WHICH ROAD?

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1921, Page 4

WHICH ROAD?

progress of revolution. MENACE OF EXTREMISM. WELFARE LEAGUE ATTITUDE. WELLINGTON, Feb. 17

A striking statement of the menace of extremism which the New Zealand Welfare League is striving to counteract was made to-day in the presidential address delivered by Mr C. P. S. Skerrett, K.C., at the second annual conference of the league.

“Since we last met,” Mr Skerrett said, “the league has become a recognised permanent institution, whose object is to advocate the interests of the community apart from class, political party,, •or other consideration. It has boldly stood for the public weal, and has been ever vigilant in its -interests. It has been mindful that every man owes a duty to the community, and that the performance of that obligation is one of the chief duties of the citizen. The league itself has had no concern for the interests of classes or sections of the community. It has concerned itself only with the public welfare, and it has tested every public act and proposal by the sole criterion of its accordance with the interests of the community. GROWTH OF EXTREMISM.

“I want to ask you to recall to your minds very briefly the circumstances which led., to the formation of the league, and the conditions which obtained when it was brought into existence. Some years before the great strike of 1913 the Arbitration Court had, by successive awards, increased tlie wages 'and reduced the hours of work to such an extent that all (including the workers) felt that further increase and betterment was impossible. The result was that the Arbitration Court was abandoned and flouted and disused by the militant unions, and lost the standing that it had previously possessed as an authoritative settler of industrial disputes. There also gradually came about a striking change in the outlook and objects of the militant unions. The country was flooded with the literature of the Syndicalist and of the 1.W.W., and with literature which advocated the abolition of capital, the ruthless destruction of private onterpii>e, and the control of the means of manufacture, production, and exchange by organised labour. The control of the Labour movement passed into the band of the extremist, and became syndicalist and revolutionary in its ultimate aims.

“The extremists engineered the gen oral strike of 1913, at the ports of the Dominion, which stopped or liarrassed all the industries of the country. No doubt was felt in the public mind as to the significance of the stiike. Its success would have struck a death blow to the existing economic system, and would have led to the triumph of the revolutionists. The people were aroused to the importance of the issue, ibe strike completely failed, and resulted in the breakdown of the waterside unions and the temporary eclipse of the extremist leaders. ANTI-NATIONALISM.

“Then came the war and with it again the opportunity of the extremist. He was anti-militaristhe opposed compulsory service; his influence was everywhere working against the successful prosecution of the war; lie put every possible difficulty in the way of the New Zealand Government performing its duty by lending oveiv assistance to the Km pi re ; he Irn I no detestation or fear of a German conquest, of New Zealand; lie professed that ho v. ould be happier under German rule than under the existing system. The influence of the agitator increased, and he was helped by the shortage ol labour. He advocated and persisted Ju exorbitant demands for increased wages and shorter hours, and for conditions which made for greatly reduced production. War conditions prevented strenuous opposition to his demands. The nation was in grave peril ; it must have men and food and clothing to keep the armies in the field. All economic considerations were east aside. So the Now Zealand Government and the shipping owners (under pressure from the Imperial Government and under the imperative necessities of war) gave concessions unjustified by reason or economic considerations, which resulted in increased cost and reduced production. All this was the work of the extremist and was engineered by him; and by these means he obtained the leadership and control of the three unions which are usually the centre of disturbance, but are connected with the vital industries of the country, namely: The waterside, transport, and coal industries.

