THROWING SAND INTO THE ORGANISM

At this moment of crisis, when by almost superhuman effort the wheels of industry and commerce are beginning to move smoothly once more, these mischief-makers are throwing sand into the organism by declaring that, if they obtain the power, they will wage war on private enterprise. Such talk constitutes the gravest disservice which can be done to the great mass of the workers. For centuries we have recognised the virtue of private enterprise. “The method of the enterprising is to plan with audacity and execute with vigour; to sketch out a map of possibilities and then to treat them as probabilities.” We have hitherto accepted that principle, and it has encouraged the amazing increase of population which has taken place in the past 100 years, and that growth has been justified by the fruits of private enterprise. Every element in our peculiar economic system has been tested by four and a half years of war, and survived the test. Confidence is returning, markets overseas are being regained, our essential export trade is reviving.

At this juncture, when the tide seems to be flowing and all men of goodwill should cooperate, apostles like Mr. HENDERSON of a faith which has never been tried except to meet with failure – dismal, complete, and overwhelming – urge the electors to tear up the foundations of prosperity. By every artifice the campaign is being pursued throughout the length and breadth of the country. The ignorance of the ordinary man and woman of the economics of an over-crowded island State is being exploited., and, glowing pictures painted of a “New World,” in which men will do little work, receive high wages, live in the houses of their fancy, and, in idleness or in employment, will receive “maintenance,” We should be sorry to doubt the good intentions of Mr. HENDERSON, but such speeches strike at the very roots of this country’s welfare, and those who support the theories will, knowingly or unknowingly, be conspiring to bring this community down to the depths of misery and suffering which Soviet Russia has reached.