FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22050, 25 March 1937, Page 16

FOUNDATION OF DEMOCRACY

Duty of Industry In New Zealand

MR SAVAGE ON BRITISH

FREEDOM

(FBHSB ASSOCIATION TKLKQRAM.)

WELLINGTON, March 24.

"If democracy is to live in New Zealand we want the assistance of all engaged in industry—wage-earners and employers alike—to see that things are kept running," said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage), speaking at a civic farewell to-night. "We are not going to solve anything by stopping the machinery of production, except perhaps to kill democracy in our own homestead. There is only one thing that can stop us, and that is to be crucified in the house of our friends. I hope that is not going to happen; I don't think it will." Mr Savage said that the foundation of democracy was in industry, and he hoped that all engaged in industry would do their part while he was away. "We will do our job all right," he added, "but if we start out like a team of jibbing horses, one pulling and another sitting back in the breeching, as it were, we are not going to get very far. The machinery has to be kept going all the time." Mr Savage said the people had elected the Government to represent them, and it was not too much to ask them to be loyal to those whom they had placed in office. He repeated that if democracy were to live its foundation must rest in industry, it could not be laid anywhere else. Continuing, Mr Savage said: Those responsible for the machinery of production have a responsibility no less than the responsibility of Ministers of the Crown. Ministers of the Crown at present number 13, that is not a very large number. We are not going to side-step or minimise our responsibilities, but you have a responsibility as well as I. Unless you do your job, what can I do alone?" Replying to an interjection, Mr Savage said: "Don't start to tell me what the average wage-earner has to put up with. I have been an average wage-earner; I have spent a lifetime at it, and where men work hardest—in the bowls of the earth. (Applause.) I say to the average wageearner that if democracy is to live in New Zealand he has a responsibility just as much as I have. Don't make any mistake about it. "We are living in a changing age. when democracies are falling, and individuals are becoming the victims of the rifle. We don't want anything of that sort in New Zealand or in the British Commonwealth of Nations. The British Commonwealth is one of the bright specks on the earth to-day. We can improve on it all right, hilt, by the Lord Harry, if I have to be found alive or dead, let it be in the British Commonwealth, where there is some semblance of freedom left. (Loud applause.) . "The British Commonwealth is not thejHily Place, either. There are other places, but we have a responsibility m New Zealand, and the peoples right throughout the Commonwealth have a responsibility, too, to share in the shaping of human destiny. Dont start to blame someone somewhere else. Let us put our own house in order. lam sure we can do it."