THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1907. A FIGHT FOR THE BOX SEAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8999, 9 December 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1907. A FIGHT FOR THE BOX SEAT.

+ The "London Times" sums up the policy of the Labour Party by admitting that it is a fight "for the box seat" Mr Walter Sichel, writing in the "Times," says that the real issue is "the extinction of the middle class and the gradual inducement of conditions under which the plutocrat and the pauper can alone survive." "This is," thinks the "Times," "putting it too picturesquely, yet it is true that the middle class has now to endure an assault upon its political predominance such as it delivered nearly a century ago upon the political supremacy of the upper class. Jt won a great victory with the first Reform Bill, and for a long time went on consolidating its power. But it :annot be said to have used its power much better than its predecessors, and now it is being called to account. It evolved and acted upon an inhuman and unsocial system of political economy, under which it called into being an immense industrial population, which it exploited in the name of supply and demand, and allowed to live without education, without physical comfort, without any right but that of selling its labour for what it could get. That population found the leadership which the captains of industry denied it created organisation for itself, obtained from the dissensions of its masters a continually increasing share of political power and very sub-

stantial amelioration of its lot. Now it is trying a. fall with its masters j exactly as they did with the landed j and aristocratic interest. It is no i longer trying for more comfort at the back of the coach, but is seeking possession of the box seat; and the class it is trying to oust regards its efforts with distraction, with alarm, with acute apprehension, but without any very intelligent conception of the real state of affairs or the way to make the best of it. That way is not to be found in despairing efforts to cling to the old order of things. .People complain of the apathy of the middle classes, but that apathy is mere perplexity, arising from lack of reasoned views about the constitution of a properly constructed and managed society. Though it is late in the day, it would be well to begin by frank recognition of the change that is upon us, and to go on with intelligent and disinterested effor*,s to guide and enlighten the new forces. Intelligently or ignorantly, they will fight their battle for the supremacy which they want to enjoy in the direction of tha State, and the object of al! men of good will ought to be to minimize as much as possible the mistakes that are sure to be made during the conflict. The Socialist bugbear is not the key of the situation. The people of this country are far too intensely individualistic to be permanently deceived by Socialist theories. But in a fight all allies are welcome, and up to a certain point Socialism will doubtless be used to promote the general aim. In sheer ignorance the working men may be induced to destroy as belonging to others things that, if they knew better, they would gladly keep for themselves. The best hope for the future lies, not in trying to put life into outworn political dogmas and traditions, but in endeavouring to show the new owners of political power how much there is in the institutions of their country, which it is their interest to conserve for the benefit of themselves and their children. If this people perish, it will be for lack of knowledge, not for want of native rectitude and common sense."