FOMENTING CLASS FEELING.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 December 1922, Page 4

FOMENTING CLASS FEELING.

Setting class against class forms part of the programme of many political candidates now at the hustings, including some in this province, yet nothing is likely to do more harm in a country where the things most needed just now are unity and co-operation among all sections of the community; one section cannot be injured without another suffering, likewise one section cannot advance without others benefiting. The candidates referred to declaim against the property owners and the capitalists, “vested interests,’’ and others who have made the positions they now enjoy largely by dint of their own hard work, thrift and sacrifice. These people have been successful, or are on the way to independence, which is the reason why they are regarded by some as exploiters of the working classes. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are the greatest assets of a country, and the workers’ (best friends. Without their industry and. thrift there would be less capital available, and it is capital, represented by money or credit, which makes the country’s wheels go round and brings about progress and prosperity. Because capital has been scarce during the past year there has been less enterprise and consequently less work. It, is said that the landed and the moneyed classed are the special consideration of the Government. That again, is untrue, for no Government in the history of the Dominion has taxed wealth to the extent that the present Government has done. Indeed, the taxation has been almost confiscatory. The weight of it was pressing the very industrial lifout of the. country, and Mr. Massey has been obliged to make substantial reductions, whilst he must still make more if New Zealand is to get back into its old financial and economic stride. Instead of inveighing against land and property, and fomenting division amongst the people, all of whom are workers to a more or less extent and indispensible to each other, the glib-tongued candidates would be performing a really useful purpose by expounding the virtues of industry, thrift and service, the steps by which, those against whom they fulminate have reached competencies and independence.