A STARTLING POLITICAL LESSON.

Taihape Daily Times, 5 October 1918, Page 4

A STARTLING POLITICAL LESSON.

The electors of Wellington Central have registered the strongest voce of condemnation of the National Government's action in connection with the cost of living question that law and circumstances have made possible, and no set of adventitious acts have operated in favour of the candidature and election of Mr. Fraser, the Socialist, more "than those for which the Mayor of Wellington and the tramwaymen are responsible. It can scarcely be believed that of the some nine.; thousand voters in Wellington Central about half of them are so obsessed with anarchic principles as to seek to be represented in Parliament by one who seems to have no regard for the laws of his country, who flouts them with impunity and has to serve a long term of imprisonment as a consequence. One connot help feeling pride in seeing a worker step almost from the lowest rung of the ladder to the. highest in one stride, and there was not a just-mintled man in the country who did not admire the natural ability, acumen and humane conscientiousness of the late Mr Robert Fletcher."He was chosen to represent Wellington Central on grounds almost diametrically opposed to those on which Mr. Fraser becomes a member of Parliament. His power amongst the people was in his observance of the law and his determination to benefit the masses by lawful means; but judging by Mr. Fraser's career since war was declared his methods are of the Bolshevik! order, having been arrested in Wellington on twd or three occasions, and having served a 'term of imprisonment in Wellington jail. There is something, however, to be said in Mr. Fraser's favour; he, in his youthful days, served in a very hard school, being born a Scotchman in the shire of Ross. There are very few places on earth in which labour was under a harder and heavier heel than in Scotland and .there is utmost reason for believing that the many Scotchmen we encounter, in the ranks of the Social Democrats are the product of the severe conditions.im-. posed by the power of land, and money just as Social Democratic members of the New Zealand Parliament are the result of an utter disregard for the rights of the masses who are being undoubtedly plundered by a system of legalised robbery. There may be room for doubt about what is filling our Parliament with men having revolutionary ideas, but it is the same process that in Scotland produces social democrats. Tt'ls the utter disregard of the conditions of profiteering that are making it impossible for workers to live. It Was not manual workers alone that put Mr. Fraser in Parliament; bank : , insurance, and all other clerks' and'Civil Servants, and not improbably even school teachers, must have given 'him their votes, or beating all other candidate put together with six' hundred to spare would not have been possible. Wellington Central Has told the Government in language they will understand that profiteering must cease; that aggregation of land is regarded as a legislated curse; that the National estate is being squandered and doled out for the purpose of buying political power; that the masses are being crushed down into idegjadati&a for the benefit of an ever-diminishing few who, with their ill-gotten millions, manipulate their political puppets, and they have verily shouted in the ears of the Government, "Wellington Central stands for equality of opportunity and justice, for all." With all Liberal and Reform behind him the National Government's nominee did not poll one-third the "number of votes essential to his election, and it is not wise to regard Mr. Fraser's claim that city constituencies will all soon be represented in Parliament by Labour as idle boast. The indications are that all electorates wherein Labour is very largely employed in industry will return a Labour member at the next 'general elections. Wellington Central has given ra"th'er a startling warning of what the future is to bring forth; we were quite prepared to learn that Mr. Fraser Wad been.elected, but not i that he had veritably swept the floor I with his opponents, which he certainj ly did, and it could not have been by I the votes of only manual workers.