ARE THEIR PERILS IN PROSPERITY?

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20611, 28 December 1936, Page 6

ARE THEIR PERILS IN PROSPERITY?

No one who does not desire to appear a prophet of bad tidings would venture to suggest at this season of the year that manifest dangers lurk in the abundant prosperity now being enjoyed in many countries. From all appearances, the economic conditions in Great Britain and the Overseas Dominions and in the United States give the impression of having been restored to an even keel; in other words, an economic equilibrium has replaced the unbalanced situation created by the worldwide depression. “New Zealand,” declared a prominent member of the New Zealand Parliament who is vistiing Australia, for the centenary celebrations in South Australia, “would have the most prosperous Christmas for six years.” This experience is by no means peculiar to the Dominion. Sydney, we are told, “celebrated Christmas with a riot of spending,” so much so that the note issue had to be increased by some millions to cope with the people’s desire to spend. In Great Britain the same story of more spending and increased business marked the Christmas season. “The most prosperous Christmas season for years” was enjoyed in the United States. Railway, road, and postal activities in these countries eclipsed existing records indeed, if the spirit of spending has any relation to stabilised prosperity, theend of the depression has long been reached in Englishspeaking countries. Manifestly the end of the depression and returning prosperity present strong reasons for general rejoicing, because of the hardships and anxiety associated with bad times. Community rejoicings are something to be desired, and because the return of prosperity spreads wide the benefits of better times, no harm can be done by the issue of a reminder that if the depression is round'the corner behind us, it is also around the corner in the future, unless the most deep-seated changes and far-reaching methods are adopted to safeguard the people. Some days ago an American director of economic research, discerning the appearance of “boom psychology,” indulged in these observations: It needs little argument to demonstrate that the problems of prosperity are more difficult than those of depression. The tests of character are more severe under favourable than adverse conditions. Carelessness and waste are creatures of profitable times, not of depressions. That’s why prosperity problems are difficult. Anyone with any memory at all will recall the successive stages that have in every economic cycle led from prosperity to depression. The highways of national development are marked by milestones that tell their own story. Obviously, there are national problems associated with the bright days of prosperity just as there were national problems that had to be faced in the dark days of the depression. The lessons of the past should not be forgotten. It is therefore just as well to realise, in these days of prosperity, that while the future includes promises it also includes threats unless the people profit by the experiences of the past. Plainly the complexity of our economic system has made it increasingly difficult for the individual to understand or influence developments by himself. But because many problems are broader than the isolated situation of the individual that does not prove that group action and group study under capable economic leadership will fail to show the way to a saner order of things that will so govern national progress that the deep valleys of depression will* be “exalted,” the high peaks of booms “laid low,” and replaced by a broader and straighter course leading to normal economic progress.