MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1916. STATE SOCIALISM.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13526, 9 October 1916, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES. MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1916. STATE SOCIALISM.

So conservative a newspapers as the London "Times" recently found itself "face to face -with the fact that, whether we like it or not, we are rapidly approaching the time when many of the principles advanced by the Socialists of a former gcaeration must be accepted by the nation if it is to keep abreast of its competitors.'' Setting aside 1 , of course, the ' ' wild extravagances of Socialist cranks," the' London journal states that "the logical mind cannot refuse to recognise that in many activities of life the day of the individualist is ending, and that, whatever system may ultimately bo evolved, the future of industrialism is bound up with co-operation in some form." For example, it is asked: "Does anyone suppose that railways will ever be allowed to revert to their former state of wasteful incoherency? In this way it is quito conceivable that we shall get Socialism imposed from above rather than forced on us from below. The changes brought about by the last two years have been so rapid that in the rush of events many men have failed to realise their full significance; but that things can ever be as they were in the suirpmer «f 1914 is impossible." In New Zealand the ranks of the Stata socialists are finding adherents in unexpected quarters. Thc ; Farmers' Union, for instance, has of late been frankly preaching State control as a c»r« for tin; exactions of the shipping companies, and Ave 1 arc pretty confident that we shall find it presently calling upon the Government to abolish laud monopoly which is retarding national development and depriving the rural community of access to the : soil. Under a system of undiluted individualism Great Britain was being pushed by her competitors back to the wall, because, though wealth had accumulated, the manhood of the nation was showing alarming tendencies towards decadence. The crucial test of War weighed individualism in the balance and found it wanting. It was then revealed that efficiency could only be ensured by co-ordination, or, in "other words, that the State must

take control of all essential agencies if Efficiency was.to be guaranteed. What is true of war is also true of peace. Ue cannot afford to drift back into the anarchy begotten of beggar-my-aeighbour or go-as-you-please. It is quite true that there arc people who call themselves Socialists who are ; not prepared to enrol under the national banner in times of crisis, and who maintain that national defence is u matter for individual caprice ad not of common necessity: These typically selfish and arrogant individualists have no national status in days of Avar. "They can hardly expect serious recognition in days of peace, except as the Ishmaelites and anarchists which they truly are.