The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1914. VERY SCARED

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8736, 19 May 1914, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1914. VERY SCARED

The squatters’ organ of yesterday has a long article, which we do not profess to understand, concerning the part of Labour in tho New Zealand political situation. The Tory journal seems to writs both in sorrow and in anger, as well as in considerable obfuscation. Our contemporary fears that Liberalism and Labour may come together in the ensuing general election campaign, and thereby bring about results most unwelcome to the very pure and holy party of Toryism and “Reform.” But in order to cloud the issue, a great deal of industry, or at any rate a mass of verbiage, is applied in an endeavour to show how Liberalism and Labour have drifted apart. , .Just wbat the squatters’ organ intends to convey is beyond our power to fathom, except that, it is plainly evident that our contemporary has worked itself up into a 1 condition of great fear and trembling. :All of this is very amusing to those who can remember tho events of two and a-half years ago. Then the advocate of Conversatism and land monopoly was at great pains to invent honeyed words and fancy phrasesj which might induce working men and ( women to vote for their enemies thel Tories. Then it was pointed out withj a persistence worthy of a better cause! how much “Reform” and Labour) “had in common.” Then it was de- 1 dared with a profound show of generosity that Labour must not and', could not be denied its “place in the! sun,” and finally every worker was urged in the second ballot campaign ,to join with “Reform” in ousting froni, office the party which was responsible) for the whole of our exhaustive and 1 valuable industrial - legislation. It' was all very hypocritical, of course,, but an appreciable section of Labour listened —and, to use a colloquialism, “fell in.” Tho Liberal party which had passed Factories Acts, Compensation Acts, the Arbitration Act, and .other great measures of genuine reform ; which had revolutionised the |eonditions of the workers in a variety of directions; which had combated with success the determined ■ hostility of unscrupulous employers to legitimate unionism ; which had given organised Labour a status never previously enjoyed in any country—this party was to some extent deserted by the beneficiaries at the last election, and thousands of votes were transfer, red to self-styled “Reformers.” Tbs' Tories tried desperately to divorce the natural allies of many years, andl succeeded in weakening the anti-Con-eervativo forces in tho Legislature. Labour took the risk, and Labour has, wo are quite sure, learned its bitter lesson. The principal concern of the working-class community at the present juncture is to get rid of the Massey Ministry. That is what is so disturbing the squatters’ organ and sending it off into almost delirious volumes of illogical observation. But there is that much reason in the mind of tho Tory apologist that it can recognise the menace hanging over th© Minority Ministry now nearing its Waterloot It has to admit that the present Government has come into conflict with Labour—which is not only very true, but is also just the exact opposite result to what was predicted and promised in those rather exciting days when the first requirement of the Masseyites was votes. No longer do we hear of the Tories and the workers having “ much in common.” No longer is there any talk of Labour being- entitled to “ a place in' the sun.” The situation has indeed changed. The Tories have forfeited all title to the goodwill of working men and women; they have now reluctantly abandoned all hope of securing any of those thousands of Labour votes -which helped in 1911 to put into power the party of pledge-breakers, big expenditure, heavy taxation, and toy navies. And so the distressed organ of squattocracy is reduced to all sorts of ridiculous obscurities, most of which mean nothing, although . underlying them all is the endeavour to sow seeds of dissension between the two parties that managed 'from 1900 to 1912 to keep the reactionaries in their proper place—in Opposition. The certainty that Massoyism will bo restored to its appropriate place m the Legislature is tho guiding thought in tho mind of tho Tory journal; anti wo fear that all its warnings and ponderous observations, all its cunning tricks and its interested advice, cannot stop the debacle.