The Dominion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1919. THE FARMERS' PART

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 61, 5 December 1919, Page 6

The Dominion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1919. THE FARMERS' PART

Ali, who arc able to take a balanced view will agree that one of the best and most promising features of political life in this country is the powerful influence that farmers as a class exert upon the control and management of its national affairs. The attempt sometimes made by irresponsible agitators to ; picture primary producers as a privileged class, battening upon tho rest of the community, is a particularly futile travesty of the actual facts. The farmer who is intelligently alive to his own interests is bound to adopt a broad political outlook, because the conditions which permit the prosperous expansion of primary industries are at the smiic time those which make for national prosperity. In this election, as in overy other, farmers have an immensely important part .to perform. At the same time the facts set clearly before them ought to make it an easy matter to' arrive at a right- judgment on the political issues of tho day. P armors are oven better placed than the average run of townsmen to realise that this is a Dime for subordinating small issues and concentrating on big ones. What aro the facts that farmers in common with all level-headed citizens aro called upon to grasp filearl.v at this timo? In the first place, it is evident that tho essential needs of tho country are enterprising development and tho rapid improvement and extension of transport facilities. If the Dominion is to remain prosperous, idlo lands must bo opened up and land already occupied must be made increasingly productive, as time goes on, by subdivision, the vigorous construction of roads and railways, the systematic application of the best modern methods to all forms of rural enterprise. It is upon steadily mounting exports and returns from export trade that not farmers only, but the whole population, must rely largely for_ a very long time to come. It is equally obvious that the worst obstaclcs_ to progress on these lines are political instability and industrial unrest. Because their own immediate interests as well as those of the country are threatened, farmers aro well able to perceive tho urgent necessity of finding a remedy for the industrial unrest which, as matters stand, threatens to paralyse the national energies. At the same time, it must be clear to them that the first'step towards such a remedy is to set up a strong Government which will bo able to deal-firmly with minorities which brazenly set themselves ( to exploit the community. It is hardly necessary to emphasise the fact that a, critical stage has been reached.. Tho Labour extremist tactics, which find most conspicuous expression in the "go-slow" policy in the coal mines, are going from bad to worse, and it is evident that these unscrupulous atacks on the community are doubly dangerous in view of the selfTseeking attempt that is being made by tho "VVardist Party -to split and divide tho forces of true progress in tho Dominion.

Farmers are bound to recognise that there never was a time when they were more urgently called upon in their own and in the national interests to vote solidly for .sound nnd stable government and the conditions it connotes. Of the parties bidding for support the LabourSocialists are plainly committed to action which must be summed up as purely destructive. It is as obvious, however, that the WarcHsts, by the course they have taken, are playing into the hands of these extremists. They have little, if any, chance of petting into power with an independent majority, and it follows that their utmost ambition is to attract enough support to enable them to impede or pVevent the establishment of stable government/, and in these conditions to manoeuvre for some party advantage. All sections of the public are interested in defeating this attempt to secure party and personal gains at the expense of national unity i\nd national wel-, fare, and primary producers are certainly not Least interested. They are in close and intimate touch with the most urgent needs of the country, and know that the only way to satisfy these needs is to concentrate support upon 4 a Government capable of acting with bold decision both in forwarding national development and in coping with the problems of industrial unrest. There is, of course, no question of opposing the legitimate claims of Labour. On the contrary, these must he generously met. But existing conditions forcibly emphasise tho necessity of taking strong measures to defend the community against attack and exploitation by a lawless minority. Well placed as they are to set national needs'and dangers in true perspective, farmers ought to have no difficulty in decidiug that tho only sound way of providing for and against these needs and dangers is to return the Reform Party with an adequate working majority. It is self-evident that to give any material support to AVardist candidates in existing conditions is the readiest means of affording the Labour extremists such an opportunity as they desire, and reaching or approaching a state of affairs which would be disastrous to' the whole community, and above all to the man on the land.