The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1920. LABOUR WITHOUT A POLICY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3595, 6 October 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1920. LABOUR WITHOUT A POLICY.

With which, is incorporated "The Taihape Post and Wairnarino News."

It augurs well for: the future of New Zealand that very much deep and serious' thought is being given in this district, and, presumably, throughout the whole Dominion, to determining whether in the absence of any definite political policy there is, at least, one safe plank in Labour extremism whereby the masses of the people might pass over to better social and political conditions. Questions are very frequently being ''asked of us as to what will happen if men in all classes of essential labour go out on strike; and although these questions are variously couched we invariably refer the .questioners to what happened in the great maritime strike, and point out that in this period of extremism and anarchy conditions would be so many hundreds per cent worse. It is suggested that Labour extremists are to be credited with wages betterment; but if it is meant that Bolsheviks, direct actionists ;/ and anarchsts' of various breeds and brands are bettering the conditions of labour we emphatically deny it. For had the workers followed the lead set by such men , the British Empire would, to-day, have been in slavery. Strikes against the avarice of greed and the lust for power are the natural outcome of what produced them. Magna Char.ta came as the result of a strike. Looking down British history one mentally views thousands of strikes; he sees the clothing of sackcloth on workers being discarded for wellmade ' smock suits, then follow the more up-to-date tweed and cloth suits; and so the improvement has gone on down the centuries till to-day "Jack is as good as his master/' The anarchist; the nihilist; the advocate of Sovietism would end strikes; would cut out liberty and conscience; would destroy free will and make of the worker a conscienceless slave. There is a section that strives unceasingly 10 bring about a bloody revolution; but in the absence of any articulate policy in this Dominion we shall probably come near what extremists stand for in quoting the policy laid down by Labour extremists in England. Mr Thomas', M.P . gushingly stated that under a Labour government "there will be no more profiteers, no unemployment, no slums, no hungry children. No man will be expected to work an excessive number of hours, and no man who is fit for work will be permitted to shirk it. The right to live upon the accumulated wealth of another will no longer exis't; the right to the brightest and best education the country can afford will no longer be the exclusive privilege of a favoured class, but will be open to all whose talents show that they will benefit by receiving it. The only qualification for the higher civil service "will be character and ability." It is no injury to New Zealand extremists to state that they stand for all this and for very niucti more on the way to anarchy, notwithstanding the fact that boys having passed the sixth standard in public schools may enter the civil service nearly on. an equality with boys who have matriculated. Is it not a fact that the Civil Service Commissioner is advertising for boys to j enter the civil service, offerng monetary inducements as well as virtually acting as guardian and tutor to fit boys for the highest positions the service offers? The Education system may not be all it should be, but any boy who posssesses talent can I 'gain scholarships and free the Government gives special facilities to boys in the service who have matriculated to enable them to take University classes with a view to obtaining full professional qualifications. In this Dominion, then, boys may join the civil service, and earn high wages while being freely assisted to University training, qualifying ! them as-lawyers, or for membership o f other professions. That true socialist, Robert Blatchford, is flab-

bergasted with Mr Thomas' optimistic labour claims. He says, it is one thing to declare that every man shall work. It is quite a different thing to make him do it t The system of compulsory labour adopted by Russians does not commend itself to British workers. It is no more nor less than slavery. To what brand of so-called labour do the New Zealand extremists in Parliament belong. From reading •Hansard we may be excused for assuming that they favour the policy of the new British Communist Party; rhat they are what people term "Lansbury Lambs." The chief plank in the programme of this Commnuist Party is "Dictatorship of the proletariat and the installation of the Soviet in these Dominions." The policy of Mr Thomas,. M. P., is as different, and as opposed to that of the Lansbury Lambs as Conservatism is to Mr Thomas' Labour. Blatchford desires to know "who .and what is or are the proletariat. Does "Labour rule" mean tbe proletariat, or does it mean something essentially different? "If

Labour means the manual workers,

upon what grounds of reason, or justice, or expediency is Labour to be

I allowed to rule." He asks, is Lenin a proletarian, is Trotsky? Such ' Labour rule would be class rule, and Blatchford wants to know whether class rule is desirable? Whether one kind of class rule is likely to be better than another kind? Will not dictatorship of the proletariat mean here, j as in Russia, dictatorship by an individual or by a junta, Will New Zealand workers submit to the dictatorship of Mr Holland, Mr Semple or Mr Peter Fraser? As Blatchford has remarked, "Such men may influence a considerable section of the people to such an extent as to render if, impossible for half a century to establish any kind of a reasonable and beneficent commowealth." What effect would a dictatorship of the proletariat have upon strikes? In Russia strikers would be shot. Labour may be nationalised, but it is unthinkable that New Zealahd; educafed workers would sacrifice their liberty, their freedom of will, a voice in their self-determination. Would it not be slavery of the most perfect character. .to be ordered into the nationalised; labour ranks and compelled' to perform this or that kind of labour ,by' the Labour Squad Commander? Ordered to proceed to one locality or another at the will of the dictator of the proletariat? There must be coni- , pulsion to'work for "man is rather a lazy animal." When the right to strike is eliminated, as it is in Russia how are workers going to assert their right, and. .dignity?. ...Is it not a fact that in becoming nationalised -they vested all individual right and dignity —body and soul—in the dictator of the proletariat? The worker has accepted voluntary slavery, but if he is recalcitrant how will the dictatorship of the proletariat enforce obedience? The penalty in Russia is death ''by being shot as an enemy of the proletariat; there is no other way of en-

suring respect for the proletariat in New Zealand. Have New . Zealafhd workers thought out this question for themselves or are they hypnotised

into allowing the would-be dictators of the proletariat to do it for them? But, abandoning the idea- of dictatorship of the proletariat, and adopting a system of labour contracts somewhat as put into practice by Robert Semple, how arc such contracts going to be enforced? Who holds the power to enforce the contract? Is it Robert Scruple? What will happen if Sample commits an objectionable indiscretion? What action will" the men take? They cannot strike and keep their agreement; then they must leave and sacrifice something considerable. Will workers submit to a dictator or a boss who may use his position unfairly to drive them out. of their 'rights that the boss may benefit?' Equality before and under the law is a noble quest; what may we term that stupid claim for a dead level of intellect? If exceptional ability is disregarded civilisation is doomed; if ability is paid higher wages what will the possessor do with the money? We say without fear of valid contradiction that Extreme Labour in New Zealand does not disclose a policy because it has none that would be tolerated for one moment by the mass of New Zealand workers. This fact is known to no person better than the extremists in Parliament, They' may have (J - best and most humane intentions but, they have mistaken 'ideals. They have taken the wrong turning; they thought, they had discovered a better way in Russian dictatorship of the proletariat, but as they have since discovered that dictatorship is inseparable from forced labour . with no power to compel except that persuasion which the firing spuad exerts, they are afraid to declare their policy, and they continue a system of cajolery with empty sounding platitudes. Strikes and labour betterment were expejienccf] centuries before the new dictatorship of the proletariat was heard of. .