A RED MAN AND SOME TALK OF LIBERTY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15175, 14 December 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

A RED MAN AND SOME TALK OF LIBERTY.

BT FRANK MORTON.

He and I sat on the end of the wharf and talked things out. Which is to say 'that I sat on the end of the wharf and let him do most of the talking. Rather hopelessly I argued with the man about the rights of labour. I don't suppose that there is a creature ,on earth more keenly set on defending the rights of labour than I am, but my man's idea of right entailed a necessary and absolute invasion) of individual liberty, and that didn't suit me at all. He is one of those out-and-out extremists who ,believe in the strike as a weapon and the general strike as a standing threat. But he still assured me that he wanted nothing improper or . extravagant. He said* "We only want freedom and the right to share properly in the profits we produce. We make common cause with the 1.W.W." / Here, then, we have confessed this strange position These labour extremists in New Zealand, who talk of liberty for all, and boast of their.sympathy and connexion with the 1.W.W., are supporting a syndicalist body that believes in dyn&mite as a weapon, that is indifferent to the sacrifice of innocent life, and that openly derides that central idea of a God-head that lies at the base of all the world's religions. I confess that I am puzzled. You see, this man I was talking to is a quiet and forceful ■ man, and in many ways a good fellow. Indeed, apart from his mania, I should say that he is distinctly a good citizen, zealous to stand for righteousness. He is not to be too easily classed with your howling Semples. But the moment the fever of his mania possesses him, he fail™ rank nonsense ancT becomes dangerous. Syndicalism is a queer thing very little understood in this country. We have toyed so long with the democratic beast that we have iorjjotten that ho has it in his heart to turn, and bit© us savagely whenever the occasion may serve. Wt> know that the federation of Labour is syndicalist, but, as a rule, we have only the dimmest idea of what that means. Let us consider it. iOTflicausni, under that name, is a new thing; but the name does not matter, and the thing is at least 70 years old. It is absolutely opposed to Monarchism, Republicanism, ana all established forms ot government and authority. It is as inimical to socialism as it is to individualism. It is a fruit, not of sociological study, but of faulty arithmetic and arrogant stupidity. It was tried in a very modified form m i? ranee, m a scheme ox national workshops laid down on the plans of Louis Blanc, .these workshops were an absolute and verv costly failure, and they ended in a blind chaos for which France paid. The syndicalists opinions are more closely related to the opinions of Proudhon than to any other, but they are lacking in Proudhon s. occasional fierce bursts of sanity. He taught that whoever held property was a thief, whether the property was "held by the state or by individuals" If the state property was exploited for the benefit of the whole of the people, the state was none the less a thief. Proudhon demanded the abolition of the state, and with that the abolition of diplomacy, armies, navies, and frontiers. He held that the only permitted authority should be the authority of the father over the family, and that the that the only social force should be that which sprang from the association of workmen for their common profit. All industry, according to the syndicalists, must be exploited -simply and solely for the benefit of the bulk ■ of the men concerned in it the men at the bottom. It is the reductio ad -absurdum-vp| class prejudice : running mad. ' * • • • • * found that mv friend, who piouslv held those abominable opinions, was perfectly innocent of knowledge of all matters related to finance and business management. " Suppose," I said, " that from to-morrow the mines were worked by the miners, absolutely and solely for the miners' benefit; how would they be iiianaged from the commercial side? Who would attchd to tho financial provision necessary to be made for wear and tear, for exploitation, for extension, and for the distribution of products?"

Ho told me that these things would speedily right themselves, but I quite failed to draw from him any indication of how he thought the things would be righted. I said "What is there to prevent any combination of syndicalists from taking up mining land and starting a syndicalist mine now?"

He didn't seem to know, but he talked vaguely and bitterly about conspiracies of capital. I asked him if lie thought it likely that other great combinationssteamship companies, and so forth—would enter into contracts and business arrangements with headless combinations of irresponsible miners quite ignorant of business.

He said they'd have to; that all industries would pretty soon be conducted in this way. On that, I told him that under his scheme industries would not be conducted at all, but would inevitably crumble into chaos, and he took refuge in the cheap gibe of his class, and said that I was prejudiced.

I am driven to the conclusion that in all the previous ages of the world men never really loved liberty so little as they love it now. In ether times, the man who would be free himself saw that he could only be free in all men's freedom. There is a passage in John Stuart Mill— will pardon me the hackneyed quotation—which puts what I hold to be the sane and honest view very concisely.

of each '"dividual follows the libert}, within the same limits of combination among individuals; freedom to unite for any purpose not involving harm to others, the persons combining being supposed to be of full ase, and not forced or deceived. ° No society in which these liberties arc not, on the whole, respected is free, whatever may be its form of government, and none is completely free in which they do not exist absolute and unqualified. The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good in our own wajr, as long As we do noit attempt to deprive others of tfieirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each i« th© proper guardian of his own health, whether bodilv or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest.

There is the real secret of our chronic trouble in this so democratic" country. I The tendency is to compel each of us to [ live "as seems good to the rest." One | amusing but dangerous friend of the Red Federation is possibly not the only sinner in that respect. As every session of Parliament comes on we see attempts being made, more openly and more doggedly than ever before, to crush individuals and minorities into compliance with the mandates of crowds and mobs. The labour unions try to do it, and often peoplo quite opposed to labour unions (which I am not) try just as hard. Not merely do we try to do this evil thing, but we try to do it quite recklessly and unscrupulously. We deliberately fling overboard whatever benefit and discretion we might gain from the study of admitted human tendencies and the experience of past ages. We worship the philosophers of the worldand we treat them with contempt. We are bound together by the selfish impulses of the moment and our personal prejudices or interests, and whenever any clique . is mad or powerful enough it writes a new law on the statute book. We are in many ways worse than the anarchists that are our bugbear (anarchists being often very reasonable and virtuous people), because the anarchists concedes while he demands. Ho says, " Give roe freedom to develop and possess my soul, and I will insist that the same freedom shall be given to you." All the same, when I think of the 1.W.W., I am compelled to think of a masked ruffian fixing a bomb to a cottage door, with innocent women and children sleeping calmly just insidel think, of parasitic demagogues and agitators battening on the workers and trafficking in innocent blood hear talk of an angalof light, and see a horrible devouring, figure come flapping out of hell.