RAMSAY MACDONALD, M.P.

Evening Star, Issue 12964, 8 November 1906, Page 6

RAMSAY MACDONALD, M.P.

A NOTABLE SPEECH. A gcoil presence, a fine voice, cultm<-, fluency, and directness—all these qualifications for public speaking are possessed by Mr Ramsay Macdonald, the member of the Labor party in the House of Commons who is now concluding his tour of New Zealand. He spoko last night on the British Labor party in the Victoria Hall, before an audience of 350 or perhaps a little more^—an audience totally out of keeping numerically with the imjjortance of the occasion. For no matter what differences of opinion, the public may hold on political and social questions, they could iea-rn a great deal from a man like Mr Macdonald, disagree with him on some points, as many of them r.o doubt would. Last night marks a great opportunity lost to a number of Dunedin’s community. “I come here to you with no niisrian. at ail,” said Mr Macdonald, after a moment or two spent in getting on good terms with his audience. “ What I say is purely descriptive of what is going on in the Old Country. Tho Labor party at Homo has been created by the sheer necessity of events. When we measure live achievements of tlic old political parties.. Litoral and Conservative, and try to find out what they i have done, wo aro bound to come to tho conch mi on that their record ha.s been appointing on tho whole. During the last 100 yeais we have Lad all kinds of Governments except a Labor Government, and the social problem of Great Britain is no more solved, now than it was at the beginning of tho 100 years. So tho workers had to consider forming a party of their own. Wo have had trades unions—mono active than yours in New Zealand, more determined, more vigilant, better organised as a great fighting force—and we found that against them capital was being concentrated more effectively than ever befoio." The speaker then narrated what, ill succor had attended Labor’s efforts prior to getting direct representation in Parliament. “Our deputations trod to go dawn to the House of Commons. Wo were stopped at the outer lobby, and when we sent in our cards to our members to get them to come out and discuss our grievances, and went down almost on our bare knees, our candidates, who had pledged themselves in their election adiiresMCs to do almost ai retiring wo wanted, turned a deaf ear and Sd nothing for The game became rather heartbreaking. and we thought it. better to send our deputations on to tho floor of the House of Commons.”—(Applause.) Dial was how Labor got direct- representation in Parliament. “Wo were told.” continued Air Macdonald, “ that we should not introduce the class movement/ into the House .>f Coamioas. What is Hie Hou.sc of Commons now “ —(A Voice ; “ Class, all class’.’*) You would find there—if you ck«pd your eyes to the little body of men elected last JajuKxry—you would ieo portlv, well-to-do ricli men—men who come up in their motor-cars and carriages and pairs to legislate for tho poor seamstress working her life out in .some overcrowded room in a back street. When these men approach leghdatxm they are .'wmpathotic. Ibit put u Bill dealing with this or anv labor subject, and what, is their first thought' How docs it affect tbemrolves and their iKK-ket?*’ /Jo illustrate his point Mr Macdonald dipped into New Zealand politics. “ When the Laud Bill was before the House, and the land agents were sitting round about Sir Joseph Ward, and the landowners and the lawyers interested in land conveyancing, they said ‘ Oh, no. Of course wo are Liberals. Wc are friends of tho people ; we are in favor of economic liberty ; we want to carry on the traditions of Air Soddon’s legislation : but you must not touch land. Wo arc prepared to touch everything except land, l>ecause wc are interested in land.’—-(Loud applause.) And so a serious party split was felt, and the Bill had to be temporarily withdrawn. And so, even with the best intentions, it is always bound to he the case.”

Mr Macdonald showed that prior to the election of a txibor party there was class representation in the House of Commons. There was a Tuxly of representatives drawn from the ranks of Kmploycrs’ Associations returned to Parliament to look after employers’ interests. He went on to explain how previously Labor constituency representatives nullified one another’s votes. IjOJnauihlro and Yorkshire, with the same interests and the same labor problems, voted opposite ways--Lancashire Conservative, and Yorkshire Liberal. When a Bill came np dealing with their problems*—high rents.- low wages, the Wle effects of .'and | ■monopoly—their representatives walked into different lobbies. "So as to their effectiveness both lancashire and Yorkshire might as well he wiped out of politics,” commented the speaker. “ Intelligent Labor leaders saw the time had come, to form a Labor party, so that the result might be not 1-amca-shire rninns Yorkshire equals 0, but Lancashire plus Vorkthire equals a great deal. The formation of the party was tlien brieflv sketched by Mr Macdonald. First, the attempt (a failure) to make it a lucre trades union party, only two trades union., remaining in it after twelve months. Then a conference was bold with co-opera-tors. friendly societies, and Socialists, .utd the partv to formed. There are two trades unionist wing ami the Socialist wing. 'file .Socialist does not interfere with the trades unionist and the trades unionist'need not. be a Socialist. Inc trades unionist has experienced the evils of low wages ; the Socialist has been devising constructive ideas to remedy this. The trades unionist knows the bitterness of being unemployed ; the Socialist has been investigating the economic causes of it. me Socialist takes a national view of things. H*' can talk imperialism, and a foreign poliev, and is a better worker at electrons than'the trades unionist, being more wil.in" to sacrifice himself, and more prepared in"a clear-headed way to lay down policies and programmes for future work. I be trades unionist, has only a revulsion against existing conditions ; the Socialist has Ins Utopia, his own little ideal, to strive for. whicn makes his revolt not a mere beating of the U The aims of the Uabor party and the evils tbev seek to remedy were next treated. Air Macdonald said that the distribution of wealth and not its production is at the bottom of the evil of existing conditions. ‘‘Great Britain is richer, more powerful, and more effective as a producer than she has been at any period. \Ve havo added £2OO 000.000 to our national income in ten tmis’ And where has it gone?” Here he drew an imaginary diagram—a mound m the middle representing the accumulated wealth of “class,” thinning down to a long line representing the. meagre possessions of the hulk of the masses. ” What we want to do is to sweep down that mound and spread it out. all over the line to give a more equal thickness,’’ he exclaimed with a gesture. As an o-side he told the audience not to congratulate themselves unduiv on tlie distribution of wealth in New* Zealand. The remedv for this unequal distribution, he argued, is "not Individualism but Socialism. ‘‘Only in so far as a community as a whole and a State as a whole fulfils its re-KjwiT-wihir;,-- can the individual enjoy that width of liberty which enables, hint to, fulfil his rct®anaibili£y. Statute law is not a

