MR HOLLAND’S CAMPAIGN

Hokitika Guardian, 23 May 1925, Page 4

MR HOLLAND’S CAMPAIGN

CN!V KUSK OKKKIIKD KOI? FUNDS. NATION a USATION A 'A Id.AC V. t llv ltespiee Fineni.) There appeared in a recent issue of tin,, ••(irey -River Arbus’’ an appeal by y\y ]]. Jr. Holland, the leader of the \ /.. I.abour Party, lur funds to aid i.abonr in its light at the coming General eleelion. when lie says, ii Labour suffers a set back, wage reductions will have become one of the inevitability-. After making an appeal for unilv, politically and industrially be gi'c", a brief resume of the dangers of minj i’..-, and then says that in the H>H!

strike the laws were ruthlessly broken and bogus unions formed to meet- the v. ishes of t-l,e mining and shipping; capitalists. Mr Holland says such I things were only made possible because j Labour did not occupy the Treasury i Lenehe's. Well, suppose Mr Henry Holland had b:-,-u Prime Minister dur-, , 11 , r the I HIM episode, what would he | nave done it tlu; farmers wanted their produce shipped in order to get money t,, meet their liabilities —it i- not usual for the la.inieis. to talk o! repudiation —■ wonkl lr* ba\e --.lid k.i,c it to me." you must give the wntersulei's their ins! ’‘rights. Ilou unuld lie have done it I" Perhaps Mr Holland would have given I lie wutersiders an increase in wages to keep them rpnei for a while—which is the very thing Mr Holland’s friends are saving the capitalists are doing to-day—hut this would mean filching more and more from the pockets of the general public. If lie found that the public were al-

ready bled too much, the only other alternative would have been lor him to call out his "red” soldiers Mr Holland Hamid not believe in the soldiery if be is an ardent socialist) if the farmers -aid they were going to load their produce, hook or by crook, and the wntersidel's said they were not, there would ure to be a fight, and Mr Holland won Id have to protect ids watersiders. ft is hard to see where the farmers

were in lire wrong in trying to get alias' their own property, the fruits of their hard labour and long hours. And it will always he for just when the politicians whether they he Conservatives or I.abour or any other brand for that uvittor) have conquered one form of injustice no one side or the oilier, .something else will spring up, for it apoears that if human nature alters at all. it alters much more slowly than external ideas and scientific discoveries. There is preserved deep down in liiimaniry, under a more or less * *.i, k veneer, our primeval instincts, which tend to more and more show

themselves in a crisis such as a lamine or a great war. the Into ef which wo have just passed through. The majority of pootile have high ideals of conduct, hut do they inwardly grow more seil-eon-.cams. Mr Holland would not club a man because he coveted his possessions, hat lie is going to try and get Ids own wav bv more insidious methods, and whether it is by political evolution or class revolution, it is very hard to predi; t at present, for various reasons. So why should Mr Holland make such a song about Pdff and the IH'J'J lockout when there was many a poor litlle thild erving with the cold because its

parents were unable to obtain the neiessarv supplies of coal owing to the .go-slow tactics. CLASS HATUKD. This pitting oT class against class is ■ hr rcltencst need known to mankind. h-".|<]>-- l"!ng one of ihe most despicable ul all oi'h I leal doi t l ines. 11 is a b:rak--r of Kmpires and here in this Dominion, as in other parts of tile Kmpire. ue are pitting class against class, which wiil assuredly land its into a bloody revolution, and then, when we are weakened by on r in Lenta I strife, with

all our property, health and capital de-froyed. since foreign nation. European or coloured there is China, with her teeming millions and untouched re-

s.iarccs, not yet awake to the greatness that could he Inn's. lias the Chinaman a little vi-ioii tucked away at the hath of his almond eyes that lie will since day dominate the white man and pay him hack for some of the insults. Revenge will he sweet, he savs. if he has In wait one thousand years) come dow n upon us and take what remainsof a i.n e great Empire. Inhabitants of the Cleat llritish Empire, hut more particularly ol this little Dominion, one of tic host endowed snots on Cod’s earth.

