GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS.

Evening Star, Issue 22878, 9 February 1938, Page 7

GOVERNMENT AND MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS.

TO THE EDITOR, gi r> It is not my intention to -withdraw’ any of my statements made in iny letter of January 28. Your correspondents have nob made any endeavour to prove them, wrong, but attempt to sidetrack the issue by asking questions which have no real bearing on mv statements. Nevertheless with your permission 1 will answer their questions and place before them data which should be sufficient to prove that my statements are true.

In the first place allow; mo to inform “Council Employee” that I am the same C. M. Moss that he listened to five years ago, who placed before the people a real Socialist policy—in other words, a real Christian and Labour policy, one founded on truth and justice to all. It is also true that another gentleman, one admired so much by Mr MacManus, of the name of the Rev. E. T. Cox, also advocated a policy very much on the same lines. As the people of 1,938 years ago did, so did the workers of 1933 do. They supported the professional preacher qt Christianity and scorned one of their own class. They once again failed to understand that if they are going to emancipate themselves from the bondage of parasitism it can only be done by real men, and by men who understand and who have carried the cross and are again prepared to carry it should it be necessary. In the meantime, in case it should not be plain to “ Council Employee ” what my political opinions are, allow me to say they are 100 per cent. Labour and that I am a “ real ” Labour man—like many more outside of the Labour Party. I resent the terms used by His Worship the Mayor, Mr MacManus, and others i.e., that those who do not belong to the Labour Party and who do not see eye to eye with them are against the workers. I know from experience while a member of the Unemployment Committee of this town that the workers had better friends among those whom the above gentlemen call antiLabour than they did among some of those who now have seats in the Parliament and municipal councils of our country. In case it should be considered I am using your columns for propaganda purposes, allow me to say once again that I have no political ambitions. I have but one object in life, and that is service to my fellow-man. In the past, when giving it, it has brought more pain than pleasure. Perhaps in the future it will again lead to chambers that caused the following to bo written:—-

Prisoner of the chainless mind, Freedom, darkest in dungeons thou art.

Or maybe it will lead on_ to political platforms. Time alone will tell. In the meantime we will leave the future in abeyance. In my letter of January 28 I pointed out that the policy of the council and also the Government was not a true Labour policy, and was not what a true Labour man aimed at. Ido not intend to be hard on my friends, for I know they are like myself, they have a limit so far as their mental powers are concerned. To be brief and save space, I wish to place before your correspondents and members of the party data of very recent date. I shall allow them to decide themselves as to whether the policy of Labour as it is being carried out is what they expected and jn the best interest of the people. The first thing I wish to bring to their notice is an advertisement in your issue of Saturday, February 5. It is headed Industrial Efficiency Act, 1936. It refers to an application having been made by a person for a license to export fish. It asks for any person who will be affected by a license being issued to furnish objections, etc. In other words, it asks for the persons now in business to protect themselves against any person wishing to render cheaper and better service. In effect it gives to those already in business a monopoly provided they raise objections, and it enables them to exploit the people by excessive charges through their having a monopoly. Again, in your issue of Saturday appears another advertisement, headed as follows:— ‘ Earn More Money,’ and which reads: “Wanted, 300 sacks dried peas, hand-picked. The work is easy, and can be done in your own home by children or adults, and we will deliver the peas to your residence,” etc. Apparently children are not only being driven to the barn, but also to work in their homes. Again, on Friday in the morning paper, the Hon. Minister of Labour, Mr Armstrong, says: “There are now on sustenance 12,000 men, but more than 8,000 are, according to medical certificates, unable to render any return at all for sustenance, iffh© reason for that figure is that under the last Administration any man not fit was struck off the roll and became a charge on the hospital hoard.” “ When he became Minister of Labour,” he continued, “ ho asked permission of Cabinet to keep these men for one week, then for three weeks. Then, as there was money in the Unemploymnt Fund, he took them permanently.” I really wonder whether the workers, when they returned Mr Armstrong and his friends to Parliament, expected they would take the burden off the big property and landowner and place it upon the shoulders of the workers, for that is what it actually amounts to.

As my letter is getting long, I wish to just quote one more extract. This is taken from Mr J. A. Lee’s recent book, page'24. It reads: “Nothing has yet been done to make money available to the farmer or house builder at a lower rate of interest, but his indebtedness has been readjusted and his return enhanced, and the 4J per cent, rate of the State Advances Department is not sacrosmt. Extraordinary though it may seem there is no great Press hostility to the principle of mortgages being reduced, because we are ony interfering with a transaction and not with a system, as when wo interfere with interest,”

Your correspondents will see from the above quotations that my statements are fully justified. So far as the Government and also the council are concerned they have merely taken from A and given to B. While raising A’s standard they have lowered B’s. So far ns the prosperity of the country is concerned it is, as I previously pointed Out, the result of the international situation. The most that can be said for the present Government and also the council is that they have helped to quicken up the velocity _of money by taking from A and giving to B. If the Government is honest and has the welfare of the people at heart, and understands finance, it will take off the exchange, sales tax, and gold tax. By doing this it will increase the national income in terms of goods at the expense of outside countries. It will by this method increase the real purchasing power and value of money. _ At the present time its policy is decreasing the value and purchasing power of money, because it is forcing up prices of commodities..

Once again may I say that my object is not one of smashing Labour, but of getting them to understand? It furthermore must not be taken as endorsing or approving the actions of other past Governments or councils. They have asked for ” constructive ” criticism, and I am attempting- to oblige.— I am, etc., C. M. Moss. February 7.