THE WAR—AND AFTER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 28 March 1918, Page 4

THE WAR—AND AFTER

RELATIONS OF CAPITAL AND LABOR., i~ SIR JOSEPH .WARDS VIEWS. ™In,. fche c"°uise of Ws speech at the Wellington Commercial Travellers' Club/ on Monday afternoon, Sir Joseph Ward said that, apart altogether from the provision of tne millions of money which were required for the war, they all had to look to the aftermath of the war ; saye the Post. They had to be ready with millions, and those millions were I being invested for that purpose, and y6t he heard people talking about using those millions* for other purposes now. "They will not use them for other pur poses while I hold the position I am oc" cupying now," he said. That money must be available to help New Zealand industrially, commercially, and socially upon the revolutionised basis which the wajvwould bring to them whether they' liked .it; or not, and they had to kwike up their minds as sensible people that they had to do the right thing and the tair thing for, the workers from end to end of New Zealand. That the workers had helped enormously in connection with the war was beyond question. They had to see that men who wanted todrag the working u.*h oi i-Ms'country. along dangerous lines were not allowed to drag them along dangerous lines. They had to see that in the new oon- | dition of things each grade of society, from the humblest to the highest, was treated by Parliament and the people, through their party representatives, on ; a basis of justice and fairness and proper consideration. They had to inculcate in the minds of men in every position in life that Capital and Labor had to go hand in hand in the truest sense of the term, and they must not allow a system of trying to cut the throat of one or to strengthen, the other. Such a policy would be suicidal to the best interests of the Dominion's future. When they got back their 100,000. men, he hoped they would soon return to their normal conditions, and help to so' guide the destinies of the country as to make it easy to bear the enormous annual cost that would be imposed—probably from six to seven millions in interest and sinking fund. If they made up their mmds that the ordinary commerce of the country was to be developed tliree to five-fold, the number of men going on the land must be trebled. That could be done. If there had been one lesson more than another that had been theresult of the war, it was the opening of the eyes of the people to the necessity of not fighting for trifles, but for grea£-\ principles and for the establishment of a policy that was going to make for the good of every class in New Zealand. He did not believe there was a soul in New Zealand who felt down-hearted in connection with the present crisis, because they were fully of the belief that all the men at the front were fully impressed with the enormous responsibility attaching to their work, and we, on our part, needed to impress them with the realisation that the money required was coming from the people spontaneously. We did not want to have to tell them that we had had to make people do their duty.