The Hastings Standard Published Daily. SATURDAY, OCT. 3, 1896. LIBERAL LABOR LIGAMENTS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 137, 3 October 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

SATURDAY, OCT. 3, 1896. LIBERAL LABOR LIGAMENTS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The cords that bind the Liberal and Labor ligaments in the bonds of political brotherhood are given in the platform manifesto of the ellington Electoral League, and the thirty ties embrace many radical reforms, some of which easily come under the category of " revolutionary." The manifesto would perhaps have more weight were it known who were the compilers of the precious platform. The planks are unplained, and their roughness and inadaptability at the present time is the weakness of the structure in which they are used. It will absorb too much of our space to deal a■rriatim with the articles of faith of the Wellington Electoral League. We can, therefore, refer only to a few of them. The League stands by Old Age Pensions—pensions of 10s a week at G5 to all who possess less than £SO a year from property. The members are studiously silent as to ways and means. To give to the deserving poor 10s a week will necessitate some financial provision being made. How is the money to be raised ? Are the recipients of the old age pension to be contributors to the fund, and to what extent ? Are all to receive pensions whether deserving or otherwise ? There is no scheme developed, no proposal of any kind made, and we doubt the sincerity of the League. In its 29th article the League stipulates for a " further remission of duties on the necessaries of life," and apparently to make up the loss of revenue thus occurring the next article provides for a " progressive stamp duty." But with Old Age Pensions there are no provisions or proposals of any kind, and one is forced to the ccn elusion that the builders of the platform made use of this plank mainly because of its pleasing appearance. Then, again, we have as an article of faith " State Fire Insurance," to reduce rates and

increase security. This is another item that will involve us in financial trouble without affording any advantages, and yet the League remains silent on the question of ways and means. But it unnecessary to deal at length with the League's manifesto, even if we had the inclination to do so, for it is overweighted with impossibilities, and, like a vessel with too much deck cargo, is liable to be overturned in the rougfi seas of a general election. The League wants every benefit for the Labor Party—benefits that are more apparent than real—while every effort is made to penalise the employing classes. In a word the Wellington Electoral League seeks to perpetuate class legislation of the very worst and most selfish character. The laborer without the employer is not worth the proverbial " tinker's curse," and to endeavor to smother the employer under a load of disabilities and dire penalties is to aim a violent and murderous blow at the laborer. There must be in every well-regulated community employers and employees ; it is sheer lunacy for the one to try and legislate the other out of existence. There are many points in the programme that will be acceptable, but taken as a whole it leaves the impression that the Wellington Electoral League is setting itself about something as easy of accomplishment as hiving the stars in a beer barrel, or hanging up the ocean to dry on a wire fence. The programme is apparently a series of compromises, and therefore mainly a series of blunders* It would have been better if the League had omitted the more revolutionary planks and confined itself to those; measures that are within the sphere of practical politics. The programme as at present promulgated is not a victory-winning one, and so far as the Empire City is concerned the Labor-Liberal compact is destined to end in failure. We wish it were otherwise; but facts are stubborn things and cannot be mastered by simple wishes.