LABOUR NEWS

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1925, Page 8

LABOUR NEWS

LABOUR AND SOCIALISM. (By ‘ ‘ Rewauni. ”) 'Phe wheel of life is work and suffering. We uro bound to it by ci ream.stances. Ju our younger days deHiro binds us Io life .most Desire, however, is often but an illusion, Yet, by patience we may overcome desire, and mtvko work and sulTeruig easier t<> boar, and make The wheel of life easier to turn, until we are free from much of the suffering. Social progress consists, not In jumping from one stage' to another, not in sudden Lransforinatioiis from one absolute system to another absolute system, but in strengthening nt appropriate points the influences which are inerensing human well being in whatever may be the existing industrial conditions. Thus are systems changed, and social [ and industrial organisation becomes more perfect. The only political parly I worthy of support, to-day, is tin* one I which has a practical conception of the ideal good which it is trying to ' necomplish, which has drawn upon historic principles to guide it in its political work, and has sane ideas enabling it to discrimiunle between patch Work effort, that is of no permanent value, and properly organised modifif, iat ions, t.hnl w ill produce penminent iiiiprovetiiciil. Labour can do this, ns I know ,I’o.r a fact, knowing personally z most of the candidates at the coming * elections, to be practical men, risen from the ranks, with sound practical ideas and the sound .methods for applying them. Although Labour is organised as industriously ns ants, unrest within recent years has given us greater trouble than e\er before. Why.’ For tlm simple reason that there is something tleeper than the industrial machinery we create can Solve, something more vital than or ganistilion. But. there is no need Io scrap this machinery because it fails prevent unrest! it functions we!!, but we have not yet got the right motive power behind to drive it. ami until we get that right motive power, w’e may go on making machinery for i ever without obtaining the results we • dosin'. If strife is to be avoided, if 7 unrest is to be allayed, Socialism, from the economists point, of view, must prevail! Students of this economic (piestion will find “old schools’’ of a generation or two past,, and new schools, that have produced newer ami hotter plans for carrying out the same conception of iissuring our rights to all. As Socialists, we are all using our brains and our < , onscienc< , s. Io arrive at true conclusions, and to devise methods which are wise and workable. W<* arc not dogmatists who maltreat facts tv til them into theories, but patient e.xphH'crs and pioneers, trying to make roads along which the people ami the future generations may go from the loss to the more perfect lif?. If we have modified some of the So > cialist.ie ideas of our pioneering gfandz fathers, and in other ways enlarged on ’ them, by experience and education, thart. of itself is surely a eerliticate of competency, not a. proof of our folly. Science does the same,'.so does Christianity. The problem immediately before Labour to-day is indeed t.o try and retain t hi' slight, improvements we got six years ago, but which wo ,are losing fast, and try to gain better social ami industrial conditions all r round, without, encroaching on Lub■ur’s limited capital by sound, instead of artificial means. The signs of • the times, therefore, indicate that industrial unrest is first of all an indication that the workers desire to realise in industry the high ideals which arc Labour’s ambition, and also, it is an expression of their determination to get by honest methods, the economic conditions Labour is entitled to. But the present causes of / industrial unrest are merely superimposed on Labour, by more powerful and persistent causes which g ( > back to far distant days, many generations before our own. These have to be con-" sidered. They are of a different kind. They are due to the failure of employers to realise that Labour i< rhe

producer, the mother of capital. I can pul what 1 mean in a word if I contrast industry as it. is scon by the scientific economist, and industry as it is seen by the average employer, who Ims the idea instilled into his mind I that he is l api-tal. The economist tells us, and quite rightly, that industry is a vast partnership. He dwells with delighted admiration on the way the' parts fit, and, co-operating one w : t * another, could prqtluce a beneficial whole—'Socialism. Political programmes are created from the needs of the* d iv—housing, different methods of taxation, poverty, and recompense in ’he shape of wages. One section of politicians offers solutions in accordance with one view of social organisation, another in accordance with another view. Our “Reformers” and so-called Liberal party. having no idea of society a.-, an organised whole, they patch and tinker, and solve noth- (

ing. They have no concept ion of the root causes, which go down very deep, and through which Labour in the past has had to suffer many heart-burnings. Europe at the present time is oeing. ruined—politically and industrially—because the problems of government have been handed over to the leisure moments of business men, of the gentlemen of the tall silk hat, aiffc the frock coat brigade, and of others w have the gift of getting votes by keeping electors from tlnffking. And we all know the eau.y-' of that—depriving the .people education! are the people who, -when they speak of Socialism, describe it a? / ‘ <les! rn • tion. ” Wo have the same ii'k our

mital they do not have, in the least, an understanding of the clifferencc between the present Russian Coinmun • ism, and our Socialism. They disre;gard the difference, and, for the purposes of political fusion, or try to palm off one for the other. <»r both together as our political creed! This is the type, ot mind they always assume, in all their arguments, f ..... y.,-... ; in ( ] criticisms, and imlilira - ly, thev know their criticism is no! honest. Socialism, as an honest state of Society, has to come, the.borders of which we have yet to cross. We arc on one side to day, to-morrow wo will bo on the other side of the border!