CORRESPONDENCE.

Colonist, Volume LV, Issue 13646, 11 February 1913, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

';..'.': Sir^T-h© i''';Labourf v Conf ©^enc<y :i; has: come-and/gone^ and^^^ is able to judge, th© bid;'6imjQe"'dr |ih© ■mountain and th© mouse;, wili: b^st"'ldis-r scribo the result.; It would' appear the riiainobject of t-h© lederationiste was to; capture till© Unity wing and dr4\y them away, if possible,, from, political action, otherwise th© lisaino old platitudes were talked, the same old grievances recountr ed, the',eame. old threats htiried?:a.ththe Government. Messrs. Sample and ;.Od".-g advice to tbo-Unity-wnijg-a6I;to';led»W:''i3he political field and organise on the inl--dustrial field; this would put S. and 06. at the head of the army for the purpose of coh-tinuing silly sectional strikes, keeping the country generally in a stato oif \industria3J iJjirmoil to no practical purpose. To be" sure there i©"a men-; tioui of a further increase of power", by organising all Australia and then linking aip with it. This will take ; a few years, it may talc© many, during which S. and Co. would hay© quite a.'busy time going to. and fro across the Taaman Sea. Supposing success )V reached at last, what then ? How is the capitalistic position to be annexed? By revolution, oxlegislation? If by the former,' what guarantee have we that after the battle.the right men will, come out on top? Tlie patriots may turn out despots; isu'ch things have happened in the world's history. Or if by : legislation, why wait , until this wondrous organisation is- accomplished? There is no necessity. Let us •commence now; The wage earners should require no organisation other than what their common .* cense will bring about; they require, only,to use their brains (honestly and''industrious-; Jy. Every adult has ia vote, every1 udult therefor© starts from scratch, —• '•Jack is as good as his, master"—not only i# this so, .but it. means on© vote, oma value. Th© value behind! the vote entirely depends on the holder of the vote. If there is intelligence behind it when it is cast it goes to the mark and makes a centre every ■time; if there is stolid ignorance behind it, it is a poisoned arrow shot at random into the body ijjoli'tfr}. if labour has >■ anything'".to grumble about in this country, it is labour's own fault. The great bulk of our wage-earners work eight hours a day, some work ten, a.few work more; it is their fault if they do not^compel "such legislation as will make.this country what it might and ought to be, viz., an object lesson to the world. Seventyfivo or eighty per cent of- our wealth producers are wage-earners. All measures are decided by a . majority. They have the majority. Why blame the 25 per cent, the employees, for the* trouble? Who are to blame but themselves? Millions of money have been spent on their education, 'and they" have not developed brain power enough to protect themselves. Let there b© no mistake; they are responsible for legislation all the time. Tne men w© send to Parliament are not rulers; they are messengers cent to,;register tin©■/willfof the people. The legislativ© power must come irom the people by means'of the'vote; the silly talk about class consciousness wants wiping off the slate. As Professor • Milk very pertinently says, there are' only two*cla#s©s:-in the world, the useful people and the useless. The useful man will spend his spare time and develop hia brain power in acquiring useful knowledge, and assist in making his country worttbt living in; the useless (and we'have lots of them) will spend his loafing round the beer and whisky bars, or go to clubs and. spend the night in card playing and billiards, or make | a fetish of th© turf, football, golf and every other sport; in fact, it is not f their country they live in—it may be anybody's for ■all they care. Let us set up a standard of morals, .and like-men,, try to live up to it, and we shall hear no more of class consciousness. Such terms may be necessary in 'the Old Country, out-should b© inadmissible in I'thisyoxmg country-that-is in our hands to mould and shape ag- we desire. There is too much loos© talk on all sides about Socialism from people who do not understand the abc of it. Socialism is but another name for the Golden Rule, and when the people learn how to live up to that, Socialism will have arrived. Many lessons must b© learnt-before then. W© have a lon,g way to travel before the Uiympian heigiits of (Socialism are scaled. The world jhaV-ijever yet seen a pure democracy. We must be Democrate before w© can be anything better. Evolution will bring us to our goal, but revolution will tiirusfc ug back to savagery. It is patent to all who give it aiiy thought that w© are living in an age of greedy commercialism brought aoout by a system that it ie vitally necessary to reform. If a man wishes to do good work he must have a good tool or machine to do it with; the eooner he throws the bad tools on the scrap heap and gete an improved one th© better. That ie our trouble; much of our legislative machinery must be scragped before we can begin to move along the lin© of progress. If the Labour Party would take politics 'seriously, go to school for a time and get Acquainted with the first principles of the science of government^ wo, should begin to see aome-streaks-'of light towards the dawn of better jdaya,. not only for on© party but for all; and towards- that end the United labour. "Party have been doing good work. JtJy this Idp not wish to infer that th© Labour Party are the only ones who should go to school, ftot at all. I am satisiied many of them have more knowicUg©.of economic problems, now than nine-tenths of their enr-' 'ployers>* but1 that is not the rpoint. They have the majority, *nd it tney had the knowledge tn©^. woiiid have the neces-' sary combination and tiiie- jwwer. As I write, the ,"Ularion'f comes to hand; I open it and nnd my point of view isuppoi-ted by two famous men in the Socialist world, viz., Prince Kropotkin and Root. Blatchlord. Th© former, in discussing th© future of labour, says. "Tliis immense change can naturally, not be brought a'boiit by a few leaders or legislators, but must grow out of th*> aspirations and actions ■of the great working masses. . . The. workers of tho Latin countries at any rate,-value tilxeir'personal freedom even more'than material well-being, and are not likely to buy this latter at the price of subjection to ahv kind of rulers. Also the olind faith m elected rulers, .even-if' they were taken from the best leaders in the labour movement,- is < dying amongst them." And B.atehford,. Writing on the -twenty-first ■ anniversary,. of his.paper,'reim.arks. "But I believe very ■strongly that propaganda is worth more tilxan 4 iho'ballot-box sad the strike combined. ■ Nothing we.csrn give the workers is of such immense value to them a. s knowledge. If we dropped Parliament'arid avoided strikes for ten years, and put all ou'r-mon©'y, time^ and brains into ;a great edaicational effort, I believe the gain would be enormous. 1' Now. these two men have sacrificed' their' ljvres in the cause of the workers, and their conclusion^ are entitled tq our respect. Let us not forget that' oftentimee "the. longest way round is tihe ■nearestway home." ; \ ■"::;: ''■'■ •■'•'• ;■■' -.' lam, etc.', ."■:', .'• -,:, ,: ..-,■:■ ■■:«-■;;.;; ,;; >'index;"; ■•

- Josp Vargas© of .O^ideo Spain, won a ■wager, by . coriuisuming, at one meal,, half. ii.. lamb washed 'down with a /gallon ot sherry. ••' After smoking- tlio last of 20! cigars which iormed' th&:prae,^he : di&d the same evening; "•; - > ■ :.: '- ;,