The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1920. CAPITALISM AND BOLSHEVISM.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3573, 8 September 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1920. CAPITALISM AND BOLSHEVISM.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News.”

Labour extremists iu Britain, who only a month or two ago returned from a personally conducted tour of a very few places in Bolshevik Russia have not been impressed as extreme Labour intended it should be, and instead of furnishing overwhelming evidence why the Soviet system should be put into operation iu Britain it has cast about it the proverbial wet blanket. It i§, as .one newspaper remarks, “the delegation cannot help cursing that which it was scut out to bless.” The truth about Sovietism is forcing itself out of those returned delegates despite their efforts to swallow it back. The Scarborough Conference, at which delegates reported, took alarm at what the returnees from Soviet Russia could not cloak or keep back, and when that section of blathering Bolsheviks who stand strongly for revolution by violence took their opportunity at its flood to submit a resolution favouring Councils of Action, or, in other words, the institution of Soviets, that resolution was overwhelmingly rejected in the proportion of twelve to one. It is now beyond denial that the road British Labour is seeking to better its position industrially and socially does not iie through human blood-sodden country, for the great Scarborough gathering figuratively held up its hands in horror and detestation at the very mention of the blood-wading process that is yet in full practice in Soviet Russia. British Labour knows that it ha& the ball of power at its feet and that it can be kicked to whatever length labour wills to kick it. British Labour is no less determined to effect industrial and social reforms, which may. even include the nationalisation of coal mines and railways, but it is well-known to Brr

Labour that these reforms can be accomplished more quickly and thoroughly without the spilling of one drop of human blood, than it can by a revolution of armed force' and indiscriminate murder. But British Labour did not turn down Bolshevik processes without having submitted them to the most critical and exhaustive investigation. Bolshevism was examined in the land of Bolsheviks; the investigators went where the kings of Bolshevism took them to be most favourably impressed with its beauty and comeliness, to where it flourished in its maximum loveliness under the very wing, and in the very presence of that supreme dictator of Bolshevism, Lenin; and TEen, while Balaam blessed what he w 7 as sent out to curse; the deputed investigators of Bolshevism, sent out by British Labour, verily cursed what they were sent out to bless. The supremely vital lesson learned by British Labour is, that the bloody revolution according to Lenin may be quite the thing for Russia, hut that, it is something the common sense of British Labour cannot and will not tolerate. That course British Labour is asked to follow must appeal to British commonsense and British common justice, not that code of rights and wrongs compiled by those who have kept labour in subjection and have exploited Labour to the danger of the whole Empire. The success of British Labour in effecting much-needed reforms is dependent upon its adherence To the most humane of British ideals, not to the horrors of a bloody revolution. There may be strikes and rumours of strikes in Britain, but such strike? will have no dangerous tincture of Bolshevism about them, and if there is any violence introduc-

1 ed it will not be chargeable to Labour At least, this view is amply gleanable frqm Labour and Socialist n ewspapcrs recently to band from England. What | more intimately concerns the people of New Zealand is that there seemsto be a new atmosphere surrounding the leaders of extreme Labour in this Dominion; an atmosphere less charged with electric violence seems to pervade the high places of extreme Labour. New Zealand Labour ideals appear to be undergoing a revising process, bringing them into conformity with those of British Labour; it is an elimination of the suspicion of the criminal instinct of mankind from Labour policy, and Labour may yet come to dependence upon constitutional processes in pursuance of its determination to have an early reformation, in which industrial and socials wrongs will be righted, and the Labour conscience will not be violable by greed sheltering behind self-made laws. The Lord Mayor of Manchester, in an interview, stated: “We should no longer talk of the extermination ,cf the capitalist, but of the utilisation of his ability and his wealth" as a means of improving trie common lot. 1 Capital should be used j for the emancipation of Labour. It i becomes an evil where it :is used in a tyrannical way by monopolists to corner the means of livlihood and without regard to the welf are of the masses in times of stress. As in the evolution of Labour a fraternal fel- , lowship has grown up between the more aristocratic section and humbler labour, so should the prejudice disappear between organised Labour and Capital.? The one course of action above all others that is calculated to ) reduce the struggle to one (if violence is that so persistently followed by a one-sided intelligence displayed by many newspapers in fanning the flames of prejudice. There is a real danger in stupid blatancy and thoughtless throwing down of the gauntlet in a process of Labour irri- • tation, which it is in the power of someone to avert. It is common rumour that Labour is more correctly guaging the power of journalism to achieve in less time and with greater certainty its aims and objects, than Bolshevism with its orgies of violence could do amongst British workers, and that the saner course is being adopted. It is freely stated that considerable reliance is being placed upon controlling country newspapers in electorates where Labour is determined to capture Parliamentary ro« I presentation. Such a course is perfectly legitimate and it is one that is likely to be fraught with a large measure of success. In any case it indicates that Labour is pa ssing into constitutional channels ho secure those reforms that are regarded as urgent if reconstruction of industry and society is to materialise in the near future. Labour will, however, encounter many pitfalls, and a host of implacable foes if it goes off upon a drunken frenzy of experimentalism. From the very ranks, of Labour must and will arise the most determined' opposition to wild cat action in the destruction of what are termed capitalists. The term capitalism has proved a stumbling block in Parliament, and 710 acceptable definition of the term was forthcoming. We think it is a word that should be used with caution, owing to the vagueness of what it really does convey, it is probably best suited for use as a synonym of the word commercialism in designating a system or cult. Capitalism or commercialism as represented by monopoly, trusts, combines, rings and syndicates, is a danger to industrial and social peace and progress, but the capitalist is must (remain fife natural partner of Labour. When the capitalist becomes anything else he is getting into the realm of capitalism or commercialism, becoming a national danger and will in the near future come within reach cf the arm of the law. Capitalism or commercialism is the capitalist extreme, as Bolshevism is, the extreme of Labour, and both should be suppressed in the best interests of the whole body politic, and for securing safety against enemies of the Empire. It augurs well for the future welfare of the individual and the whole Empire that Bi'it.isli Labour has made such investigations as have abundantly proved that Bolshevism is a colossal failure even in Russia.