THE WORKER'S LOST CAUSE.

NZ Truth, Issue 266, 30 July 1910, Page 1

THE WORKER'S LOST CAUSE.

LABOR'S COMING DAY.

Dick Seddon's record political reign m New Zcaliand is nowadays wistfully looker upon by the worker as "the good, old days." We have now fallen upon dog days m- a political sense. Labor, that great voting, mass which, when thoroughly organised, is well calculated to roughhew New Zealand's political destinies, is m a" deplorable and shiftless state. It has remained content With a few sops horn a Government of allegedly Liberal sympathies: Labor has been content to remain idle, while its leaders have been nobbled. Its daring spirits have been bought. Their silence had a price. Where a leading Lanorite was ensnared into a Ministerial parlor, and there given a portfolio to play with, and a thousand and odd annual goiden reasons to merely assume the part of Labor's leaders, the dating spirits— the agitators— have ceased to apitatc, because m comfortably paid Government billets the necessity to agitate does not arise, unless to secure their own advancement. In former years —the now "good old" days— the real necessity for a Labor Party m Parliament was entirely obviated by the humanitarian, the industrial and the generally domestic legislation that Richard' Seddon placed on the Statute Book. Those days have changed. Day after day passes and the absence of Seddon is more and more, marked. Those who have followed m the wake of Seddon have no sympathy with the worker. He is the last, consideration, while the pitiful and paltry pretences to patch up and palter with'' lndustrial legls'l-ation have only left, the vworker m a sadder plight than ever. Ttf-iiay, therefore, m New Zealand the' necessity for the formation, of a real, live Independent Labor Party exists! A Liberal' Party has been tried, but daily it is found wanting, not perhaps m the want of proper sincerity, but because the Liberal Government— the Continuous Min-retry-4ias become burdensome, stale and sterile. It has become wowser-ridden, it heeds the voice of t ne wowser, and hearkens to' the -wail of the forlorn social l&uatic. The cry of the worker is disregarded, and it is only the existence of a Labor Party that can. assure for"' the worker the enactment of "comprehensive measures and the establishof such conditions as will foster and ensure equality of opportunity, also the moral, niaterial and educational advancement and* the general comfort and wellbeing of the whole people, based upon the gradual public ownership of all the mgaris of production, distribution and exchange.' ' ■ It will assuredly stem the tide of that wowseristic wave now inundating the Dominion, the object of which to" to mike us melancholy and miserable, tp\ foster m New Zealand a Puritanic spirit, which stands for the utter abolition pf out liberties, and means for this country »*£ ,Ruße of the Saints" similar to that tjftrtch England experienced m the CromweJlian era. , ■-.•-..

ftlt does not necessarily follow that the formation and existence of a .now political Labor Party means the extinction of the Liberals. Labor's domination .m New Zealand is inevitable. .It is bound to &ome. Its existence is neceseary to those interests wnich a slack and a sorry Liberal administration m , its days of declin,ittg power are apt to overlook. Labor's representation m a Parliament ? .of which' Sir Joseph Ward would he head, w<>utd not only be a strong incentive to '*%c-- Liberal party to give progressive legislation its proper and sympathetic administration, but would give a Prime Minister the necessary spur to resist pernicious parsonical and Nonconformist influj£tee that to-^ay is so marked, and m ''•jjs-'m^espects gQ f1,.,,^^ ne unfortunate fact remains' m New Zealand toliay, that the present Prime Minister, and ]' practically : the party following him, are wowser-ridden. It is hard t 0 reconcile th* ' ambition of the Puritan with that of the worker. One seeks a cruel and cursed the other seeks the ameliota- '■'' tion of his condition, and a just recogm-* " c tion of his rights. The idea that the '^'noisy Nonconformist clerical clown who ' 'prevails m New Zealand has sympathies '•^irith the worker is as preposterous as it '"'''is irreconcilable. The lessons that history '*■■' affords of tue cruel and cursed results of ** clerical domination are surely not to he ? lost on the intelligent worker of New ' Zealand. It is, therefore, to combined labor r ' X that we look for that salvation which can. ■•■'••• ne attained only by the existence of a '-v Political Labor Party, which, m its place *^ ! !|fc Parliament, can offer effectual .resist-

