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Evening Star, Issue 16848, 25 September 1918, Page 4

Titk political campaign in connection with the forthcoming byLabor and election for Wellington Free Speech. Central seat in the House of Representatives holds more than ordinarily interesting features. Sis candidates have been nominated, and they represent individually and collectively a very varied assortment of political ideals and aims. Broadly, the representation is as follows :—Tho National Government, National Democracy, Labor, Independent Labor, Independent Liberalism, and the interests of Tetumed soldiers. The policy of the National Government candidate {Mr W. T. Hildreth) and that of Mr Harry Atmore, formerly M.P. for Nelson, the Independent Liberal, need not be elaborately discussed. Obviously Mr HiMreth will stand for helping to win the war by keeping the National Government in office, and keeping domestic legislation out of their 'narrow sphere of legislative action. The Independent Liberal merely seeks a position to enable him to exercise his peculiar political temperament, and, incidentally, to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. A lively occupation, maybe* but one that leads to very little practical action. The other candidates have a more interesting programme at their service, if they are -able to make a wise use of the opportunities and political material now available. It is to bo suspected, however, that they lack strength | to mould the clay into an attractive form. ! Labor has not yet found the right stamp of man to make a notable mark in con- | structive politics for the party. Indeed, official Labor has selected, the least promising type of representative for the advancement of its revised policy and the strength- | ening of its enlarged constitution.

As a matter of fact, Labor's triple representation in this campaign contains the seeds of much trouble, and possibly of defeat. At a critical time in national politics, when strong well-balanced men and minds are required to combat the increasing problems concerning social, economic, and industrial interests, the party leaders have not been able to demonstrate the possession of political unity within the ranks of organised Labor. Nor is there any evidence of the discipline that wins in the end. So we have the varied interests of Labor, scattered among three widely-different types of democratic champions—Mr Cyril William Tanner, National Democrat (whatever that may be); Mr Peter Fraser, Labor; and-Mr Matthew Joseph Mack, Independent Labor. The division of forces has irritated supporters of the official Labor party to a point beyond reason and the practice of democratic justice. The campaign has already been marred by tactics that can only be described as despicable; and marred, curiously enough, in a manner that strikes at the fundamental principles of true De- | mocracy. Labor supporters have rudely ' denied the right of free speech to Mr Mack, the Independent Labor candidate, | for no other reason than that his political views and ability are likely to split the Labor vote and "so endanger the prospects of the candidate democratically chosen by Labor bodies," That choice

reason is given by the Timaru branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, who, by the way, appear to exercise an extraordinary interest in politics, and sond trains of resolutions running all over the country.

Is it in keeping with democratic principles to limit the action of an individual supporter of Labor who has political aspirations, and to deny him the right of free speech? It would seem that the democratic principles of Labor -«an be very elastic on occasions, and not entirely free from the tyranny of Bolshevism. Surely Mr Mack, or any other supporter of \*rkers, has (as he himself sayal a perfect right to represent reasonable Labor as distinct from extremists. Too long lias Labor politically been managed by a small band of professional agitators, mostly members of the tribe of Socialists who have never done in their noisy life a hand's turn of what is commonly regarded as real hard work. There never was a time in the history of the bitter, laborious movement of organised workers towards a better standard of sociar life when there has been ao clamant a need as now for sane representatives of Labor in the people's Parliament. Ib it not clear to all that, if industrial and economic stability is to bo secured for this country after the war, it is absolutely essential to keep extremists with Bolshevik tendencies as far as possible from responsible control. That does not diminish the need or the scope for a strong representation of sane champions of organised Labor in all the administrative institutions of the Dominion. And yet, in the face of.this pressing need, and despite the assertions of the Labor party that they stand for the national principles of true Democracy, the first political candidate who offers to support with all his might the best interests of Labor is howled down with a " loud discordant Socialist song." It is a fine advertisement for the burnished principles of Labor and democratic justice. Organised Labor frankly prefers the candidature of Mr Fraser, a notorious extremist. This is the old foolish policy of Labor that for years played into the hands of Liberalism and camouflaged Conservatism—which is a pity. Mr Fraser, however, threatens to prove a failure. He is really the sort of agitator who continually misrepresents the feelings and aims of the ordinary working man.

There is one feature of tho Wellington Central by-election campaign that should be noted both by the public and the politician. This is the evidence in the multiplicity of candidates for the urgent need of electoral reform and the introduction of the system of Proportional Representation. The first-past-the-post system is all right for a racecourse, but it is entirely wrong for a parliamentary election. The present system is obsolete, and as democratically unjust as the denial of free speech to a political candidate.