limitation to individual liberty. If devised by men who think clearly, for every little prevention it entails it opens up jaew’ ter* ritorv for you.” *‘ihe Labor party/* said Mr Macdonald, “is. not a Socialist party, and personally I am not concerned in making it a Socialist party. lam not a trades unionist. I have nothing to gain by the changes we axe seeking; I have something to lose. If the taxation we want comes in, I lose. But I am glad to say that our Labor party has got the support of a good many men in the same position. A great many professional men. sick and tired of the hollowness of present social conditions; a good many men living on the interest of accumulated wealth —as rich as some of those people in New Zealand who aro frightened to associate with Labor members, as intellectual, as intelligent, as good citizens as these people, perhaps a little more honest than these people—are associated with the Labor party at Hohwi.—(Applause.) Mr Macdonald advised his hearers to draw up such a creed (Labor and Socialist) that no right-thinking man could ever dispute their claims. “.Drive them out of these moral ditches where they arc entrenched at present,” he counselled ; “then your movement will succeed, because it ought to succeed.” In conclusion he said : “We have fought against obstacles against which, I think, you have not to fight here. May we never forfeit the confidence, the good feeling, and welcome of the intelligent democracy of New Zealand and Australia/'—(Loud applause.) After Mrs Macdonald (who is also an accomplished platform speaker) had addressed the meeting on the scope for women’s work in tho Labor movement, some questions wore put to Mr Macdonald and answered, and after votes of thanks the meeting ended. Mr W. Patti. c on. president of tho Trades and Labor Council, under whose auspices the meeting was held, occupied the chair. A FEW FRAGMENTS. “The politics of the twentieth century "•must be industrial politics.” “We have cur trades unions fighting every day—not sleeping for two or three years between awards.”—(Laughter.) “ You can’t create in an intelligent country a political party which is merely a traces union jiarty.” “The time has come for the democracy of the Empire lo lay down an Imperial policy/’ “ Mon who are rich in proportion to their lack of thought, who talk about tho individual as if any men were hedged about as though he were in a Maori pall. There lias been no Mich man, except Robinson Crusoe, since the day of Adam, and Adam did not have very much of it.” “You may get out of elbows with us; you may cut the painter. That makes no difference. You may act up a king of your own or a president of the New Zealand republic. You may set your fleets on tho .seas and draft your armies against w. You can kill us, and wo can kill you. But all the time nature ia stronger than you. England is your home, and you are our sons and our daughters. Our history Ls your Lnberitance/ ,

"Don't My to form a party that will command the allegiance of one economic ciass in tho cotnmunity, because you are bound to Jail. And you ought to fail, because it is unfair, it is irrational, it is narrow-minded to attempt to do such a thing. Economics alone are not going to save you. Tltc party to save the people is going to combine economics with morals."' "1 am afraid that is one of the hanf nuts that Son’ Zealand teeth, and New Zealand teeth alone, will have to crack,” was the reply to a question as to tho righteousness of the Labor platform hero in New Zealand, which, the questioner complained, practically shut out Socialists. “ Every member of the party is against Mr Chamberlain’s fiscal policy." "We have no platform. We believe in. principles. We don't believe in a series of disconnected questions being called a platform.” "If I liked 1 could tell you some very funny tales about your Protection, and bow much it costs you, and bow uneconomical it is. You arc losing in many respects by it.” '" I am more strongly a Fncclradr than ever I was before. The case for the protection of an infant industry is weaker than ever I thought it would be.” 'Phis statement followed an admission that since coming to New Zealand Mr Maodonald had been working like a nigger at our trade returns, cost of living, rate of wages, otc- “ I know New Zealand from Auckland to the Bluff as a community of men and women, and that is a very precious experience for a man who sits in. the House of Commons.” ” Now, between you and me. is that an English nr an Australian question f” said Mr .Macdonald to one of tho audience, who wanted to know if members of the Labor party would accept scats in tho British Cabinet, supposing the party numbered a third of tho House of Commons, and thus held the balance of power. The questioner jiersisted, and was told finally : " When tho time comes we would very seriously and prayerfully consider it." “ You are not such a wonderfully boused people in New Zealand as a great many of you imagine. Wealth in this country is not so extraordinarily well distributed as tome of you would have us behove. Three-quarters of your land is owned by one-tenth of tho landowners. That toils a tale against you. In 1903-04 three*fourths of the adults who died left practically nothing behind them, although you are -supposed to have about £3OO per head if all your wealth were distributed among every man. woman, and child in tho colony. ” “My own personal opinion is that, it (conciliation and arbitration') won’t bo adopted in Britain. I think the conditions in England air such that they don’t offer much opportunity lor the successful working of tho. Conciliation and Arbitration Act. We have to hammer out the jwsition for ourselves.”