In this country, it seems to be the habit to
expect the Government to do everything. Government must encourage industry,
develop agriculture, develop trade, organize and pay for education, supply and
maintain hospitals and dispensaries. It was the Government which built the
Indian railways, and the great irrigation canals. And, whereas in Germany, it
was a poor man who started the co-operative credit banks, which were worked by
the people themselves, in Pakistan, in the absence of any private philanthropist.
The Government had to shoulder the burden of starting and supervising the
co-operative credit societies.
In England and the USA all these activities have
been entirely carried on by private enterprise, without government help.
England’s great industries (such as cotton, wool, iron and steel, coal mining,,
shipbuilding, etc. and her world-wide commerce, have all been built up by the
capital, industry and enterprise of private citizens. There is not a government
railway; all belong to private companies. The great hospitals are supported by
public subscriptions and managed by voluntary committee. And up to fifty years
ago, all the education of the country was given in private schools and college:
and even now, a larger number of the educational institutions are private. The
people themselves, without government help or guidance, have made their country
the rich and powerful and the advanced country she is today.
No nation can advance far unless its citizens have
the qualities of energy and enterprise, and the virtues of self-reliance,
honesty, industry, perseverance, and moral courage. Men of this stamp help
themselves. They don’t wait until somebody comes along and carries them: they
walk on their own feet, and so hold their heeds up, independent and self-reliant.
They are in the best sense of the term, self-made men. And God helps those who
help themselves.
Self-help is the characteristics of the Prophets. Luck
always favors the brave and the people who work hard and do not depend on any
one. They are ready do all the time every thing by themselves, on self-help
base.
All the developed countries have worked on the
save principle and earned great name in the whole world. Even today, only the nations
who work on this principle are making progress.