AH Working People Must Stay United

Grey River Argus, 15 November 1949, Page 6

AH Working People Must Stay United

(To The Editor) Sir.—As the foes of the Government are plainly hoping some people will have a short memory and forget the great benefit wrought for them and for all since 1935, I would, as one whose memory goes back to the early days, ask you to print an appeal to all workers, men and women. It is for them not to divide their votes, but to stick together and return the Labour Government to power and victory! Remember they have lifted the people up from degradation, degeneration, starvation and misery to health, wealth and prosperity. Communist rule might be satisfactory in a Communist-ruled country, but there are but two working policies in this country, Labour and National. Labour has proved satisfactory to the masses of the people. The Labour Government has built up even a lot of little gilt-edged capitalists, with good wages and guaranteed prices for all primary production; cow farmers, for instance, from sixpence per lb for butter fat; others from the dole level; and now some of them talk about taxation! They forget the good wages for all of the employed labourers, and the high prices for all private timber workers, as well as work for all. They might be inclined to overlook the fact that quick sale of all production .gives them the extra money to pay taxation, with a good share left for themselves. If they slid over to the Nationalists on promise sof a good soft soap bath to cleanse their souls and bodies of the scourging plague of taxation imposed on them by the Labour Government, then the gilt edges which they now enjoy will be obliterated, and they will be pushed back to the level where they cannot demand their full share of the exchange of commodities from the vested interests, and the dealers for whom they now produce the wealth. The National Party, were it returned, would yet have to prove not only it has a policy, and the will and sincerity to put one into effect, but to prove also that it was a policy satisfactory to the masses of the people. If it were only that of its predecessors in the days of yore—unfavourable, unworkable, corrupt and rotten to the core—it is the common people who would suffer most. They should realise this now! We recall that the advocacy of the CoatesForbes Government used to be: More production; More people on the land! Cheap money for farmers! People took up Crown land leases, and fertile river fiats, and applied to the Advances to Settlers Board for development loans, but they were refused! Again when they applied to the Intermediate Credit Board they also were refused. The proffered security was not considered satisfactory by the members of the Board. The Crown was the owner of the security, and so they condemned their own security! Now 66-year renewable leases and documents can be produced to prove this injustice of the Tory Governments. Therefore all useful people — on farms, the mines, in mills, on railways, on waterfronts, in factories, in State Departments and everywhere that. men and women are doing honest work and earning honest wages—must again stand solidly together and re-elect Labour. I am, etc., AN OLD COLONIST.