The Editorial “I”

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 13

The Editorial “I”

I Have received tlie following letter •. — Comrade:—ln your editorial notes o.f last week in a paragraph dealing with Huntly, yoxi have some remarks dealing .with the question of voting or abstention, or using the ballot paper by writing , the word Socialism on it. ■: ■You say you 'have little or no sympathy with either of the above methods. We are to treasure the franchise and use it to register our class conscious opinions. Quite -co !■ • But how ? If there is .no .. candidate definitely standing, for.the working , class, it is impossible.!. ;; .. ■ If -there-is no Socialist candidate, .how can a voter register a class conscious' vote? .1 remember ■'■being canvassed on v the evening- of-the election -day'in the Old Country. ■■•,-,' "Yoir'v.e not been to vote," said: the canvasser. "Xa; and I'm not going to vote." "But surely-you are not going to waste your voter ,,, .. ■ : ."That is exactly'what I'm.not going to. dp:" . - - ' "But you say yea? "will not go to vote. Then you^are go-ijigto waste- your vote. , '" . ''.No! Xb-ne of these candidates.- can possibly represent mc. And.if I vote for a" man.who will not, and eaniiot, represent mc, I do worse than waste my vote. I vote for a man who will do his best to prevent mc getting- what I want." . . "But. if you don't use your vote you waste it." "Nothing of the kind. llore I have a .Jijilf-sp-veroigrc. If I walked aleng the ro"iid"',autt looked- at the shops, but saw nothing; J. needed, do you mean to say if I didn't buy anything that I ehoukl liave 'wasted my money-? a bit of it. If ' thaee -was. nothing , r\wan tod my monev -vfoixlfl he no use to me"\ There is no Socialist,candidate, and -other

kind is no use to mc, and my .vote is useless/ ,, . . - ■ ' ' •' This ecems to mc about the position in this country, and I J m glad to note you think by next election we must liave candidates in- many more places. • It seems to mc we can have, no better method of finding out where*the Socialist vote -will" bo worth considering, and where we have a Sociaist following, than by all Socialists going to the poll and marking their papers "Socialism." It takes a, strong mind to go and deliberately ■ refrain irom voting, for. what is often called "the lesser evil," and I should say for every ballot paper marked -' Socialism,"" we have at least three who would vote for a Socialist candidate. Ii these liad a candidate to work and fight for they could soon influence a large luimber of other voters. If tliea-e were thne--to organise this matter I feel quite sure that the number of spoiled ballot would be siich' that politicians of all kinds would see, they must consider the Socialist vote.— .Yours for Socialism. NEWCmjM>

In justice to the many who think lite "New Chum/ I feel this letter ought to appear before the elections, though wo are too near going to press to permit ot any satisfying consideration of the pro:'blein. "New Churn," however, doesnt appear to have perceived that I was indi•'eating the folly of first refusing to register our classTCpnscious opinion—in other words a/bstaining from putting forward a candidate— and.' then cutting off our nose to spite our face by voting for nothing nor nobody! In the absence o" a chance to register a class-consvious vote J do not see why we should not register 'Jβ, sensible vote. Surely the men of Huntly have opinions and interests at stake even though they cannot vote for Socialism. Conscription, Bible in State Schools, Bare Majority,- Mining Eegulations, are all in .the fray. It is better to >ote for a lot of what yott don't want and get a little yo\i do want than by not voting get-more of what you don't want! I cannot swallow "New. Chum's" reasoning—obviously a vote not used is a vote wasted, and a half-soy. not spent is a half-sovi xxselees. The politicians, I fancy, do not require us to proclaim the apathy and ignorance of the community in the way of adding to the total of nonrecorded and informal votes in order to realise that they must consider the Socialist voto! They're already considering it, and ready to. do-, a great deal to get it at Huntly. Anyhow, why should "New Chum" want "them to consider a vote he would never let them haver— THJSJJYE* . *■.'