FALLACIES OF ANTI-SOCIALISTS.

Shannon News, 12 May 1922, Page 3

FALLACIES OF ANTI-SOCIALISTS.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—Your correspondent “Rationis” in his vague and inaccurate epistle of last week asserts as a piece of news that there are many “capitalists" of altruistic (unselfish) views and helpful lives. He should define ms idea of a “capitalist.” Who would grudge a competence to any man who, by patient industry of body or brain has gained his wealth? Who is there with any but the kindliest feelings of admiration for. such men as Edison, Marconi, Cadbury, and scores of others in varied walks of life? These have added to the welfare of the world. But there are the foreign financiers who have used the Old Country as bloodsuckers do, who, have engineered wars to> increase then already great wealth; and those who are described in a very old Book as “grinding the faces of the poor. Against these true Socialism does, and always will, wage ceaseless war. Strange, indeed, almost comical, it is that many of those so loud in the spurious “loyalty” that supports this

s*tate of things (not the loyalty that

means love of our dear country) i should also be anxious to introduce into our schools the most Bolshevik book in the world! For whole-heart-ed, indiscriminate curses on the rich, let me recommend you to look up your Bibles. There, the rich man •; represented as lifting up his eyes in hell, “being in torment,” and begging the beggar (who is in heaven) to' wet the tip of his finger to ease the rich man’s burning tongue, “for I am tormented in this flame.” Throughout a long life, among all sorts and conditions of men, the writer has never met a Bolshevist, much less a Socialist, who would not be staggered by the suggestion of such an eternity of torture for the worst specimen of a capitalist extant. But if we have in New Zealand anything that can be termed a capitalist—one of altruistic tendencies —how splendid an opening the present state of things offers to his interest and surplus wealth. When his needs and luxuries are supplied, that surplus would run roads through backblocks, build schools there and furnish homes for teachers—an immense boon to lonely farms, providing at the same time work for those who need it. It could pay sufficient additional nurses for our hospitals, easing the heavy labours of those at present employed, and making it possible for the sick to have the attention they need, and, at present, so lamentably lack.—l am, etc., SPECTATOR. Shannon, May 8, 1922..