The Dominion SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1913. "LABOUR" AND NATIONAL SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1913. "LABOUR" AND NATIONAL SERVICE.

Much of the hostility shown by a section of the Christchurch public towdids tho Prime Minister is admittedly the outcome of the opposiArt 1 AW° S °, ol^ ists t«> tho Defence Act. Although the vast majority of KfT 8 °- f all kinds'favours the Act, there is, and will doubtless remain, a little party of self-styled anti-militarists." We in New Zealand are fortunate in that the reverse is not the case, as it would almost appear to be in Ene"nobody'pays very much attention to the hollow rhetoric of those. Labour leaders who will soon be meeting aga,in to reaffirm their Remand that the Act shall be' repealed, but it is different at Home. A few days ago the newspapers printed a cabled summary of a violent speech in which the Chief Libeial }Jhn) spojte of the "infamous ? n , me (( °* stampeding" the country into conscription," so that the objectors to national service have the official Liberal party at their back, t ? v;orth wll ile noticing some ol the stock arguments of the Sociaiisfc - opponents of military t-rain- } n S; -L'he favourite plea put forward iS'that working men have no stake -in the national welfare, and so will not defend a country that is not theirs. ' This was recently contended by Mjt. Philip Snowden, the wellknown English Labour leader, and . the plea was subjected to a rigorous examination by the brilliant author of the recently-published Letters of an Englishman. Mr. Snowden had admitted, indeed, that "logic, patriotism, example, precedent, and instinct all appear to support the cause" ,of universal military training: and having admitted that, 0110 would have supposed that there was nothing more for him to say on the subject. But he pleaded, as we have said, that working men in England have no country of their own to defend, and he_ attached vital import- ; ™ nce , to idea that the people of England have an, inherited tradition of national freedom. The reply to Mr. Snowden to which we, have referred is not at all inapplicable to the case of New Zealand; indeed, it can be urged more strongly against the local anti-militarists" inside the Labour pru'ty than against the Labour party of a country where wealth is less widely diffused, .and, the lot of "Labour" less comfortable, thaii in this country. "An Englishman" says: that the people should lack imagination is not wonderful. AVe may deplore its narrow outlook, when tho fate of our iiiinpire depends upon its clairvoyance. Wo cannot be surprised at tho folly of our rulers. But when Mr. Snowden proceeds calmly to declare that working men object to lift a hand in national defenco because they ara convinced "that they l'°i u -° ®t a ' i6 in the national welfare' Which is worth defending," -we can only ask in astonishment how their 6take differs from tho 6take of any other class. In many respects the working men aro the pampered favourites of fortune. They JiavG the pleasant consciousness of.power, ™ they fool the burden of no responsibility. For them citizenship means all privileges, and no duties. They choose' their governors, and no doubt enjoy the' rellection. that by the weight of mero numbers they have been able to disfranchise every other class than their own. And as they aro not called upon to serve tho State, so they are not ask'ed to feed or educate their children. Tho State, which they do not think worth defending, relieves them of that burden Jl§°. If the restraints of the law irk them they have but to join a trade union, and they may do as they please, exempt from all the pains and penalties which are laid upon other and less-favoured mortals. It seems, then, that they havo not a few privileges which are worth defending. At any rate, if the invader landed :an army upon our shores they would suffer first and most bitterly. The most violent and extreme enemies of national service have, wo know, considered the possibility of the country falling into an enemy's hands, and they have intimated that as they do not own the country they do not care what flag; flies over it. In point of fact, this is empty bombast, for at heart they must care. We_ read the- other day a short firticle in the London Daily News, in which one of Aesop's fables was commended to the notice of the politicians as a parable of Labour. This is the fable of the ass who was told to fly, as the enemy was coming. The ass was in no wise disturbed. He already carried two packs on his back, he said, and no enemy could make him carry more, so why should he mind who commanded him? And, from the point of view of an ass, ■ this was sound sense. But men aro not asses: they have souls and traditiona and instincts. And in any event "Labour's" privileges are far greater than La,bour' v s burdens. Although it does not appear to us to have much bearing on anybody's attitude towards national service, another- of Mr. Snowden's reasons "why Labour objects to national service" must be quoted: "Labour," he says, is deprived of 'the means of a healthy and cultured life, and a fair share in national wealth arid progress." A man's health, of course, is in his own hands, and anyone who earnestly desirea to acquire culture can do so. It is true, as "An Englishman" points out, that culture neecls, more than money or opportunity, brains and a frame of mind; and if most working men aro ahut off from culture by their conditions, so, too, arc the bulk of mankind, of all N classes. In any event, we cannot all be winners in the game of life, and it is not an injustice that men are born unequal in intelligence and energy. _ "You cannot inject brains even into a voter. Is, then every man to hate the more fortunate rival who is just ahead of him?" On the assumption that tho general body of working men in England are correctly represented by Mr. Snowden and the other Labour leaders, "All Englishman" frames a powerful indictment of them: ' For forty years the working men of England havo enjoyed the delights of compulsory education. For an almost equal period they havo been the arbiters of government. And this is tho only lesson of lifo they have learnt: tliey will not lift a hand in defence of their country because they see about them others more highly endowed with intelligence and with tho money which intelligence brings. If what Mr. Snowden says be true, our working men have not pride, they have ii(ft patriotism, they havo not imagination. Thoy keep thomsolves outside and apart from the nation. The.v refuse to shivro in the glory or in tho hardships of England. They renounce in a huff their noblo inheritance, and pretend that it is the whole duty of man to vote. In their eyes the State which they may control if they choose is a kind of milch cow kept to supply tliem with what they want without any effort 011 their part. It is a miserablo conception of lite, worthy not of ft freo anil independent citizen, but of a slavo.

Actually, few persons will doubt, the working men are not what their leaders imply they are. Mr. Snowden's defence of the opposition to national service is a bitter indictment of democracy, but it is not based wholly on facts. So in New Zealand those Labour leaders and those Opposition writers who are fighting against our defence system with the weapons of wild rhetoric and gross misrepresentation of plain facts are doing a grievous injury to the general body of wage-e ( arners, who, at any rate, do cherish their country, and in time of war will find irresistible and uplifting the instincts of humanity.and the traditions of their race. In the meantime they are being foully slandered by many of their leaders.