In Our Opinion

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 65, 7 June 1912, Page 1

In Our Opinion

A FlTi'lT discussing the morili its I,l' Tuft and .Roosevelt, an Amen- ■ cull paper wittily nays: "UV fclaml lor: the survival of flu; fattest." "iatt is aumtthing like. 20 stone in weight. f — T.-UT has ilwlnwil tliat the election ot ■"LV-ri-ible Teddy" to (tic .Presidency of tho United States would ■entail the wreck of the Kepublican Party. Tbe Ivcpubliean Party will t» wrecked, not by a Tnft or a Jioosevelt, but. by the jiwak»ii(jd intelligence nf the masses. • 53HFO1M0 the fool workers sla.rt fighi- > iug with each other on the score oi veli"-hjii, tluev want to have a look wound to we what'foe "his.li and mighty" are Join". .Rothschilds, we arc jnlovmcd, hnawe the Vatican in its many undertakings. The fact of (he Kofk-H-nilds WinWcws and the head of the Vatican bwiug the. Pone of Koine causes pleasantness in business matters. They are too intelligent for that sort of tlmv.fr. 'Tis only the fool workers who allow sectarianism fo stand between them and their mutual interests. —4 lACTANTIUS. who wrote in the begin- - ning of tlie Fourth Oi ntury, insists that "it"caii never be lawful for a righteous man to go to war, for his warfare is unrighteous itsolf. It in not murder that, God rebukes; the civil laws punish that. Clod's prohibition is intended for those nets w-hich men considered lawful. Therefore], it is not permitted for a Christian to bear arms; justice is his armor. The Divine command admits no exceptions man is sacred, and it is always a crime to take his life." We seem to have wandered from the path trodden by these early Christian teachers. Romodav the trail will bo rediscovered by our Christian fnewts. » ONI] of tlio most remarkable' freaks cjver unearthed is the person 'Vho was a Socialist and didm't know it." It is quite, possible, tliat some such strange creature exists upon this planet, but it has nr'ver been the writer's pood fortune to happen across one. AVill the reader who strikes the trail of this human oddity follow h'ui to his lair, enquire into his habits, the number of years which have elapsed since he o-eaped from the lunatic asylum, and any other interesting data that might be knocking around regarding hi m —then forward same post haste to this office? We are mightily interested— indeed, we are. — ■ ■ TiTo Daily Lyre continues to twang, and though subsisting on the workers' pennies, never fails to tiurn and rend th© working class at every opportunity. Novo the following: Tn a big type j h'eadin? we have the words, "Socialists TtebuflVd." T'ns report tells of Waihi holding a meeting at Thames to explain the Waihi difficulty. The Twper says: "They sought to jin-'ify the strike." 'It would_ appear that the j Tham'S men were impressed with the; jiwtioo of tho case. But one speaker : asked the Thames men to support their comrades, wheirriu pon someone interjected: "You'll pet out support when you get ' Till of the Socialistic eleivwmt." This , •was merely ono man's opinion, bvlt a i which hates Socialism trios **> j Buggest that ono man's interjection ifi * j rebuff to Socialism. Not so.