should just juggle tin the prospect of their children, or children's ehidren. icing dominated and enslaved hy some almond-eyed Bolshevik terrorist, who will perhaps says; '‘You were ‘it.’

now I am 'it you father's father treated us as numskulls, but you see, we are here.” A fine prospect indeed. It is to he hoped that the people will see their I'ollv of supporting a party of Socialists or Communists who preach the pernicious creed of class-hatred which sprung from the warped imagination of Karl Mark'. the discredited prophet of the Communists. According to the creed of class-hatred every New Zealander is to regard another class of New Zealander as a hitter enemy, which means that hitter internal antagonism aml civil strife are to he made ideals. Oil the other hand the Socialists want yon (i-r their particular class) to think of Chows. Gormans. etc., and the murderous, venal, incompetent liolsheviks of Moscow as your particular friends. During the great war there

were Socialists from all combatant countries taken prisoner hy one side or the other and if the German Socialist was asked why he was frying to kill his "brother’' .Socialist, he would tell you that he was a " German ” lirst and a

"Socialist” next. It is the trie* spirit and while it exists in other nations why are our Socialists trying to make their fellow subjects swallow the pifllc they talk about an international brotherhood, when everyone will he at peace, even with the murderous Bolsheviks, who went to a capitalistic country to try and borrow capital ; vet our Socialists tell you that volt can do without capital. The cables told Us that the late Now Zealand loan of 17.0(10,000 was not successful and o lie red several reasons for the failure. But perhaps the true one is that the " capitalists ” knowing the state of parties in the

nonunion, and with .Mr Massey ix'imivod from llio holm hy tlie (beat Reaper, the prospect of Mr Holland's party j securing the Troaytuy Benches, was very rosy, so they thought that if they subscribed too much Mr Holland’s I’arty might ropudinto the lot. as happened when Russia turned ” Red." MR nOI.I.AXIVS SOFT SOAR. To get back again to Mr Holland’s article, he tells the miners •• that if a look-out had eventuated it would not have lasted fourteen days—for the business of a " real ” (Government of the people would he to see that production was maintained and that those responsible for the output were accorded the very best of conditions and remuneration that are "economically possible.” What Mr Henry Holland precisely means hy "economically possible."/ is vague. Does he menu that the minors would have to go short of an increase m wages if the public refused to pay the amount that the miners demanded,

or would he offer them a block of land iof a motor-car) so that they could produce potates and cabbages to live upon; i>erhaps he commandeer a nice paddock of potatoes belonging to some poor old cocky, and thus deprive him. of the fruits of his honest toil. It is not to be supposed that he would take into account the farmer's family, a feiv tons of coal would compensate the old genii..'man for his ■' spuds.' 1 ' COAL COR THK RAILWAYS. The next item of interest is where .Mr Holland says: “In the meantime, we have been treated to the spectacle of coal being drawn from lilackball to the orev waterfront by locomotives fired with coal from. Newcastle. And the sumo sort. of tiling has happened ai other mines.” Mr Holland is C|uiß' right when lie says that it is an awful foolish tiling importing coal for the, railways when we have almost illimitable supplies in the Dominion; but -Mr Holland forgot to quote that the miners “ comrades,” the firemen, passed a

resolution gainst the use of New Zealand coal on the railways. It is no <r im ,| .Mr Holland liluii’inn the Hovernment for iIn]>orlilipt coal, hecause it was once caunlit mtppin.T. and m the public- interest:, it has been importing coal to keep up stocks ever since—a railway hold-up inflicts a ('real penalty upon the whole community and the sick and maimed suffer with the healthy. ‘ IMM If! 11A NT MiNivHS. Then Mr Holland tells us that while we arc imp'otiiie: coal, we arc also impnrtinj; coalminers, but lie does not sav how many per year, lie says the (iovernment promises them work. but. i; does not guarantee any. I'he haboiir Header says bis policy means a work in e; year’s lull work, not only tor tin- immigrant. but for all oilier miners. Il(‘ dues not say how he is troimj; to accomplish this, nor docs lie state tile number ol miners that, have entered the Dominion since tin- year ID——. .Mr H. D. Thompson (l ndor-Secrelarv

