STATE SOCIALISM. The State as a Universal Provider.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 73, 23 November 1901, Page 8

STATE SOCIALISM. The State as a Universal Provider.

THE Kew Zealand Workers Union is glad that the Government has gone into the coal industry, for it sees in the action a cUteimmation to cut down fuel rates, and to give bigger fires for the working man next winter The Union would like the Government to also go into the milling trade, to purvey meat to the people, and to smash every kind of monopoly or trust or tiade combination against which the people now exclaim. This sounds all right on the face of it, but if the Government undertakes to squash one monopoly, fiom a moral standpoint it is bound to put a corrective foot down on every other monopoly. What a delightful prospect ' * » • If the idea is carried to its logical conclusion, the arid working man is bound to get a twopenny Government beer almost at once. He will, if the Government acts up to the principle laid down, be able soon to obtain a few words of legal advice for Is 3d, or ring up the Government chimney sweep, and get him to operate at statutory rates. He may call in the Government dentist to make him a set of teeth at a tithe of the rates now charged Then, again, the Government, in its perfection of administration, must buy up all the house property (we mean under the Public Works Act, of course), and let a, house at something less than a third of the working man's wages. * * ♦ It will, of course, go into the turnip and cabbage line, and the country will know John Chinaman no more It will, naturally, prohibit the sale of foreign wines, and plant vines for the supply of Parliamentary banquets. In its earnest endeavours for the public good, it must necessarily curtail the monopoly of talk allowed to the members of the House, as its effect is to impoverish the Treasury by wasting time at the expense of the people. We are creeping one step ahead in State socialism every time the Government opens up another shop If it advances its ideas and extends its premises, soon it will be the only employer.