The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, October 13th, 1936. LABOUR ACTS AND TORY FANCIES.

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1936, Page 4

The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, October 13th, 1936. LABOUR ACTS AND TORY FANCIES.

Between statements yesterday by spokesmen of Ike Government and the Opposition some useful comparisons can be drawn by the public. Unless young men as candidates and campaigners can be enlisted by the National Party, two of its leaders told a Masterton meeting, nothing stands between us and the triumph of revolutionary Socialism. It has come already, according to Mr Hargest, at a faster rate this year foi the Dominion than it has done anywhere else in the same time except in Russia. So that he will b e the very lirst man to admit we now know just what he calls revolutionary Socialism. Well, all that the average young man will say is that, let alone oppose it as a. protagonist of what went before, th e best thing for New Zealand will undoubtedly h e to give us a lot more of it. It will be just as well to nail the Nationalists down to this description of what the Government has

done and is doing. When they say liberty is gone, it will be timely to remember the Finance Minister’s warning yesterday at Auckland that the people should not hand over their hard-won

savings to share-hawkers; and the fact that, as Mr Nash remarks,, the Government’s so-call-ed revolutionary Socialism .is designed to stop the exploitation of the people’s savings by those who promote doubtful ventures in th e name of individualism and private enterprise. The country for years past has had enough and to spare of examples of this kind, and the loud-mouthed foes of Labour hav e looked on it as far preferable to what they call revolutionary Socialism. Just what thev mean in their denunci-

ation. of the Government is also

exemplified by the housing scheme to which the Finance Minister yesterday referred, when he stated £3,500,000 is being found by the Government to provide modern houses at lower rents than are charged by the exemplars of the private enterprise belauded by the leaders of the Nationalists. No doubt more revolutionary Socialism is denoted by the Wanganui people’s plea, for the Government’s assistance in restoring prosperity to that locality A Social Credit advocate there attempted to lay down the law, but a Government Dlember, declining to stand for any dictation, gave at the same time an assurance that the Government is go-

ing a long way towards making credit available for public purpose without the incubus of interest. That, no doubt, is revolutionary Socialism of the deepest dye in the estimation of the Nationalist Party. With them the idea is that the people may perish so long as interest remains sacrosanct. At anyrate, it appears as if Wanganui, after its set back under th e regime of the anti-So-cialists, has had enough of them, and turns to-day hopefully to the Labour Government. One needs

no prophetic talent to foresee that this example will not be lost upon many another community.

If might be said it should not be lost on Greymouth. The housing scheme deserves local attention. There is need here of housing precisely of th e sort which the Government is promoting, modern dwellings at more economical rentals than are at present obtain, able, and if those in authority should b e lethargic, those in need should not. It may be conventional party propaganda when the Nationalists say any check on the rapacity of capitalistic industrialism is only revolutionary Socialism, but the public should realise the urgency of placing e ven at this late hour a limit upon the growth of monopoly, the anarchy in trade that leads, to uneconomic production and prices and the virtual cannibalism that is making th c small trader only the prey of the commercial octopus. The public indeed must distinguish between the facts of Labour policy and the fancies of Nationalist propaganda. Labour is in power to-day. The Opposition lias no political stock in trade except futures. It offers nothing better than the bubbles of the soap-box. It will not let legislation speak for itself, but will paint wild pictures of something that is below the horizon. AVhen in power the modus operandi of the Nationalists was not dissimilar. Great play used to be made fibout the good things round the corner. It gives the electorates' no credit whatever for giving that promise a reality those who made it never bargained for. The electorates now will prefer to trust their own Judgment. It has proven pretty right up to the present.