PROSPERITY AND THE PEOPLE

NZ Truth, Issue 818, 16 July 1921, Page 6

PROSPERITY AND THE PEOPLE

Address By Rev. j. K. Archer

Every Laborer a Capitalist and Every Capitalist' a Laborer-

(From "Truth's" Timaru Rep.)

Under the' auspices, of the Timaru Labor Party the Rev. J. K. Archer, of Christchurch, gave a vigorous address a few nights ago at the Unitarian Hall, Timaru, on "Rights of Property and Rights of the People." Mr. Archer claimed that had the teaching of the Bible been taken and acted upon m. ' this so-called Christian country, our* ■ little Dominion would be constructed .„ along the lines laid down by the Labor •' \ Party. At different periods of the' world's 'history, there" had been traditional cries which 'had been handed , down through the ages, one of which, had been the "Divine Right of Kings," with its corollary of passive obedience of the people. It was a fallacy to believe, though many did, that there was something divine or sacred about British laws, which had not been based on the Bible, but on Pagan Rome. At the badk of the Roman law was Greek law with its outstanding ngure, Aristotle, whose first conception of the constitution of society, was that slavery was essential. The British Empire had out-grown many of its laws and customs, and the time for a revision had come. , This was a new age and things would have to be. readjusted to suit it. The supreme right of .property was the right of being made subservient to the interests o,f the people as a wfrole, not to one sec- ■ tion as some of the community had accused the Labor Party, of advocating. The Labor Party, which stood m the best interests of the people as a whole, had no wish to harm the landowners, nor did they advocate the substitution of one wrong m place of p another- They were prepared to concede the rights of the property-owners but they were not prepared TO CONCEAL THEIR WRONGS. The Labor Party stood for righteous- ' ness and there never .would be any peace either national or industrial so long as there was unrighteousness m the world. Every man, woman or child had a right to ascertain amouni . of personal property and a home tc live m. As. things were at present the landless men had no right to live or at least they only lived on suffrance. The property question was the fundamental problem to be-sorVed to-day. As an 'illustration the speaker saul there were no less than, twenty-four wealthy squatters m Hawke's Bay <! who owned enough land to support fifteen hundred people. Such was the position which the. rights of the property owners had Jjrought them to. The prophets of the Bible had m the olden days denounced the monopoly of . the lands by grasping landlords,, and that also was what the Labor Party was denouncing to-day, and would continue to do so m the future. The La- \ bor platform was not opposed to the capitalist, the world could not do without capital, but It stood for the unification of Labor and Capital. They . believed that every capitalist should be a laborer and every laborer should be a capitalist.