A CRITIC OF SOCIALISM.

Grey River Argus, 17 February 1930, Page 8

A CRITIC OF SOCIALISM.

As Mr A. Galbraith has accepted my challenge to debate Socialism, and his reply consists of over 1800 words, as against your request of keeping within 400, 1 trust you will allow me -similar space for this reply. From this on it will bo easy to keep within bounds if it should be necessary to carry on. It sounds exceedingly attractive to hear a speaker propound the theory of the socialisation of everything. It sounds just us feasible to hear a preacher saying that the Kingdom of Heaven will come to earth when men know how to love one another truly and according to the highest law. Both cries are one and the same thing. Both are dreams and great •and good dreams, except that the former too often comes from the mouths of men —alleged leaders—wn - - sell ishness and greed is infinitely worse that the selfishness and greed of men whom they call capitalists.

It appears quite feasible for one set of men to take from the other set of men that which the latter has,- but. the former has not. Speaking bluntly, this is what is proposed. So that no reader may hold a wrong idea, let it be known that the writer claims to be a genuine Socialist and not a Capitalist simply because he is an em-

ployer, which is the. Communist’s extreme untrue way of seeing things, make him a Capitalist. He possesses but. little of this world’s goods, so it must not be supposed that he opposes such a chimera because he is fearful of losing something of earth. As a thinker, he knows that there is good in all men and the opposite or good in all men. What he has been witnessing for many years during his study of economies is this: One set of men is screaming out. that, the other set is all bad; this happening upon either side. The worker wrongly accuses the employer of being a robber, but when he himself is asked whether he has over done a mean action towards another worker, he rushes to the excuse- that he had to because of “the system.” What is good for -he goose is good for the gander! Truly, it can be said of the employer, that he, too, knows that he has done mean actions and that the system has compelled him to do so. Let us use our imagination a little. If a powerful speaker could talk with one hundred

thousand men and women at Hie same time, and make an eloquent appeal to them, and sway them all to the point of greater supposed humanitarianism, and then proceed to ask whether they would not all prefer to be sure of having enough to live comfortably on for the rest of their lives, in preference to the present method, the majority would gladly accept the surety for life. This is the thought that lies back of the idea of the socialisation of production, distribution, and exchange. ‘‘Then why on earth are you opposed to it?’’ an ardent Socialist asks. Because it is an impossible cry, unfortunately being used by knaves as a trap for fools. It sounds good, it looks good it would be grand, wore it practicable; but it just simply is not practicable! Nature demands step by step in everything. There is no jumping over huge difficulties. With Nature nothing is missed. Human nature is another thing; a beggar of a thing to try and handle. Sometimes it will not be handled. Labour leaders, with their hearts afire only for the good of all. have discovered this fact ro their cost. TJhe fact is there are nor enough clear-sighted, impersonal, noble men in the Labour movement to-day to form one Cabinet of those ready to trust each other in the forming of any

plans. Human nature is poisoned by suspicions caused by human limitations. With those who would put the world right according to dreams, as with those who are simply looking after themselves first, last, and every time, the same human faults obtain. So long, in fact, as one Labour leader I nurses suspicions against another man I who differs politically from him, or J who lives in a larger house, and so on, so long will that same Labour leader hold suspicions against his follow Labourite. This is a truth. It has been so for centuries past, and it will continue on until there comes a change of mankind. And this change must come just as forcibly with the worker as with the employer. To listen this day. however, one would imagine that all the wrong action comes from the one side and none from the other. Wore industry suddenly to become socialised overnight, and all men found themselves rid of the fear of unemployment, with things as they are now. mentally and physically, within a. few years the second condition would be worse than the first. The difference between the writer and some writers on this subject is this; he looks at human life as spiritual and eternal, whilst others regard it as merely physical and very much limited. Man’s chief food on this earth is mental food. This is free to him, as free as air and sunshine. OrdTnary man ignores those three gifts, and cries because he cannot get more beer, more picture shows, more theatres, more food, and less hours of work. Ordinary man is always crying out about his physical condition, and yet, were the truth understood, the worker for wages is in a far better position to gain mental advancement for himself than is the man who has a business with its many and varying responsibilities. There is not one living person who could not, by thought power, claim all the comforts in life he needed, here and now, and all the time be giving a fair deal to his fellows. There is not. one living person w’ho can be sure of being assisted to think were physical conditions made more easy for him. Physical disabilities can be overcome ever so surely by thought power. But the thought power cannot be persuaded by physical conditions when we know how to think and why and when.

