Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1909. LICENSE OR LIBERTY—WHICH?

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 4501, 9 December 1909, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9,1909. LICENSE OR LIBERTY—WHICH?

7 hit above all—to thine own self be true , ini tt must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

We have received a copy of an Auckland newspaper owned by the New Zealand branch of the Sjcialist Party—“ The Leader.” Its date is Ist December, 1909, and we give below a quotation from it so that our readers may judge of the inflammatory character of that Journal, (fhe leading article begins thus : .“ Tlje great class struggle between capital and labour tfye people g,nd those who would be ipasters of thp people—now going op all oyer the world, is right here with ps in New Zealand tor day, where organised capital, aided by a Government which is but the tool of capitalism, is sparing no effort to crush the workers beneath a yoke of tyranny and oppression. The time is rapidly approaching when the batt’e must grow fiercer and fiercer, until in the final struggle the workers must emerge, glorious in their uuifed strength, to inaugurate a new social order fouuded on justice and humanity, or go down defeated, the iron tyranny of capitalistic despotism rivetted for ever on their pocks ” ' We only characterise the article in question as p violent; apd unwarranted attempt to get class against class. Jf a mpn meets another ip the street gqd pseg language calculated to provoke a breach I of the peace, he is liable |to hue or im- j prisonment • and we eppnot conceive j why the law should countenance a pjap 1 sitting down quietly and in cold blood writing and then publishing to the world broadcast such inflammatory, exciting, | and exasperating utterances ns may j provoke a breach of the peace. If a man in the street in the heat of the moment is held liable for his utterances, how much more should an editor or author be held liable when he jeopardises the peace under less excusable c;rcumstances ? The fact is the law of New Zealand is beiug shamefully abused, and liberty is quickly degenerating into license. Only the other day a socialist orator in Auckland was roporteq in the daily papers to have made treasonable allusiops to our Gracious Sovereign King Edward, anq ( now we learn that at some pf the ipeet- j ings of strikers ip the Domipion allusions J are bping made to the Government caL culated to bripg it apd the law into | contempt. The people of New Zealand are quickly coming to a crisis when they j must face the question at the bead of j this article and answer whether liberty or I license shall prevail here, j

We And on looking into the “ Leader ” that it is edited by Mr W. P. Black, who therein publicly proclaims that he is its elitor We learn that the Editor is an Hui.garian, who has not many years been a resident in New Z aland. Judging from tbe exciting and exasperating tone of his articles he would not be allowed to pour forth such ill advised and inflammatoiy articles in Huugary as he writes and publishes here, and we decidedly object to foreigners coming here anq abusing British freedom by using the languagje"€he Leader does .to set Class agahist 5 Class and bring' about' a revo-j lution. He headed the article in question j with cross lines : “ The Leader’s Appeal I £q the porkers,”—“ Revolutionary Socialism Tour Qply Hopp » ft js ,a gross abuse of the priceless privileges of i liberty to write in that way. ft is not liberty but license, and we protest against such literary dynamite, ft is a j ( pretty state of things if peaceable citizens and industrial and commercial * groups of workers and employers are to be set one against the other by designing mischief makers. Under the Police Offences Act men are not allowed to set two d"gß fighting, and why should men i be looked upon as less culpable when t i they try to set Class against Class ? I J'o say that ‘‘ Revolutionary Socialism is the AVorker.s only hope.” is to say \vlmt is incorreef, misleading, and piovokative of a broach of tl/e ppiCQ. £juch language should not bo tolerated, The pplflic welfare demands that liberty shall be respected apd nqfc allowed to degenerate into license. I Where are the employers who are ’ trying to crush the workers ? Wo do not know of any. So far as wo oau see the working classes have fair play here , and we will always use our best endeavours to assure it to them ; but fair play is bonny play and employers , must have it as well as employees. “ What is sauce for the goose is sauce for fhe gander,” and it is grossly . unfair to m{srepp<r 3, 'qt the employers in New Zealand as 7 sparing fto pffort to crush the workers beneath a yofle of tyranny and oppression.” As for what “ Revolutionary Socialism ” really is, and what is meant by 7 the baffle must grow fiercer and fiercer,” w.e wijl fqr gonsideration on another occa§iop ?