THE VAG’S COLUMN.

Grey River Argus, 18 October 1922, Page 2

THE VAG’S COLUMN.

Dear Henry,—l wonder if you ever ask yourself how it is that after all the promises that have been made to you during the last 50 years you still remain on the verge of poverty. .It

promises were, any good, or even if half of them were realised then you should be near the niilleniiim by this time. Many years ago, before Bill Massey came into power, he promised Labour a “square deal.’’ The workers took him at his word and Bill became Premier. He didn’t give them a deal at all. Hu gave them hardwood, and he served it out round instead of square. It was applied by Bill’s special constables in the shape of batons, with the small end in the hand of the constable and the thick one on the head of the worker. You see Bill can still make a lot of workers believe that round hardwood batons thus applied are “square deals.” I don’t just know how Bill manages to do it, but he does nevertheless. Starting from the thesis that round hardwood I batons are square deals we can trace the promises made to the workers, during the last 50 years and discover that all the promises have changed when the politicians secured Labour ’s votes. Most of the promises have been made at election time, and it did not matter how silly the promise made by the aspiring politician it went down with the ('lectors. Once, when the late Joseph Chamberlain, of Boer War fame, was addressing the electors he brought forth a scheme whereby every worker could have an acre of land. They could then go in for poultry farming, and there would be no poverty because they could live by selling eggs to their neighbours. During the same election, Joe said he did not believe in putting a duty on Indian corn because it was the chief food of the poor Irish workers. Even that kind of stuff went down, and Joe was elected by a huge majority. About that time the Boer

War took place, and, oh, the promises that were made. 1 can remember them well, Hen, because I was of military age then, and a likely young fellow whom some ancient war lords of the town in which 1 lived considered to be just the one to go farm burning. Thanks to old Mr Stead, of the “Review of Reviews,’’ “Reynold’s Newspaper,” “Labouehere’s Truth,” “The People’s Journal,’’ and a few other fair-minded publications, I was able to put up an argument in favour of the Boers. Of course I was dubbed “pro-Boer” and was howled at by the aforesaid ancient “noble-minded Britishers” as they called themselves. However, I took careful note of the promises made to the boys who went off to South Africa, and also noticed the way they were treated when they came back. The principal effect of the Boer War was to reduce the wages of the white workers on the Rand from 25/- per day to 5/-. Even at this price the colonials were not wanted by the mine owners. You see, Hen, they had made the Rand safe for the democratic mine owner, but if they stayed there they might have a go at making it safe for themselves, and that would not suit the capitalists. However the promises were made. The soldiers went to the war. The war was won. And then no more of the soldiers. We have been through a lot of elections since tin' Boer War, lien, but during all those elections I have never heard a candidate no matter how conservative he was that did not promise the workers a lot of good things. Never yet have I heard a Tory or a Liberal candidate tell the truth on the bust ings. If they did they would promise you plenty of work and low wages. Instead of telling the truth they cover up their true meaning with a wealth of words in which “development of the country” and “justice” to the workers play a big part. So the politicians have gone on for years past. There must be a break in this else even the thickest in the head would take a tumble to it. That is how we have Liberal and Reform parties in New Zealand. Even Liberal and Reform are not enough to fool you all the time, Hen, so occasionally we have a big war. When a nationalist maniac shot an Archduke over in central Europe it was the signal for the last military holocaust. As the disturbance grew bigger more men were needed. Then came the promises of the politicians. “Labour would never go back to the bad old ( conditions.” “When tho war to make the world safe for democracy” was over the workers were going to have shorter hours, more pay and better houses. Again the workers went in their millions and fought and won the war. While the war was on,, the workers relying on the promises of the politicians threw in all the hard-earned conditions that they had won through years of strife. Their trade union rules went by the board. Girls took the place of men. “What did it matter,” they said, “we must win the war.” They won the war, Hen, and then they remembered the promises. They asked that they be’ fulfilled. By the time the returned soldier spent two years endeavouring to pay the interest on the money he had borrowed to purchase a farm, and finally threw it up in disgust; and then came into the town and applied for a job digging up the streets, which he could not get unless he was a married man, he must come to the conclusion that another set of promises have gone West. No, Labour was not going back to the bad old conditions of just before, but by the time the capitalists and their mountebank' politicians are done, they will go back to conditions from which they emerged more than 50 years ago. The elections are coming around again. It will be tho same old promises, the same old politicians, and the same old Dubb left

in the lurch as usual. It will pay you to go to the election meetings, Hen, and see how -much the politicians will promise you. THE UNDERSTUDY.