THE “SQUARE DEAL”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8346, 5 February 1913, Page 6

THE “SQUARE DEAL”

The yawning gulf between ’ ‘’Reform’ ’ promise and reform is widening with the lapse of time. The Napier “Telegraph ” scores one or two points in this respect which are too good to escape reproduction. “ During the last elections,” says our contemporary, “ Sir 'Massey, then seeking to bp returned to the House in order that he might resume his position .there as leader of the Opposition, with a view to obtain the labour vote went hither and thither preaching that he and his party were anxious to give labour ‘ a square deal.’ This implied that hitherto labour had not been squarely dealt with, as well as declared that he would remedy this. Wo get an idea of what his party thinks of a ‘ square deal ’ by an article which appeared in its Wellington organ on Friday last. AVo give two short extracts from it. The first—with which, by thp way, wo find no fault—refers to the dynamite outrages in the United, States, and is as follows: ‘ln that year a campaign of dynamite was inaugurated, and in the following five years no fewer than 100 explosions took place, destroying works in process of construction by open-shop concerns.’ The second concerns labour efforts in New Zealand, and is as follows: ‘ln New Zealand we have seen a labour body emulating the lawlessness of the American terrorists. There is no difference in kind, but only in degree, between the successful labour dynamiters of America and the Foderationists who established a reign of terror in Waihi.’ Now, it happens to bo our opinion, an opinion we have frequently expressed, that what took place at Waihi was a grievous blunder, hut it is also our view—and wo think it will ho that of ninety-nine out of every hundred men ■ —that those who can describe the strike proceedings at Waihi as ‘ emulating the lawlessness of the American terrorists,’ must bo lost to every sense of truth and honesty. Truly, labour is getting a ‘ square deal ’—of ‘ stoush ’ from ‘ Reform.’ ”