MOB-TYRANNY OR FREEDOMS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2328, 9 December 1914, Page 6

MOB-TYRANNY OR FREEDOMS

A qitestion of supreme importance to be decided at the polls to-morrow is whether_ the public life of the Dominion is to be dominated by mob rule. The electors have seen in the present campaign an organised attempt made by the Wardists and their. Red-Fed. allies to substitute slander for criticism and mob-riot-ing for fair and open discussion. On the one hand the Government has been assailed with a cloud of vague and unsupported charges, and on the other every possible effort has been made, in the way of organised interruption and lawless disorder, to prevent its members and' supporters clearing themselves on the publio platform from the slanderous attacks. In a word, the methods of syndicalism and sabotage have been imported into the public life of the Dominion, and it is for the electors to say whether they shall be allowed to develop and gain a firm footing or shall be cheeked in their inianey. The issue is perfectly plain. It is impossible to draw any other dividing line between the parties which are appealing for publio Support than that which separates the people who stand for British fair play and constitutional - methods from those who are committed to methods which have earned the jusiji execration of every decent citizen. Entirely unconvincing. .'attempts have been made to.show ihat the Wardists, though allied to the extremists of, the Red Federation for tho purpose of crushing the Reform Government, are not responsible for the worst excesses committ)ed-. The supporters of. the Waed Party cannot escape the responsibility they have incurred in encouraging the extremists by working with 'them for a common end. The; wild disorders of the present campaign, which culminated the other evening in an outburst of street [rioting in Auckland in which an .unoffending girl suffered at.the hands of a reckless mob, have been almofet without exception directed at the supporters of the Government. If anything more were needed it is to be found in-the attitude taken \m by the Wardists themselves. Titany of them openly exult in the rowdyism and' organised disturbances at their opponents' meetings, and some of their papers have described the alliance as a union of the forces," and even echo the catchcries in which these same'rioters resent the just punishment visited upon their lawless exploits at the time of the strike last year. Othiars, in face of a series of outrages upon popular liberties such as the country has never witnessed in its previous history, blandly assert that the "Red Fed." menace is a myth. Above all, not a single member/of the Wardist Party,has said a word in protest against the methods adopted by its allies. To them the howls and oatcalls of the Fcderationists are an expression of public opinion and not one of them has had the spirit to protest against the alliance of his. party with'a revolutionary .faction whose aims confessedly lead straight on to anarchy. ' Every sensible man and woman in the country must see that tie issue at stake tg-morrow is something vastly more important tha-n, the rise or fall of this or that political party: Whatever may be the fato Cf a political party it is in the interests of_ the whole people Ithat public . questions should bo openly and freely discussed, and that all sides in politics should be granted" a fair and equal hearing. Xhe efforts that have lately been mado to abolish freedom of speeoh represent not merely an attack upon $, political! party, but an attack upon the liberties of the people, an attempt to impose the will of a tyrannical, but happily not numerous, mob upon the great majority of the people of the Dominion. At present every man and woman in this country enjoys secure protection under the law. The aim of the Federation is to establish a brutal tyranny which would not merely overthrow.the free political institutions .'of the, country but would invade and violate even the security of the home. Anyone inclined to doubt the fact need oEly recall the crimes of violence committed at the time of the strike last year to realise that it is the bare truth. ■ The one and only way to defeat the aims of the Federation 13 to vote solidly for the supporters of the strong and firm Government which alone has had the courage to wage uncompromising war upon this dangerous organisation and defeat its nefarious projects. The Wardist Party has betrayed the people and. its own_ by associating itself with the political organisation of the Federation. Every vote cast for Wardism to-morrow will be a vote also for the Federation of Labour_ and the mob-tyranny for which it stands.