Labour and the Tramways.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18238, 24 November 1924, Page 8

Labour and the Tramways.

In a circular which has been distributed throughout the tramway area the local Labour Party says that "if the tram "users and the business men of the city "were alive to their own interests" they would see to it that the whole of tho Labour candidates were elected. The business community will not appreciate appeal for thoir support which implies that business men aro wanting in intelligence, nor do wo think "the " tram users'' Have yet come to tliinJc of tho Trades Hall as t-hc nursery of just and efficient administrators of public affairs. So far as we can understand the objects of the Labour Party as set forth in the circular, these appear to be the* enlargcmcul of expenditure and the

reduction of revenue. If Labour could have its way the system would bo mi at a loss, but this is a consideration which by no means causes Labour any uneasiness. On the contrary, nothing would please the Socialist better than the imposition of a burden upon the ratepayers. He would ride in the trams all the more happily for the thought that somebody else was obliged to pay part of his fare, and that he was contributing nothing towards the higher wages granted to the employees of the Board. The Labour Party can rely, no doubt, upon a solid body of support for its theory that social justice means the compulsion of one section of the community to pay the expenses of another section, and it seems to believe that the general body of tram users will also uphold this immoral doctrine. We should be sorry to think, and we do not think, that Labour has here correctly estimated the measure of the public's regard for what is just. The average man is, after all, honest enough, and he is also sensible enough to know that financial chaos would not be long in coming if Labour could obtain control of the Tramway Board. The administration of the retiring Board is certainly open to criticism, but there is to its credit the fact that it has continued the wise policy of building up strong reserves. Now, the Labour party has condemned this policy in very vigorous terms. It takes care in it 3 circular to say that "it is right that "there should be adequate reserves," but this perfunctory saving clause can hardly tie heard in the thunderous denunciation of the idea that the Board should make any provision for "pos"teritv." "If," the circular says, "the present absurd policy is carried "through, posterity will be presented "with an up-to-date tramway service "fi-ee of cost and about one million in "cash." We need not stay now to deal with this nonsensical statement in detail: But it may be pointed out that the Labour Party evidently has no conception of the changes that time may bring and is indeed already bringing. "Posterity," it is quite possible, and niuch more than possible, will require antl insist upon having some other transport system than the present one, but our Socialists would leave the tramways system without the financial means, of adapting itself to new conditions and altered needs. At the present time the finances of the Board require the most careful administration, and it would bo the height of folly to entrust to Labour a public enterpris'c in which there is invested more than a million sterling.