To a. psychologist who seeks the love way out of economic difficulties, there is, at times, a feeling approaching heart-break in knowing that such ignorance prevails as to the real cause and purpose of life. The writer knows full well what a ghastly struggle is to harassed women and men everywhere. One only has to look into the tired faces of young girls, young men, and women and men of all ages, to grasp the full import of life’s writings in actual experience. There is a girlie going home to her parents with a dismissal notice in her pocket, and through no fault of hers. Here, there and everywhere, one reads the stories of life. Now and then are visible patches of colour, but not often, sad to relate. What a muddledom, what a conglomeration, what a hopeless thing it. seems to Im, yet it its none of these things, it is all (GOOD.

From within each human being there can come the shine of the light of Love that is eternal. Yes, and that light does come, now and then. It knows nothing of bitterness, or hat red, or harsh words, or intolerance. 11 knows nothing of avarice or thievery. No. When, in its grandeur, it does peep forth, it shines because the one whom through it shines is trying to be of service to someone or something. Not asking for anything you’ll note, not wanting anything, but giving something. This is when life takes on its right aspect. Without a spiritual viewpoint of our economic evils we will get nowhere. As proof there need not be many words used to explain the point. Socialise everything all out. Knock down all your dirty buildings. Spread the cities and

plant down small and beautiful gardens everywhere. Build little model cottages. Pay out money through slot machines if you wish, so much to each person per week. Inside twelve months you will have slumdon again because there was not. a change of heart. Our economic evils are never going to be solved through juggling with wages sheets, hours of work, or platform screaming. Just as the great present day naval conference will not prevent war in the slightest, so long as it juggles and argues in with the weapons of war. The problem lies deeper. It does not lie in the pockets of men, or the stomachs of men, or in the brains of men; it rests in the hearts of men and women. The more the already rich man has the more he wants. The more the already poor man gets the more he wants in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, so long as his god is in eternal material things. Tn domineering mankind where this spiritual viewpoint is wanting, and insufficient to retain a community balance, we find the opposite influence growing into an opposing force that is not only juggling with wage sheets and hours of work, but that, it is interfering with the divine orders of things to such an extent that it has already abolished Sunday, and going so far as. forbidding man to believe in God A death penalty has already been inflicted by the Communist force now operating in Russia to those harmless inoffensive creatures that would not give up their belief in God. it. appears. too, that the Communist spirit is not satisfied in taking life. It subjects its victims to the most hideous form of death. The latest report is that Father Nectarius, of Moscow, was beaten and dragged by his feet, his arms and legs broken, wooden nails driven into his head and temples, and nails and molten lead poured into his mouth, ami finally he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water. Another late report says Nicodemus. Bishop of Belgorod, was beaten and stripped and led out naked into the snow, and

water poured over him until he was a pillar of ice. Another late report says Archbishop of Perm was dragged through the streets of the city, his eyes poked out, and cheeks cut away, causing many of his belief to become insane through terror. Mr Gal brawill endeavour to deny these reports, but such reports coming almost weekly, and the fact that the Pope is stirred, and is’ moving in an endeavour to prevent such a state of ruling, are proof there is truth in them. Now apart from all this persecution I that is taking place under the Communist rule, what do we find? We I find there are employee and employer just the same. The employer (the (the Government), in fact, is a much harder one. You cannot dictate to him. You cannot choose your own job; your job is found for you and you have to do it, or have your ration card taken from you. You cannot dodge work. Work you must »r starve outright. You cannot call any

