COMMUNITY INTEREST.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19065, 2 October 1933, Page 8

COMMUNITY INTEREST.

MAJOR CONSIDERATION.

AMERICAN RECOVERY PLAN.

OPINION OF MR F. MILNER.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Monday.

“ The National Recovery Act economists are of opinion that Individual acquisitiveness has gone for ever, and that the paramount consideration of the future is community advantage. They hold that this is not an Isolated Incident, but Is something Indicative of a revolution In the social order,”

said Mr Frank Milner, C.M.G., Rector of the YVaitaki Boys’ High School, who returned to-day after representing the Rotarians at the International Convention at Boston. He afterwards attended the Institute of Pacific Relations Conference at Banff, Canada, and then engaged in a lecture tour throughout the Uniteci States. He said the American people were voluntarily allowing themselves to be disciplined, because they believed that President Roosevelt represented honest leadership.

Preservation of Democracy. After referring to Mr Roosevelt’s immediate action on taking office, Mr Milner said it had really been an example of how Democracy can function in a crisis by means of -benevolent despotism, with constitutional safeguards. America was showing how Democracy, by a system of paternal legislation, can be preserved in toto. In the past the United States had been most tenacious of individual rights and resentful of any form of dictation, butunder the N.R.A. the people had cheerfully agreed to observe the hours of work and rates of pay prescribed by this new form of government.

It was the most extraordinary spectacle the world ha,d yet seen. It was the via media between Fascism and Communism. No monarch in the world had such unlimited powers as Mr Roosevelt. They were willingly given, and the people appeared to be amply satisfied with what had been done, and it could be strictly said that it was the will of the people.

Decrease In Unemployment. When Mr Roosevelt took office the unemployed numbered about 15,000,000. Five millions had since been given employment and it was estimated 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 more would be employed by next February. Mr Milner said that the most dramatic incident at the Banff Conference was a full-dress debate on the N.R.A. between British economists, including Professor Gregory, who scathingly attacked it, and three Americans, who defended it. He (Mr Milner) concluded that the British economists had failed to attach a proper valuation to the dominant human or psychological factors. It hid to be remembered that the American people had suffered such a stunning and paralysing shock that, above all else, it was necessary to reestablish confidence and secure social security. Lawlessness was imperilling the security of the nation. It was impossible to face another winter with 15,000,000 unemployed. The magnetic leadership of the President immediately produced positive and beneficial results.