COMMUNISM IN PRACTICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 61, 12 March 1921, Page 17

COMMUNISM IN PRACTICE.

STORY OF NEW AUSTRALIA'" RE-TCLD. iHv .1. p. LECKIE.) "• ie Australian Inter-State Conference cf Trade Inions has advocated the .i ~,'n ;..;■ ..;' "Capitalism; the workers ii«i:tin_ to take possession of the means . ;' production by revolutionary, political ..•ii in-iiii-trial action. It is specified t.: --rcMiiutionai-y action" means a , .■f.ij.'etc r'niv.'.': namely, the substitu- • ■:.' :' ?■■ ial ownership for the , •.■■:.'.'.:-',. ll i~ n definition which dcliv. - ii"! dug. The Bolshevism which iia_ ~;.i .•:::.'•'•.'. Kussia, and the evils of which ;'• ... ,-. ,-y .'.ay more apparent, was also - 'r.'-. "iii i i.. i. r v action"; it was also a . ...r...-.i.'te change, and "the substitution ol - '.'.nl ownership for the capitalist." i'-.c-O avowed Bolshevik principles would bo amusing if they were not so ~n!'_:Prnu.-. It is by fallacious arguments si.-li as these that the worker is led astray: that Labour troubles like those which now beset us are engineered. There has been so much Bolshevik propaganda of !;;te. that, it may be well to point out that an ounce of practice is worth a pound of theory; that these theories, evolved from the inner cons. i of certain Labour leaders. li_\e a*rra«*y been put into practice and found "anting—the results in every ease hehin; most disastrous. If the ohjeet-le~.-o~i'. afforded hy Russia with her ruined industries and enslaved workers i> not. sufficient, it may be well to remember that the principle nt* "ownership of the means of production and distribution, and the total suppression ot capitalism" have been put to the test of practi'e hy Labour leaders nearer our «jwn shores.

We allude especially to the "Xew Australia" movement initiated more than a quarter of a century ago. The originator of that movement was at one time a well known Labour leader, whose honesty and capability have never 'been questioned. He recently died in _Cew Zealand, being at the time the editor ot a prominent daily paper. THere are many other persons now living in _\ew Zealand who took part in Lane's illfated venture, and who can corroborate the facts which we are about to enumerate.

A special vessel was chartered to convey the emigrants to the promised land which bad been selected for them in South America. But quarrels broke out among the members long before she reached her destination, and these dissensions increased with time. The idea was to form a settlement, mainly agricultural, which would *>=> owned by the community. There wa3 no capitalist in the venture; the men aippointed their own foremen, and the work was allotted by a general council. On paper the scheme looked excellent. Prom ~c material *tandpnint also the prospect was promising: tbe land was fertile and well chosen, about thirty miles from a railway by a fairly good the climate was similar to that of South Queensland, where the scheme originated. The Government of Paraguay, where the settlement was situated, offered liheral terms and a free grant of the land alter certain conditions had been fulfilled.

Yet the whole scheme was an utter and complete failure. What was the reason' A brief onuinevition o" the facts will suffice. The socialist settlers could m.'i agree. Lach member of f.'icommunity wanted to have the easiest iob or ti-.t one most to his liking, and it was not found possible to allot the work in this manner. And this showed up one of the fwlai-ental fallacies <•' the communistic idea. It cannot b> too strongly emphasised that under a socialistic system, the individual member yields up his own will to that of th> community, of which he practically becomes a slave. He can no longer chose his own employment like a free individual, for in fact he is no longer free. Theorists may argue as they like, but such is the resnl; of practice. The man who was given a row of corn to hoe in the hot sun envied the schoolmaster who had an easier job, and could perform it sitting down in the shade —and

It was soon found that there was something radically wrong in the socalled scheme of "human brotherhood." Plans which looked excellent on paper would not work out in practice. As already stated, the men appointed their own foremen. When the results were not as satisfactory as the workers expected, they changed their foremen: in fact, they changed them continually, but with cverv change matters only got worse. Then, many of the member' would not perform their work properly

in every community there are shirkers) and severe measures of discipline were found nece=sarv to bring these recaleifranis to book. But this onlr made matters worse. Tbe men rebelled against the vcrv idea of discipline: they denounced what they called the "tyrannical measures" adopted by Lane, and fi,e=c malcontents being in the majority. they held a meeting and expelled Lane and his adherents and elected nnother leader Lane and his followers then speeded and founded .".n----other "colony.'' Both these settVments struggled for vest- under a commur,i =to system. suffering the greatest "lardshi'ps. At -ine time they were reduced to such straits that the Government was compelled to make them a periodical nllowance of rations. Their communistic principles were gradnallv relaxed and finally abandoned, after which some of the members aehipved a certain amount of success.

To give an instance of the defects of the communistic system. The New Australia community owned a fine herd of cattle, but after the lapse of some months, when they came to muster the herd, they found that, instead of increasing, it had decreased to an alarming extent. There is an old Spanish proverb: "The ass that has many o:v?iers

i= eaten by the wolves." And so it was with the Xew Australia cattle herd. They belonged to nobody in particular, but only to the community. "Every - body's business is nobody's business," and no one took any special interest in them. Tbe animals wandered away into the woods and were lost: the natives killed or stole them; the calves perished for want of proper attention K-erv necessary in that climate), and so

The history of Xew Australia* is only a repetition of the case of Topolobampo and a hundred other socialistic societies in America and elsewhere, all of which in their time claimed to have solved the social problem —but they all ended in bankruptcy or dissolution. There is ■•letiiing in the very nature of communism, when put into practice, which -o far from promoting the spirit of •'human brotherhood," tends to create dissensions and acrimony among the members.