PINPRICKTNG METHODS. “During tire war the extremist leaders deliberately adopted the policy of securing the control and ultimately the ownership of all the industries of the country. The advocacy of nationalisation was only a step on the way to this ultimate goal. They initiated the goslow policy, irritation stoppages of work, and pinpricks in the shipping industry and the handling of cargoes on the wharves, and openly boasted that they would leave no place in the Dominion on which the foot of Capital Could rest. In pursuance of this policy they, in the year 1915, entered upon a definite scheme to ensure a short supply of coal for the community. This was done by the go-slow policy, by irritation stoppages, and every device to reduce output. Two facts arc most significant: The first is that the decrease in I output was most marked in the production of' bituminous and semi-bitu-I minous coal on which the Dominion de- [ pends for carrying on its shipping, j freezing, gas, and electric lighting works, public services, and all the vita.l and essential industries of the country. In the five years, 1914-1919, in this important class of coal alone there was a decrease of over lialf-a-mil-lion tons. The second significant fact is that whenever the Government was a bio to secure a supply of foreign coal, that addition to the country’s supply was immediately offset by less production within the Dominion, or by labour troubles in Newcastle affecting the loading of coal ships. There can he only one inference from these facts. There was a set and deliberate policy to dislocate and impede the vital industries of the country in pursuance of the design to drive capital out of the Dominion. In this design there is little

doubt that the extremists were wonting in co-ordination with the Labour organisation of Australia. “These were the conditions which obtained when the Welfare League was formed. It'saw the Labour organisations with their large finance, controlled by extremists, by avowed revolutionary Socialists whose admitted aims were to' destroy and uproot the existing economic condition and to substitute for it the control and ownership of organised Labour—or in other words, of the Soviet. It saw this goal being furthered by strikes, go-slow, and every form r ivnrl nst.rv • incrcflsiiuz

cost and decreasing production. It saw the very increased cost of living, winch these conditions to a large extent created, made the pretext for more and more exorbitant demands. Above all, it found a pernicious propaganda inculcating these opinions widely diffused amongst the workers— unopposed, unanswered, and uncontroverted. Ibis propaganda, unsound and pernicious as it is. was inoculating the worker with the virus of revolution and familiarising him with the necessity of uprooting existing instutions if he were to better his condition. THE COMMUNITY'S CASE. “The necessity of the country vas great, and so the Welfare League was brought into being, to combat those disruptive forces to rouse the people from thei rapathv; to state clearly the case 1 I 1,0

JOr lIH* COllllil miii/v , w schemes and designs of the extremists, and. by an extensive educational propaganda set before the worker the true nature, and consequence and the folly from tho economic and other points of view of the doctrines which were being promulgated. It is a significant circumstance that coincident with the Ruination of the league, lint quite independent of and without consultation with it, similar movements appeared in England. Doubtless similar conditions obtained in England as in New Zealand, and the necessity for combating the ruinous designs ol the revolntionaiy hv the means adopted by us became apparent to those who desired sound government. As the National Secretary has pointed out in his report, flip league is in correspondence with these and similar societies.” t t \'ft't■» in a rrnrn wMVfTV

1 vi i\ r>i»i iij i * ' * * ’ • The President quoted from tho report of the league a paragraph relating to educational propaganda as follows: “We regularly publish our propaganda articles in some thirty papers, and a further forty occasionally. Twice a week articles on current questions or ot an educative character, are issued, and also various special articles on local matters and answers to critics. Hie articles are subject to the supervision of a committee, and expert aid is always obtained before issuing.” “In pursuing this vigorous campaign, owing to (lie great measure of success it has obtained.” Mr Skerret continued, “the league lias earned the enmity of the extremist. He commenced with an attempt to ridicule the name of our league, and, this falling painfully flat, lie adopted a policy of misrepresentation. Tim league ho said, was the uncompromising opponent of Labour. Tt was a capitalist league. Tf he had said that tho league was the uncompromising opponent of revolutionary doctrine, intended to subvert the constitutional j institutions of the country, if be bad

