LABOUR AT THE POLLS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14382, 27 November 1908, Page 8

LABOUR AT THE POLLS

ANALYSIS AND COMMENT. the HON. J, f Pj[ TO> M.L.C. . Die polling booth levels all men and all parties. Prime Minister and political' tyro start from scratch at 9 o'clock on: polling day. Poor man. and rich man have equal voice in the choice of represenhtives. We have one of.the most liberal electoral systems in tho world so far as franchise is concerned. In. some, other respects it is no better than many' other systems now,in op&ration, I do not, however, 'propose to discuss the •electoral system, but to make' an analysis of ithe Labour vote at tho recent polls; At the election in 1905 Labour made a first, attempt to establish -an .Indepehi dent Labour. party; in the Mouse. T& various branches of the Political Labour League put up nine candidates, who polled 3747 votes. One Socialist, was also run, and lie polled 91 votes. Tliis made a total vote in favour of separate representation by a distinct narty df 3838 vote? • For the same 10 electorates. 53,067 ; votes were cast against, the Independent Labour candidates. Eight of the 10 Labour candidates on that occasidn failed to poll giiffi.' cient, votes to save their deposit of £10, each. ' J For the purposes of fair comparison I have analysed the vote cast for Labour from various-standpoints. To place the' official Labour candidates' vote against the above figures.it is necessary to, exclude all whowere not put forward i>yj' a Labour organisation. "The organisation varied in tho different centres. In Auckland the Trades and .Labour Council and ■■ Political Labour League .joined forces. In Wellington a Labour Committee took control of the election io far as pledged Labour candidates ' wei-e concerned. In Christcliurch and Dimedin the Political Labour League itself ran candidates, except that in the former place an agreement existed with the Socialist party to prevent clashing. Two Labour and two'"Socialist candidates' took the field for four 1 seats. The Political Labour League ran 11 candidates n.t the first ballot, and the total votes polled by them was approximately 13,240. Against these 11 candidates 57,661 'votes were polled. Five Socialists appealed before the electors last week and gained 2621 votes. The votes polled against tlicse five candidates were 28,159. ■ This year three Independent Labour candidates failed to save their deposits, and four-of the five Socialists suffered a like experience.' Put in tabular form, the reader can see the position at a glance as worked out from'the'figures available. The following shows the, comparative positions in 1905 and 1908 of candidates pledged to a separate Labour party in Parliament: • Votes Votes 1905,. , for. against.. Nihe candidates ... 3747 ... 46,850 ' 1908 ! Eleven candidates 13,240 ... 57,661 ' And here are the comparative figures for.,the Socialists who stood for separate representation:—.. Votes Votes , 1905/ for.;, 1 --- against, One candidate ...■ 91 ... • 6,217 ; . 1908: . -'i . Five candidates ... 2521 ... 28,159 In addition to these candidates there were six men who stood as Labour candi-' dates without official endorsement. These six must lie plaoed by themselves for the fact that, they had not been in Parliament and are designated Labour candidates because of their avowal and support of Labour principles on the platform. It is. difficult to decide just who came within' this definition, but I have put six candidates under this heading. They polled 6800 .votes. Three of them (Messrs Dar-~; ton, Johnson, and Paape) scorcd over 2000 each/ To complete my summary of the Labour vote there remains the votes polled by the the candidates designaed " Ministerial Labour." Eleven .appeared under tlas J head. Seven were returned, and the total vote polled, by the. 11 candidates was. 35,252. By a' strange coincidence 11; Independent Labour candidates and 11 Ministerial Labour wooed the electors.'. .From'this full analysis various, deductions will doubtless be drawn according to the, predilections of my readers. On© thing is certain: there is an enormous. Labour vote in the Dominion. To proceed to a careful analysis it will be seen' that Auckland has. not materially improved the vote for Independent Labour. In ISOS 463 votes were polled in favour and 10,879 votes against. Last week- 985 votes were polled for Independent Labour, and' 10,943 votes against it. When it is--remembered that one of these candidates (Mr A. Roseer) .previously' polled- over 3000 votes on two occasions and over 4000' votes on one occasion when the city was one electorate, there is not much room, for congratulation. Wellington improved', •its, position, owing chiefly to. Mr D.l MlLaren's vote increasing by 1000. Christcliurch also materially improved its vote, Mr J. Thorn doubling his previous total. In 1905 Mr Thorn polled 1107 votes against 5231 'for bis opponents. Last week lie polled 2221 against'-his opponents' 4506. These two cases, combined with Mi' Goller's thousand-odd vote for Timaru and Messrs . Slunro and' Douglas's Dunedin vote (in neither ofwhich cases the Political Labour League had previously had a candidate), account for the increase in the Independent Labour vote. /. The five candidates who stood' ae Socialists represent . the revolutionary branch of Socialism which preaches.the class war and the permanency of the class struggle. . Their vote of 2521 is not very.hopeful of immediate success. The return of Mr M'Larcn for Wellington East, at tiie second ballot is a- matter for congratulation in labour circles. Mr M'Laren.is an able man and a sincere one. He' would lie an acquisition to any party or to any House of Parliament.' He is the first man to win a seat in the House of Representatives as a member of, the Political Labour League. When he; was left in the final as a result of the first' ballot there was much speculation j

