THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1922. RAILWAYMEN AND POLITICS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 12 October 1922, Page 4

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1922. RAILWAYMEN AND POLITICS.

We hope readers will note carefully the sound-common sense of the statements made by l\ Common Sense Labour" in a letter*published in today's Star. The correspondent expresses views which those who know the rdilwaymen w^ll will heartily endorse—the service is a very loyal service,' and its members must naturally take .strong exception to the attitude of those who are. annoyed with them not throwing in their lot with the extremists, who are clearly out to capture the workers in the State fs service. The local branch1, of .the New Zealand Labour Party has evidently met with a cold reception from the Hawera railwaymen, and the local Labour Party is no doubt angry. We congratulate fyhe ! railwaymen on their refusal to give their support to the extremists and On being abte to see the hollowness and , sham' of the extremists' policy. ' The | New Zealand Labour Party has been 'losing ground, and it is finding that I the working men of this country are far too well balanced to be misled by extremists 'for long. The approach of the general elections has made it expedient for tiie Holland party to speak in softer tones and to keep in the background as much as possible their real i, intentions. But the Holland party is ''no better than it was a couple 'of years ago, when Mr .Fraser was telling the country what a great "sstatesma n Lenin was, what an ''ideal" place Bolshevik Russia was, what a terrible nation the British was, and so on. The Holland party "soft pedals" nowadays, and did not vote on Mr Massey's motion concerning the Near East crisis. 'The extremists want to "wheedle the workers of the various Government departments into their One Big Union scheme, and in the ballot on the question of the^Post-and Telegraph Association with the Alliance of Labour among the votes were those of some 800 messengers, mere children, some of ( whom did not even know what the Alliance of Labour was. The extremists | are no goo& for this country, and the common sense workers know it. , Our correspondent's reference to Queensland should be noted, for in that State the so-called Labour Government has been little short of a disaster! Even there, where Labour has had every chance of making good, the extreme doctrines have led to failure, and v/hat could be worse in principle than the system of proxy voting by which Mr Theodore is able to stave off defeat on ncheonfidence motions? The workers of this country will be served best by helping to keep a strong Government in office. Mr Massey's Government has had a difficult task in the last eight years, and the Liberal Party under Sir Joseph Ward took a very fair share of the work during the term of the National Government. The Liberal Party deserves full creditv for its work in those difficult days. But what credit is the New Zealand Labour Party entitled to? "Go-slow" methods, opposition to the country's war effortj and anti-British propaganda— those are the things which the New Zealand Labour Party stood for, and their programme to-day is no better. Do workers think that they would gain by a change of Government? They might look back to the time when the Liberal Party was in office under Mr Ballance,,. Mr ; Seddon and Sir Joseph Ward. The workers conditions were much improved during that long re-' gime, but has not Mr Massey's Government carried on the improvement? Wages in New Zealand at; the present time are nearly double what they were in 1911, and the workers have gained much during the Eeform Party's term of office, in spite of the extraordinary conditions caused by the war. It is true that some readjustments have to be.made at the present 'time—even the Labour Government of Queensland has had to admit that—but there is abundant evidence to prove that Mr Massey's Government will make them fairly. The sneers which the New Zealand Labour Party has made at reasonable labour men because they refuse to agree to the extremist dictation should be good evidence of the "fair"

play that would be extended to those who refused to swallow the extremists' programme, if the New Zealand Labour Party secured office or if it happened to gain a position; of dictatorship of the party in power. To avoid that a strong Government is needed, and if the workers realise that, and we believe that the great majority do, they will be, very careful how they vote!