said that we regard strikes ns wanton, wasteful, and useless: if he had said that the go-slow, the ca-caiinv policy, and the pinpricking of capital is dishonest. and a piece of industrial folly serving no purpose, he would have been right. But if he meant that the League is antagonist to the true interests of (lie sane and honest worker, be is wrong. The real truth is that the extremist and the league run on different. rails. We can never meet. Ho inculcates the doctrine that there must necessarily he eternal enmity between workers and employers, that there can be no common ground which they can ever moot. He handles’’ every industrial dispute with an eye to his ultimate goal the abolition of capital and private enterprise. He aims to make his arrangements between the employer and the worker temporary, so that he may he essential to the worker. He has no time for indeed lie is the bitterest opponent of all schemes designed to give the worker a fair share of the joint product, an interest in the result of his work, a yoice in the management of the business in which he works, and in which the worker will, as far as possible, be protected from unemployment. Such schemes, if successful, would be the death-knell of the revolutionary Socialist. The league on the other hand, has always maintained that the relationship of the worker and employer is not necessarily antagonistic, that there is a common ground on which they can meet to their mutual advantage, and that true form lies in the adoption of some such system. 1 have, indicated as meeting with the opposition of the extremist. “UNIONISM DUX MAD.

“We have always maintained that th e so-called trades unionism of militant trades unions is unionism run mad. True trades unionism is always anti-re-volutionary. It concerns itself only with t!u' existing social and economic systems. It seeks for the betterment of the conditions of the worker under these systems. If the existing system requires reform or alteration, it can he brought about under the constitution by constitutional means. The trades unionism is not disruptive, and never revolutionary. The trouble that we have in this Dominion is that we have some powerful unions, who use the machinery and the funds and shape the acts of the trades unions for an illegitimate purpose—the disrupting of the existing economic; system and the control of the industries of the country by the manual worekr over everyone else. The ultimate goal of trade unionism taught under the present lenders is revolution. Only the other day a member of the official Labour Party deliberately used in Parliament this language: “T am not going to offer apologies for saving that as soon as possible T will help to get rid of Parliament as it is now constituted and institute in its place an industrial Parliament as it

place an industrial Parliament that will reflect the useful people of the Dominion. I put it on record that I am against your system—the system that causes my fellow workers to go down on their bellies and crawl to get assistance in this country.” What does this mean? What does an industrial Parliament that will reflect the useful people mean ? Who are the useful peoplo? It means plainly the governance of the country and the control of the means of manufacture, exchange, and production, and perhaps, of every form of activity, by th e manual worker to the exclusion of everyone else. Tt means

in short tlie so-called Soviet system of Bolshevism. We know now authoritatively' the effect of the adoption of the system in Russia. In the language of a theoretical Socialist, ‘it means ruin, disaster, misery, starvation and chaos.’ We know now authoritatively the conditions which obtain there; private trade is bankrupt and shops are closed; trade unions have been made departments of the Soviet administration —no voluntary organisations are permitted; the great co-operative organisation which had developed so remarkably in Russia Ihi fore the war had been eutirely subordinated to the State; political parties are persecuted and driven underground; a free press has ceased to exist; the labouring masses in tlie town and in the country so far as the Soviet Government lias control over

them are in a state of abject slaveiy. It is the sylstem which produces these results which is the goal of the extremist and revolutionary in this country, and yet want of knowledge and the result of a vigorous propaganda have given them a substantial following amongst a certain class of the community. THE ONLY RATIONAL CURE. “The league, on the other hand, does not say that the capitalistic system is perfect, but it believes that the only rational and sane method of curing grievances and remedying evils and abuses is not by the revolutionary destruction of systems, but by judicious amendments, bring them into accord with the changes of time and evolution of thought. Nothing but disaster and •chaos can come from the disruption of the whole system on which our institions are based. Tho league has already done much, but as its chief weapon is education, its results are not shown in

coin. It ll 1 Nil cl J H , i;ui tilt-' IItTWH,' W league is as great to-day as it was on the day of its birth. The revolutionist is as active and determined to-day as ever he was. The puhlie'docs not know the full extent of the menace which exists to public order and stable government. The information department of the league is better informed and apparently the Government has awakened to the necessity of controlling the possession and registration of firearms. We see to-da.v no halt in the efforts of the extremist to produce industrial nil rest, and in the determination to dislocate and hinder the industries of the country, so as to make the existing economic system impossible. There has been no cessation of the circulation of the flood of pernicious literature amongst the workers. 'Flic Welfare League is as much needed to-day as ever it was, and it calls upon every good citizen, every man who desires sound and stable government and the true progress of the country to give ns his moral and material support.”