND LEGION

(To the Editor of tho Herald.) Sir,—The present depression is too serious a matter to experiment with methods which are ineffectual to end the present economic chaos. The organisation known as the New Zealand Legion is merely an organisation of a negative character, which owing to its very nature will lead to nothing being accomplished. An organisation is only living and vital because cf the vitality of its units. A large manufacturing oi’ganisation is successful _in supplying goods because of the efficiency of individuals in it. The Legion’s main idea is to get the best men. How docs a business concern get its best men? Simply by selecting those men who have pased through the fire of experience; who have proved their worth by action. The idea that we want the right men in Parliament dates from the inception of the Parliamentary form of Government, and is the raison d’etre of tho electoral system, but the possibility of an effective quota of the “right men” being in Parliament seems as remote now as it was 50 years ago. If tho New Zealand Legion had ideas which the men m Parliament could put into effect, with tho support of public opinion results might lie looked for, but an organisation which is so far from a realisation of tho causes of tho depression offers little to hope for in the shape of an effective remedy. With all respect to the sincerity of its individual members, it might be pointed out that such an organisation can do move harm than good as it shifts the responsibility for intelligent thought and action from the individual to Hie collective organism. Such an organism is incapable of collective thinking and it simply means that the individual units of which it is composed are rendered ineffective. If people merely herd together and depend on leaders the present order of things may be expected to continue until such time as economic conditions force people to realise that the problem is an individual one. An organisation is only worthy of the name whereby the individuals in it can further its purpose by service. The organisation sllbuld belong to the individual, and not the. individual to it. Any organisation must be of a negative character if the individuals composing il merely sign their names to paper, enabling them to go to sleep again. An organisation to be worthy of Lite, name must lie dynamic iu ono purpose and if wo eliminate all the extraneous elements and dogmas and concentrate on the one and only thing, that is. tho problem of getting sufficient purchasing power, then wo shall soon see the end of tho depression. The want of money confronts us every day. Owing to the financial policy of the banks we are unable to get enough tickets, that is. money to buy the goods we can produce iu abundance. The power of the banks to contract the credit of the country is bringing New Zealand to bankruptcy. There is an impression in the people’s minds that if there is a quantity of people in an organisation something will be done. The Now Zealand Legion with all the glamor of newness and popularity, borne on a tidal wave of enthusiasm, simply means the erecting of a useless structure which has no basic foundation. Are the "eople so spinoless that they must bo for ever looking for best men? Let us bo warriors, lot us fight intelligently for freedom, and prove our worth by doing our bit.—Yours, etc., G. H. HTGNETT.