PUBLIC DEBATE.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 414, 22 April 1937, Page 4

PUBLIC DEBATE.

FOR AND AGAINST SOCIALISM. Interested Audience at St. Andrew’s Hall. I “■ i Last evening, in St. Andrew's Hall, ! before a large and interested audi- | ence, a debate was held on the subi ject, “That the introduction of SoI cialism is inevitable.” ! Mr. C. Jackson presided in the un- ( avoidable absence of Mr. J. W. Mcj Millan, the president of the local branch of the Labour Party, under whose auspices the debate was held.

<Mr. W. J. Hall, in opening, pointed out that, in the opinion of many leading thinkers, the present Capitalistic system, based upon private profit and competitive greed, was bound to fail and, in fact, had failed. Under such a. system recurring booms and depressions of increasing severity were inevitable, with all their attendant misery and distress. Socialism involved public control < f the means of production, distribution and exchange, so that the needs of all the people could be satisfied —and not the whims of a small class of pro-perty-owners. Scientists, continued Mr. Hall, had repeatedly asserted that there was more than sufficient wealth in the world to provide for the needs of all —if it were reasonably distributed. Socialism put forward happiness and pnrnrit.v for all classes as the only criteria of the soundness of a social system—standards impossible of achievement under present conditions. “Panders to Laziness.” Mr. H. S. Sinclair, for the opposition, suggested that Socialism had always failed: that it had been subsequently repudiated by many of its loading exponents; that it pandered to laziness and put a premium on waste, and that, by some, it was believed to involve a sharing out among those who have not of that which has been accumulated by others. Mr. P. Brennan, supporting the motion, removed some of Mr. Sinclair's misunderstandings and showed that socialistic schemes had been successful. He distinguished between Socialism and Communism and showed that while the former involved a moral and social ideal it was completely practicable on the economic side. Mr. W. S. Currie traced the idea of Socialism from the time of Adam in an attempt to show that in essence the doctrine was unsound. He created considerable mirth in pointing out some of the weaknesses in the attitudes and arguments of some of its leading exponents. After a number of members of the audience had spoken and the leaders had replied, the meeting closed with a vote of thanks to the chair. The debate was the first of a series of similar functions to be arranged by the Stratford branch of the Labour Party for the winter.