as to what the Liberals would do. They liad been preaching an alliance • which most frequently meant that Labouv was asked to vote.for the Liberal. Hore was a case where Government supporters had the opportunity to prove their sincerity and belief in an alliance. " Unionist," in his "Labour Notes" iii the Wellington Evening Post of Saturday last,' wrote;— " In union circles now the question is being asked whether t'he second ballot will prove tJiafc the Liberal vote is sympathetic with the aspirations of Labour." The flrct ballot figures were: Atkinson (Opposition), 2400; M'Laren (Labour), 1741; M'Lean (Government), 1300; Winder (Government), 1071. The poll on Tuesday showed: M'Laren (Labour), 3446; Atkinison (Opposition), 3019. So that the first .Independent Labour representative has been elected by a combination of Labour and Liberal voters. And the voters need not be ashamed of having put Mr M'Laren into Parliament. He is a worthy man. The propaganda, of viturperat-ion and denunciation does not appear to bear fruit. ■ •In Dunedin the Independent Labour vote is ' the highest in the Dominion. And Dunedin is supposed in the north to bo tho . acme of respectability. We have no Cathedral square. We have no statue which is s centre of oratory. It is granted that both the men opposed—the lion. J. A.' Millar and Mr T. K. ■ Sidey—have substantial majorities, the fovmcr, having 2457 votes to spare and the latter 1243, or 1850 over his Independent Labour- opponent. Mr Sidey's majority; was only 500 over the Labouv candidate (Mr P. Hally) when the old Workers' Political Comniitteo opposed ■him on the last, occasion—the bye-election in 1901. Mr W. Warren was then also in th-j field, and' polled 122 of the Labour votes. Tliough very far from success from the point of view of Independent Labour, our northern neighbours must once more admit that labour 'sentiment in Dunedin is again expressed at the'ballot box in more practical fashion .than they have ; shown. ;Mr Roller's vote of 1265 at Tiinaru is a, good performance; but if his vote, along with the Dunedin votes and those polled by Messrs M'Larer and Thorn,'is subtracted from the total'vote of the 'Political 'Labour League, a very poor showing ,is left—six candidates with a total vote of 3308 between them and a total vote of 33,790 against them. I cannot bring myself to believe that the recent election is satisfactory to Independent Ijabour'. ■ /It is: more than clear that ■ a majority ,of trades unionists are against it. But we know that few, if any, trades urtionists are against direct Labour representation in the House. And so 1 it ■appears'thjit our methods are somewhere faulty. I believe, for instance, that when trades .unionists see the; leaders each other ami opposing tried men,oil the hustings they, .are likely for the moment to swing round against all Labour men. I, d<£ not want to mention specific, examples, but Avon lqiglit' be ■ cited. The member who has just been displaced was opposed by a Political Labour league I respect and admire. But Mr Tanner, .has been' a consistent supporter of Labour measures aiid ideals stitco Lis. entry into the. House in. 1890, when he left'the bootmaker's bench to enter, Parliament. He was the sole, remaining member of the famous contingent of/1891.' The league nominee said he was the only true blue," Mr, Tanner protested. And so in the process , the Labour vote becomes disgusted. I whs impressed' the other day in; reading a criticism in the - International; Socialist Review, on the Australian Socialist, atti-' tnde 1 ' the Labour party anil trades unionists. . This sentence, struck ane .as worth repeating and 'remembering by • all reformer's: .... Your doctrine may be as pure as yoii, .please,; if .you have alienated, the ' workers you : .are trying , to'save you may as well bury it quietly and say no ■ more.. •' " And so in our zeal we'are apt to estrange the people we are trying to benefit. It is an hallucination harboured by many that independent of the individual the' Cause goes oil and prospers. They 'agree 'that the individual can help ; they forget the indiscreet exponent can hinder.' His-, tory tells of , great reforms won, but also of great causss lost' because of the adopV tion of. wrong methods, and it tells of justice postponed because of the intemperance of the exponents of that measure of justice.' ■ "I hold, strpngly that Labour must occupy a,great,position,in Parliament.'. I believe' the 'Labour propaganda is. sometimes too narrow." Admittedly it fails to merit the i approval of a large section of the workers. There is no, reason why it should not find' favour wiHi tradesmen and small fanners. Keir Hardib gaul we had the wrong class of agitator: "The agitators there [in New Zealand] don't seem to me to quite fill the bill: They are mostly imported men, and make tlio mistake of talking to the fairly prosperous Maorilanders about ' chains ' and 4 slavery,' which however applicable such terms might, be to the very poor -of Old World industrial centres, are Teally not understood in New Zealand. It was 'the same in 'America-, until the, propagandists got ' racy of tho soil.'" It is sublime futility to say we have accomplished nothing in 18 years. .The oft-repeated statement- that " the cost of living has, increased by so-miny per cent., over the increase in wages "dota not fully state the position. In relative comparison the people of our Dominion are as prosperous as any other,, and more prosperous than most. But their position can be improved, and' should be., improved without delay. Married, workers with large families have nothing to sparo. Surely to argue that the' reform Work of' 18 yeare has been useless ■ is to',', suggest that the influeiice. of the Labour party has been useless. It •has had more of its political creed put on the Statute Book in the last 18 years than it had' in' all. ; the years previous 'to "ninety.", The influence of the Labour party has been for', tho benefit of the majority of our citizens. It can be of more:use in the coming years. But if it takes on itself the role of political Jeremiah the people may accept its own value of its work on their behalf. We had better, learn that not. one of us nor one particular organisation or "ism" contains all the truth. And, perhaps more important still,',.we .might practise greater toleration. Dowe,'; not believe in .tlie brotherhood of nian?'' Li the womb of the future lie better times for the poorer classes: let us see to it that iwe do not postpone its coming, even in part.