TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 6th DECEMBER, 1939. AN APPEAL TO REASON.

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4220, 6 December 1939, Page 6

TE AWAMUTU COURIER. Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, 6th DECEMBER, 1939. AN APPEAL TO REASON.

NOTHING could have been more timely than the advice tendered by Mr Edwin Salmond at the opening of a Wellington factory the other day. Actuated, no doubt, by commercial instead of political motives, he was able to go to the root causes of many ruling troubles—the seeds of doubt that have been scattered so liberally about New Zealand to breed suspicion and disorder. By way of comparison he recalled that “ hundreds of businesses had achieved success by close eo-operation between the management and the staff and by gaining the respect and goodwill of the public.” The truth of that may be seen everywhere; yet, unfortunately, elements have arisen in this country to undermine and destroy all that reposes in the thought that individual business is merely a unit in the whole national trade structure. Mr Salmond said he would like to see goodwill by the leading politicians of all shades of opinion, by business men, by farmers, and particularly by the leaders of labour, “ because,” he added, “ labour has more to gain by goodwill than any other section in the community.” Such an appeal to common sense should be heeded, as well it may be. Fundamentally the majority of our internal economic troubles just now trace to the pernicious doctrine that capital and labour are opposed to each other, and that greater or lesser degrees of communal ownership or control in business must become the objective. Despite all the statements so frequently made during recent years, it would be discovered that the business life of this country is remarkably free from monopolistic influences, and in any case any idea of big business arises only under conditions of license oj- legislative protection, and is supposedly subject to State supervision. When the plea is made, therefore, to discipline big business by an inclusive policy of socialisation which encompasses all business, there is really contemplated the destruction of a network of small traders when, if big business is really the aim, only an overhaul of existing licensing laws is necessary. It would be further discovered that the bogey of a capitalist class is very much over-stated in New Zealand, and that our traders associate work with their savings in business, and that therefore there is little to place them in a class separate from the workers—that being true of the farmers as well as of the majority of traders in the towns. The greatest need to-day is for goodwill and understanding. As Mr Salmond further says, “If goodwill were preached it would not be long before talk of the ‘ Dividend Kings ’ and ‘ Public Enemy • No. 3 ’ on the one hand and of loafers and loungers on the other would be a thing of the past.” It is certainly to these descriptive phrases that much of the ruling misunderstanding and prevalent unrest can be traced, because these class doctrines create only resentment and incite fears of unemployment among some of our citizens and loss of business and crushing taxation among others. When all is said and done, no country can ever be made happy or prosperous by passing Acts of Parliament; spiritual factors are necessary. The political dogmas are not helpful, because in the community life of this Dominion there really is so little to separate the welfare of the citizen and create factional distinction. The idea of class organisations—of unions which become watertight compartments in the social and industrial structure—should give place to the idea of a wide community’ organisation in which all could unite for a better searching and understanding of problems; and, as the prompting in all organised endeavour, there should be the desire to restore goodwill. That done, most if not all of our problems would very soon vanish. With more goodwill we would quickly succeed where, without it, we must struggle on and probably fail.