Political Action.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 51, 1 March 1912, Page 6

Political Action.

By BALLOT-BOX

"Where Law ends, Tyranny begins." — | Chatham. Sorry I cannot agree with "P.C.," but I welcome him in these columns as a fair controversialist. He falls out with my remark from Alison, and casts aspersions on the dead, but gets but little further before he digs up a dead man himself-- Paine— to confute mc with. He says the laws we now have we could do without. This is a bold assertion, but never mind. "Thousands of these (laws) we do not know; thousands more are out of date; all of them have been written by tho hand of the dead to control the hand of the living." Not quite. Was it the dead that made the strike, legally speaking, a "continuous act" in New Zealand? Was it the "hand of the dead" that framed the Act that placed young Cornish in Mt. Cook prison? Is "Leg Iron" Wade dead? Surely not, frieaid. These people were very much alive, and I believe in being politically alive, too, and storming every legislative citadel in tho land and altering in the manner I indicated in my article every iniquitous law we can find upon our Statute Book. In this connection let mc quote from Thomas Paine —he is your own authority: "It requires but a very small glance of thought to perceive that, although laws made in one generation often continue in force through succeeding generations, yet they derive their force from, the consent of the living." Tliis is .before mc as I write in Paine's "Rights of Man," 1895 edition, part 2, page 281. I assert we should not give our consent. We should give these things our political dissent; erase them from the Statute Book, so that our children and our children's children may not be confronted with them. Let mc get done with Paine, while I am upon him; and let mc tell you that he will not bear out your theory nor your arguments upon the question at issue. In the introduction to the book already referred to, what do you think of the following by M. D. .Conway? "Paine was the inspirer of moderate counsels (vi.). Paine was endeavoring to make the movement in France (i.e., the Revolution) peaceful (vii.) ; he was endeavoring to preserve the French throne (phantom though he believed it) to prevent bloodshed. Paine had faith in the people, and believed that if allowed to choose representatives they would select their best and wisest men (viii.)." What for, 1 wonder, if not to govern, to make laws, and maintain older, the same as I propose now. Once more: ''That civil government is necessary all civilised nation* agree." (p. 3U7). You say, in the face of all this, "the laws we have we could do without." You cannot do without law of some sort. You argue to that later, and tono your attitude down to the words: "Agreements will take the place of laws, honor and righteous justice the place of word-juggling." You write in tho future tew so, friend. That is significant. Who is going to bo the arbiter of this honor and righteous justice you mention, I should like to know, and how is it going to be applied to the people if not through some system of laws? Call them rules and regulations, if you like. I shall not quarrel about a word. Pauie, as 1 read him, was out for law and constitutionalism and political action. His whole book, from which I have quoted, is a complete defence and reply to Edmund Burke. Burko was out for a monarchy; Paine was out for republicanism. Any intelligent reader can prove this. 1 appeal to readers to test for themselves. You do not interpret the American War as I do. I deny that two years were spent without constituted authority in the States or without legislators—that is, people who represented tho will of tho people for the time being. I speak of tho States collectively, of course. I deny that the people of the States were opposed to political action, and I deny that the people of America were against law; and I think it is only fair to- ask you to prove to the contrary in these pages from the testimony of standard historians. Remember, the Americans fought because they were denied political representation'and political action in the British Parliament. Else their cry: "No taxation without representation," did not mean anything. .1 know they changed this cry later to "No legislation without representation," but still they meant political action—and they took it, too! They mot in Congress. Thov drew up a constitution of their own', and declared their independence, and backed up their position with the sword, but they never denied political action being a good thing. "Even in tho first open conflict," says the Encyclopaedia Brit., vol. 23, p.' 74.5), "tho colonists were careful to base thoir case on their legal right" (to , use tho King's highway). Page 7.18 speaks of tho colonists a-s "fond of law and the forms of law." i Turning the point, friend, can you tell mo how you explain tho action of Debs in this same America in our day? If political action is no use, can you explain to mc why tho women of England are iinhtine so strenuously for the

A Reply to " Propaganda Committee."