t'«>r I moderation) in iiis ovuleskm 1 before the* Coal Commission Knquiry into the use ol' ion! on the locomtives of the Now Zealand Ilailways, >aid: “N'> special imliK etnent had been made to briny; minors to Now Zealand. \* nr the period 1991M9:2u, 919 entered. There had lioeii no requisition hy the (oiiipimios and arrivals at the mines wore now d oft.” * * About two years ayu, •aid .Mr Thompson, “ I was advised Unit I had I letter t ell the miners coming here that they miyht not he t’ullv employed as the miners then were working short Lime. In 1919 there were inquiries and the (Government proposed that New Zealand should take »>OD Cornish miners, ImL the offer was turnoil down.” Now 919 is not a yreat number for the period as that number Would lie eounter-halnnoed hy miners leaving the mines and finding other vocations, while perhaps a yront many of tlu* invni«*;ru nt s never went near the mines at all. hut yot scattered throughout the Dominion. Mr Thompson's evidence, it will he seen, totally disproves Mr Holland's statement about the (!o\ ornmentks promises with no guarantee:;. 'i’he litlle hit of evidence above has not so far appeared in the- “ Arji;us ” hut perhaps it was over-, looked, because if it had been published it would have appeared in the same week as did .Mr Holland's article, and perhaps have caused the miners to reflect a litlle. .Mr Holland's article ap- t pen red on Wednesday, May 19th, and .Mr Thompson's evidence appeared on Kridny. May loth. | WHAT TIIK MIN MRS AUK PILOMISKI).

Xow the Klysium is reached. .Mr Holland sets out what the I.abour movement Socialistic as will he seen hy .Mr Holland's promises to the miners) in control of the (Government of ih* Dominion would proceed to do. He s • ; (I) A Labour (Government would proceed to nationalise such of the coal mines as have a life and w!;i. ti could he worked to the economic advent.me ol the people of New Zealand. (*J) The Slats' .Mines Department would ho ndmimsh red hy a Minin;- ( • •;!)•■ 1 1 on which the minor-. would have their own elected representatives. (9) The .M.iniue; Council would undertake the work of providing an adequate fuel supply—coal, coke, etc. (I) The housing; conditions and remuneration of the m.me workers would he the first consideration; and a foundation principle of the system would he that Now Zealand coal would he used for New Zealand purposes.

With regard to til-. 1 ual ionnli.sntion | clause tin'' miners should ask .Mr 1101-j’ land tin* follow na; ipicstioii-; : >a) ‘‘Willi nalinnalisatinn of the mini's provide' work for all willine hands at oood wall's and under imprint'd rondilioii.sr" (II sip why is not everyliody prnsnerous in Russia). . I>. 11' tin 1 liiint's arc nationalised, who is to control them : J (.Mr Holland snvs the .Minina; Council would lie the Mipri'ini' control, Inti would not tin- miners want their union i oniii'it tees to lime control of their

p:i I t Iclll.'i r t<><-:i lilies. So what heiielit would tin- public get either way . (c) Will lln* minors he paid better wages I hail they now get and if so. whole is the money coining I'nini ? fit will lie filched from the workers and the middle-class, hefun.se all the capitalists will hit aide to transfer their wealih to o l l l mr roimlries as the Oerinans did to defeat the demands of the Allies'). Taking No. 'J danse into consideration, suppose Mr Holland, ns the great Prime Minister, or ’‘it," is also chairman of the Mint’s Council, drawing CfJ.tUO a year, besides pickings, would the lesser lights, representing the miners. receive a commensurate sum. or would they drew just a paltry .CdO.o for their services. Not knowing how Mr Holland is going to work Ids .Mining Council, it is hard to say what the respective salaries will lie, hut according to their own doctrine they should

receive equal pay, oven it' tlioy did not do equal work, and they would lie quit* within their '‘lights” of '•striking,” if .Mr Holland did not hand over the noeossa ry. I n No. .'1 clause .Mr Holland says the .Mining Council would undertake to supply an adequate supply of coal. If the miners refused to do this, demand ing their pound of tlesh. it is hard to see how he is going to make them. Will he snv it is “ economically ” im-

