A CALL FOR POLLING DAY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11962, 13 December 1919, Page 2

A CALL FOR POLLING DAY.

Published by Arrangement,

APPEAL TO LABOUR. The following article appeared originally in “Truth” and the “Maoriland Worker” but as it raises many questions ol wide political and industrial interest, it is reprinted here to secure the utmost possible publicity. A WORD TO THE WORKERS. (By “Looker On.”), I am not a candidate tor election, but lam a Liberal, and therefore I am 'very much interested in the . workers of New Zealand, their present 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 tne workers of New Zealand during the past twenty-five years should he enough to convince you that, when it has the power, Liberalism moans ‘Government by the people for the people” all the time. Look now at the Liberal statement of policy and at your own Labour platform I Much of what vou need and desire is to be found in the Liberal programme: nearly everything that you want outside those limits you will have to wait for till you have converted a great many more people to your way of thinking, and that means at best you will wait for a long time to come. What in the beat course for the workers to take? Shall they stake their ail or. the attainment of the impossible, or be content for the time to take what is well withi.n their reach, here and now? No intelligent worker can believe that the Labor Party will gain a majority next week at the polls. Has not Mr Holland said that he expects to bo Leader of the Opposition? And does not this mean that Labor, if it strives to stand alone, must be consent to wait, perhaps for many years, until it is strong enough to gain what it regards as its deserts by its own unaided strength? I do not speak thos to the men and women who hold ‘‘extreme” views, such as glory in the name of Bolshevik. With' them Liberalism has nothing in common; for their aim is not Freedom, but Tyranny—not the common welfare, the “greatest good” of all, but the destruction of all classes but one, in order that this one shall rise upon the ruins of all the roat, and the “class conscious minority,” its self - constituted leaders and autocrats, shall dominate us all alike.

To Lahorites of this type I have nothing to say. Bat my appeal goes forth to those among yon who feel deeply the injustice and the wrongs that Labor enlures, and who are willing to strive earnestly and persistently that these grievances may be redressed; but who believe—as I know that moat of the 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 that the ends of Right and Justice can never bo secured by Force and Tyranny. To you, then, I appeal. For your own sakes 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 to-day, if yon will co-operate with it on rational, constitutional and democratic lines. What other alternative is there for yon to take? I have said that if Labor stands alone It must wander a weary while in the outer darkness of Opposition—and the years will go by, and the Millennium will be none the nearer, For if you choose to isolate yourselves, and the votes of the people are split between Liberalism- and Labor, the victory may go to “Reform ” —and this, you know, is what “Reform” has long foreseen and desired. Do not forget these things: You knew that the present electoral system the “drat past the post” system, ia unfair and illogical because sometimes it does not give minorities representation, and sometimes it gives minorities ail the representation

there is, hut never does it provide all the people at once with the power of expressing their own 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 lias he 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, bo open a way to power for Conservatism and Monopoly and Reaction. Do yon 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 stand behind Mr Massey, the gospel of Mr Massey himself, who told us the other day that he believes in Nationalisation —“so long as it does not interfere with Private Enterprise.”

Bat there is more behind “Reform” than Monopoly and Conservatism. The Masseyiteo constantly ask ns what is the difference between Liberalism and their policy. The simplest answer is that which Gladstone—one of the greatest of Liberals—gave a long time ago: “The principle of Liberalism is Trust in he People qualified by Prudence: the principle of Conservatism is Mistrust of the People qualified by Fear. ’ ’ Because the Masseyites do not trust Democracy, but tear it, therefore, they cannot be expected to deal with oven the just and rightful demands and aspirations of Labor in a sympathetic and conciliatory spirit. Another great Liberal, James Bryce, tells us all that we need to know about Masseyism when he describes the party which tends always to believe and maintain that “social order can be secured only by force, ” That is far indeed from the standpoint of our own Liberalism which a generation ago, by wise and judicious statesmanship, by careful foresight, and by generous concessions to Labor’s most urgent needs, prepared for us twenty years or industrial and social peace. Lot Labor, then, give careful heed to ail these things. As far as I understand the strongest claims and highest hopes of Labor, my sympathies are with it, so long as it “stands on the old paths” and clings to the oldest and most sacred traditions of Democracy—to Right, Justice and Freedom. And so, to sane and ratioaul Labor I make this appeal—not to the Bolshevik, who wants to overturn the Tyranny of Capitalism only to set up in its place an even more absolute “hierarchy of the proletariat,” with himself as | self-appointed Despot-iu-Chief. For him, Liberalism and Liberty and Democracy have no a.eauiug and no message. But for you—Liberalism is your firm friend and natural ally; it is to Liberalism that you owe nearly all that makes life worth possessing in this country to-day. See that you stand by Liberalism now.