LIBERALISM AND LABOUR.

Clutha Leader, Volume XL, Issue 73, 20 March 1914, Page 7

LIBERALISM AND LABOUR.

NO ALLIANCE PREDICTED. ME G. W. RUSSELL CRITICISED. >Vn opeli-air meeting, addressed by leading members of the Social Democratic Party, was held last Saturday night in Victoria Square, the principal subject of discussion being the attitude of the Social Democratic Party to the Liberal Party at the next election.

Mr If. Hunter, who presided, referred to his recent visit to Wellington, and said that while there he had learned that six young New Zealanders dismissed from the Government railway sheds had been replaced by immigrants, and that of thirty casual New Zealand labourers at work not long ago only three were left. This was going on not alone in the railways, but also in the tramways, and throughout local bodies iu New Zealand. Therefore, if New Zealanders wished a square deal tliey should support the Social Democrats. An alliance hail been suggested with the Liberals to oust Mr Massey, but it could not be considered while social democracy had nothing to gain by it, and the only result would be to abandon the organisation of the Social Democratic i'artv.

Mr J. Tlioru said that the meeting was called to let the public hear a reply to the defence of the Liberal Party, as outlined by Mr G. W. Russell, M.P. That speech had endeavoured to silence Mr Massey and to recreate the Liberal I'artv with working class votes. It would fail to do so in the case of Mr Massey, because that gentleman was astute enough to retort that Mr Russell was condemning him for following an example set by the Liberals themselves; it would fail oil the other hand because the workers were getting increasingly weary of lectures on the theme "Cod--1 iii is your friend, not Short." Mr Russell would no doubt succeed Sir Joseph Ward as Liberal Leader, and become the saviour of his country. But he could not convince the people that Sir Joseph Ward was progressive merely by denouncing Mr Massey as reactionary, while on the other hand he defended Sir Joseph Ward for not producing a policy on the ground that Mr Massey would steal it. .If Mr Massey was good enough to adopt the Liberal policy, why did not Mr Russell join the Reform Party ? Or, if the one party was as bad as the other, why should the working people worry about them! The Liberal party was in a cleft stick, being wirepulled from within by Tory capitalists, while outwardly it was losing the votes of the intelligent working people. Mr Thorn referred disparagingly to Mr Russell, and compared the Christchurch Spectator with the Clarion, a paper which, he said, Mr Russell, while chairman of the Board of Governors of Canterbury College, had had removed from the library shelves because of its Socialistic writings. He added that the editor of the Lyttelton Times on one point had shown that Mr Russell was nothing greater than a hunter for votes, for in referring to his championship of the single transferable vote in single constituencies he had said, "The plain truth is that in this matter both Liberal and Reform politicians are thinking more of the interests of their parties than they are of the rights of the people.'' A voice: Good for the Lyttelton Times.

Mr Thorn denounced the Liberal Party's borrowing policy, remarking that in the five or six years Sir Joseph Ward misruled New Zealand in the interests of armament firms, and with his eye on the baronetcy, lie borrowed twenty millions, and how had the effrontery to condemn the policy in his successor

Mr Ji McGombs, M.P., Who was called on vei-y late to speak, apologised for not doing so. He gave way in favour of Mr E. j. Howard, who spoke at sonie length On "militarism" in relation to Mr Russell's speech. He denounced Mr Russell's meeting as a hoio and corner affair, and said that Liberals aild Conservatives were playing on the defence question because they realised that the anti-militarists were a strong voting body. He said that the Liberal Party was dead, and as a respectable corpse should be quiet. If it wanted a resurrection it should lie down with the Massey Party, which was a dying party now.—Lyttelton Times.