POLITICIANS AND THE STRIKE

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16550, 14 May 1914, Page 3

POLITICIANS AND THE STRIKE

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I want to join the Optimists' Club; I want to believe ire arc living in a Christian state of society: I want to believe the " Golden Rule" is still the law of the land, and all that sort of thirls; but . 1,, have got into; thehabit of taking tho daily paper and every morning when I open that paper I find something that knocks rao off my ideal perch. Instead of a golden rulo I find an iron rule.

In the place whero 1 work there is a picture; it is called the "Unemployed," and it shows Truth, Justice and Virtue asleep. I look at that picture and I say, "It isn't true; tlioso three Graces are awake in God's Own Country. Our public men are big men, they wouldn't stoop to tho doing of mean little actions,'' and I try to make myself believe this is so. I watch tho churches on Sunday emptying their crowds of people who have been listening to the old, old story • f Jesus and His love, and I say to myself, these people" are good people, they wouldn't.do a wrong to anyone, and I laugh and look at the flowers and the children and the sky and think what a beautiful world it is to be sure, and then Monday morning I get the paper and down I come again with a bang. Evidently Truth is unemployed, because hero' is tho statement that one politician says the other politician is saying things that are contrary to fact, and tliey eaohlprove it to the satisfaction of the people who read that particular paper. Here is how it appears to me at present. Twenty-five thousand people believe that tho latestrike was deliberately planned and mapped out for political reasons, and that the Red Feds were only pawns in the game. The twenty-five thousand consist of the Red Feds and their wives. You couldn't convince them of anything else, because they know that they were tho last group in the world that, wanted a strike at that time. All the politically-owned papers in the country say the Red Feds deliberately planned that strike. The general mass of r.hc pi?op!e believe that to be true, and the politician uses this belief for his own ends. Pick up a Liberal paper and you read what awful liars' the Conservatives are. Pick up the Conservative papers and you read that the Liberals are a darned sight worse, but they are both agreed that the Red Feds are worse than either of their own brands. What must our Christian friends think of this? . , ± .. ' My opinion is that it can no summed" u» in a fow words. The Conservatives are in power, the Liberals want to be in power. Both of these brands are in Parliament, and they both agree that they mist both remain in Parliament. Tho Pod Feds are not in Parliament, and they both a°rce the Red Feds must not be alloyed to get in Parliament, hence they both misstate facts.when they are dealing with the Red Feds. The Red Feds are the political football for both parties at present, but that ball may hit truth directly and she will wake un and then Kood-bye to both Liberals and Tories.—l am, etc.. THE VAG.