The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1919 LABOUR AND BOLSHEVISM.

Taihape Daily Times, 6 February 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1919 LABOUR AND BOLSHEVISM.

(With wnieb is tncorporated The Taihape Po«t end WalEMlno Nows).

, Only a cursory reading of tao report of the speech delivered by Mr. Hoiland, M.P., to a meeting at Taumamnui is all sufficient to disclose its real nature and intention; that it was little else than a tirade of anachronisms and irrelevacies. It. is obvious that it was a very shallow attempt to deceive what Mr. Holland made the grave error of assuming were shallow minds. He illogically tried to make Taumarunui people believe that cost of living being high was an irrefutable argument why labour should put itself in the power of Bolshevism, of the highwaymen of the world. He persists, as Lenin and Trotsky persist, that he is the labour party, and he immediately' disproves his assertion by stating it is a new party, and he clenches the He against himself by claiming that he represents the party that has. come down from Ballance and Seddon. Frankness and honesty Mr. Holland dare not practice simply because* he would have to admit that the labour, party In. politics is older in New, Zealand than in) .any other country., except the United States; and he would also have to admit that the new party is Bolshevism and not the old labour party represented by Seddon and Ballance. The pesky subtlty of Mr. Holland is apparent; he complains that. the~fgnnrant and biassed had charged his party witswanting to create a class war, but thev could not create what already existed If this class war already existed before the cult Mr Holland practices how ca.D itlip a new party 9 Now, we have beec shown that there is intrfg-u* and cunning at work; the new party is Bolshevism, the old party is the genuine labour party that was represented by those two great humanitarians, Ballance and Seddon. who did more to lift labour and to give equal opportunity to all than any other two men in any country. Of course the new party of Bolshevism could not create the war that had been honourably fought by t % o old labour party, it Is. however, usurping the name and sheltering under the good record of. old labour fri a~n inhuman doctrine that Seddon and Ballance would have revolted at. The old labour.party, not Bolshevism, brought labour, to where it is to-day; it removed the man with his "bluey" from

I the landscape! it secured shorter hours of labour, housing, better food, better clothing, raised the social stand- : ing, gave universal suffrage, in short it was the means of giving to labour | all the political power that the Bolj sheviks are now endeavouring to seize ; and use for the purposes of TSolshevI ism, not for tlie uplifting the lowest on ! te the highest- social plane as was the j aim and object of Ballance ancF Sed- ; don, and the army of workers in the .cause of labour advancement before • Bolshevism came on the scene at all. The old labour party Mr, Holland refers to as ignorant and biassed, but | it is doubtful whether that j apostlo of Bolshevism would liavc had the courage displayed by organisers of the old knights of labour in this country, when the pioneers of the labour movement travelled round the country; paid their own expenses; i worked at their ordinary vocations ! during the day, and travelled miles | and addressed meetings at night. j Those men constituted the true labour j party, not the spurious, the new, the j Bolshevism that masquerades under the I name of labour that it- may be given ; an opportunity to practice the hideous ; cult of which Lenin and Trotsky are I the guiding stars; the two great suns j in the Bolshevik firmament. Mr Holj land glibly talks about the deification of capital as though Bolsheviks were the pioneers of a war against such unholy and inhuman processes, but laws on the New Zc-aland Statute Book only need be consulted to ascertain what true labour workers did to muzzle the capitalistic lion while yet it was entirely free and rampant Bolshevism sees a manacled . capitalism and it rushes in with its deception and seizes upon the victim, snatches it. from labours' hand, and proceeds to administer the death, blow, not realising, or not caring about whether it is ed in the streams of blood that follow. Mr. Holland does certainly give a turn to the class war that honest men. lnh our and otherwise, would,be> ashamed of. He blows hot and cold in

party; he pretends to want high wages while he would compel New Zealand to virtually give to the Imperial Government all it has to sell, but this is plainly subterfuge as the context of the speech clearly shows. It is a fact that the producers of this country could haVe~Ubtained mucn. higher prices for their meat and wool than they agreed to let the Imperial Government have it for; it is a fact that woolgrowers were entitled to profits on the sale of their wool in accordance with their agreement with the Imperial Government, but what did they do? They arranged among themselves ttuTL' the whole of these profits should be given tn a fund to help the widows and orphans of our brave seamen who lost their lives fighting for the sanctity of British Empire homes. What has Mr. Holland and his Bolshevik friends given to succour the war's widows and orphans? When the economic history of the war is written farmers and producers of New Zealand will stand out on those pages as the most generous of all from whom the Imperial Government purchased, supplies, despite the superficial cajolery of Mr, Holland and .Bolshevism. This is a weapon in class war that is too dirty for the old labour party to touch; how is it possible to pay higher wages and improve social conditions if the result of the country's labour is to be given away? Mr. Holland was evidently very hardly pushed for weapons to wage the Bolshevik war against our farmers, his suppression of fact and suggestion of the false certainly creates that impression. He caused some of the audience to shout "shame" by application of the suppressio veri and suggestio falsi in connection with hi.« statement about sheepskins. Mr. Holland gives half v story whether it amounts to being a deliberate untruth or sot; he doesn't tell his audience that the value of shins declined disastrously owing to legal stoppa"ge~~bf the right to export, and he does not consider'it necessary to. be honest enough to say that farmers could have got", higher prices elsewhere, had they been allowed to sell, neither does he.suggest to his hearers that the Imprial Government were not such economic idiots as to pay New Zealand farmers more, for their skins than they could purchase them for in other countries. It is obvious that if higher wages are to be paid the money must come to the country to pay them with. The old labour party may be ignorant and biassed, but they do realise that high wages cannot be forthcoming unless the money is received for what the country has to sell. We realise that Bolsheviks fall back in such difficulties on the printing press for making paper money which they wickedly make legal tender till there is nothing to buy, and starvation follows, at least, this is the condition found where Bolshevism rules. Mr. Holland claims that had it.not' been for a handful of labour men in Parliament soldiers would have received twenty-five shillings a week. instead of' thirty-five. shillings. Well; if the Hollands and Webbs in the House can accomplish so much what was the rest of Parliament doing, and what on earth could not a House full of Webbs and Hollands accomplish? Of course, such claims are really too absurd, and It is no wonder the audience told Mr. Holland thai he and Webb did not go to the front. Webb had the courage of Eis convictions to go to prison rather than go to the war; ho and other Bolsheviks had the courage of their convictions to encourage others not to go to the war, to leave the sons and husbands of our New Zealand mothers and wives floundering in water trenches in France within an ace of being captured or slain by oncoming hordes of Huns; but this is what Bolsheviks term the courage of their convictions. Labour can accomplish anything politically it pleases, and it is because of this fact that Bolsheviks have battened upon labour and are endeavouring to lead it into the byways of Bolshevism.