RED FEDS AND LIBERALS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1650, 6 January 1914, Page 4

RED FEDS AND LIBERALS.

■:■■■■ An- article, recently published in Thk Doan.vro.v cm the subject of '-'Bed Feds and' Liberals" seems to h.iyc displeased the Opposition organ in j Chnstehurch. That journal apparently contends that it- was wrong or ■or something of the kind:,: to. suggest that Liberal .electors have only two alternatives before them so far as electorates in which I they. , cannot hope to secure the , return of their own candidates arc [ concerned—either to cast, their votes in.favour of the present Government or to vote for a party which aims at neither more nor less than a direct attack upon the existing constitution of society. In spite of what the organ of their party has said, sane Liberals, we venture to think, will I agree that our estimate of the situation was correct. To say that people who look below ike surface will be inclined to ask why the comfortable arrangement between the Liberals and the ftcfprfnei's should not provide /or tho' latter sometimes nbI negating themselves, . is simply to ignore the facts of tho position. It is perfectly true that up to the time of the by-election Lytteltott had bean a Liberal constituency for a quarter of a century j but obviously its electors are no longer of the same mind. New forces have risen in the .constituency, and the party that had dominated it for s.o long has gone down. Heavily handicapped as it was, th« Reform Government all but carried the scat. That it failed by a narrow margin to do so must be ascribed to the fact that certain Liberals were blind to their o\yn interests; The nature of the invitation extended to tho Lib6r.il party by the' Social Democrats should never be forgot'teii; Mti. W. T. Mills, tho. organiser of the latter party, was remarkably candid. During tho by-election paign ho invited the Liberals to co■opei'ato with his party _ u'nlil the time had arrived for their own dispatch In about ten years , tinio, he said, his party proposed to inter <.lio Liberals quietly and honourably, but first of all they were concentrating in putting file Masscyites out of .business. ■ ''While you Liberals are .waiting-fqivyour funeral," added 'this amusing little man from Milwaukee, "don't you think you had better do business with Jis! We both want Massey out." It is a' pity that eunh a humiliating fact shot.ilcl hav« to be. chronicled, but it is a fact that tho invitation was _ accepted by n litrge number of sufTicieiitly larco niinibwr. to secure, the retiirii of tlio Sdeial-ticniocratic candidate for Lytteltom It is because this thing-happened in L.yttelton, and because a similar wedding and funeral invitation may bi , hstehded in other constituencies which. hav<i been known as Liberal stronghold?-, that we recommend sane Liberals to throw, in. their lot with tho Govern mciit.. The ndvicn is so obviousl* , sound that it hardly needs emphasising. ,■■ There liavc been two by-etec-tiohs,"in which Social Demoeruts have figured, during the term of the present Parliament. In each contest the Reform candidate scored heavily on new and untried ground, particularly at LyLteiton. In each contest tho 'Liberal party lust strength to tin!. Social Democrats, and dropped put'oHiuvvuhuiiiK. Therefore it is 'qisite'cl-ar.ihnt tho,choke ■ of 1-he ■.LihfvnLvis , lietnven a strong, and with'which they have i'nuoh-in cpmuioli and the Social l)omocrals..-.\vlios'.> clwl'ishin? asjiir.'T-lioirittis'-iivilefcrit ilio Hcforin Huv.iMissnoni,: I<mi years hoiuio, and. (hen iintoi^tiio.; : party. ' ..■■,>.

loft, Wellington on N!)vcinlir'r-.t!B',: per s.s. Marnigniuii, atic! cciiii< , rte'i , - ;; witli-. f 'th« lirimlisi djwatch, , arrived iu Lbn-