The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1936. SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL CREDIT.

Evening Star, Issue 22450, 22 September 1936, Page 8

The Evening Star TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1936. SOCIALISM AND SOCIAL CREDIT.

The Hon. Mr Armstrong was completely frank in dealing with a deputation from the Social Credit League which waited on him in Christchurch yesterday. The deputation was as downright on its part. To a question, surely belated at this season, as to what was the ultimate object of the Labour Government, the Minister replied: “ The object of the Labour Party is Socialism.” And to a question with which the Minister followed up his answer, “is it yours?” the deputation in chorus replied “ no.” The Minister, or any of his colleagues, would have got the same answer, with very few dissentients, from any audience, frank as these Social Creditors, that he might have addressed in New Zealand not convened under the direct auspices of the Labour Party. And it was not the votes of the Labour Party that gave the present Government its majority. It was votes of others, given upon very different grounds, and helped by a combination of circumstances. No one is crying publicly over that result now except the Social Creditors, and they had the least cause to be deceived. They knew that the Labour Party was a Socialistic party and that their own movement was not, and that therefore there was a deep division between the two. They knew that political Labour at Home, after examining Major Douglas’s panacea, had refused to have anything to do with it, and they knew more than others of the overtures widely reported to have heen discussed between the Major and political Labour in Australia, which, because of natural division, were abortive. Nevertheless, because Mr Savage’s party used some phrases suggesting that its monetary policy would be at least less orthodox than that of previous Administrations, they chose to throw their weight upon its side, hoping that somehow Social Credit would be advantaged. Now, not for the first time, they are expressing their disappointment. New Zealand would have had more to regret, as Mr Armstrong plainly intimated, had the Major’s doctrine found acceptance with the Labour Government. Whatever distrust may be felt of some features of the Government’s policy, it can be easily believed that this country surveys the future with far less of anxiety than Alberta, where a Social Credit Government is in office. But Mr Aberhart’s brand of Social Credit, the faithful will retort, is something widely different from Major Douglas’s. The answer must be that almost certainly it is something as near to it as the Canadian Premier, after full consideration alike of his promises and of the difficulties attending them, considers practicable. He is preparing the way by an unorthodox device, safeguarded against inflation, which has the same effect as a sales tax on consumers, and that experiment is already described as a failure. The outlook for his Social Credit dividends, which are to follow, does not appear more bright than that of his “ prosperity certificates.” To the plea of those who. interviewed him that Social Credit has not yet been fully tested in Alberta, Mr Armstrong replied that neither has Socialism been fully tried yet in New Zealand. The creed’s doubters must believe that a good deal of progress is being made with it. There are few things which the Government will not rule if Mr Savage and -his colleagues have their way. The “ Socialism without doctrines,” which began with Mr Seddon’s day and extended after it, bids fair to become Socialism with doctrines under the new regime, with some results even at this stage which might make Samuel Smiles and Benjamin Franklin turn in their graves. Already men are being taught, in effect, not to depend on themselves too much, but on the Government, and those who find in eight hours’ work and eight hours’ play sufficient of leisure must be discouraged. More money is available, not because of these ideas, but because better prices have been received for products and the knowledge of that condition gives more confidence to those who feared previously to loosen their purse strings. But the Government, whose party kept Mr Armstrong’s beloved word well in the background when it sought to be returned to that position, though its convictions should have been well known, has still a great task to face before it can convert the majority of self-reliant New Zealanders to Socialism.