SOCIALISM TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 6, 7 July 1938, Page 8

SOCIALISM TODAY

NOT A NEW DOCTRINE

HOW MUCH IS NEEDED?

VOTERS MUST DECIDE

Socialism and its implications was' one of the chief topics of debate in the Legislative Council yesterday when the Address-in-Reply debate was continued. One speaker said that he was in favour of humanitarianism, but Socialism and humanitarianism were different things. Another implied that they were the same, and said that the decision that had to be madevwas not whether or not New Zealand should have Socialism, but how much it should have. That was not a matter for politicians, he said, but. for the electors of the country, and they would decide. The debate was resumed by the Hon. V. A. Ward (Wellington), who said that he was sure every member of the Council was in favour of humanitarian legislation. Socialism and humanitarianism were two entirely different things, he said. Frankly, he would admit that he did not understand what Socialism was, and he questioned if anyone else did either. New Zealand had progressed under the present scheme of things, and he preferred to support a system he knew— a system with private enterprise that gave an individual outlook in life. The state of things had been altered by the Great War, Mr. Ward said, and the world was now in a transitional stage in which both Labour and Capital would have to make certain adjustments, but he believed they could still work together. NO TOTALITARIAN STATE. There was no desire on the part of the Government to bring about a totalitarian State as had been suggested by some speakers earlier in the debate; said the Hon. J. E. Duncan (Auckland). The Government had no desire to dethrone the State, but it did desire to dethrone Capital, and he hoped it would succeed. The Hon. J. Trevethick (Auckland) said that, judged by the measures already passed and those forecast, the Government was proceeding along lines that were for the welfare of the people of the Dominion. Humanitarian legislation was coming that would safeguard the national health and supply that security to which the people were entitled from the cradle to the grave; a security that the older people were entitled to because of what had been done to maintain the national security —sometimes at risk of life and health. The legislation coming was not based on the visions of dreamers, but was framed, to develop the efficiency of the nation. That should be the aim of every Government — to educate a selfreliant constitutional democracy such as New Zealand claimed to be. DEMOCRACY THREATENED. New Zealanders must realise that they were living in an age of political change, Mr. Trevethick said. Democracy as postulated by Abraham Lincoln was being threatened by dictators whose only claim to authority was might. Democracy was in the balance and every citizen should see to it that by the strength of their own defences they would not be ; found wanting. Democracy, whose watchword was peace, could only survive by eternal vigilance and ever-ready defence. Adequate defence might involve the country in debt, but material loss was nothing compared with the loss of life and democratic liberty. The Hon. J. K. Archer (Canterbury) said that he w«s a Socialist because he believed Socialism represented the teachings of Jesus Christ. Socialism was community ownership and use of community necessities; not community ownership of everything. "The question is not 'Shall we have Socialism,' but 'How much Socialism shall we have?'" he said. "We've got quite a lot of it, you know. An antiSocialist has no right to be in this place, because it is owned by the people and used by the people." What was the present-day alternative to Socialism? he asked. If anyone said individualism, he would say there was no such thing, and there never had been. "No man liveth unto himself," was how the Bible expressed it, and the Bible was right. What was private enterprise? He submitted that it was a sort of spurious Socialism, a combination in groups instead of in the community. Groups pretended to be private enterprise while they worked together to drive out private enterprise so that they would have a better opportunity to plunder the people. .