ance to that deadening and equally deadly influence that is sapping the healthy public opinion of New Zealand- • It is not so much what the worker m New Zealand has to fear from the capitalistic system as the fact that he has to rid himself of the turbulent and pestilential blacK-garbed cleric, who, pampered if not petted, feared if not bated, has gained t&e ascen^ dancy. We have only to cast our minds back over the last three ,or four years to thoroughly satisfy ourselves of the inroads to the people's liberties made by the noisy Nonconformists of .New Zealand. With that advance of the clerical crowd ihe workers' cause has been forgotten. It. has been neglected. Legislators elected to • conserve Labor's rights have been overcome by the might of the Puritan. To regain what Labor has lost, only, a Labor Party m Parliament can demand and regain.

Labor has at last come to light. The New Zealand Labor Party's objective and platform have been adopted at the Trades and Labor Conference at '(Auckland last week. Never m the history of labor conferences were more momentous issues placed before delegates. A platform has. been adopted, lor which it has been*declared that it is the most comprehensive 'progressive Labor, platform ever adopted m Australasia. The nationalisation of monopolies, aiming (a) at the establishment of a State ferry service and State cplleries, and (b) the estab lishment of competitive State factories, are planks with which all are iiamiliar. This country has long been cursed by that cormorant combine— the U.S.S. Company. We have long been promised a State ferry service between Lyttelton and Wellington. But how far oH is the realisation ol Labor's dream ? Cap the nationalisation of such, a monopoly be effected by a Liberal Government ? Tbere are reasons why it wsll not. There arc none why it should not. We are now on the verge of a gigantic system of militarism. What company will securer the monopoly, of . providing saddlery and clothing, and general military equipment ? . If a Liberal , Government promises, but fails to institute, a State ferry service because of purely private interests, what guarantee, can be afforded that those same purely private interests will not obtrude themselves m a monopolistic concern of providing the ternitorials with their raqjuisites ? There are, ■ however, two othee platforms which call for little comment. These are Land and Industrial Reform. It can only, be Erom Labor that industrial reform can be acquired. We have had a hotch-potch of reform. What has been the result V The Arbitration Court of to-day is giving all-round dissatisfaction. Everywhere industrial uneasiness is existing, This is due, not to a proper and sympathetic administration of industrial legislation, but because the Labor laws are 'being over-ridden. There is no heart m their administration. There is slackness, - ana until a Liberal Party is forced by the activity of the Labor Party, so long will that slackness prevail. Generally, Labor's platform has everything to commend it. It bears the' stamp of honesty. It* is genuine. .

'Labor will not find its row so hard to hoe m New Zealand, providing tha\ the worker is properly organised, and hi,s vote directed the right way. We know the history and the growth of the Laboi parties m Australia. For the cause much was suffered. It is a History of cruel and pitiless class persecution. We can recall the days when, the Laborite was mocked and spat upon. He was reviled and' calumniated. He has? passed through the fires, and to-day, for the third time m the history of the British Empire, a Labor Ministry exists. The Australian Labor Party is now a power. It is not on its trial It has stood its trial. Today m Australia the worker has shown his power. The day is dawning m New Zealand when such a power will manifest itself.

Wairarapa South County Council has a member who is making a bold bid for popularity. At a feeent meeting he gave out the following cure for the too prevalent " 'flu." "All a patient, has to do to cure an influenza cold is to go to bed, hang a boot at the foot . of the bed, ami drink whisky until he can see three boots. Then if he is well wrapped m blankets and sleeps for twelve hours he will be cured. I have heard it claimed ihafc this method is ■ infaUiblc." Well, it oueht t 0 be infallible, if a councillor says so.