The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1912. NOTHING NEW.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 113, 28 September 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1912. NOTHING NEW.

"There is nothing new under the sun," and masters and men have quarrelled and have sought protection against eaeli other from the remotest historical times. In the days before machinery revolutionised all commercial processes it was the necessary corollary that apprenticeship to a era ft should lead to mastership of others, and it was perhaps reasonable that the strongest and ablest individuals became the greatest controllers of others. But throughout, industrial history there is evidence that class aggression has existed, and that even our remote ancestors used similar means to those employed to-day to overcome difficulties and prejudices. Labor unions and. the like are generally held to be modern in idea, and they suggest that only the modern worker has any power of thought or organisation, but the student of industrial history is able to put a finger on many notable instances of protection and organised action by both worker and master. Six hundred years ago, for iastance, in England the question of wages, hours and control agitated the masses, and the merchant guilds (which have their modern counterpart in employers' federations) openly warred with the craft 3 guilds (which have their modern counterpart in trades unions). At that distant period, so strong were the craft guilds, that they practically fought the merchant guilds until amalgamation occurred, and a working basis was arrived at under which it was recognised that as the merchants or masters were almost invariably promoted craftsmen or workers, that the success of the one depended on the skill of the other and the wages of (he craftsmen in the finesse and acumen of the merchant. The truths that were apparent in those days are apparent and real in these days, but the unfortunate facts are that a new branch of the class—conscientiousness or Labor-Socialism —does not recognise the right of both classes, the worker and the employer, pretending that the elimination of the "master" is the highway to commercial peace and general success and satisfaction. T'm;s we hear the workman who is still absolutely dependent on the promoted worker (the "master") declare that it is only a matter of time before the man will blow the whistle for the "boss" to work, the contention seeming to be that the master at present does not work in supplying the craftsman with the wherewithal to labor. In New Zealand there are no pronounced hardships supplied by the classes, who suggest that what is termed Socialism shall dominate the people, and the general discontent and unrest is Aereforc entirely imitative, Socialism

(that is'the modem type) owes its rise to the doctrine of individualism under which the individual held that he was the master of his own acts and of his own opinions, without interference. It was the kind of Socialism that led to the French Revolution of 1789 and which was put an find to by the military despotism of Napoleon. As in the time of Marx and Ehgels, the attitude of the avowed Socialist is that the profit made by the capitalist in the work of his employers is theft. The worker accepts "wage-slavery" because there is no other means available. In New Zealand a small proportion, which does not really represent the workers, declares that capitalism must cease, The proposition is to dispossess the capitalists of their accumulated wealth and to "re-organise society," presumably by ousting its present leaders and by substituting those who agitate for this re-organisation. That is to say, we must steal all accumulations and begin all over again with new possession of wealth. It is only within the last year that spoken Socialism in Xew Zealand has been frankly anarchistic. If these anarchistic leaders showed society how to begin under a new ; regime, could convince it that the ambition that had hitherto led to fortune was all wrong, society might hand over the political machinery without which (excepting by revolution) the Jaws that govern enterprise and occupation will continue to work as they have always worked, despite occasional class wars and revolutions. The disorganisation of society and the dethronement of all leaders and "masters" would be reasonable enough if the disorganisers could offer substitutes. A European writer once remarked that "property is theft." The Xew Zealand Socialist, while subscribing to that_ famous paradox, counsels the theft of property—the other fellow's property. For their.'.part they have no duties. They are the downtrodden "workers'' who hive no ! programme except a destructive one for the amelioration of dreadful conditions no one else is able to observe. One is , afraid the Xew Zealand Socialist is less i concerned about the-masses than himself, and he .has never yet uttered one useful word that gives air inkling of the state of society under his wise direction.