DEMOCRACY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 71, 25 March 1937, Page 12

DEMOCRACY

BASIS-IN INDUSTRY

MR. SAVAGE'S WARNING

ADVICE TO WAGEEARNERS

"There is only one thing that can stop. us. and that is to be crucified in the house of our friends," said the Prime Minister (the lit. Hon. M. J. Savage) at the Town Hall last night during the course of his reply to a civic farewell. He said that the foundations of democracy in New Zealand rested in industry and that those guiding the machinery of production had a heavy responsibility. He added that if wage-earners and employers did not accept that responsibility they might destroy democracy.

"If democracy is to live in New Zealand it can live only in industry where the foundations of democracy must rest," said the Prime Minister. "We will do the job all right, but if we start, out like a team of jibbing horses, one pulling and the others sitting back in the breeching we are not going to get very .far. The machinery must be kept moving all the time. The people have selected a Government to represent them, and I am not asking too much to ask them to be loyal to the Government they have sent, into office to do a job for them. If democratic [foundations are to live in New Zealand, they cannot live anywhere else, except in the industry of New Zealand. Those responsible for the machinery of production have a responsibility no less than Ministers of the Crown. The Ministers at the present time number thirteen —that is not a large number. "WHAT CAN I DO ALONE?" "We are riot going to sidestep or minimise our responsibilities in this matter, but I want to tell you and the individual who interjected—(inaudible "at the Press table) —that you have a responsibility as well as I have.' Unless you do your job, what can I do alone? "Don't start to tell me what the average' wage-earner has to put up with. I have been an. average wageearner. I- have spent a lifetime at it, and where men work the hardest —in the bowels of the earth. "I don't want anyone to tell me what the average wage-earner has to put up with, but r say to the average wageearner today that if democracy is to live in New Zealand he has a responsibility just as I have mine. Don't make any mistake about it. "We are living in a changing age when democi'acies are falling and individuals are being ruled by the rifle. We don't want anything of that sort in New.Zealand or in any part of the British Commonwealth of Nations. One of the bright specks on earth today is the British. Commonwealth of Nations. We want to improve it all right, but, by the Lord Harry, if I have to be found alive or dead, let it be ■in the British Commonwealth where there is some semblance of freedom left.

"The British Commonwealth is not the only place either. There are other places, but we have a responsibility in': New Zealand and the peoples. right through the British Commonwealth have a responsibility, too, to share in the shaping of human destiny. Don't try to blame someone else. Let us put our own house in order. I am sure we can do it.

"If democracy is to live in New Zealand we want the assistance of industry, wage-earners and employers alike. It is tip to them to keep things running. We are not going to solve anything' by stopping: the machinery of production, except perhaps to kill democracy in our own homestead. There is only one thin? that can stop us, and that is to be crucified in the house of our friends. I hope that is not going; to happen. I don't think it will."