STATE FARMING.

Evening Star, Issue 10391, 12 August 1897, Page 4

STATE FARMING.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—l also wish to thank you for the publication of Mr L 3 Grove's settlement proposal, which is based upon a loan basis of 0 per cent, interest upon borrowed capital, and is proposed as a cure for the unemployed and other social difficulties by which society is so much agitated, and I do so because it, is another evidence that the curative principles of Socialism, which act by eradication and prevention, appear to many as through a cloud of fog, from being so presented to their minds by persons who claim to be experts ps expositors of those principles— Mr Ls Grove, to wit. The present era is said to be the era of fads, and many good paople, who ought to know bstt.ir, imagine Socialism to be the fad pai- excellence ; but to the Socialist the greatest fad appears to be that of the individual who imagines himself to be a Socialist and is at the same time a supporter of "shent per shenfc," provided the operation commences at or below point fine. 1 regret the necessity of pointing out that such Socialism is a very harmless force in its relationship to collective capitalism —in point of fact, actually a friend' in disguise, from tthom capitalism obtains great assistance to profit.

Trades councils are commonly supposed to be Socialistic, and they approve Mr Lc Grove's so-called Socialistic proposal! Are they actually so? Can they be actually Socialistic and upholders of the Seddou-ci<M-Ward-cfJH-M'Ken/Jo policy of borrowing millions of English (so-called) capital for th* purpose of liquidising the " white elephant" assets of bankrupt financial institutions belonging to private enterprise ? Socialistic —and yet upholders of increased indirect taxation ? Socialistic—and yet upholders of "stuffing" the Legislative Council with men who, as candidates for seats in tho lower legislative chamber, have been rejected by the people ? Socialistic—and yet sunporters of financial and political jobbery well.nigh impossible to individual nrivate enterprise l What, then, 13 Socialism?

I aocapt the definition—" It ia a govern, ment of tho popple, by the people, for the people !" i.e., it 13 the legislative administra. tion of a country by whioh the greatest good to the greatest number can be evolved. Therefore, as the measures supported by trades council can only evolve the opposite by increasing degree of conditions as between the classes and the masses, to me it appears that trades councils are not Socialistic.

Turning, then, from Mr Le Grove and trades councils, I epek light at the shrine of our local Fabian Society, and in meeting assembled (last Thursday) was informed by the lecturer, MrSivertsen, a leading Fabian, under the presidency of the Hon. W. m! Bolt, through his (Mr Sivertsen's) discourse —mainlv composed of terms from John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith, the Koran, the Talmud, the Arabian Nights fables, and the Bible—"that it matters not to whom the individual has to pay rent, whether to the State or to private ownership, because the conditions of the masses are not (so said Mr Sivertsen)—affected by either; the sole determining factor being the amount of reDt he ha 3to pay." Is this Socialism? Is it outer darkness? Or what ait ?

Hugh Price Hughes has a happy method of attributing all evil and sin as the direct interpolation of a personal devil, cunningly inserted between the joints of the Divine Creator's plan of evolution, which H.P.H. affirms was devised to produce nothing but happiness to mankind. 'Now, as there can be no denial of existing evil and sin, suppose we accept this doctrine and come face to face with cause, effect, and cure, the latter being defined by Hugh Price Hughes as " righteousness," which some good men call Socialism ; but as this solution of the problem gives lis the devil as the cause of human misery, capitalism as the operative agency and Socialism as the cure, where, then, do Mr Le Grove and trades councilism come in ? For answer I will put their propositions iu the place of the thesis of a scholastic wight as parafolically given by thp poet Longfellow in 'The Golden Legend,' and take the devil's soliliquy thereon as the key to the problem. It runs thus : • So long as the boastful human mind Consents in such mills as this to grind, I sit very firmly on my throne ! <~>f a truth it, almost makes me laugh To see men leaving the golden grain To gather in handfuls the pitiful chaff.

! Tis a fitting representation of the relative positions of Socialism and trades councilism to a practical solution of the labor problem, and by it one is forced to adrftire the pluck of the devil and to despise those who torment their being with the pitiful chaff when they might, and ought to, live enjoy. ing and distributing the golden grain I am, etc., A Socialist. Dunedin, August 9.