Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1901. AUSTRALIA’S POLICY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 2 November 1901, Page 2

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1901. AUSTRALIA’S POLICY.

Mb Barton, the first Premier of United Australia, has succeeded in securing the substantial majority of 14 in the first trial of strength in the Federal Parliament; and by that majority has fixed round the neck of the youthful and lusty nation the policy of Protection—that policy which benefits a few at the expense of the many, but which, nevertheless, is supported by the misguided victims,who pay the “fat man” 20% to 40% more than is just. The pill, sugar-coated, is eagerly swallowed by the gulls. Protection, the medicine man declares, is in the interests of the working man, and to enable him to get higher wages—and he believes it. In every country where it has been tried it has had the opposite effect. In America—the land of multi-mil-lionaires and colossal trusts—where a limited number make enormous fortunes at the expense of the people, protection is the chief factor in their work, and it is apparently firmly rivetted round the country’s neck. The land is richly endowed by nature, yet the condition of the toilers is far from good—long hours and poor pay. In Germany—land of protection and bounties—wages are low and hours of toil long, and a cablegram to-day shows that thousands are starving. Coming nearer home, in New Zealand our boots and clothing cost six shillings in the £ more than they did twentyfive years ago,—that means that 14/would buy as much as 20/- will now purchase. That of every £ spent by the working man in boots and clothing, six shillings goes towards protection, and to benefit tbe fat man. Bread is 25%, and meat 50% dearer than it was 20 years ago, a result that can be traced to Protection —the so-called Poor Man’s Friend. And in every article of consumption prices have advanced—advanced, Protection says, to better the condition of the toiler;

to give him higher wages. In America it had not that resmt. German artisians are worse off than before. In New Zealand wages were better 25 years ago than they are today—labor organisations and labor legislation, notwithstanding-, bill tne cost of living has advanced 25%, SO that ’ g'&Ocls which could have been purchased for 10/- under former conditions, by reason of the poor man’s friend V—Protection—now costs 12/6. Of course the fat man laughs at the gulls and grows rich by a continuance of the fraud. And the Great New Nation of the Southern Seas has hoisted her first,policy flag, with the black word of t<£ Protection ” written thereon, the gulls applauding the flag that scourges them ; while the fat man smiles at his own duplicity and the credulity of the victims.