TONE OF A BOOK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19606, 7 April 1927, Page 14

TONE OF A BOOK.

"THE PATH TO POWER." OBJECT OF THE WRITINGS. AID TO VIOLENCE ALLEGED. PROSECUTION OF THE SELLER. ; a" A charge of selling a document entitled, "The Path to Power," which, it was alleged, encouraged violence or lawlessness contrary to regulations under the War Regulations Act, 1914, was brought against .Walter Hodgson (Mr. Leary) in the Police Court yesterday. '*> Mr. Paterson, who prosecuted, quoted a variety of extracts from the book in question, stating that they insidiously encouraged violence. The book began by comparing the aims of the Communist Party with those of the Labour Party, and the opening paragraph referred to the aims" of the Communist Party as assisting the workers in their struggle to overthrow the. iandlbrd and capitalist class, and suggested that force must be employed to secure this end. On page four of the book it was stated that the landlord, or capitalist class, would not yield to the votes of the working class, thus insidiously suggesting that it would be necessary to use force. Then the book quoted extracts from different writers and speakers, all referring to revolutionary methods. On page eight the writer held up the barons who fought against each other as an example to the workers, and also held up as an example the civil wars which rent England in'the seventeenth century. The writer glorified the Russian Revolution, and then said: "Thus does the reality of experience reply to the twaddle of rhetoric." « "The book appears to be carefully worded to avoid direct or explicit advocacy of violence and sedition," said Mr. Paterson, "but if it be read as a whole, it shows clearly what were the intentions of the writer." Detective Robertson gave evidence that he bought the book from defendant on October 31, 1926. Defendant knew witness was a detective. Case for the Defence. Mr. Leary said the book was not the type of publication intended to be prohibited by the War Regulations Act, which was passed with the intention of assisting in winning the war. There was now no danger of enemies fomenting trouble within the Dominion's borders. The book was merely a domestic discussion on the merits or demerits of the strike as an industrial weapon, and as such did not come within the ambit of the Act. Mr. Leary argued that if such discissions of industrial questions were prohibited, the result would be serious. Mod' erate expressions of opinion would be suppressed and only the most abandoned and reckless members of the community would dare to advocates the cause of the working classes. Support o! the Strike. Counsel added that the book was intended to advocate the strike as a means of industrial action. The tendency of the right wing of .the Labour Party was to jettison the strike, and the writer went no further than to urge that force in the form of a strike, with its attendant evils and inconveniences and firmness on the part of the workers, was sometimes necessary. 1 Counsel said the book did not anywhere advocate open organised violence, but was calm, philosophic discussion of the subject. Apart fi'om one or two isolated expressions, such as "struggle," he would defy the prosecution to show where the book went beyond advocating opposition to the capitalist class, backed by the strike. Mr. Paterson, in reply, said the book declared that constitutional methods were useless arid the democratic institutions of hlngland must lie overthrown. The book was all the more dangerous because it avoided the blatancy characteristic of most Communistic propaganda. The magistrate, Mr. McKean, said he could not express an opinion on the book until he had read it as a whole, and reserved his decision.