THE LABOR PLATFORM

Evening Star, Issue 18054, 23 August 1922, Page 3

THE LABOR PLATFORM

ADDRESSES BY SELECTED CANDIDATES. Several candidates selected by ballot to represent tho Labor Party in Parliament addressed a meeting in the Choral Hall last evening. The attendance was not a large one. Tho candidates were Messrs J. S. Loydall, member of the executive of the Carpenters’ Union; 0. M. Moss, president of the Labor Representation Comimittce; and J. Gilchrist, late secretary of the Otago Labor Representation Committee and National Executive officer of the New Zealand Labor Party. Mr P. Noilson was chairman.

Mr Loydall was the first speaker. Ho commenced by making some comments on Socialism, which, he said, meant production, distribution, andexohange. Socialism, as he understood it, was an ordered system of government. It was something entirely different from Capitalism, and dealt with the food, clothing, and shelter that were absolutely necessary for man and woman, He referred to the apathy of the working classes, who should bo more alive to their interests when others were so strongly organised; and, after dealing with the low rate of wages paid l in the Old Country in years gone by. he touched upon the subject ol remedial legislation, and said they could not do better at the present time than place upon the Statute Book something that would enable them to get more for their products. An inflation of prices had boomed land values, and they must have some change. That was imperative. It- was absolutely necessary that they should base the tax on land values, and a ! land tax would break up large estates. : Land and sources of wealth should belong to the people. In regard to the currency question, he said they knew that in prosperous times there was always a shortage of money, and lie maintained that it was necessary that the Labor Party should endeavor to arrange for credit themselves. He next referred to Proportional Representation. and said that Mr Massey had stated that he would put something in i the place of the second ballot, but he had j not done so. The present system suited IMr Massey only too well. Proportional Representation simply meant that every , phase of opinion in the dominion, so far as was possible, would be represented. 1 Replying to a question, tho speaker said ho would support Mr Holland or any other leader whose principles he believed in. Mr Moss commenced by saying that there were two classes in this and l other countries. There was the working class and the capitalist class, and by working class he meant those who did clerical work or manual labor. The capitalist class rvas living solely by investment, and that class had been on the increase during the war period. We had more money than we ever had before. There wore thousands I who wanted work and could not get is because those who controlled matters had ; an abundance of money, and would not 'provide employment. He quoted Mr D. | Jones. M.P., and said there was an admis- ■ sion that wo had wealth and securities that could be taxed to find work if the Government wanted to find it. At the time of the maritime strike conditions were similar to \vh*it they were now. He went on to speak of the Sweating Commission that had been set up to inquire into working conditions, and referred to some of its findings. The condition of the workers to-day was not as bad as then, and many people believed that it , was impossible for wages to drop as low !as they were in 1899. But if the policy I carried out by the Massey Party was not | stopped, and the Massey Party was returned at next election, the coim.liona p.m vailing in 1890 would again take place in New Zealand. The Labor Party, if in power, would open up big e'*'"'"-- n»-l Crown lands lying idle to-day. There had I been aggregation of land going on ! 1911. It started practically at the end of 1808. There was no necessity for the Labor Party to confiscate wealth, and no one in the Labor Party stood for repudiating loans taken up by Parliament. What he stood for was a Government recognising the mismanagement of tho present Government. If the Labor Party got into power it would deal with tho land in a way similar to the method of Ballanco and Seddon. If the Government valuation was too high, and a man contended it was and refused to pay on the Government valuation, he was-compelled to sell it at the valuation ho himself placed upon it. There was a .combined effort being made in all countries to break down collective ownership, but they as a Labor Party stood; to extend it until they owned tho means of production, distribution, and exchange. They could not expect a man who did 1 not believe in collective ownership to support it; they could not expect him to go against bis own interests. The State coal mines had been a huge succe.ss, and had restricted the price of coal. The Massey Government had already closed one State coal mine, and was going to sell or close others. To ids mind the country should own the ships that carried the coal. Tho Labor Party would extend insurance activities if it was in power. Ho admitted! that at present the Government insurance was not of much use; but that was because there was a mass of people in Parliament who represented interests which ran concurrent with investments in insurance.

Mr Gilchrist said that if anything was needed to show that Hie Labor Socialist Party was the only sane group to-day it was the attitude it took up when it said that the world’s wealth should go to the wage workers, and the reason of it not going was because of an over-increasing army of nonproducers becoming saddled upon the shoulders of tho producers. The whole of tho present trouble could! be traced to private ownership in land, distribution, and exchange. He quoted from a table to show the enormous advances made during the past fifty years in inventions, and went on to enumerate what he was in favor of, cardinal paints being Proportional Representation, the people retaining power to initiate in the matter of a new law or the doing away with an existing one, and the power of recall. Ho did not know tho reason why tho countay should keep tho Legislative Council any longer. The party, he continued', stood for full civil rights for all State employees. Was it fair because a man was employed by the State that he should bo robbed of his civil rights? He believed in national land endowments being retained. That laud was being parted with at a rapid rate. Coming to borrowing, he said that what we borrowed was really credit, and the credit rested upon the power of the workers to produce. Tho competitive system was bringing in money to a great number of non-producers. The price of a thing to-day was made up of over 80 per cent, cost of distribution and less than 20 per cent, cost of production. That system must change. It must go, and a form of collective ownership must tako its place. The speaker concluded by saying that the Massey Government was out to smash unionism. A vote of thanks was accorded tho speakers and the chairman before the meeting terminated.