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Hokitika Guardian, 4 July 1924, Page 2

Thk Meinnerals (.nr Liberals) of llm United Stales are finding a difficulty in selecting an acecpini le candidate. At the oiilsei 1 lie Conference made a dead set against the political scandals in America, and oil and other features of piegimnl interest, were laid hare hv the fervid orators. The noise and clamour of it all went on, hut the Conference* was not aide to come to a decision. Mr MeAdoo. the leading figure in the voting, has been touched l>v the reports abroad, lie was in receipt of a salary of 25.(1C0 dollars from the discredited F.. L. J)o----heny and the political managers of the* Democratic party were not keen on Mr McAdon's choice. The party has been searching for the right man. A New York correspondent stated in the London ‘’Times”, that the party managers of the Democrats were agreed that the party candidate must come from the West or tho Middle West, that he must he a Liberal and a Progressive. and that, above all. he must he a man of high ehanicTer. without affiliation with big business. It does not matter, they reckon, whether he is known or unknown, whether lie lias been in politics or whether lie has not been in polities. The main consideration is backbone, honesty, character, murage. Actually such a man-hunt has been in full cry for some time. Hundreds of names are being discussed. The party is seeking the man with an intensity that no one familiar with our national polities has seen for many years. But as yet the new figure has not appeared. 'Hie long writ mile on the selection of the planks was doubtless part of the game to look for a new leader. The Republicans were more fortunate when they reached a deadlock for the name of General Dawes sprung upon their Convention, and .suddenly helped them out of their itilcnjmn. Actually flu* Democrats are said to ho feeling for a candidate who will he able to appease the distress with the agrarian population, prevailing in the West and North West. It is being forecasted that the choice of the* West and South will on this occasion settle the* result of tin* Presidency for which every party brings forward the most acceptable candidate. The party managers have this factor in mind all tin* time, and their campaign is being directed with the one end in view to supply the nation with someone who will he a popular candidate with the farming community generally.

Tiikhu arc tb.se who say, and repeat ii with such frequency tlmt they must be beginning to believe it themselves. that Liberalism is death Even tic ..bar section of the political party which climbed into being through the medium of the Libetals. are daily kicking the ladder from under them. Mr Lloyd George nut it very well in one of his recent speeches in Wales when lie remarked “there is no liberty which the Labour Ministry at Home, ami its friends have got but was won for them by Liberals (cheers)—right of free speech, of free expression in siieoch and writing, right to choose their own representatives, the freedom of Parliament, all won for them l.y Liberalism. They would not have been there but for the Liberal Party, and this great old party, with its very fibre of British grandeur, must, they sav. “die.” That is in return for the support we have given them.” Probably wo should not expect gratitude in the political arena. Some folk have but verv short memories. Tu this country this has been demonstrated over and over again. The Labor party in Parliament is quite ungrateful to the Liberals for what they have done as a party. The Reform press is equally ungrateful to the Liberals. though Reform itself is in power to-day solely by the grace of three Liberals who have the right- to veto any legislation they may consider too Conservative. Liberalism, liko all

other parts of the political organisation, lias to pass through the* inovitnhlo phases. Wo know how long the Conservatives in New Zealand tarried in the wildorness of Opposition. The Liberals have had to have their turn. And there is this remarkable fact about the other two contesting parties —they are both building on the Liberal policy enunciated in the past. Indeed Reform claims to have gone further than the Liberals would have done. But in the days when the Liberals had to fight strenuously for the introduction of that policy, the Conservatives opposed it. with all the lor co and invective possible. They proved themselves false prophets and now realising the virtue of the policy first- condemned, seek to go further with it. So we may conclude, Lil>oralisni is not dead, nor is it hyhernating. The polity of the Liberals is the sound progressive policy of the times, and if the' real Liberals had the opportunity to develope it New Zealand would not have occasion to regret the circumstance.