WHITHER ARE WE DRIFTING?

NZ Truth, Issue 818, 16 July 1921, Page 9

WHITHER ARE WE DRIFTING?

Dear " Truth," — There is no doubt very much m what you say week after week m regard to the unfairness with which Labor is treated -by employers and of how he is exploited by the shoQkeepers and profit-mongers generally, but is the only solution revolution, as so many of our Labor friends are everlastingly preaching? I, believe m free'speech and would be the last m the world to suggest any curtailment m New Zealand, but I notice that these same extremists who demand- so much liberty for themselves, ay, and license, too, are the very first to refuse it to those who differ from them. I used to attend their meetings very I regularly m Auckland, and had much sympathy^, with what I heard them preach, but one thing always "got my goat" and that was the general intolerance towards -anyone who dared get up and disagree with the Socialism preached by them. On one occasion I remonstrated with a Labor man seated beside me, for interrupting and trying to howl down a member of the audi-^ ence, who was criticising an address' given by one of our Labor members. This man, m his opening remarks, declared he was a Socialist, and then went t>n to tear the doctrine preached by the Labor M:P. to tatters. He quoted Karl Marx copiously and generally pulverised the speaker. At one point he said the Parliamentary -Labor men were humbugs, that they knew nothing o;P pconomics and ought to "get out and get under." until they got their economic basis sound. Tt was at this point that thp howling and interruption became noisiest, the man sitting 7iext. me jumping to his feet and shouting "Liar!" Wihen I pulled him down and told- him to be quiet and let the people hear what the man- had to say, he looked at me -as if he would have liked to stab me, but. he only said, "Would you listen to that bloody fool V\ I said I would listen to all sides giving their opinions, as I believed m toleration. "Toleration," he shouted-, "is weakness- Toleration be damned." That finished me, not with Socialism, but with the Labor men. I now pass my experience on, and . if "Truth" is the fair paper it is said to be, it will give me space to do so. I wrote much the same thing to the socalled "Official Organ," but the editor of that journal who professed to be such a believer m "free speech," silenced me — that is, he consigned my letter to the "W7P.B. I hope "Truth" will be fairer and more courageous. My experience caused me to pause and consider whether my recital here may cause all reasonable, rightthinking men to consider where we are drifting. There is no doubt about the. fact that extremists have managed to get into the positions that place them m the forefront as leaders of men. Where they are leading the workers it would, at the present time, be practically impossible to say. Those extremists, who are "leading"^ and doing the shouting, don't know them-; selves what the end may be, if what they are aiming at ever took place. . Look at it from any standpoint welike, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that Revolution ancfc the overthrow of our present Constitution is what is aimed at. For what object? To place us on an equal footing with Russia, that workers' Paradise. Why will the workers of this country allow themselves to be gulled by such clapti'ap, and why do the workers allow themselves to be represented h" men whoso only qualification to be leaders' of men is, they are blessed, or otherwise, with "A gift of the gab." Although a change m our present system may come about, the workers of this country must bear m mind that they have still got to work. The workers, must also bpar m mind that those who are managing' to keep their coats on at the present time at the expense of the workers, have no intention of taking them off again. Those men have made the discovery that it is an easier and move profitable job to rto the spouting- than it is to do the working. The sooner the reasonableminded and right-thinking workers begin to assert themselves, the better it will be for all concerned. Russia is held up to us as a workers' Paradise both by extremist workers and extremist leaders, but there is no emigration boom to that heaven on earth. lit it ever came to pass th.ti our present Constitution was abolished nnd a Soviet Government set up, wouirt our extremists tolerate others standtng- un nt street corners nnd denouncing this Soviet Gru-ernmettt? No fprvOrltles then would most likely 'v>o looked upon ns rebels, and be plarod up against the wall and shot. Ido not

Bay sauoA for the goose should bo sauce for the gander, but when men so openly show what tyrants they -would be if ever they had the chance to exercise authority, it might be chosing the least of two evils if the Government' save them a taste of their own medicine now. — Yours, etc., SANE LABOR. Epsom*