VOTE CATCHING

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 26, 30 January 1919, Page 3

VOTE CATCHING

TO THO EWTOII.

Sir,—We are quite in agreement with the exposure in your columns of tlie fallacies and follies of arguments in favour of one big union proposal. But one does not know how soon the hydra-headed monster known as Bolshevism will get started in adjacent lands, so we trust the Government will bring down preventive measures to deal with this very serious menace at once. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is, however, unfortunate that the Dominion has to face an immediate election, . when each party will, as usual, promise everyone everything—anything to get and keep office. This vote-catch-ing system has, as you know, landed our neighbours into a very turbulent political atmosphere, and the conditions there at the present moment are very favourable for Bolsheviks, Anarchists, Red Feds, Socialists, and others whose one idea is to grab all they can without ever having done a hand's turn of solid work to earn it. But we fail to see in any of our leading dailies any suggestions for combating this evil. Presumably the Government means to let it slide and wait til) the farmers feel tho pinch, and tat "them" deal with it. I ask you, Sir, is this a fan- deal to the farmers ? To my mind it is a save-your-own-face political infamy. You see, we have not forgotten the last upheaval. The small farmer therefore now insists that the Government and the House tackle this matter in straight-out fashion without delay. In a word, agitators should be told they will be held strictly to account at law. It should be made illegal for any trades union to oombine with other unions for strike purposes. No Government Department should be allowed to join any industrial anion. The police should be upheld and their assaulters punished. Now is the time to thrash it out.—l am, etc., VIGIUANT.