The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1911. ADVOCATES OF MODERATION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1078, 17 March 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 17, 1911. ADVOCATES OF MODERATION.

The public meeting of the National League held here on Wednesday evening is an event calling for comment tor more than one reason. It is worth attention first of all because it affords some evidence that a class of people that is difficult to stir into activity, the moderate class, the easy-going people who, do not associate themselves closely with one side or the other in politics, but cast a silent and too often indifferent vote, has been forced into the forefront of the political struggle. No, doubt some of those who took part in the meeting in question have leanings to one or the other side in politics, but the interesting fact is that it should at last bo considered necessary for moderate people to have a rallying point, and to place themselves in a position to present a united front to the extremes of legislation thrust haphazard, at the demand of sectional interests, upon the whole community. The speakers at the National League's meeting, who claimed to express the views of the .moderates','were practically unanimous in tho opinion that the legislative restrictions which were being placed upon the individual citizen were inimical to the national interest. That laws were being passed 'which not only struck at individual liberty, but, as one speaker put it, were of such a nature that they were treated with contempt and systematically broken with a light heart. This no doubt is very largely true. In pandering to the demands of noisy extremists, the Government has consistently.ignored the interests of tho bulk.of the people. A small but noisy section always has a better chance of gaining its ends with a weak and popularity-seeking Government than a large . and silent section. _ But as everyono knows that this is the position of things, docs not tho large and silent section, the moderates for instance, thoroughly deserve to be thrust into the background and have its feelings trampled on, and. its liberties restricte'd? For at least fifteen years the moderates) the so-called silent voters, have of their own choice remained dumb and permitted their noisy neighbours to sway the Government of the country. And what happens when they awaken from their long lethargy? At their first meeting of any public importance they take a step which can only bo explained by the surmise that they have been so long indifferent to public affairs that they have lost all knowledge of what has been going on around them. We refer of course to the proposal that the meeting should communicate with the trades unions with a view,' presumably, to securing their co-operation. Could anything be more' absurd 1

Have the moderates who constitute the National League so far forgotten the past as to believe' that the trades unions can throw in their lot with them? Do they really believe that there is any common ground beween men who profess moderation and men who indulge in the extremes of language disclosed in his recent manifesto by the only trades unionist member of Parliament in the country to-day? Is there ,any class in the community more narrow and self-centred than tho trades unionist organisation as ifc exists here at the present moment? And yet the moderates of the socalled National League arc cither prepared to blind themselves to these things or are ignorant of them. Had they appealed to Labour in the mass they would have been on safer ground, but to appeal to the trades unions to strengthen the cause of moderation is little less than to ask the Labour leaders to cut their own throats. We do not wish to be misunderstood in this matter. The National League—any league honestly desirous of stemming the tide of extreme and ill-digested legislative encroachment on individual liberty—is deserving of every encouragement and support. But to serve any good purpose such a league must have the courage of its .convictions, and tiot truckle to class or sectional interests for support. The National League had no reason to be discouraged with an attendance of 50 members at its meeting. Fifty workers arc better than 500 drones—fifty citizens of honest convictions, actuated by a high public spirit and prepared to give up some time, and to make some personal sacrifices to forward a cause which they consider in the national interest—fifty such citizens with any leadership worthy the name, and with the enthusiasm indispensable to winning success for any public reform—could in a very little time stir the city of Wellington from end to end. Numbers are of less value at the beginning of such an undertaking as is necessary to push the cause of moderation, than an organised plan of campaign and an executive capable and enthusiastic enough to put it into active operation. Wc may be mistaken— we hope we are—but the initial effort of the National League does not encourage us to look for cither an active or_ sustained campaign ; and yet the time was never more oppor' tune for such an enterprise.