MONDAY. FEBRUARY 24, 1913. FEDERALISM & THE SOCIALISTS

Dominion, 24 February 1913, Page 4

MONDAY. FEBRUARY 24, 1913. FEDERALISM & THE SOCIALISTS

*_ ' It is, as the Morning Post points out, "a curious fact" that the British Socialists are supporting the principlo of Federalism, whilo the Socialists of Australia are opposed to the Federal idea, and are aiming at unification, Tho reason, however, is not far to seek. In Great Britain the Socialists are not so well organised as in Australia, and havo not yet realised that they ha\e moro to hope from the centralisation of government than from a system composed of a group' of moro or less independent governments. For the present, their interests aro involved in tho interests of the coalition of which they are a part, and they arc naturally in favour of the Federal principle, of which tho granting of Home lttilc to Ireland is ono manifestation. Should the British Socialists grow in strength and in efficiency of organisation, they will in due course take a leaf from tho book of their friends in Australia. Although the loaders of the Socialist movement in Australia will not openly admit that their objective is unification, the abolition of the separate existence- of the States, thoir actions and their policy speak moro loudly thah words They know that the maintenance of "State rights" is hostile to their plans, and they ncvor weary of denouncing tho Federalists a3 enemies of Australian nationhood. A Federal system must in tho naturo of things conserve to the States a good many local rights, and impose a good many wholesome restraints upon the central authority, and Mr FisnEß realiEes that thew rights and lcitiaints arc barriers in the path to Socialism. If Australia were a union, there would have been no check upon the power of the Fisiinn Government to enact whatever laws might be commanded bv the caucus i outsidn Parliament. That is why I

Mr. Fisher has called tho Australian Constitution "the worst in the world."

Its badness, to Mr. Fisher's eyes, consists in the fact that it keeps the Government subject, in many important respects, to the people as a whole. One can easily understand that it is distasteful to the Labour extremists that before carrying out certain fundamental changes for which they received no authority they must obtain a clear instruction from the pooplc. Professing to bo the custodians of the principle that the people must ruld, Mr. Fisher and his allies yet detest the necessity for submitting their policies to the free judgment of the people. Nobody, however, has been deceived by the-Australian Government's attacks upon the Constitution that keeps a door open for intervention by the electorate; the Government's ideal is, not government by the people, but government by the agitators who control a minority of the votes of the nation. For years to come the efforts of the Australian Socialist party (it can no longer be called the Labotir party, any more than the socalled "Labour Federation" in New Zealand) will be directed towards destroying the Constitution. , "Centralisation," as the Morning Post says, ''is-.a necessary preliminary to Socialism." This is because under Federation as it exists in Australia, minorities in the nation have some power of resistance to the tyranny of any temporary majority. When Australia-is unified the party in power for the time being will be able to inflict great and irremediable juries on minorities. It is conceivable that in a unified Australia a Government strongly opposed to Socialism may, through its realisation of the great evils of Socialism, inflict real wrongs upon the Socialist minority.. The maintenance -of .the States' rights in Australia is as necessary in the interests of the Socialists as in the interests of the antiSocialists. It sets a check upon the tyranny of. temporary majorities 'in Parliament-r-a check thaj is very necessary when both House and Senate a-rc chosen' by popular election. We must not be understood as meaning that the Federal principle is in itself, good: it is good only as beihff saner and wiser tlian the principle of unification. The British Empire as it exists to-day is tho model Federation :—a congeries of independent allied States whose central body exercises only one or two supreme naturalfunctions for. all.