LIBERALISM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3146, 4 December 1922, Page 8

LIBERALISM.

(By Demos.) Webster tells us that Liberalism it not bound by established forms in political philosophy; is independent in opinion; not conservative; friendly tc great freedom in the constitution oi administration of government; having tendency towards democratic as distinguished from aristocratic. The Tory on tlie other hand tells us that Liberalism is dead. The actual and true position lies in the fact that while Liberalism is sound and healthy, and going about its business in a normal manner. Toryism, stimulated by a distorted sense of its temporary success, is in an abnormal state of animation. A Tory, Webster tells us, is a member of the Conservative party as opposes! to the progressive party. In New Zealand there is a growing tendency to refer to Tories as Reformers, but in England this tendency to complicity is not so marked. To give a typical example: Mr Asquith, speaking at Newcastle on November Oth, said that if the Tories were to govern for five years he hoped a living and powerful opposition would be formed. Anyone who has followed Mr Asquith’s career as a British statesman will concede that he is an able—a very able—man, but to show that in reforming to the Tories. Air Asquith was now’ speaking out of malice, it may be pointed out that out of sixteen members of thepresent British Cabinet, with its lais.se/. fa ire policy, no less than eleven are titled men, including one Marquis, one Karl, two Lords, one Duke, and two Viscounts. As the late H. 1). Bedford said, “We British folk still love .a lord, though bis function in life be simply that of eating sumptuously and dressing gracefully.” Of course there are Tories who arc not'titled men, and titled men who are not Tories, but by their acts ye shall know them, and it was fry their acts that they enlisted the spirited antagonism of England’s Grand Old Alan, Win. Ewart Gladstone. “Tories have no hope and no faith,” said Gladstone. “The best of them have class interest and the spirit of antiquity.” Gladstone was not blind to the class interest of the Tories, and as we see to-day, Toryism is the extreme on the one hand and Bolshevism is the other extreme, both extremes standing for government of tbe people, by a people, for one class of the people, and it is the spirit of Liberalism that is inherent in the great mass of the people-, and the spirit of Liberalism alone, that will safeguard government of the people, by tbe people, for the whole of the people. Toryism would put _ a steel fence around existing institutions, while Bolshevism would smash them to-morrow. Liberalism is the one sanely progressive 'spirit that can be relied upon to annul, modify, or extend existing institutions as the progress of the times may demand. On this point Professor Alereditb Atkinson says, “One wonders which is the more pathetic and dangerous—tlx' ‘go-slow’ policy of the Syndicalist, or the ‘go-slow’ policy of the Conservative.” In New Zealand we have a party in power that has been nurtured on the ideals of Toryism, though honest but seemingly unconscious of the fact, wo have in New Zealand standing side by side outside our Parliamentary doors statues of John Ballance and Richard Seddon, the two greatest pioneers of Liberalism this country has known, and on the inside we have William Terguson Alassey standing shoulder to shoulder with his Tory Cabinet triumphantly declaring that Liberalism is as dead as Julius Caesar. AA’c have in this country a party where Toryism oozes out at every pore of its political skin —a. party, s omtoxicated by the exuberance of its unhealthy majority, that it boldly asserts:- If you are not for us you are against sound government. It says in effect: We stand for loyally; if you are against us you stand for disloyalty. Sir Joseph Ward stood for the highest ideals of loyalty when on behalf of New Zealand be placed a Dreadnought at the disposal of the Alotherland in her hour of need. In that case one have thought that the loyalty of the ’lories would have overflowed and irrigated the whole land with a deep rooted sense of their great patriotism. What did they actually do? They seized the opportunity to use it for party purposes, and individual members went so far as to usm> for propaganda purposes postcards with a photograph of Sir Joseph Ward on one side as the man who gave the Dreadnought, and a few farmers on the other side as the men who would have to pay for it. Loyalty! Loyalty! What heinous political moves are made in thy name. Tins is a typical example of the Tories’ loyalty, and is in scathing contrast to the loyalty exhibited by the Liberals when the other day an almost similar emergency arose in connection with the Near East. Mr Alasey may be a big man physically, and with the aid of certain factions, whose principles arc questioned, he may reign longer than Air Seddon, but no person unless faction-blind would think of comparing the two men and their records. The Tories of to-day may claim that they arc truly Liberal as any other party, and no doubt it would he convenient if the people would accept tin’s assurance, and forget the many attempts made to strangle Liberalism entirely. The people, however, cannot forget that William Ferguson Alassey is the self-same man who led the political group that jeered while Richard Seddon was shaping New Zealand’s destinies by constructive statesmanship. No! Liberalism is not dead. The great Liberals of' the past, the men who really blazed the (-political trail, planted the seeds of Liberalism too deeply to "allow of its being rooted up by such an idle and meaningless slogan as that invented and circulated by the associates of Julius Caesar. There was an unusual incident ai London; Sessions following the acquittal of Alfred Shevill, a laborer, on a charge of attempted burglary. In announcing tbe decision of the jury, the foreman said they desired to make a collection among themselves to put Shevill on his feet. He then collected money, not only from the acting jury, but also from the jurors in waiting. The total, nearly L"J. was banded to the Judge. Air St. John .Morrow, who in giving the money to Shevill, said: “The jury have been tom bed by your ease. and v have made this collection for you. One of the .Magistrates has supplemented it. and I hope will will make good use of il.” Ap| latently graieful not only lor bis release, but also for the practical sympathy shown him, Shevill left the A general offensive ot the Berlin cinema proprietors against tbe tax-col-lector began lately in great style. Every one of tbe capital’s ;{|J picture palaces closed and were to remain so until the municipality reduced the entertainment tax (now -At l per cent). Owners’ hopes for success were based on the fact that closing means a loss to the municipal revenues of ‘J,00(1,000 marks a day. Incidentally, tbe event disclosed to what a vast extent this i comparatively new industry has grown. The closing of the cinemas means the 1 dismissal of 7000 employees, and indirectly it affects another army of film > renters, printers, designers, and so on. t Ojber cinema proprietors throughout ' Germany threatened a I hours’ “sym- « pa thy strike.” )