possible to accede to thoir request ami tlu'n <-a 11 out the “ red ” soldiers, (which, according to the Labourites, is against their religion). The rest of the community will be hardest hit, of course, while the little children will he crying with the cold. The fourth clause says that the housing conditions and remuneration of the miners would he the first consideration. lias all the rest of the workers to wait till the miners are fix-, od up with wages and houses. How is -Mr Holland going to get the capital to build the houses. Will he form liatta-. lions of hushmen to fell the timber, ■ millers to mill it, carpenters and brick-'] layers to build them (fine thing for a . Britisher to lie compelled to go here. : there and everywhere at the bidding of i dictator) or will lie go to ‘capital-, stic ” England for L.'10.000.000 or C 10,000,000 to build houses for everyuie who wants them. Would he get it? ELUSIVE PROMISES. I

Mr Holland's promises are iust about as elusive as Air Tom Mann's promises to the miners at Nottingham when he offered them the moon. These pretty speeches about a better life for everybody and the painting of pretty word pictures of a happy land, where everybody will be well-fed, clothed, housed, and educated, sounds all right when they flow from the mouths of the soapbox orators, but these same people should explain how it i> going to he done.

TWA INS FOR THE MINES. Harking back to tlie Mines Council, how is Mr Holland going to pick out the host men to run the mines, consistent with the safety of life and limb. Will he also form a battalion of engineers and send one here and there. Will the technicians he humbugged about if they are only getting the same remuneration as the "banjo " (pick and shovel) men. T rust not in human nature, Mr Holland, for it will assuredly lot you down. ' THE.'CEE III) OF DEATH FCTION. Now let the miners look at the thine which Mr Holland wants to destroy, i.e. capitalism. Where capitalism is the most highly developed the pcoj lo have the highest standards of living. I ook at England, America. Canada France. Australia and our own little country. AVhere capitalism has not been developed on modern lines the jtcople are still savages, or little removed from savages, such as in China. In Russia where capitalism has been i. i i i: .. i . i,,.

people are suffering terribly. We S' here that capitalism means progress ami prosperity, while Socialism stands ini- stagnation and suffering, which means starvation. Capital after all is nothing hut the machinery of production and civilisation, which provides labor with its wants. As has li-eeil said, brawn, brain and capital are an indissoluble partnership and may be compared to a cart, horse and driver. Suppose the horse kicks the cart to pieces and chases away the driver, it may (starve. The horse represented labour, the curt capital and the driver directing ability. When the Socialists kill capital it is up to them to explain how they ate going to keep Iron) starving? It is all very well lor them to sav every man has to he a producer, but will every man he satisfied to let the Holshevised few dictate to tliem what they should do or should not do. that is. whether they should grow potatoes or make bread.

I Arl.rlt!•: OF STATE EXTEIMMH.SKS Xo\V let the miners ask Mr Holland why it. is that, nearly all State enterprises fail. We have our railways here showing a delude the Canadian railways last year showed a deficit, the Commonwealth line cf Steamships, lias not been paying for years, and as years go hy the deficit Is getting larger and larger, and the poor taxpayer has to find the money to make up these enormous losses, workers included. It has been stated that since 1021 the Commonwealth .Shipping line, consisting c-.f :’.2 ships, has lost £11.091 MM, a staggering sum indeed. Can Mr Tlulla ml tell us why State enterprises always fail? Is it because they are overburdened with officials and the final responsibility i- in the hands of the politicians who are not merely 'concerned with the success o| the uudertnking, hut with public opinion. Another thing, a State employee has little to gain hy an unusual display of a little ability. hecau-e his position is secure, and the rewards for a little extra effort are perhaps insignificant. A State employee will not give of his best us long as lie has to submit t" red tape regulations, which not only disgust himself, httf disgust the public more so. A private enterprise In's to justify itself financially or close its doors. Would the .-ystem which Mr Holland wants the electors to adopt result in the public being served better. It is hard to see why it should he sin-eessfttl for where would the incentive to work lie and where would

