CORRESPONDENCE. THINGS NEEDED.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11580, 2 July 1918, Page 4

CORRESPONDENCE.

THINGS NEEDED.

To The Editor. Sir. —In your loader of last’ Saturday you'refer to the failure of the co-operative farm movement, winch was attempted in many districts hut faile... f After thefshort experience I have , had with it I regret to say I cannot pass it as a joke, Lfor I claim to have learned from it the following;—That patriotism or volnnteerism for prac lies! purposes is |hut a farce. The onlv time we are all united and resolved -to win this war is off’ the 4th of August. when we are closely packed together in our house with some blustering or--‘ st

on the platform before us telling us what lie is or what he is not going to do to the Germans after the war is over. But opart from that •opr first and foremost aim and ambition in life is the accumulation of promisory notes, and after we have filled bur money hags with them any time left to spare we spend .on sport without the slightest consideration of its disastrous national consequences. £1 do not expect tne opinion of a humble individual like myself to carry any weight, neither can I grasp our statesmen’s reason, ■for stuffing us .with saw dust, hut from my personal knowledge of the world ami its people, more especially all those which are pitted against us, I am able to say that unless wo submit ourselves to a few chosen despots, who could harness every man end woman throughemfe the British Empre for war purposes, we will shortly find oxrrselves in such sn economic tangle that no human intelect will be found capable of extricating us from it, solely due to deliberate squandering of energies which are required for war jmrposea. This is not a time for critizing or laying the blame to any particular section of the community, for we are all in the same boat. If lookicg for the root of the evil is of nuv material, benefit the cause’ ;-f or." present! difficulty can ha attributed to the over close of unchallenged prosperity which we have suffered from for tne past century of more. It hasabsolutely destroyed our sense of' sincere patriotism or ‘individual re. spousihility, aud now when wo are being put to a genuine tost we find! ourselves absolutely out of control. The first regulation of war measure which might be enacted by our leaders, however ary or an. voidable it mignt be, if this particular act does not suit my pocket or my personal self I am uj) in arms against it, too blind to see that I am raising leaded arms at my own person uofc at my enemies. We have reached a stage in this war when the energies to every' pair of bands is required. Every' able bodied man will have to bear arms irrespective of the number of his family' or nature of occupation. The man who is utterly unfiUto bear arms should he made to do some thing practical towards it. To talk of the undue hardships such acts would inflict on us or our families is hut the grossest .ignorance. For what is two or three years of undue hardships compared with the misery and hardships of ourselves and the generations to follow if we leave things to chance as we have been doing and finally go under? The man who, pretends to be so muck concerned as to how his family of three or lour are going to exist on £3 or more a week when he is called up does not apparently stay to consider t-Lat if | he is left home lie might Eve to see this lard over run by our enemies and our children die out like- files in the attempt to compete with them for existence. The man who crows about the burden of over taxation imposed upon him forgets that even if it wore necessary it would bo bettor for us all if wt were stripped of all our possesions m order to win tins war than Jet ;he other side stiip tto. For as long as we can retain our liberty and freedom of action we could make & fresh start in life again, while otherwise wo would he impoverished, hut pr- bihly nevergiven tho siighest chance to revive ng«i». In fact, if we stayed to con sider the . enormity of the project before us and tried to sum up matter es wo actually find them today, not look at them ns onr politicians tell us they' are likely to he tc-morrow, we would find tnat the most apparently legitimated excuse for not doing something .‘towards winning this war Iwil not hoar inspection. Yen can ridicule or persecute me an much as you ple.-Rse for the following statement and that is:—

We have tho material for a good army am] navy, also resoorses if properly utilized' sufficient almost to overrun our enemies ■ sitif.de handed.

The most essential sections required to turn the above adv 1 Rages into a workable war machine and sorely lacking, and those are practical patriots.—-I am etc. J. B. BARRINGTON.