The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1919. LABOUR AND POLITICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10292, 29 May 1919, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1919. LABOUR AND POLITICS

“We moderates are fast approaching the position that we must choose one of two courses: (1) Capitulate to the extremists, or (2) proceed with the development of a loyal party on the lines of the old United Labour Party, with its excellent programme of progressive political proposals. Thus writes Mr Veitch, member for Wanganui, to the Press of that town. The stand so taken by him is timely, courageous, and in the best interests of the Labour Tarty itself. The extremists of the type of Mr Holland are all* for'-revolutionary methods; our. Industrial, system must not be improved by steadily and firmly adapting and moulding it to produce the fairest and best results for the community—it must be tom up' by the roots and destroyed; and instead of any welldevised and practical new system being proposed, we have from men of this type only hysterical rhetoric, wild chimeras, and the language of flagrant disloyalty. No wonder a true, levelheaded friend of Labour like Mr Veitch’ has to disown such associates and such methods, and in denouncing both to.speak put plainly to the workers themselves. “What this country needs,” says Mr Veitch, “is not industrial warfare, which is a greater Injury to wage-earners than to- anyone else, but a strong and courageous policy of industrial development.” Surely, that great section of Labour which does not shout revolution and disloyalty, but is silent and sensible, realises the undoubted truth of these words. Industrial development must proceed upon the lines of a radicallyimproved system of production, distribution, and ' consumption. Increased production is essential to the permanent betterment of the wage-earners. Scarcity of necessary commodities must sooner or later increase their price, and so raise the cost of living, but the necessary increased production must be made to accompany an increase in the share of it, the worker gets. This illustrates the madness of the “go-slow” policy in a country in which Labour, with its great numerical majority can, by constitutional means, so mould. our system of the distribution of wealth as to make the wage-earners by far the larger gainers from increased production. This is what Mr Veitch sees and urges. As he points out, history is full of warnings against Labour’s looking to revolutionary methods for any real or permanent advantage. Mob violence against vested interests in the great struggles of the past has in every case resulted in entrenching these interests more powerfully. Sometimes the struggle has resulted in some change of ownership, but the relationship of the proletariat to the propertied classes was not improved for the former. It is a far cry from to-day to the date of our nation’s Magna Charta, but in the long interval the masses of’ our nation have fought steadily for political freedom. The most priceless instrument of true liberty Is manhood suffrage, and the ballot-box is the real seat of government. If the workers of New Zealand will take counsel with their true friends—among whom we count iMr Veitch—and devise such modifications and improvements in our industrial system as will secure to them *ll they reasonably want, they can, by peaceful constitutional methods, translate their demands into law. To resort to physical violence to redress wrong or injustice while such effective political means are available, is to revert to the barbarism which preceded the era of law and order.