IN view «f 111* many people : JL .n Mew Zealand who appar- ! enfcly <uv. of the ojiinion that the cointlitious of thf working-clans here are above criticism, we. mmy frankly admit things are nc/l quite so bad as they are in some of the more thickly-pop-ulated countries of *he world. It would be if thoy were, in such a thinly-populated country as is Maori land at present. But even heif we are not above reproach. Archdeacon Harper recently .stated tliwe were some awful slums in the parish of which lie is in cliargi*. Slums denote something wrong somewhere, «& ptople do not voluntarily go to live in such places if they can get «__ something better. Wluit we wish to [ioint out to those who .ore satisfied that, we are in a little heavem here is the fact that the same eanse will bring the same effects in New Zealand as it has done in England or America. Poverty, prostitution and general misery are the result of years of eommwcialwui in Imtli I hose countries: and unless we make a radical alteration in New Zealand we. will te as deep in the mire as they are as our population increases to something lika the propo.itions it is in the countries named. It is well, then, fur the workers—the suffer; m: study the can sea which have led to th:w result.-: an.l once having set out on this study. tue-"o is only one conclusion—that Socialism is the only remedy. T7IOT.WAT?.) the Fed. fill him with JP dread, brandish the- "big sick" over liis h'rsd. Ours is the right:, strong in our might, Man shall be freed from Doodle's foul blight. List to his howls, puffed are hi« jowls, si* his face twitch in horrihte scowls. His is the feni". his end is near, soon his d^ath-knell will 'ring in our ear. Fat's in the fire, sizzling in ire, licked by the flames in avid desire. Crect ye the toast —"Well may he roast, ifill with a pa'tp he yields up the ■.■host." Forward the. Fed. l,o! he is dead. Labor doth reign in Capital's stead. . «. IT is not often we can agree with the views expressed by chnrrb ■dignitaries on the "live" questions of the day, but we are thoroughly in accord with the remarks of the Per. Father O'F-eilly. president of the St. Stauilaus College. Bnthnrst. as cabled from New South Wales. In an Australia. Day speech. Father O'Reilly said he did not believe in Umpire' Day, because it was observed in a jingo spirit in the Old Country. Young Austriilia had good reason to hate Tmpnrinlism. Australians were deficient in patriotism only because they had been t'aipo-ht to look to Duel and for evorvthinir. "Yet our interests," he added, "are. often conflicting, and in the conflict we must. l>e Australians first." These words are also applicable to New Zealand and New Zealanders. THE long-suffering, mild-eyed cow has furnished a target at which has been heaved much abuse. Not so very long ago it was announced that tho children of farmers in tho Cow Country went to school physically tired through the attention paid' to the cow in the early hours of the morning. Then someone discovered that the cow was responsible for female drudgery, the wives and daughters of the farmers' being practically tied to the cow, so to speak—"slaves to the milkbucket and cow's teat." Now there comes another wail from tho any-afflict-ed territory. The cow is responsible for "killing athletics." The would-be Marathon winners a.nd prospective Jack Johnsons ruefully watch fhoir mighty talents being ab-orbed by that ruthless goddess. Cow? Like the infants and the womenfolk, the embryo world's champions have to bow the knee to "Strawbrirry" or "Polly." and the world is a loser in consequence Why not give up the Cow and avoid all these horrors? Ah! Why not? « WHEN reading in (Hie papers of tho many "crimes" committed in socieity—of thefts, murders, and robljeries, of whioh almost any paper is well supplied—it gives cause for thought as to what constitutes crime. A man is a thief if ho lifts a loaf of bread of which lie .and hw may be in diro need; but the imnster hater is at liberty to beat the. ■public, for many loaves, and co Jong as it lie «aWe<3 busimese no ill result follows to

him. He can do this in two ways easily one by giving short weight and the other by overcharging. Both these methods are called smart business. Murder is only murder under certain conditions. A man may in heat or under great provocation take the life of another person, and stand guilty before the law for this dread crime; but men may be put to work in places where death is a certainty, as in various chemical works and some forms of mining, and nobody is called a murderer when they cease to exist. That is in the wav of business. A man is a roblxu- when he takes something from other people in a different; manner than what the laws allow, but if he sticks within the law he can rob to hiis heart's content. Tho last class of robbers are those who get rich quickest. They very often have hundreds of workers toiling for them, and take most of what those produce in the way of profits. But there is one good feature of modem Irtea policeman is now watching out for all fflie criminals: and although at present unable to effect an arrest, does some send by keeping a. sharp eye on them. TTis name is Socialism. . —-$ — IT is alleged that whenever General "Godk-y is confronted with an antimilitarist he at once exclaims: "Have you road tbe 'Valor of Ignorance, by General Homer Lea-?" Ii tho answer ia "No," the gallant general at once proffers the anti-militarist a copy of the beok. with a request that he will read H and then join the ranks of th* militarist*. A caustic j-cview of this work recently apTMiaaed in t_e "llaranaki HeraM'" Tl* foJkwing excerpt is in-

teresting: "Here is one passage some previous reader has scored as worthy of special note, and it represents the argument that is muddied o'er in the book: 'Whenever a nation becomes excessively opulent and arrogant, at the same, time without military power to defend its opulence and arrogance, it is in a dangerous position.' Military power is to defend, then, excessive opulence and arrogance! The truth conies out at, times. Usually., we are told that it is our hearths and homes, our weeping wives and clinging children, that we are to protect. All I can say is that the nation that is-excessively opulent and arrogant deserves to be in danger, and any sane civilisation demands that it should be." .—*— AS President of the United Labor Party, Hon. J. T. Paul. M.L.C., desires us to state that the circular printed on page 5 was not endorsed by theexecutive of the party nor was it circulated with its approval. At a sitting of the Federation of Labor, both Messrs. Paul and Robertson repudiated the sentiments contained in the circular. We aro glad to make this explanation, but feel that some further explanation is required, and from those who. claiming to represent the U-L.P., issued the circulaT. 1 EDWARD R. HARTLEY is now commencing his West Coast, tour, and we ihave no 'doubt it will toll splendidly fiw •'Socialism and Industrial Unionism.

We would suggest that as far as possible several meetings in each centre bo arranged, for Hartley lias several 100 : turos all should hoar. In addition to his specific exposition of Socialism, we believe his analytical but simple loc-turo ;on the complex subject oi "Money could be beard with .educative value, ! while a yarn to the womenfolk and his i .book talk are fraternally useful. Then, ■every effort should be made to bring . forward the questioners. Hartley is superb in answering questions, dispelling doubts, and overcoming difficulties. We wish to add that E.R.H.'s "Or■ganiser's Notes" and other contributions to this paper are attracting wide notice and admiration.