Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, AUG. 23, 1923. UGLINESS CORRODED THE JOY OF LIFE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16211, 23 August 1923, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, AUG. 23, 1923. UGLINESS CORRODED THE JOY OF LIFE.

This was .said recently of tho conditions under which the masses of the people were brought up in the congested .areas of the cities in the Homeland. This was the indictment: "Insufficient nourishment, had housing, lack of due caro for health, lack of tho essentials of a healthy existence, inadequate leisure, and—let them own it—in many cases to excessive indulgence in alcoholic liquors. All these were preventible causes." The speaker was Mr. Lloyd George, who was returned to Parliament thirty-three years ago. Who also was Chancellor of the Exchequer seven years before the war. Who was tho second most influential member of the Liberal administration for .seven years. In condemning the social conditions which wore, all the time ho held office, as they are now, he is pleading guilty to a great default. In Mr. Lloyd George's case there is not the excuse of ignorance, for himself raised from the people—one from the masses, he knew the conditions. This is how ho describes them as now existing : —They had in this country what he called the poverty line. There were three and a half millions who lived in slums in a country that could spend ten thousand millions on a war. There was another line—the misery line; no destitution, no hunger, no privations, but conditions that were incompatible with the essentials of civilised life. People lived in dingy streets, where the only verdure was what they saw on the coster's barrow. Ugliness corroded the joy of life. Men had a right, if the country could afford it, to the essentials of civilised existence. To his credit must be placed the attempt made in | 1911, which failed, to pass a Bill pro-' viding for National insurance. In 1913 he also inaugurated a land campaign which it may be said the war nipped in the bud. The war nipped other things. And one of the greatest things perhaps that was nipped was Mr. Lloyd George's career as a Liberal statesman, who might, but for the war, have arrested tho wave of Socialism now crossing the land. The war forced the coalition Government into office. The coalition bad to rule out all questions which would introduce political division among the members. Hence progress in reforms making for the well being of the people was stayed and the Liberals in the coalition who allowed their aspirations for reform to be'buried out of sight had to find out that what they had buried involved the obliteration of their own party and the secession from the Liberal ranks of the working - men who were driven to the conclusion that if tho social conditions, which they felt and others only talked about had to be remedied, they must act for themselves. Now they constitute tho official Opposition in Parliament. At first the Labor party looked to Russia for an inspiration but it soon became plain to them that in Russia under the garb of a Republic a most_ wicked and unscrupulous autocracy of vice, plunder, and terror, has been set up. Labor in England has now broken finally with Communism and all its attendant evils. Nino hundred delegates met at tho Queen's Hall, London, at the end of Juno. The affiliated membership represented was 33,100.000. "Tho president. Mr. Sydney Webb, M.P. said that in 1913 the vote commanded by the party was under half a million. To-day at an election, they could- command four millions. The Conference had to deal directly with the attitude the party would fake towards Communism. The London Times gives tho result • : The question of the affiliation of tho Communist Parly to the Labor Party was discussed upon the recommendation of the executive that! the application be not accepted. Mr. J. Jones, M.P.—"Who are those pcoplo going to | take their orders from—the British Labor' Party, or the Communists of Moscow?". Ho indignantly referred to the persecution of the Social Democrats of Russia "by those friends of freedom." The

only object of the Communists was to disrupt the Labor movement. On a card vote (he motion to accept the affiliation of the Communist Party was rejected. The figures were:—For aeceptanee 366.000. against 2.880,000; majority ngainsl 2.514,000. Last year the minority vote was 261,000. It will be noted that tho executive had already turned down Communism and the Conference overwhelmingly supported the executive. It came up .also in another form and one which must have had a strong temptation for the men as a body. A Air. Newbold, M.P., who had been in troublo in the House, was in question. Should the parly whip be extended to .Mr. Newbold, ALP. There voted for the motion 219.000 and against 2.227.000. Mi*. Newbold was the Communist mem bei for .Motherwell. Mr. Massingham,

a v.oll known journalist, who at the invitation of the Spectator, is writing a series of articles in thai journal taking flic "other side in politics," heads his> first article 'The. Passing of Liberalism." Ho says the Liberal Parly has shrunk to, a group and tho Labor group has expanded to a party. Elaborating this statement, he goes on to write:—Even if the two Liberal factions be regarded as an essential unity (which they are not) (.heir characteristics are those of the group. They' have the group tactics, the group ideas, the group mentality. Fussy and self-absorbed, their hand on the fast-slowing pulse of Liberal {bought and activity, they show little care for iho world-movement of their, time, and no kind of imaginative grasp of its possibilities. Now what has all this to do with New Zealand? Much we think. The present leaders of the New Zealand Labor- Party, it' they had been in England as delegates at the Conference and in their usual state, of mind as illustrated by their past and present speeches both inside and outside the House and their newspaper, would havevoted for affiliation with Communism and lor the extension of the party whip to Mr. Newbold. They, too, have not yet openly broken with Russian ideals. While this state of mind exists in tho leaders of the workers of this country the only way to combat doctrines that if put into'practice would create anarchy and confusion of the worst kind, is for unity to be established among those who stand for good order and sound government. It is possible that, in some of our cities social conditions may be arising somowhat in line, with what Mr. Lloyd George says to be existent so largely in Great Britain. There, are spots in the cities where certainly it would be true to say that ugliness eor rodes the joy of life. These spots should be swept away. A private owner who allows such spots to exist on his land and obtains money from them deserves no consideration. If the municipalities have not power to deal with these evil things in the only effective way—the broom—they should be empowered at tho earliest possible moment. Every man. woman, and child has a right as a New Zealander to live under conditions where !*■» can enjoy the natural gifts common to all of fresh air and water and the artificial supply of a decent house and complete sanitation. As in England, given time for tho true appraisement of social values, the froth attendant upon a somewhat new movement will get itself dispersed. The worker as a unit, is one who looks forward to crown his industry with tho reward open to every one of independence will) a full margin of security against disturbance either at home or abroad. j In New Zealand there is now no party I line dividing the Liberals and tho Government Party. In England it is differ ent. Conservatisms a.s a policy with great traditions exists there and will continue to exist, however it fares in politics for many years to come. In New Zealand there is now nothing to nrevent a fusion of the best men in public life except narrow" questions of personal yjreeedency. which should not be so much as mentioned where the wellbeing of the country hangs in the balance.