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Hokitika Guardian, 11 September 1923, Page 2

A manifksto address to “the* men and women of the Labour movement” was issued in Sydney late last month, by Air .). T. bang and Air R. F. l.onghfiii, leader and deputy leader respectively of the Rarliamentarv Labour party. The manifesto states that the Parliamentary Labour party will work cordially and loyally with the State Exceufive elected by the last annual conference “to restore those relations of mutual trust and harmony without which all pur efforts arc in vain.” “We must.” it adds, “get rid of corrupt and disruptive elements operating amongst us before we can hope to make the progress on which wo have set our hearts. . • Wo must wago unrelenting war on sectarianism in politics. This is one of the worst evils with which wo have to contend.” With regard to the industrial wing of the movement, the manifesto states: —“Wo welcome its more active co-operation with as. Nothing but good can result from a greater participation by the unions in the affairs of the A.L.P. Industrial solidarity will supply a more powerful incentive to political achievement, hut organised Labour must exhibit- a keener sense of its opportunities. It must he ready to grasp its chances, quick to recognise when a path lias been blazed in the direction in which it wishes to travel. The transition to socialistic ownership, the manifesto, continues, will he greatly facilitated when the industrialists themselves give practical evidence of tneir desire to initiate and 1 control their own enteiprises that- capitalism must go. It must go because it no longer serves the needs of human development. It lias exhausted its capacity for good, and the evil that was always in it survives and lias grown to tragic proportions. Wherever it exists it produces widespread strife and misery. For that reason the world’s great-e-st minds have foreshadowed its ultimate collapse, and the inauguration of a new order. The purpose of the Labour movement is to quicken that process. But capitalism will not be shifted by hectic speeches, by fiery exhortations to purely destructive tactics, by erecting into a cast iron creed the teachings of eminent writers who lived in another day. Capitalism will endure till the workers have learned to do without it—till they get right down to the task of organising and carrying on their own industries and in this way prove themselves to bo the destined instruments of progress.”

The question is often raised, especially in these later days, remarks a Sydney paper: How is it that- our strongest men, the groat personalities of the nation, these born organisers and managers, do not enter politics and help to make the laws of their country? In other words: How is it. that our Legislatures are peopled generally with men of mediocrity while those of high ability are seldom seen therein? Of course, the patent answer is that if they attended to the business of making laws, even these master spirits of their age would not be able to organise ami manage outside affairs as well. No man can serve two masters for long; sooner or later, and generally sooner than later, comes the inevitable clash and crash. But there is another, and a

moro interesting, if less obvious, reply to the question- It is the almost universal rule in the history of a young country that, whereas at first its great men apply themselves to the formation of its constitution and the promulgation of elementary and essential laws, when these foundation-stones are laid, they seek the larger fields of industry and commerce, straining every effort for the advancement of their country’s trade and the exploitation of its resources, and leav e the Legislature to the lesser lights, content to trust, and wisely so, in this regard, to that abiding safety-valve, the people’s commonsense. The history of the United States provides the clearest proof of this theory. From the days of Washington, and the struggle for independence to tlie death of Lincoln, and the close of the Civil War, we may regard ns the first stage; from thence onward as the second. In the first by far the larger proportion of American great men are legislators—Washingtons and Lincolns, Hamiltons and Douglases; in the second they arc Morgans and Rockfellers, Carncgies and Fords. And so with Australia. The days of the great statesmen arc over; it may be they will come again; but they arc certainly not with us now. Wentworth and Lang and Parkes have passed ; and in their stead have come—and some, alas, are going, too—the men who. march breast-forward noath the honourable and ever-advancing standards of commerce, industry and trade.