THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM AND NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 455, 13 March 1909, Page 10

THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM AND NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Sir,—Referring to your article in Saturdays issue, under the heading "Employer and .Employee," I heartily endorse the wiso action of the British Radicals in strongly protesting against tho slavish condition of employment laid down by tho Alliance Assurance Company, namely, that any, new clerk encenng its service shall join tho Territorial Army. It employers are to bo allowed to impuso upon employees' conditions of this kind, winch have nothing whatever to do with tiie work for which they are engaged it simply means that every vestige of liberty .wlijci the masses of tho people possess—and it is very little--will soon have disappeared it is therefore to bo sincerely hoped that flew /ealaiiders, who should value free-lorn and justice above all things, -will immediately quash any attempt that may be made hero to further restrict their liberty by fastening upon them the additional yoko of militarism lou say Sir, that "there is no compulsion ot nnyykmd upon wonld-bo employees when conditions are offered which they must obey ir they are to obtain employment. But there is. . iliey are now, as ever, living under an iniquitous system of compulsion. Divorced trorn the use of the soil for their own exchisiyo benefit by the , mightiest "Ke'flv gang the world has ever seen—the laud monopohsts-they are virtually slaves, forced to sell their labour in the glutted labour market, and compelled to work all their lives for other men for a baro subsistence. Wnt is that but compulsion? Robbed of their birthright, they are robbed of their freedom Sin T n f c « ce - n «r are also robbed "f about half of their earnings by the landlords -those good, Christian gentlemen who are the pillars of our churches. Under our unjust economic system most of our people have httlo or nothing of their own to defend-nothing worth'fighting for If they took up arms they tronid fight simply to defend and uphold the bulwarks of "ml ilege and monopoly. It , vou i d rat . hei . ,' t their interest to join the invaders if the latte? would Guarantee a just economic system"and it they did so we should, of course, have a much larger population than wo now have Thus tho development of the countrv would progress very rapidly. There is abLh,t* y pare themselves to resist invas.on-the men Wellington, March 7, 1909 E-H