The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15, 1917. A DEMOCRATIC CANKER.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 15 February 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 15, 1917. A DEMOCRATIC CANKER.

(■With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimariuo News).

Seven years ago the people of Australia, at the general elections, cast their votes in favour of the Labour Cabinet, the Labour Party being given a majority in both Houses. Labour Government has been on its trial for seven years, and despite the prophecies to the contrary it has earned a name for the evolution of statesmanship which no .other political section .can give a lead to.. Andrew Fisher and W. Hughes are in the Hr out rank of Empire statesmen, and it was because of the selection of such men t.s the present day Australian labour is discarding as back numbers time mb our government became hist tciciaed, and afterwards entnusiasticully <*P piauded and standardised. With the destinies of Australia entirely in their hands, the Labour Cabinet became the most powerful administration tlm Com monwealth had’ ever known. It Hood the test of time and did nothing to forfeit the confidence of the great majority of electors. Ministers showed themselves capable administrators and their legislation was quite in accord

with the national aspirations oi Australia. Among the foremost planks of the labour platform was a new land tax; compulsory military training up to the age of 25 years; a new protection which provided for regulation of wages and of prices in protected industries; the nationalisation of monopolies, of mines, and the establishment, of a state Bank; a White Australia was on the fighting platform of the party. The finance of the party re presented by Fisher, Hughes, Pearce and fellow-members of labour cabinets has been of the highest order and has instanced a striving for the highest ideals of democratic government, and it was becoming gnu-rally accepted that the Labor;: n.n'y had discovered administrators in whom npt only Australia, but the whale Empire , could place thea utmost trust. ~ The world ’-.ed given no better opportunity for democracy to evolve conditions which democratic idealists were aiming to strain, but the m.-lnuaiiag canker known as the 1.W.W., commenced its deadly destructive work at the base v lan labour structure, gradually convening its virus through the whole mild those who earned for labour the a*, me and position it enjoyed were as-oaiu-a and even expelled from party -anxsations. Labour rnd democratic Turds have been ddod for sabot- ■ and mm y. y • r2C pntlv rts.'Clcued desk active agency. Austral-

ia‘s honourable position in the Empire has been forfeited, and labour government has been discredited. No better object lesson could be made available to labour in New Zealand; no stronger evidence could be forthcoming to prove how jealously labour should guard itself against the insane ele-

ments tuat have wrought such havoc in Australia. “With sane, intelligent leadership New Zealand labour has everything to gain; it is on the threshold to the destiny room of the country, will it have the backbone to keep clear of the German-made 1.W.W., whose acts of sabotage and murder have placed an inerasible stain on tnc name of democracy in Australia? Like Australia, we desire a white New Zealand, but to regard the Germanism of the I.W.W. as white will work out as disastrously here as it is doing in Australia. The exploitation and thieving proclivities of trust and monopoly fiends are extremely irritating, but in efforts to assert their rights is it necessary or politic for labour leaders to broadcast misery and want throughout labour homes, and possibly imperil that about which labour is most concerned? Some stupid resentment by leaders who are wanting in self-con-trol in the present waterside trouble, may yet precipitate a crisis that will throw the democratic cause back for many years. After a magnificent showing and years of admirable work, the destructive I.W.W. elements which Australian labour has tolerated, have now ended labour’s governing career, and before it can be rehabilitated some drastic reorganisation will be necessary. The democratic or labour party is a large and rapidly-growing power in New Zealand politics, and no party is wise that continues as though it had no existence. It is fast assuming proportions and an organisation that must result in great political changes, and to disregard this fact is little short of sheer madness. As with Australia, New Zealand has little to fear, and perhaps a good deal to gain from a labour government, but all experiences of the past have deihonstrafed most clearly, even to the .present day in Australia, that the I.W.W. canker, with which New Zealand democracy seems toHie growingly affected, will spell disaster to the democratic cause. We would warn labour against the I.W.W. pro-German-ism that,seems to be vigorously promulgating, fallacies with much plausibility that must militate against the highest ideals of democracy.