Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1949-07-25
Our Daily Breed

Ouf OuIIy Dreod
Winston Churchill has told the people
Of Britain that the faith of his Conserva-
tive Party is that "the gifts and genius
OF our men and women, If released will
not be found unequal to the first task
and duty of every community, namely to
earn It's daily bread"
Here Is challenging statement, and not
the less so because made in the course
of partisan political speech 1t is chal-
longing because 1t goes to the very heart
OF the basic assumption which must under
lie every free, democratic society. But the
assumption is one which is being brought
more and more into question-if not by
politicians seeming an election in the
offing, at least by those who are beginning
to realize that pleasant assumptions do
not necessarily conform to the facts of life.
The assumption Is that free men in a
free society will be intelligent enough,
sufficiently self-disciplined, and unselfish
enough to adapt their personal desires to
the good OF society as a whole. BY impli-
cation Mr.. Churchill admits that this Is
not the case in Britain today, for he con-
ditions his faith in the future upon the
release OF the gifts and genius of the
people. But release from what?
MIR. Churchill, the party politician, was
thrusting in his speech at what he de-
scribes as the fumbling ineptitude of his
Socialist political opponents. But Mr..
Churchill, the politician, is not the same
Mr.. Churchill who once told his people
that their only hope of salvation lay in
blood and toll, tears and sweat Then, in
the darkest hour of a dreadful war, he
addressed himself to the realities. Today,
however, he is content to strike at the
| weak spots in the armor of his political
opponents. For partisan reasons, he
prefers not to probe for the weaknesses in
the moral and psychological attitudes of
the British voters. Nor does Mr.. Churchill
stand alone. While he would protect the
right to strike in strike-cursed land and
shield the trade unions from government
policy, Prime Minister Attlee, Mr.. Church.
ills rival and the responsible official in
Britain today, is content to answer with
a call to the Labor Party members to re-
dedicate themselves to the task of giving
a more abundant life for ALL"
Neither Of these men has been willing to
get down to the real facts Of life in Britain
today. For whatever the sins of the Labor
Party or the promised virtues of the Con-
servatives, the fact remains that free
Britons are not demonstrating the capacity
to manage their freedom wisely.
At time when the imperative need of
that country Is more production at lower
costs, the economy is seriously hampered by
strikes, slowdowns and inefI1ciency. Com
merce is a matter of life and death for
Britain, yet fortour weeks a disgraceful
dock strike was permitted to cripple the
nation. Some 10000 lockers, the vast
| majority certainly not Communists, pre-
ferred to follow the advice of few Com
munist leaders and ignored the urgent
| pleas OF their own Labor government.
In order to support a Communicated
faction in trivial Canadian jurisdictional
dispute they were perfectly willing to stand
| idly aside for four weeks and watch their
own country suffer And when one cour-
ageous official threatened the strikers with
penalties. unless they returned to work,
what happened? He was promptly repudi-
ated by the government
When this kind of responsibility is en-
| countered among free men, not just in one
place but in many it is inevitable that
more and more people should question the
| validity OF the basic assumption of our
| free society. How are free men to be per-
suaded to measure up to the responsible
tiles imposed by freedom? In Britain, and
elsewhere in the West, the trend is toward
| ever-increasing reliance upon government.
More and more people are coming to think,
with encouragement from competing pol
iticians, that their governments can and
should attend to their needs in such mat
tiers as food, shelter, health, education. etc.
There Is much about this that is good in
theory. But what If the practical result
Is lowered sense Of individual RESPONSE
bility, an unwillingness to do an honest
days work, a rising indifference to the
general welfare?
This whole, broad question is being put
to the test OF the realities, as distinguished
from the theories, OF life in Britain today,
The outlook there Is not bright. Our own
prospect Is none too good, however, for some
day we must face the same test. Somehow
the gifts and genius of free men must be
released so that they will be both able
and willing to work conscientiously for
their daily bread in the broad sense of
that term. The question is whether free
men can be induced to do this under polit-
ical systems which shun truth and which,
In the short run at least, seem to reserve
their rewards for those politicians who
ind 1t expedient to preach the false doc
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