| .Mr Holland get liis business m;inagorj=. etc.. to run his i-iiicmi- il' they wore j net oM'cmt snnictbing tangible for tin.* .ui i I is;: t inn of ilioir brain's. Tile miller. ! si rappers tumid hr content to joe; along so hni” :is Mr Molhiml |irovidrd the nr essiiry to live regardless of tln-ir ilirllieirin y. When a nun works for n private linn he knows tlmt if he is ineoni|ietent or lazy or nntkes mistakes nv-.nl ti no in h'ssos, he is liable to lose his jeh: hot v. It" minds if the State is corrupted through inellieien[ry ami tints loses money. Nearly every ! State employee in the poorer paid | divisions regards a less hy the State itinslanie the Contmoinvealth Shipping I Coy.) ns getting scum, of his own hack. Tin* State has a bottomless purse, mi | why worry, says lie. Would Mr Holland admit that a private employer | tils to lie sharo or he fails; hilt the State when fared hy private enterprise, I is so mneli under the ihnnth of its j own employees that il is hound to ! run its enterprises extrnni“:iiillv. Mr 'Holland with no private enterprise j against him would have to indulge | in tut orgy of expenditure, which would I not he very (cninmiicnl front the puhlie's (mint of view . Would Mr 11<>1 -

land. "lirn hr i- elected (if over) to power draw the line tuntli rniiili Ll i i‘i >ll jzl i .some of the present State Departments to i-atrli a few of the ext rava_tran is ami iiieoiiipetriits. ( ei'tainly not—-it is airainst his invil and lie will hate to liinl "(III; for the "I won’t works" or they "ill place a yuii at hie head or he tt ill hat e to plai e it at l heirs. Kerry man a jii'iidnrer. in theory, hut "ill it act in prat tiro. But perhaps Mr Holhuiil has had a nie.xsnee Irom Spotihland from l.onl Xortliclilfe. who in his last messitee said that he had to work for the suit of clothes he was wearing,; "hollier Lord Xortliclilfe had to make the suit, himself from material he obtained from the mail who produced the cloth and which my lord

paid for with cahhaoes from his cahhap;e patch, or whether it was ready made. Was not stated. COXTKXT AXD HAPPIXESS WAXTKD.

1 As we do not want a Socialistic- State ami as the great majority do not want a tyrannical form of capitalism, there is one way out to bring about a fair share of content and happiness for the workers and also give fair romunerait ion to the capitalists for their services, and that is l.v sending men tn l Parliament who will see that the workI ers get a fair deal and the capitalists j get their just rights—men who arcneither interested in capital or labour, j hut who like to get the host out ot .liie and at the same time see that | everyone else gets the host. A\ ho are I the men that could net as arhitraj tors between the two extremes, it may j he. asked, in the dictionary, it is said j that “liberal" means ‘‘generous, am- • pie, profuse, favourable to reform or | progress, not too literal or .strict, free; : one wlu» advocates greater political j freedom.” Well here it is: The genei ral public (who should he liberal in : things that effect themselves) should 'see that they send the men to Parliament who have the greatest liberal principles—not Conservatives, because the workers regard them as their ■ common ice ; not Reformers, because reform, is a vague word which means nothing, conveys nothing and takes you nowhere: not independents, been use the wind blows them any way and sometimes they never know where they are; not Socialists on Communists, because they are the destroyers ol civilisation j and the breakers of Empires. If a I man is a Liberal he ■•'ill see that some of the unscrupulous capitalists—that is the big trusts—will not exploit the worker: and perhaps if men of liberal prir.eiph-s could he p. laced in Parliament they would make a law that would put an end to profiteering.—hut. it is to be hoped, not such a scheme as the fnreial Profiteering Tribunal that was the laughing stock of the country during the war period. A system should he devised anil can he devised if we -are to have industrial pence in this country. Mr Holland says there is no difference between the Liberals and Conservatives, but let the broadminded and fair men of this glorious

Dominion bund together and put forward a policy that will bo acceptable to the workers and middle-classes alike; well, then it is up to the electors to see that these men are elected by a thumping majority. I!ut the men who stand under the liberal cloak should make no vague promises, that is. promises that are utterly impossible of accomplishment-, hut just tell the public plainly what they think is right and just, and when elected proceed to carry it into effect. It is not. intended in this article to point out some of the injustices and crudities of the present system, hut without a. doubt th, system wants altering, and men of broad liberal principles should be tin cues for the job.