North Otago Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1910. HUMBUGGING THE PEOPLE.

North Otago Times, 8 December 1910, Page 2

North Otago Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1910. HUMBUGGING THE PEOPLE.

There is a vast amount of'quaint nonsense about the utterances of Mr Keir Hardiq that is due largely no doubt to the realisation by him that if he did not keep the revolutionary ' socialistic pot boiling the end of his. political career would be within measurable distance, and he would have to fade away into the night of political oblivion. The position may be described thuswise: ! Mr Keir Bardie is one of the representatives' of labor in the. House of Commons, amongst .whom there are a number of -.real good; sensible men, The members of the House of Commons are not paid by the State for their services, hut the labor unions subscribe a sufficient sum to pay each of their: members a fair salary. ' Mr Kbir Hardie is. one of these, and it. is evident that those who returned him like their condiments with a : n abundance-of chilis in ths'm—hot and strong,. Mr Keir Hardie cannot be said to be the representative of a class ; ; of politicians, He is a class by himself, and like Mr T. E. Taylor, in New Zealand, stands out as the solitary representative, of a particular kind of parliamentary indiscretion, Mr Keir Hardie never puts, his "foot in it" with his constituents, for, as we said, they obvjously nk e their condiments hot and strong but he says and does things that do an infinite amount of harm. No one suggests that Mr Keir Hardie does not mean well, but he wants to rush oni the millennium before we are ready to receive it. His'speeches regarding India and Egypt gave an impulse to the cause of' revolution in, those two countries that it will take years to subdue, and had a Government that was not friendly to Mr Keir. Hardie been in power he would possibly have found! himself indicted for treason, , That, perhaps, is what he desires, and it is as well that no legal notice should be taken 1 of the in-, flammatory stuff that indicates th a t he is living.up to what his constituents require of hini. Yet Mr-Keir 1 Hardie's speech is given a place amongst. the caWed : utterances of Messrs. ASqiiith', Balfour, and other .notabilities, In 'his - last address he said thajt ; if labor voted solid the day"would come when : neither,: land : . lords not capitalists would be left to, grind the' facer; of ; : the poor, when,.indeed, there' -would be-no poor amongst) U3, ; and' people in these. and other land's would dwell together in 1 unity and peace,'' This is .very pretty picture to paint of, thp, possjlb'Vities of: the -socialistic::.. ; 'fu: ture,:but;tiofore. ;it';/, c'sh>,be£given 'effect.-'-'tp.Vtttj!r((.; ; ..must--supervene:".-;a'" period t^ftrism,;: 1 ;iop.

no man' will care to do manual labor, and all will study the art' ol loafing in order to perfect it fis an accessory to the happy state of existence that Mr Reir Hardie fore-. | tells. 'lt will be impossible for every individual comprising the commonalty of world to fol j low the example of Bryan O'Lynn, who stole and slew a sheep and ; adorned himself with the skin of the animal, '!with the fleshy side out and the woollyi side in; the divil a care sat on Bryan O'Lynn." The sheep would nott te 'bandy enough, Even amongst the'primitive savages there was'a. chief, with subsidiary chiefs, and the women batito work in tilling, the ground 'for whatever crop was needed. As'soon as the world developed from savagery to a state of- partially advanced civilisation, the clever, the persevering, and sometimes . the unscrupulous man came to the front, and they could not lie kept back. The mere act of placing these individuals in the ruck'brings the whole progress of the world to fl . standstill. The landlord may be suppressed, but the capitalist-big and little—ic a necessary adjunct to advanced civilisation.. There must be push, which accelerates progress, for the world must advance'in order to supply the food of tha people, 'There must be employers and employed, for no other system could maintain the great | mass of human life on the 'globe. Mr Keir Bardie's fallacy is the supposition that if the capitalist is suppressed each producing individual fill be on '-'his own." That is true, but is it expected that each producing individual will work to' supply the drones, who do no work? The ivorld is improving as it is, but Mr Keir Bardie's phantasies would i's back to Bryan O'Lynn's sheepskin,