The Dominion. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1910. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 923, 16 September 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1910. PAYMENT OF MEMBERS.

Until the mail arrives, and enables us to find the atmosphere. of the current trouble in Britain over the Osbobne judgment, it would be useless to speculate as to the motives which aro actuating those Unionist journals are advocating the payment of ■ members of Parliament out of the' public funds. That the conductors of these journals are not in love with'the conversion of politics into a paid profession it is impossible to doubt, and their new-found regard for a proposal that is repugnant to English •political ideas must have its origin in considerations of tactics. One must, admit a' certain plausibility in the plea that the payment of members is the most equitable method of giving to organised labour the representation which, it is claimed, it. made impossible through the prohibition against the use of trade union, funds for the maintenance of representatives _ pledged to a definitely Socialistic programme. But the plea is as fallacious as it is plausible. The Osborne judgment did not take away the right of organised workers to subsidise their Parliamentary representatives: it left voluntaryism untouched, and merely prohibited the application of unionist funds to ends distasteful to ■ a section of the contributors, It ia.

porlacfcly true that failure attended the attempt which was made, after the judgment of the House of Lords was delivered, to raise a Parliamentary maintenance fund through voluntary subscriptions, but that in no way affects the principle. If it be insisted that this. failure ' docs prove something, then surely it is obvious that-all it proves is that the trades unionists do not specially desire special representation, and, therefore, that the levies ended by the judgment had n basis in fallacy as well as in unfairness.

What the. attitude will be that the leaders of the two main parties willtake up.it is impossible to say with any confidence, but it is not unlikely that they will oppose the change in the character of British politics that must follow the introduction of the stipendiary M.P. For there "ip no reasop for supposing that the British public desires that members of Parliament shall be paid for their services. If just'and equitable laws, and the prevention of the domination of one class over another, were' ends_ that could not be secured excepting by making politics a remunerative trade, everybody would agree in -demanding salaries for members of Parliament. • But such is not the case. How can one say that, there is not equality of opportunity in a land iu which a factory boy strike leader can become a Cabinet Minister, and in which the most deeply respected member of the House of Commons, a Privy Coun eillor and Queen's Messenger, was a pit boy working underground at the age of ten 1 As a matter of fact, it is only through intellectual laziness, and dislike of* clearing their minds of , cant and false sentiment, : that men will not see that there is nothing whatever in the common argument that the workers will suffer if poor men are "kept out of Parlia-ment."-The workers have fared,very well in Britain under the . existing system. So far as legislation can help to oaae their lot, their lot has been eased. If they have not got all New Zealand's labour legislation, so much the better for them. Much of that legislation. has not .'really benefited tho workers here; and it would have' inflicted great hardship on them and on'.everybody else were it not'that New. Zealand has been living on borrowed money at a rate unexampled in any other country. So long (is the workers have votes, so long .will,they be. able to force attention to their interests and redress of their ] grievances. They can get as . much aid from rich Liberals and rich -Unionists as from poor ones. TJio system of unpaid members of Parliament has not prevented the ; passage in recent years, under Unionist and Liberal Governments, of many great measures designed to assist, the masses and easo -the lot of organised and unorganised labour, With votes, the workers can get as much under this'system as under the system of politicians. They are, indeed, , much more likely to have, their true . interests' well cared for by a , House' inspired by patriotism ; and honourable motives than by a House mainly composed of parasitic money-seekers. It is denied by nobody in this country that a substantial percentage of members of the House of. Representatives in roceht years have been more concerned with personal considerations i than about their duties as national deputies. If the payment of members were abolished in this country to-morrow, no legitimate interest would suffer. A vote would be .as good'as it is- to-day; and it. is voting power, and, not the stipendiary system, that has gained for any class any legitimate benefits that can be named.