The Daily News SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1930. ECONOMICS AND POLITICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 July 1930, Page 8

The Daily News SATURDAY, JULY 5, 1930. ECONOMICS AND POLITICS.

To those who study present day polities sufficiently to read between the lines of party utterances it should be perfectly plain there is only a grain of sound economics among bushels of mere shibboleths of parties. The best interests of a country as a whole are being sacrificed on the altar of political power to appease the devotees of socialistic and communistic misrule, and the pity of it is that problems of the greatest urgency, demanding Ihe whole-hearted attention of Parlia--1 meats to effect some practical solutions, are made the rallying centre for party purposes instead of for concentrated and co-opera-tive effort on the part of those who are presumably chosen to manage the affairs of a country wisely and well. Both in the Motherland and in New Zealand the supreme question is how can the unemployed problem be best solved with a reasonable expectation of leading up to a permanent system based upon true economic principles. It is, of course, much easier to say how that problem cannot be solved than to present a plan which offers a possible chance of success. Take the Dominion for exampl e. It is absolutely certain that neither the financial nor the unemployed misfortune can be overcome by plunging the country into another general election or merely substituting one minority Government for another. The Leader’ of the Reform Party has tabled a motion of no-confidence in the Government on the ground that it has not “redeemed the pledges it issued prior to the election.” Assuming such an indictment is proved up to the hilt, what does it amount to? Merely that precedent has been followed, for no party leader seeking a majority in the House was ever too modest over electioneering commitments, or ever redeemed all his pledges, whether they were extravagant or not. By no stretch of imagination can Mr. Coates’ action, in view of the present condition of affairs, be construed as statesmanlike; rather should it be termed a bid for power —at the expense of the country. Much the same sort of party-mongering is going on in the Homeland, judging by the text of the correspondence which has passed between the Labour Prime Minister and the respective leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Parties regarding the holding of three-party conferences on both agriculture and unemployment. That correspondence is worthy of serious study, not so much for its contents as for the outstanding lesson it conveys as to the trend of political action in the face of the unparalleled difficulties affecting the nation. There is much in Mr. Baldwin’s contention that it is impossible for the Conservatives to enter a conference in which consideration of the contribution which they have to make is ruled out from the beginning, and they are expected to assume, as the basis. of their discussion, the continuation of a policy that has “so gravely added to national disaster.” Mr. MacDonald’s reply is plausible, but far from convincing, except as to the indication it affords of a manifest attempt to provide party propaganda at the next election. Meanwhile the Old Country is drifting into a most deplorable state of depression, as the result of which the producers of the Dominions are suffering from an appreciable fall in the value of their exports. The sooner the basic law of economics is understood and acted upon the better it will be for the British Empire.