WHEN THE SOCIALISTS ARE IN POWER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3139, 16 March 1909, Page 3

WHEN THE SOCIALISTS ARE IN POWER.

The Anti-Socialist is a new journal which the political movements c.f the time have called intu existence. In the first number, amongst the articles written in a lighter vein is an amusing satire on "Ihe Socialst Election: How Victory Came in 1911, and What Happened." The writer tells how, under a Ministry in which Mr Keir Harrlie was Prime Minister, and Mr Grayson Chancellor of the Exchequer, the mob demanded the equal division of the national wealth. The Ministerialists explained that they had promised an "equitable" division—a subtle distinction which the mob refused to appreciate. So, under the direction of Mr Blatchford, the national wealth was divided into 45,000,000 shares. The results were scarcely satisfactory. Here are some of them:—Lot A : A valuable Etruscan vase. This was awarded to a di-gusted blacksmith as his whole share of the national wealth. He took it home and used it in place of a nirepenny water jug. It leaked, and the children broke it. Lot B: 25,000 cubic yards of railway embankment. Awarded to a stationer. Lot C: Two-fifths of one of the marble shafts in Westminster Cathedral. Allotted to a widow with four children. LotD: Twenty dozen pairs of corduroy trousres. Awarded to a cook. Lot E: Two tons and a half of back numbers of Justice. Awarded to Lady Warwick. Lot P: 170 moulded coping-stones from the House of Lords. Awarded to a fireman, with instructions to take them home. Lot G: Fifteen acres of moorland in the Highlands. Awarded to a linotype operator. Lots H, I, J : A fine first-folio Shakespeare. Awarded to three bricklayers. Lots K, L, M, N: A second-hand railway engine. Awarded to four domestic servants. Lots Oto T: A factory chimney. Allotted to six pupilteachers. The mordant wit of the above forecast is not likely to appeal strongly to the leading Socialistic writers, but its truth will be appreciated by those who have not yet been dazzled by the specious promises of that doctrine, and can still see the danger to the nation's welfare lurking behind it.