EXTRAVAGANCE OF CLASS BIAS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2548, 27 February 1923, Page 4

EXTRAVAGANCE OF CLASS BIAS.

FOR ALL WRONGS BLAME THE GOVERNMENT.

The present Socialist Labour members in our Parliament evidently regard the House as a medium of propaganda for their peculiar social or unsocial doctrines. Their never ending cry is. that practically “all ills that flesh is heir to” are due to the Government, the financiers, the capitalists, the employers. The lengths to which their class prejudice is carried must impress people l with the conviction that many of their pronouncements are more- weighted with bias than will allow for the exercise of reason and common .sense. To blame the Government for everything wrong is an easy way in which to exhibit our own benevolences, but in time people come to discredit the criticism that follows such extravagant lines. We are told for instance, that the Government here lias not N solvcd the problem of housing, unemployment, Labour conditions, etc., and the public is invited to regard the Government as exceptionally wicked on this account. The judgment, however, must be tempered by the knowledge which.is general that these very same problems are plagueing the Governments of other countries besides our own. So far as we can learn even where Labour Governments are in power these important problems have not been solved. It is a question whether New Zealand has not gone as far in a practical way in dealing with such issues as most other lands. Still the Socialist members will aver that all the wrong existing is due to the Government and the Capitalists. This attitude of mind is akin to that of certain theological mtinded individuals who keep the devil ever before us as a handy excuse for their own sins. We are asked by these Socialist friends to regard the Government and the Capitalists as political and economic “devils” on whom we can blame our own sins of omission and commission. It is well that our people possess a sense of humour otherwse the wrong resulting from such easy virtue might prdve very serious indeed.

CAUSE OF UNEMPLOYMENT. Discussing the serious question of unemployment the Labour members in Mr Holland’s party find a simple way of .arriving at the cause. They ignore the European situation; the economic results of the great war; the changes in the currency; the state of market —indeed, they ignore every factor but their own bias and name the Government and Capitalists as the sole cause. Mr L. Mcllvride (Napier) speaking in tlte House said—“ The Government had done nothing to solve the unemployment problem, because the Government was under orders of the big financiers who engineered unemployment to force down wages. They would- not be satisfied until the workers were reduced to the condition of coolies. The unemployed problem would never be-set-tled and the workers would not get justice until the power was taken out of the hands of the financiers.” Wicked financiers! Well, the Russian Soviet Republic dispense with the power of the financiers with what results? There were created in Russia worse evils than even our occasional unemployment. Stagnation of industry, distress and finance,' and the release sought by a return" of the much abused fin-anderse-with capital for development of the -country.

Why should capitalists engineer unemployment?. Does it pay them to have works stopped and their capital remaining idle bringing them in no return? According to the Socialist doctrines the Capitalist’s wealth is created front the .surplus value produced by the workers in employment. Are we then asked to believe that the. wicked Capitalists deliberately cut off the source of their own incomes by deciding to prevent the workers producing to augment their profits? Surely everybody knows that a period of depression strikes the business man, the employer, the financier just as well as the workmen. In this country we remember the serious state of unemployment after 1890 —many went bankrupt, business firms closed, banks were shaken. The idea that Capitalists engineer '-unemployment to force down wages is to consider them mere children who do not know

where their own interest lies. Employer’s seek to reduce labour costs, often they are forced to, but it is done that they may keep going and continue to employ labour. It pays nobody to have unemployment amongst us for though the workers wages come-'down the Capitalists profits fall also. It is simply an excessive bias which leads these Socialists to assume that unemployment is thus artificially created and, of course, there is tlie other aspect that the cry is used for the political end of stirring up class passion in order to benefit their own class constituted party. 'When our people come to think collectively such a ridiculous class appeal will lose its force and its danger. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)