WHAT THE WORKERS WANT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2685, 19 January 1924, Page 4

WHAT THE WORKERS WANT.

FREEDOM AND FAIR LIVING. Tlie Reds in our midst, and even those who may be classed as pink, are constantly engaged in conveying the idea that what the workers in the mass are yearning for is a revolution. They picture the wage earners conditions even in this much favoured country, as being those of down-trodden serfs. This description is repeated so often as to make it an article of Lahour faith which is rank heresy to doubt. Yet, in spite of all the false leaching, the generality of New Zealand workers know that they are not serfs or slaves or very badly done by. The average worker does not want any revolution but, just like other citizens, lie desires improvement in his living conditions. Without the constant agitation of doctrinaire revolutionists the wage earners would estimate conditions as they really are and recognise that, on the whole, life is ! fairly good iii this little country and there is much personal freedom nobody would care to lose it. It is because the workers of themselves do not ask for an overturning of society, the establishment of a Socialist Republic, or the adoption of Communism, that the Red parties find it necessary’'to carry on continuous propaganda in the way of class, war preaching. Large sums of money, emissaries from outside, agitators within, permeation of all social structures —all these arc being widely used to convince the New Zealand workers wluAfe own intelligence ought surely tb'be a sufficient guide to them to follow. The workers do not believe that they are groaning under tyraifny and opression, therefore the Reds work strenuously to convince them of what easily mastered. Let us say here that we doubt, very much if some of these socialist advocates actually.believe in the pictures they draw of state of society. We find that most of them do very well in this land of enslavement and we remember that political socialist agitation has become a lucrative profession whilst the shiboleths of the cult are very easily mustered. When we meet the workers of our country as individuals we find them fair and reasonable. They want such wage as will enable them to keep themselves and their dependents in reasonable comfort; they want to see their children educated; they want to have freedom in the matter of what religion, politics, and other pursuits they shall espouse; they want, generally, to lead their own lives and leave other people to do the same. All of these desires are just, fair and reasonable, and were this the Labour we were asked to vote for, we know that business people would give it a large amount of support. This Labour does not want to smash capital or play tricks with the defence and constitution of our country —it is sane Labour seeking reasonable ends. Then comes the socialist advocates, most of them drawing their inferences from conditions that have never obtained in New Zealand. They apply their imported ideas and prejudices to onr country’s affairs and usurp the name oi Labour to serve their own politico and personal ends. Unfortunately we find these advocates of doctrines on the lines of Russian Sovietism, meeting with support in Nov Zealand because it has become t fashion, politically, to vote anythin? that is called Labour. Working mei like business men, and others, an very often indolent-in regard to po lities, and are easily misled by tin skill of plausible speakers. Tin Reds are professionals who under stand (lie art of /plnusibilily, (hey know, bow to cover the poisfm of re volution' with the coating of humanitarian professions. They .an “all things to all men” for the saki of votes. True Labour, by which we menr actual working operatives, arc ii (be main moderate, reasonable and just. This, however, should nol blind us to the fact, that (he political socialist party, which calls itself Labour, is moderate only as a cover for its extreme purposes, and that it cares nothing for reason or .justice where these stand in the way of its avowed purpose of revolutionising society and creating a class dictatorship of which it will lie constituted master and controller. That is the Labour we have to guard against. (Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League.)