MR G. M. THOMSON AND SOCIALISM.

Evening Star, Issue 15513, 8 June 1914, Page 7

MR G. M. THOMSON AND SOCIALISM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Last evening, as is my wont, I attended the club. The "Reformers" there have not much time for the Labor party and their nationalisation of industries and socialistic ideas, but sometimes it is hard to get away from the notion that they may' be right after all, as the following conversation which took place will show. Politics was tho subject, aa is customary these times, and for brevity I will confine tho argument to A. and 8., although quite a number of the others took part: — ' m, ' A. : I see our member, Mr Thomson has been lecturing to the farmers on "ertilisers and their cost. B. : Yes, and I see he says that the farmer pays too much for his fertilisers. He considers that there is room for a great deal of improvement, and that the farmers could be saved a great deal of money. A. : But how does ho propose to effect this saving? B. : By the State taking control. A.: But that would interfere with private enterprise, and we, as employers of labor and manufacturers, could not countenance that. This would be Socialism. B. : Socialism- or no Socialism, Thomson -advocates it. ' ... A • Yes; and I remember that a while back ho was advocating the nationalisation of the fishing industry. Why does he not join the Socialist party? His ideas evidently tend in that direction. B : In his lecture he said that the declared value of imported artificial manure was £353,000, and the cost to the farmer was probably a good deal more than £SOO 000, which, according to his computation, left a profit for private enterprise of £150,000. Mr Thomson says this is too much, and if the State runs it the cost to the farmer would be a long way less than it is now. A.: But if he is going to preach this sort of doctrine, what will us fellows do f °B a Essays that if the State managed it one class o£ fertiliser which now costs from £4 10s to £5 12s 6d could be sold for £3 17s 6d. . , A • There is evidently a good margin ot profit here for our private enterprise. B ■ Yes He told the farmers that he wishes the Government (1) to acquire all local deposits of phosphate rock, and sell it to the farmers at 10 per cent, on cost price; (2) to acquire the rights of one of the companies controlling the Tacnic Island deposits. One of the private enterprise companies now controlling one of the deposits, according to Mr Thomson, has paid as much as 400. per cent, per annum on its invested capital. Chorus: We would all like to have a few shares in this company. What is the name of it? . . , B. : Another proposal of his is that the Government purchase an island in t~e Pacific which contains a deposit of over 2,000,000 tons of good rock for fertilising. A.: But surely this is coming it a bit too strong for a supporter of our Reform party to be advancing these socialistic B : Thomson savs that if what he advocates is only put into practice it will save the farmers at least £200,000 per year, which now goes into the pockets ot us private enterprise men. A. : Oh, if he is going to spread these notions about, especially amongst () tne farmers, who have such a set on Socialism, we will have to see Mr Massey about him. Surely the farmers didn t sit and listen to such nonsense. We can t have him converting tho farmers to Socialism; they are of such an assistance to our Reform party. . B.: But they did listen, and, what is more, they unanimously passed a hearty, vote of thanks to him with acclamation The farmer is like the rest of us: it he sees he can get an article cheaper by one way than by another, he is every, time after that "cheaper way. He doesn t trouble about whether it is called Socialism or not; although in reality it is Socialism, but the farmer will not admit it. A. : I suppose, when you com© to think it out logically, you are right. B. : I am right; and, what is more, the State has done more for the farmer than for any other section of the people in the way of spoon-feeding. In innumerable ways the State has assisted the man on the" land. I am not saying tho State was wrong in doing so, but it does occur to me sometimes that the farmer is a little ungrateful for these assistances, and that he is a little hard on tho Labor party,

who, in season and out of season, preaoh coming to-the assistance of not only the farmers, but every other section. What Mr Thomson now advocates, and which evidently meets with the approval of the farmers, is only a phase of the Socialism of the Labor party. A. : Is that so? X never looked at it in that light before. B. ; It ie so; and if the farmer only took a true perspective of things, he would find that the policy of the moderate Labor party is one which he should logically support, seeing that he now relies on the State for so much. You said just now we would have to see Mr Massey about, Mr Thomson. Why, Mr Thomson has already seen Mr Massey, and he has already made a convert of him to the extent' that the Prime Minister is going to make inquiries about the different questions raised by Mr Thomson. A.: Well, well! Has it come to this? Are we seeing the dawn of the day when the Reform party will have embraced holus bolu3 the doctrines of these Socialists? I \ seems like it. Bedtime had now.arrived, aryi we each hied to our several abodes, there to meditate over our discussion. —I am, etc., 'Reformer. June 6.