TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1927. LABOUR AND LANG.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 246, 18 October 1927, Page 6

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1927. LABOUR AND LANG.

Very naturally Mr. Lang has felt it to be his duty to explain away his recent defeat. According to him, his failure at the polls has been due simply to the treachery of a certain section of his own party, which for purely selfish reasons has played into the hands of the Nationalists. Allowing for this, and taking into account the large number of Labour votes recorded, Mr. Lang, though the loss of his majority has driven him from office, has no fears for the future, and he assures his followers that "the result is not one to fill Labour with any alarm."

We agree with Mr. Lang that his defeat does not mean the destruction of the New South Wales Labour party. Indeed, we would go so far as to say that a victory for him at the recent election would have been a great disaster for Labour not only in New South Wales, but throughout the Commonwealth. For nothing in the history of Australian Labour has been more injurious and discreditable to the party and its cause than the ascendancy that Mr. Lang has long enjoyed in the New South Wales Legislature. Not only has he displayed to the world at large a striking illustration of what a Labour leader should never do and never be. He has at the same time disgusted and disillusioned his own colleagues and followers by his arrogant and dictatorial methods, his subservience to blatant extremists, and his cynical contempt for the ties of loyalty and gratitude by which political friends and parties are united.

It is true that Mr. Lang's defeat has been largely due to the revolt of a section of his own followers against his unscrupulous tyranny. But this is on their part a timely and welcome act of self-assertion, and a guarantee to the people of New South Wales that the Labour party as a body will not tolerate despotism, dishonesty, or treachery within its ranks. By repudiating Mr. Lang the New South Wales Labour party has done something to regain for itself the public credit and the public confidence that has been of late so seriously jeopardised. Like Mr. Lang, we have no fears for the ultimate destiny of Labour. But in New South Wales the best thing that Labour could do to prove its fitness to control and direct the ship of State was to throw Mr. Lang overboard, and, having performed this necessary duty, Labour may face the future with more confidence and better hope of success.