THE POWER BEHIND THE SCENES.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1735, 28 April 1913, Page 4

THE POWER BEHIND THE SCENES.

The ridiculous fiction that the opposition to Mb. M'JjAben's candidature for the Mayoralty o£ Wellington is due to a spirit of social exclusiveneas has been eo obviously manufactured for tho occasion as to !be unworthy of serious consideration. The opposition to Mr. M'Laben's candidature has, of courso, nothing whatever to do with opinions a-s to the social circle in which he may move in his private life: that is a matter with which i electors peed not ocnoer .i theawelvsa. j The main objection to Mr. M'hkzvz'a flection rests on a. thoroughly ifcmocratic antipathy to the rule of a class, or a clique, or a caucus. Mi;. M'Laeen comes out as the nominee of a Labour-Socialist clique which i 3 making an endeavour to capture the "Mayoralty and every . on the : Coiiiicil iu order that the city may be governed by a caucus representing a section of the Labour party. It seems that the members of the' "fciclccfc" hare signed' a written pledge the purport of which is apnarent/y ■one of the caucus secrets. Ihe. citizens are not taken into the confidence of these people. Such methods i, are entirely opposed to the foundation principles'of democracy, for a |:true democracy includes the whole of tho pe.oplo and knows nothing of classes and cliques. The real issue is between the government of the city in the light of day by representatives of tho community as a whole, or tho secret rule of class nominees by which the City Council would become the puppet of a Labour-Social-ist caucus, hidden behind the scenes, which would : pull the strings. Let there be no mistake about this matter. If the so-called Labour "ticket" should get possession of tho municipal government of the city they will not nold themselves responsible to the citizens of Wellington as a whole, but. to tho caucus. This_ fact is placed beyond all possibility of dispute by a statement, made bv Mr. Carev, one of the Labour candidates, on "Saturday night. His word's are: "Tou can't get what you want done until you elect a majority of Labour candidates. If you do that, then if M'Laren does not do what he is told; if the rest of us do not do what we are told; wc will be tried—not by you—but by the men, who pay us. in our jobs, and I tell you there arc no, harder taskmasters than the menwho pay, its." This plain statement makes the position as clear as words can make it. Most peoplo would probably like to sec a fair representation of genuine, Labour in the Council, but" in the present circumstances it is the manifest duty of all free citizens to vote solidly against the Labour-Socialist candidates.