COMMUNIST SYSTEM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 51, 30 January 1937, Page 2

COMMUNIST SYSTEM.

ADDRESS TO LUNCH CLUB. The first meeting of the year of the Palmerston North Citizens’ Lunch Club was held yesterday in the Jade Tearooms, Mr R. W. Priest presiding over a good attendance. The speaker for the day was Mr C. G. Watson, M.A., of Wellington, the subject of whose address was “W T hat Is This Communism ?” Europe and the world in general were required to-day to face up to the subject of Communism' to determine its effect and object, the speaker said. Communism emerged in 1848 with tne beginning of the. working class or Labour movement in Europe. Communism looked forward to a classless condition of society—an object which was nothing new but which had been the dream of leading thinkers. In the hands of Karl Marx the dream had become a practical thing. The significant thing about the capitalist system—which was one of comparatively recent origin—was that in its beginning it bore a large mass of small property-owners. Since then monopoly had increased to such an extent that 50 or 60 large trusts controlled the finances of the world. Capitalism, and not Communism, had taken property away from the small man. The speaker contended that since 1928 there had been no economic crisis in the boviet Union, and since 1931 there had been no unemployment there as a result of the main machines of production being taken over by society. This was the basis of the Communist demand for the abolition of private property —which did not mean personal property, and was used strictly in connection with means of production. There was no reason why, in the initial stages of Socialism, small propertyowners and producers should not be left in possession of their plants. Communism at present would support an alliance between the working class and the'middle class—“the major political task of the moment.” The alternative was to be found in Fascism, where monopolised capital joined with the middle class to “smash” the working class. Democratic rights must be maintained. All classes could co-operate tn the cause of peace, on the principle that war was caused by rival economic spheres of influence. Mr Watson concluded ms address by claiming that Communism was an important world and urging his listeners not to “take it second-hand. The speaker was accorded a vote of thanks after answering a number of questions. Messrs "W. J. Moore, J. Campion, and M. Smith, of Palmerston North, were welcomed as visitors.