BLOODLESS REVOLUTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1921, Page 8

BLOODLESS REVOLUTION.

MR. THOMAS’ FORECAST. FEMALE PREMIER POSSIBLE. Will No. 10 Downing Street ever be the home of a woman Premier? This is one of the interesting questions discussed in a new book, of which Mr. J. H. Thomas, M.P., the railwaymen’s leader, is the author, “When Labor Rules.” Mr. Thomas not only believes that Labor can rule, but that it will rule, and he treats rtf many present-day problems in a frank but temperate /spirit. “What is a revolution?/he asks. “I maintain that it is'not necessarily a violent and bloodly revolt, an orgy of outrage and assassination, an affair of red caps and barricades. A revolution may be perfectly bloodless and peaceful, and I maintain that we are in the midst of such a revolution at the present moment.” Nationalisation of coal, transport, heat, light, and power under the control of a Labor Government is to produce the Arcadian millennium. ’ In that epoch of peace and plenty “th e cost of living will more closely approximate to its scale, wages will tend to increase,; and the hours of labor to decrease wjthin, of course, reasonable limits.” Under Mr. Thomas’ ideal Labor Ministry there will be a really satisfactory Ministry of Health, and education, insurance and pensions will be on a proper footing. Profit-making industrial insurance companies will be expropriated, and “the great army of insurance agents will find their place in life as civil Servants.” What about the drink questiont That is quite simple. “To-morrow there will be no Mr. Bung; the nation will control i]he manufacture of intoxicating liquor.” Local option will regulate its consumption. k Mr. Thomas contends with some reason that in many respects the workers are even more conservative* than the Conservatives. Our present King has proved himself, during many political crises, to be an essentially constitutional monarch, and I have no hesitation in saying that, while such an attitude is adopted by the King, the question of Republic versus Monarchy will not arise. If any evidence of this were required it could be found in the unique position occupied by the heir to the throne —the Prince of Wales—during his tour of the Empire. It vtould be true to say that there has |een no factor which has contributed more to the unity of the Empire than the Prince of Wales’ visit to the Dominions. . . . Not only has the Prince been a unifying factor to the Empire as a whole, but he has made himself more popular than ever at home. Another element in settled government “when Labor rules” will be the feminine majority. Mr. Thomas he and his colleagues are all in favor of adult suffrage for women. “The woman worker will have the same pay as the men. You cannot make any differences Equal pay for equal work, to my mind, is unassailable.” The great proviso is that women must be excluded from dangerous pccupations. “When Labor comes into power women will be greatly encouraged and helped in every way to enter Parliament, to join Cabinets, even to the extent of a woman becoming Premier of England, if she should be eminently suit* cd to and the right person for that position.” Mr, Thomas considers that women will exercise a stabilising influence. “There is qn e thing, I thinly that women will always do when the big emergency arises, they will always vote in favor of industrial peace, and never for strike or upheaval.”