A WORD TO THE WORKERS!

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11959, 10 December 1919, Page 6

A WORD TO THE WORKERS!

(By "Looker On."') lam not a candidate for election, but lam a Liberal, and therefore I am very much interested m the workers of New Zealand, their preuent and their future. Liberalism to me means the policy that has always preached the gospel of "the greatest good for the greatest number," and practised what it preached. What Liberalism has done for the workers of New Zealand during the past twenty-live ymm should be enough to convince you that, when it has the powar, Liberalism means "Government by the people for the people" all tne time.

Look now at the Liberal statement of policy and at your own Labour platform ! Much of what you need and desire is to bo found in the Liberal programme; nearly everything that you want outside those limits you will have to wait for till you hate converted a great many more peonle to your way of thinking, and that means at best you will wait for a long to come. What is the best course for the workers to take ? Shall they stake their all on the attainment of the impossible, or be content for the time to take what is .w r ell within their reacn, here and now V No intelligent worker can believe that the Labour Party will gain a majority nei-t week at the polls. Has not Mr Holland said that he expects to be Leader of the Opposition ? And does not this mean that Labour, if it strives to stand alone, must be content to wait, perhaps for many year 3, until it is strong enough to gain what it regards as its deserts by its own unaided strength ?

I do not speak thus to the men and women who hold "extreme" views, such as glory in the name of Bolshevik. With them rLiberalism has nothing in common ; for their aim is not Freedom, but Tyranny—not tho common "the "greatest good" of ail, but the destruction of all classes but one, in order that this one shall rise upon the ruinß of all the rest, and the "class-conscious minority," its self-constituted leaders and autocrats, sihall dominate us all alike.

To Labourites of this type I have nothing to say. But my appeal goes forth to those among you who feel deeply the injustice and the wrongs that Labour endures, and who are willing to strive earnestly and persistently that these grievances inaj' be redressed ; but who believe—as i know that most of tne workers of New Zealand do believe—that what the world needs most to set it right is not Revolution but Evolution, not Destruction but Construction; and who know in their hearts chat the ends of Right and Justice can never be secured by Force and Tyrann}-. To vou, then, I appeal. For your own shakes do not hinder the forward movement of Democracy—do not reject or limit the measure of progress and advancement that Liberalism can and will secure for you today, if you will co-operate with it on rational, constitutional and democratic lines.

What other alternative is there for you to take '! I have said ...that if Labour stands alone it must wander a wearv while in tho outer darkness of Opposition—and the years will go by, and the Millennium will be none the nearer.

Foi if you choose to isolate yourselves, and the votes of the peoplo are split between Liberalism and L&bonr, the victory may feo to "Roform"—and thi3, you know, is what "Reform" has long foreseen and desired. Do not forget these things, lou know that the present electoral system, the "first past the post" system, is unfair and illogical because sometimes it does not give minorities representation, and sometime" it gives minorities all the representation there is, but never does it provide all the peoplo at once with the power of expressing thenown views. To remedy these evils the second ballot was tried, and poor as the substitute is, it was better than the "sudden death" system. Then, Mr Massey "reformed'-' the second ballot out of existence promising to give us "something better"—of course, in his own good time. "Why has h« never kept his word ? Because "Reform" is waiting for you to split the votes and by dividing the forces that ought to stand side by side for Democracy, to open a way to power for Conservatism and Monopoly and Reaction. Do you not see that a vote taken from Liberalism must be, from your point of view, a vote given to "Reform" ?-the creed of the Conservative land monopolists who utaud behind Mr Massey, the gospel o;" Mr Massey himself, who told us the other day that he believes in Nationalisation —"so long as it does not interfere with Private Enterprise." But there is more behind "Reform" than Monopoly and Conservatism. The Masseyitos constantly ask ua what is the difference between Liberalism and their own policy. The simplest answer is that which Gladstone—one of the greateat of Liberals—gave a long tome ago: "The principle of Liberalism is Trust in the People qualified by Prudence : the principle of Conservatism is Mistrusi of the reople qualified bv Fear. " Because the Masseyjteu do not trust Democracy, but fear it, therefore, they cannot be expected to deal with even the just and rightful demands and aspirations of Labour in a svmpathetic and conciliatory spirit. * Another great Liberal, James Bryce. tells us all that wo i.eed to know about Masseyiam, when he describes t he party which tends always to believe and maintain that "social order can be secured only'by force." That is far indeed from the standroint of our own Liberalism which a generation ago, by wise and judicious statesmanship, by careful foresight, and by generous concessions to Labour's most urgent needs, preparpd for us

twenty years of industrial and social peace.

Let Labour, then, give careful hoed to all these things As far as I ! understand the strongest claims and highest hopes of Labour my synipathis are with it, so long as it "stands on th old path.*" aud clings to the oldest aud aiost saorod traditions of Democracy -to Eight, Justice, and Freedom. And so, to sane and rational Labour I make this appeal—not lo the Bolshevik, who wants to overturn She Tyranny of Capitalism only to set up =hi its place an even more absolute "hierarchy of the proletariat," with himself as sßlf-appoif)t9l Chief. For him, Liberalism and Liberty and Democracy have no meaning and no message Bnt for you—Liberalism is your firm friend and natural ally; it is to Liberalism that you owe nearly all that makes life worth possessing iathis country to-day. Soe that you stand by Liberalism now. —Published by Arrangement.