The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1908. FARMERS AND POLITICS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 131, 26 February 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1908. FARMERS AND POLITICS.

There are indications th'at the farming community will shortly,be led to consider how much longer •' they can remain passive in the face of the swift attraction of their interests into, the vortex of politics. Hitherto the Farmers' Union has kept aloof from politics, under, the belief that, the farmer is isolated from the common destiny of other classes, and that he can look on

unperturbed. at political conflicts, as if they do not affect his interests. . In normal circumstances, and in norjnal societies, that /comfortable, .belief may easily bo in accordance with facts, but it is not so here. The. legislation of the last few'.weeks has brought the farmer: face to face with a new condition of things, in which to be passiye'i ! is to court injury. _ _ Under . the pressure of Socialist theorists and Trades Hall agitators, .-they Government .lias gradually concentrated a battery 'of legislation upon the unresistingnon-politi-cal; agriculturist. The situation was discussed by-.the Auckland Executive of thej Farmers' Union last week,' apropos of the .-suggested affiliation of

the Union with the Employers' AssoThe acting-chairman of . the Executive favoured the holding over of;a decision until the matter had'been considered by the Colonial Executive of .the Union. He. had hitherto, he ■said,'..been- opposed. to the suggested affiliation, " fearing. the creation of strong feeling between the farmer and farm labourer," , but now, he added, "the manner in which the position was ibeing forced by. the Socialistic element might make it desirable to affiliate." It is difficult to understand how, by any fresh organisation, the farmers can create a strong' feeling between master and man.'. If ■ " strong feeling " is to be bred, it will be bred without any: affiliation movement, since affiliation with_ the Employers' Association can furnish ho new; element of irritation to supplement whatever is irritant in the farm'labourers' dispute; which agitators have already engineered in the South, and the shearers' dispute now this island.,, The 1 Socialistic agitators who have succeeded in occupying the political box-seat may be trusted to makefile most of any possibilities of ill-feeling between the farmer and his hands, and the farmers will merely be . acting the part of sensible men in taking more effective steps to protect themselves. That affi-

liation with the Employers' Association is tlie only possible method of resisting the attack upon the rural interests does not' follow. The- same end may, perhaps, be as'well achieved by the decision of the Union to abandon its non-political and to shake off its fear that, by becoming- politically alive, it may lose its unity. The anti-farmer supporters of the Government's Socialistic aspirations will endeavour to create discord in the Union's ranks by shouting out that the cannot become politically active without becoming an appanage of the .Opposition* They have, raised that cry before, forgetful of its implication that, as the farmer cannot begin to protect • himself without coming into collision-with the Government, the i policy pi the Socialists is antagonistic to the interests of the farming community. Why the farmer sho.uld have no politics is a mystery to us. He has more to lose or', gain from legislation than the city Socialist, and he has, therefore, more reason to be politically articulate than the noisy agitators who are persistently egging on the Government to a general assault upon everybody, great or small, who - has succeeded in putting his energy and selfreliance to profitable use. The politics of the Union must be restricted to those subjects which are the basis of farmer-organisation; • Outside this narrow area, the Union .can have no politics _ without prejudicing the justice of its existence. The Union need not ally itself with any party, but it can, at any rate, educate its members to support only those. parliamentary candidates who stand for the protection of the farmer's interests, The

education should uot be difficult: the aggressive legislation' of the last few years has shown the fanner where defence is most required. The Employers'. _ Association does not concern itself with general politics, nor need the Farmers' Union. And as nobody lias ever suggested that the Association is a party organisation, as, indeed, jt is not, the Union need pay no attention to the absurd suggestion thai it cannot become an active guardian of rural interests without becoming a party machine.