COMMUNIST CODE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20094, 14 November 1939, Page 11

COMMUNIST CODE

IDEA WITHOUT IDEAL FIRST PRINCIPLES DENIED APPEAL TO DISSATISFIED CURE IN OUpHoWN HANDS “The spread of communistic ideas represents a challenge to the individual—to you and to me as individuals. If we can so live that our system of living can stand up against the criticism of others, and give justice and right to all, communism will not thrive. If we depart from our principles so that justice and right are not the keynotes of our system, we shall be as guilty as they,” declared the Rev. Father Curley, addressing members of the Gisborne Rotary Club to-day on “Communism and its Cure.”

At the outset of his address, Father Curley advised anyone drawn into a discussion on communism to insist upon a definition of that code. Since it constituted a denial of all first principles, and especially of man’s debt to the Creator, it could not have any real definition, and those' w*ho propounded communism almost certainly could be forced to admit this. He spoke, of course, of communism as represented in political ideas, and not in any of its other applications, as for instance the communism of the cloister, in which men and women gave up in the service of God all right to individual property. Communism as known in the political world had devedoped out of socialism, continued the speaker, and had been known as revolutionary socialism. Its father was Karl Marx, who in his writings failed to give a recognisable definition of his ideas. Able men, piecing his ideas together, however, had concluded that political communism amounted to a materialistic system of philosophy which aimed at collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, which ownership was to be acquired by violence. Fallacies of Materialism

Its fallacies were chiefly those of all materialistic systems. It denied the existence of God, or the first cause. Anything that denied the existence of the Creator denied the right of the individual, fhe right of existence, the right of justice, and indeed all first principles. Individual right came only from the Creator,, in the form of a title to honestly acquire Individual property. Marx laughed at religion as the opiate of the ruling classes, used to drug their peoples. Communism was self-contradictory, in that it denied the right of the individual, derived from God, yet claimed to fight for the rights of the common people. The cure for communism could be found in the reasons which fed its growth, the argument that it offered a man something better than he was receiving.

Exponents of communism found it easy to point to things in the existing system which obviously were wrong; instances of misrule and miscarriages jf justice. There was, indeed, plenty of room lgr criticism, continued Father Curley, who quoted instances in respect of the administration of the law which seemed to him to be symptoms of the need for an overhaul. The courts of justice should dispense justice, he held, and not humanitarianism. If humanitarianism entered into a case, it it should be the office of another court to dispense it. The bankruptcy figures were going up, he said, and there was the spectacle of creditors’ meetings at which less than a quorum of creditors was present. “Justice Will Go By the Board”

“Unless you are interested in maintaining the Tight of the individual to justice, and in demanding close compliance with business obligations, justice will go by the board again,” the speaker said. “It is a matter of loss of principile. If our system suffers through our want of principle, we cannot criticise others or withstand their criticism. We need a system which will stand the strain, if we are to combat the terrible menace of today.’’ The speaker pointed out that he was not aiming at politicians. Everything, he said, that happened in a country was a reflection of the attitude of individuals in that country. If the individual refused to accept a given step, it could not be.

“You owe it to your Creator to do the best you can according to the laws of God and man,’’ continued the speaker. "That is your individual July, and your example will spread ■£ you stand by it. At least you will give opponents of your system the knowledge that it gives right and justice.”

Unfortunately, the first principle of many men to-day was success in money-making, and in practising that principle many fathers frere neglecting an obvious duty to their children. Principle of Morality “I have known fathers plead that a son should be allowed to sow his wild oats! What sort of a citizen will any son grow up to be if that is the attitude his father takes on the principle of morality?” Father Curley asked. He proceeded to argue that the spread of communism was encouraged by a national habit of living beyond the income, and the search for some cure for the dissatisfaction that developed from that habit. Dissatisfied men walked into Communist meetings, heard a lot of specious argument about what was wrong with the present social structure, and they went on from there, without bothering to feel for the foundations of the new philosophy. Often they repeated the arguments of communism though they were no more communistic than the average Rotarian!

"I don’t suppose that my talk will produce one-hundredth of one per cent of change. I don’t expect you wil go from this meeting and resolve .0 change your lives. I don’t expeci that I can change much myself,” concluded the speaker. “But we must do our best. We must see that our system is strong enough to stand the strain of new criticism, that others cannot point to us and say truly that our system does not give right and justice. If we do not justify our first principle, then we are as guilty as they are.’’

Father Curley was accorded a hearty vote of thanks for his address, on the motion of Rotarian G. Crawshaw. The meeting was presided over by Rotarian R. F. GambriU.