thing your own. The value of your work is measured by a Government ■ fficial it is not for you to say. His estimate of value may be disheartening to you but that doesn’t count. Receive, and do as you’re told! Compare that to the method as we have it Here, if a man is industrious and is a master at his job, he does not require a master over him to measure his work. He is practically his own boss, simply because he is master of his own job. If his employer does not give him his true value, anotn‘r employer knows it and will, and the is at perfect liberty to leave on a days’ oi a weeks’ notice, as the case may be, and to take a job in the locality that suits him better, and with the employer that is prepared to give him higher value for his servi *e rendered. A master employee can, if he chooses get a home he can call his own. can take his wife and family for a good holiday and is in a position to enjoy life better than a badness man, for the sfmple reason th.it he is not tied to a. business, whi.'h is more apt to, and does enslave him. An employer with money in his business, having to face trade risks, depressions in sales, adversity and such like, must make more than a wage, if for nothing more than to protect his employees. To protect, ami make his business expand can only be done by making money to put into it. This protection is assuring continued employment which is the living of his employed. An employer is not a Capitalist whose capital is invested in a business, however big his income over costs may be. One is wholly dependent on the other. Money is a separate unit, which both employee an.l employer draw their living supply from. In thousands of instances, are cases of individual employees having more money they can call their own than their employer. There cannot be a levelling of men! Men are not equal, never have been, and so far as we can now determine, never will be. So long as ambition enters into the measure of a man, and free will exists, there will be leaders and followers. There will be the great and the small. Socialism, the test of time. If to-day you should place the same opportunity before two men who are equals, what will be the result. One rises at six and gets busy while the other sleeps until nine. What becomes of your h* veiling? Nature secures advance, not by + he reduction of all to a common level, but by the encouragement and conservation of what is best. Is the grand forest that towers above others by. twenty or thirty, feet, an unhealthy principle in nature? Is it a blot upon the surrounding forest? Is it an illustration of unfair law? Is the shining, quivering, energy-charged, Turk King, that outdistances all other blue bloods unhealthy and against natural law? Docs he represent nature turned against, herself, or is he an illustration of any principle unfair to other hors?.-? Socialism (Communism) says so. Rather than put futh the effort to climb up too, they prefer to remain undeveloped naturally and spiritually and to pull these human marvels down to their level. That evidently is the spirit and principle rampant among the class that is creating the class struggle to-day. The eternal natural

law exists in everything. It is not made by mankind, it is the dominating principle of the Universe, the soul and substance of righteousness and justice. A thought, act oi deed, that is not righteous and just is a violation of the eternal law, and sooner or later a penalty must be paid. The eternal law demands spiritual government of the world; that is. every individual must think, act, and live in righteousness and justice, before the world can settle down in peace, plenty and happiness, and before individual freedom and real happiness can be fully experi ced. When righteousness ami jus- | ice are not allowed to be the dominating principle in our lives, we are jn . a state of corruption and injustice, resulting in confusion and suffering; and all the peace treaties and socialistic ideas that man may try to establish, if they are not established in the soul ami substance of the eternal law, are going to collapse. It is education in the principle of doing unto others ns you would have others do to you, in every thought, deed or action, that is going to solve the many perplexing problems, and cause the world to settle down on a safe, sound and just working basis; not unionism. socialism. naval conferences, and peace • treaties, which only attack the man l .- /festations of the existing wrong and create the cause of the trouble. As proof that it is the growing sense of justice toward one ano her thru is gradually working ui, to tho des-red cmi, I know of a -a v’.r a : ug locality where union -mi ami C<*mtnuidsm have never entered, and felt an influence from it. The employers there pay : good a wage and give their as good a deal every way as can be found in any district. A number of their employees have a car, house, and cow of their own, and only last Christmas one of them made a tour ail over the Coast with a large family. L met him in Hokitika and when discussing work and conditions, etc., he voluntarily said his boss was a true, white man. I might state further, that West Coasters go to that locality when jobs are offering. For at least two years I have not heard one complaint by a timber worker against his sawmill employer. This does not harmonise with Mr Galbraith’s viewpoint. On the contrary, it indicates that he surely is bottling them all up for himself.—l am J. lITOG TNS. Kokatahi, February 13. (Note: —Further letters on this subject must be limited to 6(10 words.)