LABOUR'S IDEALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22393, 14 April 1936, Page 10

LABOUR'S IDEALS

MR. NASH'S EXPOSITION

OLD ORDER HAS FAILED" ORGANISATION OF PRODUCTION CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH [by telegram—OWN correspondent] WELLINGTON, Monday "With 7 confidence and faith we can go forward. . The road is not easy, but we must carry the issues forward and never shirk them," declared the Minister of Finance, the Hon. W. Nash, in delivering his presidential address at the annual conference of the New Zealand Labour Party, which opened to-dav. There were 250 delegates present, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Savage, was given a rousing welcome.

"It is my privilege," said Air. Nash, "to open and preside over the 20th annual conference of the party. This privilege follows a year of office as president of the party —a year filled with life and movement, in which the party has made greater visible progress than in any other year of its history. "With comparatively little funds, but with other priceless assets, the party, for the first time in its history, won sufficient seats to enable our leader, Mr. Savage, to become Prime Minister and to form the first Labour Government. The foundations of that/result were laid a generation Ago, and have been strengthened each succeeding year. Born as a party in the years of tho war, nurtured through the post-war slump and boom periods, it has progressed to a point pregnant with possibilities of a new life. We mourn the loss of our leaders, Harry Holland, Jimmy McCombs and his wife, Freddy Cooke —how their nerves would have tingled with the possibilities of the present day I

Work the Title to Wealth >r What are tho issues? The issues are that life is maintained on goods end services and is only possible through work. But the possibilities of work with science and with forethought are amazing. The old order lias failed; it has made its contribution. Capitalism has shown the possibilities of production, but through its spirit of acquisitiveness has perished in its effort. The task to be taken up is ours. We must organise production and distribution. Work must be the title to wealth. Idle labour and unused. resources are an insult to the governing authorities, while hunger in the widest sense of its definition — hunger for food, for clothes, for shelter, for leisure, for culture, for freedom * —is with us in any measure.

"We are laying the foundation 'of a new building. The corner-stone has been laid: we control the credit and currency system. The succeeding stones are in preparation: the railways and transport are to be organised to shift goods and people with the maximum of efficiency and the minimum of ■waste; the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act is to be redrafted and re-enacted; the farmers are to be paid for work and service, and not to depend on land booms, as in the past; houses are to be provided; industry is to be reorganised; the State lending departments are being reconstructed.

"Not by Bread Alone" "The passing of legislation and the administering of laws is not enough; we can only administer the distribution of what the workers produce. Again, we live on goods, not money, money should be the blood stream to convey goods or services to the parts of the body where it is most needed. But, while man does not live by bread alone, and while he must have bread, bread and all that it implies is not enough. Wickham Steed, writing in the Listener, refers to 'thoughts and action,' and opens up a world of possibility. It is not bread to eat, clothes to wear, or material things, but joys that come in unexpected ways, and yet we make a contribution toward that possibility through taking the mind off material things. "We believe in a full individual life: that there should be one door which each individual may shut to ensure the sanctity of his own thoughts, one gate which each family may shut and open at the will of its members; but that no individual company or corporation or other form of organisation should so monopolise the things essentia} to life as to compel the mass of the people to beg for the bread that they eat, the clothes that tliey wear, or a home in which to live. Banishment of Fear

"Individuality, creative activity, borne in the best sense of the word—these are the joys of life. We can make them possible by banishing fear —fear of want, fear of old age, fear of illfcealth, fear for our children. We can do it, but the road is not easy; it is uphill all the way —yes, to tljo very end; but the transient joys of making money shall give way to the joy of the builder who has kept the road clean, pierced the hills to ease the road for traffic, sown seed, and built a house. "The joy of creation, the rightful heritage of every individual, shall last until other visions come and the climb of humanity once again ascends to higher reaims. Our opportunity to build a road is great; it brings with it responsibility, but accepting the opportunity and recognising the responsibility we will try this year. "What is the remedy? The remedy is organised production for use; —cooperative production for the individual use of the new economy of human living, to ensure which requires unqualified community command over the natural resources from which all things needful for life have to be drawn; social ownership of natural resources, social control of the methods of utilising these resources, and the full use of them in each respective field until human needs are satisfied. I see no other way of solving the existing problems than that of a co-operative commonwealth." Mr. Nash was warmly applauded on concluding his speech.