The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1919. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR BLUNDERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 19 July 1919, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1919. INTERNATIONAL LABOUR BLUNDERS.

D With which is incorporated 3‘ The Taihape Post; and Waimarino I News.” I

-—————~—o———-—— ' It seems that the German mind is tool acutely afifected with the military pec— ‘ Icant humour to permit of that nicel equipoise -that. is essential to 111cntalI health. Through so many generationsl has the thought. of German victoryi lover all peoples and ultimate domination of the ivorld, been inculcated that lit has become a hereditary quality, difficult to «suppress, and to shbjugate to that end of “Der Tag” which every IGerman was "taught to believe impos-I - sible. Hence we discover the bitterness I Ijof mind with which the Allied Peace ITei-ins are received. As the eye can- ? not ‘see itself,,neit.her do Germans seem Ito see..tl_le ridiculousness of the figure Ithey out under defeat. Their fatal 'm-is- I I take about securing mastership of the world is ‘being repeated in their entry I lupon peace. If German newspapers! Ivoice Gern_l.an~ opinions, ’the,f‘§‘Peacel I Treaty is nothing II1‘O:l‘6’_;l-l18.I1_-8/_n1€aIlS I whereby they may avoid the penalties.~l git imposes. They placegreat trust in I; Iwhat they term. changing conditions; I ‘the favtalism of their Ally, t'l_l_e;«-T.url{, Ihas control of their acts and. passions, I Ifor changing conditions are, in their: I fatalistic view, going to bring back to I :Gerlnany all that has been lost tol {her in the war. Germany h@ a be-I I lief-in a. final ultimate that could n-ot , Ibut prove the road to greatness Vverel lit not beset with follies that are in-I Isuper-able. Germans have been misIguided from generation to generation, . and cannot yet render their pervertedl minds susceptible to :the fact that their , great military inachine is defeated, I smashed, and scrapped beyond_'all'use and recognition’. So it is that the lead- I ./ing journals of Germany hope that‘, Ichanging conditions will prevent the "I Icarrying out. of the existin‘g_;Pcaee"l|_ I Terms. They -tell their German, readers i‘ Ithat they must instantly begin‘ com,ba’r.ing the Peace Terms, employing every intellectualand rnoral weapon assisted by "the international labour movement. But only fatalists and ranters with bleared vision will ever believe that labour is going to sidetmclt nati-onal and domestic reform and status to dive into the chaos of internationalism-. Should labour be led into _ afallacy so fantastic, then the cause , of labour is a myth for long into the future. One might as Well set about If raising the common igneous rock to the I L magnificence of the diamond; to chang- I , ing the odour -of sulphuretted hydrogen I to :the perfume of the rose; t.o do-II colourising vthe negroid until his skin is as white as that of the Anglo—Saxon, as to raise the millions of semi-bar- J barians in Russia and other countries to the level of the average Britishl workrnan by the mere decreeing thatl it sliould be so. If labour consents -to 1 ‘be led by bleary-visioned eraaiks into l illtern.ationalisnl their defeat is more If certain than that of the German militarists. No sensible worker in this 1 country can believe that labour »organ- ‘ isation can control the masses of the WO1'ld; if there are any making so <l‘is- ‘ astrously fatal a .blunder, they are 1] urged in their life and death interests, I to hesitate and think. There are for decades to come nfany millions of ] workers in Russia, China, Japan, India, I ( South America, as well, even, as in l Germany, that will be led and control- t led by their respective governments,l'. despite the efllorts of a few 110i-“Y l visionaries who would take the birth‘ right from the educated, int.elligentl] Anglo-Saxon. worker by one throw" of I the die of “international labour movement.” Gerni-an statesmen know how Utopian the international labour move— , I ment may become; they see Japan, China, and other semi-civilised -peoples I ( standing aloof, looking concernedly on, I while labour in foremost civilised coun- 1 tries are risking their very civilisation E in an international blunder. Labour 1 9311 TIOVOI', in our opinion, control the 1 labouriforees that we see in the near ‘3 distance marching into the labour 9 Tanks in countries |lhfJ,l3 have hitherto I been 10“ Out of labour considerations, "C and misunderstood in their plans. Ger- i mans realise that their only hope of a. 'l3 futile peace treaty lies through

|labour’s great :iIIIT-el‘llaliiOll3l mistake. | Germany is waiting her opportunity for labour.’s internation-ali movement to lenable her to again assert her policy ,of:' militarisni and domination. Has [not labour been sickened with the i attitude and behaviour of German E labour and Socialism before and during [the war‘? Will German labohr be anyEthing different to: what it has been ‘in the past? Germsan labour can no more change its spots than the proveribial leopard can; then, will labour [again be led by cranks into putting ; trust in German labour? International‘ism of labour ‘is a question that needs :very much more consideration man has been given to it. by the party that ‘is most vitally" concerned. Labour ‘must realise that it can never rope in more than a very small portion of the world’s supply of labour, and labour should understand that, in following cranks and anarchists into -the black night -of internationalisrn, they are mistaking the faintest shadow for the realest of substances. May we suggest to labour -that intern-a-tionalisffi’ is a new shuttlecock that is undeftly a.nd with want of understanding ‘being wildly tossed about by men with anarchic tendenc.ies, men who are ever ready to risk labour ancheivilisation in experimenting with some insanely conceived cult; that labour doubtfully available for internationalisation is but a mere fragment of the labour of the world; that probably for the next century the largest labour forces of the world will be controlled ‘by the State in which labourers are not yet even -regarded as citizens; that when the stage of " citizenship has been reached labour‘ cannot hope to ~. successfully overthrow the governments under which that labour lives. .We Want labour to realise and understand the almost inconceivable magnitude and utter impossibility of internzationalism as understood by labour men .we come in con tact with. Labour has ‘too much to do at home to waste its efforts on international moonshine

lLabour may have —its League of ' Nations, but it'..n'nlst.n‘irst make-~its’ foot- ‘ ing on sure, solid, just»-ground undzr its I own govcrnmerit. im_.‘:’itsn‘own“country. [?’l‘-here are*la’bo»ur;refornls due, long I‘-‘oi/ei~due:' Lin. NOWH Zcaland, r as. wxrell-.2215 lthrougllout the“ British Empire; ‘ Milil taut contentiousness ‘is not the only imeans, it is not e«v~en the .rational or ir‘casona’ble means‘ of. securing satisfacition. Labour has hitherto made the ‘egregious blundcrzof placing farmers, . producers, all small employers of labour ‘in the category «got capitalism. If labour will first. ascertain and fix its true relationsllip§:ln~ human economics there should be little difiiculty in cementingthat relationship firmly together in understanding the encroach-» ments of trusts, combines, and other parasitic. organis_ationg \yhic_h,are the real, thc_unnatuljul enemie_s_of labour and p,rodil,ction_ ;..We_.al'e convinced that _v_labour action in New Zealand Mll’ be exerted for national and domestic ad_.vancemcn=t.-,‘ V-§;tep_,s ..-_;_.,’§a}l:ei_l 8., must, be guarded; they must__be_ such as only true, loyal citizenship will dictate; every man should be onward and "upward nationally and domestically. As Grel'ma_n labour has undeniably shown that loyalty to country and home is superior to internavtional Utopias. We are convinced that the complete emancipation of Anglo—Saxon Labour, like that of Tcuton labour, lies through the peaceful channels of intellectual force and not through militant physical force, ‘ as some misguidedly imagine. Germany 5 is waiting for interna.tional labour de- 1 velopments to enable her to recom-J mence her efforts for world domina-I tion. Will labour realise to what in—l ternationalism must. lead? I