Is This a Free Country ?

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 1, Issue 37, 3 June 1890, Page 2

Is This a Free Country ?

The Wairarapa Daily wants to know if New Zealand is a free country, or are we to be governed by unionism ? We presume by this that our contemporary thinks that if we are governed by unionism we will not be free. For our part we are quite willing to run the risk, for our experience has been, that in. the past labour has been a slave to capital—it has been slavery pure and simple—and all those who have any knowledge of the subject are fully aware of the fact. We think it is Byron who says, “ The first day makes man a slave takes half his worth away.” And we are quite certain that half the worth has been away from many a good man who has not been able to break the bonds which have encircled him owing to the laws which have allowed capital to exercise such unlimited sway. We have no complaints to make against capitalists as a class, but it is the system which gives them the power to inflict so much misery on others through excessive competition. W$ thjnk it is nearly time some organised power stepped in to regulate matters a little inore equitably, and put a stop to slavery and slave-driving* A commis-

sion was appointed some years ago it England to. ascertain the cause of tin prevailing depression, and ’the con elusion they arrived at was that it was in consequence of over-production. Does it not seem strange that at that time thousands of people were in a state of serai-starvation, and yet the world was producing more than it required ? This shows that there was more than enough for all our requirements. Then why should people be in want when, if it was more equally distributed, they would have plenty and to spare ? We say that it is quite possible to regulate matters so that all will be able to live in comparative comfort, as it was intended that we should, and if it bad not been for the injustice which caused so much hardship on the majority of human beings, Trades Unions would never have been necessary, they have been the outcome of an unchecked and vicious system of enslaving labour to create capital. We are not at all uneasy about this country not being free, nor do we see why the working men who constitute the majority should not have as big a say in the matter as a selfish minority, or, in other words, is money going to constitute the sole right to govern the country, or is labour allied with justice.