PLEA FOR FREE ENTERPRISE

Southland Times, Issue 25666, 8 May 1945, Page 2

PLEA FOR FREE ENTERPRISE

NATIONAL CONFERENCE PROPOSED

(Special) ’ WELLINGTON, May 4. ’ Stating that, in the last analysis, a reliable basis of security for the individual can be provided only by free enterprise, and the energy and productivity of the people themselves, a letter sent to leaders of the business, agricultural and professional communities, by the secretary of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation, Mr C. G. Camp, seeks opinions on the calling of a national conference to plan an effective national body to safeguard the permanence of free enterprise, and to “consider the road ahead.” Such an organization, the letter suggests, backed up by all New Zealand proponents of free enterprise, would answer an immediate and pressing need, and would off-set “the many disturbing incidents

. . . and controls which on all sides today threaten the destruction of our independence and freedom.” It is pointed out that similar organizations have been set up overseas. “What are we doing about it?” asks the letter, after observing that it was hardly necessary to draw attention to the growing encroachment of bureaucracy upon the “freedom” of free enterprise. “We businessmen, professional men, industrialists, farmers, retailers, transport operators, consumers, and so on, are at present doing nothing beyond warmly discussing the faults of the Government and the apparent discrimination shown others at our expense. That is not enough—we must organize ourselves nationally so that we can protect the integrity of private enterprise, not only from the policy of this Government, but from that of any government, from the incompetencies of bureaucrats, and from the hostility of other factions. POLITICAL ASPECT

“You may feel,” the letter continues, “that your co-operation will involve a departure from non-political status, but nothing is gained without sacrifice; nothing is achieved without effort; and what does it profit one, if, to gain some temporary advantage, he ultimately loses for all time his independence, his freedom of association, and his right to work and live as he wills? In 1759, Benjamin Franklin said ‘They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.’ Politics is no bogey, and has been defined as ‘a science of moral judgments on the facts of relationship between individuals and groups.’ ” It does not champion blind and onesided advocacy of a capitalist economy, nor does it propose some veiled measure to' support the oppression of any class, or its relegation to a position of economic inferiority, for that is foreign to the beliefs and principles of true democratic freedom, the letter stated. “This letter is asking you to support a movement whose chief aim is to enable all to trade freely, to negotiate their business ‘without let or hindrance,’ and so obtain that measure of economic freedom for all that we as a nation have right well fought for during the past six year's,” it states. RALLYING POINT Emphasizing that he is not soliciting support for any organization, business or political, existent at the present time, Mr Camp points out that if free enterprise is to endure against opposite doctrines, it requires some national rallying point around which the energies of its proponents can be concentrated. “The initiative might well be taken in calling a meeting of the principal figures in the business, agricultural and professional communities to discuss the future of free enterprise and the road ahead,” he states. “It has been suggested, too, that the support of those men who have been on active service and who are responsible for retaining our privilege of fighting for the system we think is best, should be enlisted to the fullest extent possible. “Whatever may happen, the autonomy of every individual body will be preserved, but the truth is now selfevident that, unless there is brought into existence some movement as this letter suggests, individual groups will be ruthlessly eliminated one by one. A few defeatists still indulge their hopes of appeasement, but from all quarters daily communications reach me, demanding resolute action. It remains only to mobilize and direct this opinion and our purpose is achieved. It is a job worth while.”