LABOR REPLIES

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 167, 16 July 1919, Page 3

LABOR REPLIES

WELFARE LEAGUE'S ATTACK

"DOOMED TO FAILURE."

The president of the New Zealand Labor party (the Hon. J. T. Paul) ha", issued an .official reply to the comments of Mr C. P. Skerreti-, ICC. (president of the Welfare Lc-ague). He says: The Welfare-League has come into the political arena n$ tbe opponent and critic of the New Zealand Labor party. The Labor party dcir-ands that the members of the Welfare League; and the men who nuance it shall stand up and be counted, so that the people > may know whose welfare they are primarily .. interested in. Some of them made huge profits out of the w?.r, seme refused to place the country's welfare first in the dark and difficult days of war. Such men are not now likely to place the welfare of the people abovfe that of those .vho monopolise and control the necessaries of life. Mr Skerrett cries "Wolf!"' His wolf is Bolshevism and 1.W.W.-ism. When the Ballance Government was unravelling the political chaos and inequality arising from the old Conservative regime of soulless greed, and introducing a new era of hiuii.a7iitarianism, it was denounced by pre-sent-day opponents of the Labor party as the seven devils of Socialism. Along the years the bogey nan of the hour has always overworked. Socialism, anarchism, and Red-Fed-ism have done their turn as goblins. To-day Mr Skerrett pins c his faith to 1.W.W.-ism and Bolshevism as a scarecrow to frighten sensible electors away from the Labor party. I ask the electors to carefully r.ote the method and manner of the league's attack. Not a word of criticism of the Labor platform, but much indignation and criticism of the developments in Russia. The question for tlic electors of New Zealand is not whether' Bolshevism in Russia is good or bad, but whether the Labor party's* platform is conservative and helpful. In this critical hour the president of the Welfare League apparently desires to focus criticism on Russian or American tactics rather than on the practical policy of the Labor party. It will need all the lu'ts practised by the barrister to sidetrack Labor from the real issue before the country. Trade unionism has never been organised by the Labor party. Trad*!* unionism was prior to and independent of Labor in politics. The Labor party was made ne-r cessary because men of Mr Skerrett's class had all the political power, and made laws in their own interests. The failures of other parties made it imperatively necessary that Labor should organise political power in the people's interest. Mr Skerrett pleads for certain plain men who had not been previously represented. The comparatively unrepresented class today are the people who Yire carrying on the industries of the country,"and as future progress largely depends on industrial development, this class must have larger representation. I ask every thinking elector to place the Labor platform alongside the league's platitudes and camouflage. The Labor party has, a definite ksncl policy to check the present deplorable and ruinous land aggregation and speculation, while the league's I-roposal may mean anything or nothing. The league's proposal for electoral reform will assuredly penalise every man of limited means wjio stands for Parliament. The Labor party's plank for proportional representation secures; no advantage for any party, but fair play and failrepresentation for all. The Welfare League opposes nationalisation. The Labor party recognises the past shortcomings of nationalisation, and will assuredly improve on the past, .the Labor party recognises that nationalisation has steadied the selling pnee of coal, and would have done much more under sympathetic and sensible administration. The Labor party knows that State fire insurance has saved the insuring public a round mmion of money, and would have done more if administered by a Labor Government. The Welfare "League is doomed to failure because the hour fo- fundamental reforms has arrived, and the League is too largely comT.(/Sed of men obsessed with their own welfare instead of the people's welfare.