franchise, if it is not to use it politically.. Political action. Do you vote yourself;- Yon should not, you know, according to your own gospel, for voting is political action; iv spite of your attack on my definition, your vote and n>y vote express our political will, and may yet-have an eilect on industrial and political destinies, notwithstanding your thinking so little of the influence of twenty years of politics upon the pcopfe. Dear friend and comrade, if political action is no good, how do you explain the fact tliat the Boers looked for it and took to it so generally after the war, until they now dominate the politics of nearly every assembly in the South African Union ? How do you explain the fact that both Mohammedan and Hindu fought, agitated, and appealed so to obtain representation on the Council ruling India? Do you think the Irish National Party could havo done better otherwise than they did politically under O'Connell and Paruell and Davitt and Redmond? You talk of the worker learning the true philosophy all of a fell swoop some Sunday afternoon from a soap-box, and you admit elsewhere that the educational side of our position is an important one, and education, you know, does not happen thus: Sunday afternoon—soapbox —capitalism exposed—economic triumph of listener 1 No, education is of slow application, slow growth, slow fruition. It is just as well that it is ■o. Talking soap-box, I apprehend that it is Socialism you refer to. Remember' that in the cradle and the home of Socialism, the Socialists are out for political action by the million. So they are in France; tlney are preparing now for a great political tussle in Belgium. Why not political action here? There is a weight of practical evidence against you. You havo not proved that law as evolved by a legislature is no use. You have actually proved it is. "As soon as a product of nature has served its purpose it begins to decay." This is a scientific truth, say you. Yes, it is; it is a law, friend. Thero is law in the vegetable kingdom ; there is law in the mineral kingdom ; in the animal kingdom ; law among the stars; law everywhere; and the sooner we ""take political action and make better laws than some yon allude to, the better for us and the bettor for our posterity. Listen to Lord Macaulay: "For thousands of years civil government has existed in almost every corner of tho world, in ages of priestcraft, in ages of fanaticism, in ages of epicurean indifl'eaience, in ages of enlightened piety. However pure or impure the faith of the people might be, whether they adored a beneficent or a malignant power, whether they thought the soul mortal or immortal, they have, as soon as they ceased to be absolute savages, found out their need of civil government and instituted it accordingly."— Essay on. Southey. I'll trouble you no more about the need of government and its product-— law. You have not proved that it is unnecessary by concluding your sentence with these words:—"Therefore, 8.8., no necessity for law appearing, thero can bo no necessity for law-mak-ers." That's like telling mc: There being no moro cigarettes, no use for cigarette smokers. Or, thero being no moro engines, no further need for engincdrivers. Two will go into four evenly, but if there were no four, two would not go into it. No, it would not. But there arc fours and engines and laws, too, and wo must have law-makers. Have you no laws in your union? No miles in your club? "No city by-laws in your street? I sco with you that tho whole (of capitalistic government) falls into dust; that tho institutions wo have totter; and I would get into them ere order turns to chaos. I see that tho time is coming when tho workers will (gin they would) bo free, and 1 hail tho day along with you, good friend; but remember we stand upon the brink of confusion daily, and I would put into political power the representatives of tho only class able to control affairs — tho men with tho big industrial organisations at their backs —and I would do it now for educational reasons alone. I see something ahead, dear friend, and dear reader, which spells something a little moro than tho freedom of the worker, dear as that is. I see the day fast coming when, having assumed the ownership of the implements of production, distribution, and exchange, wo shall havo to control them; control the people; control tho State; and I want tho workers to be educationally enlightened as to how to do it, and political action, will greatly help. If the word is Revolution, let it bo revolution from the inside. I'm an "in" fighter. I believe in giving my political blows from the insido of tho legislature as well as from the outs.'do. To conclude with a practk-al demonstration, consistent with all 1 have written in this resect, I hope on the first Monday, or the second Tuesday, or tho third Wednesday, or whatever day in April tho municipal elections of' Wellington are held, that the City leathers will receive a bump at the bal-lot-l>ox—a bump from the organised workers of the city. _ I hope that a waterside cyclone, assisted by a political tramway will relegate the majority of them to political oblivion. I await "P.C.'s" next with interest.