The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1919. FARMERS AND BOLSHEVISM

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16607, 3 December 1919, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1919. FARMERS AND BOLSHEVISM

Tlis term Bolshevism has, since the outbreak of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, been applied to the world-wid% movement against constitutional government. There are good grounds for believing that, just as the Russian revolution was engineered in Germany in order to detach Russia from the Entente and so save the Germans from utter defeat, the propaganda of anarchy which has invaded n ranee, England, America, India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries has also originated in Germany. Different methods are used in different countries and different tools employed, hut the objects are the same and there are evidences of the same unseen influences behind the scenes. The leaders of extreme Labour in New Zealand are not New Zealanders and there is so strong a resemblance between their programme and that of their prototypes in Australia, America, and elsewhere that one cannot doubt the common origin of the movement. At a few weeks ago there was a great meeting under the auspices of the National Board of Bgrm Organisations, at which a resolution was adopted condemning the conspicuous manifestations of revolt against government under the American system. The Christian Science Monitor, writing on the subject under the heading “Farmers Stand like a Stone Wall,” says that the resolution'was passed without exceptions being taken, even by the delegates from North Dakota, the home of ultraradicalism so far as the farmers arc concerned. Aud this notwithstanding the fact that the expression placed the' right of private property side by side with those of personal liberty and personal security as the great rights of free men guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. The convention, in the closing paragraph of its statement of policy, declared that “the fanners of America hold these rights to be priceless and stand like a stone wall against the radical minority that are advocating Bolshevism, anarchy, aud ultraSocialism, each and all of which are destructive of the right of private property and undermine the very, foundation of government.” The Monitor, in a further comment on the convention’s policy, remarked that “the great body of consumers in the country will he interested to know that these representatives of the tillers of the soil, from the Atlantic seaboard to California, expressed themselves as being in favour of the consumers organising, under the law, movements for co-operative buying, ,m order to reduce the cost of living, bring the producer and the consumer into closer relations, and discourage profiteering. The attitude of the delegates of this large and important section of the population was, as might reasonably have been expected, one of pronounced opposition to the influence of monopolies over commodities, and of readiness to co-operate with the general public to oppose the encroachments of capitalism, on tho one hand, and of the radical elements of Labour, on the other. In short, there was every indication that - the fanners would remain a steadying factor in tho nation.” The fanners of New Zealand hold similar views and they are up against the same dangers. The objective of the leaders of the Labour Party in New Zealand is the Socialisation of the means of

production, distribution, and es> change, and to bring this about they propose dispossession and expropriation, by force if necessary. They do not want to resort to violence if they can avoid it, if the possessing class (among whom are the small farmers) will submit quietly to dispossession. They want first of all to gain control of the legislative machine. They cannot hope to take Mr. Massey’s place and instal a Labour Government just yet, hut they hope to put Sir Joseph Ward in Mr. Massey’s place with the idea of forwarding their movement through him and ultimately achieving all their objects. They know they cannot use Mr. Massey to further their aims, but they have some hope of Sir Joseph Ward and his party. Therefore the farmers of New Zealand, who are the “possessing class,” should follow the lead of the American farmers and “stand like a stone wall” against tho minority which would place all taxation on the land, which would not allow a hale of wool, a carcase of meat, or a box of but-ter-fo he exported until the needs of the workers were provided for at whatever price they chose to fix. The farmers should take care that there is no possibility of a Ward Government holding office subject to the will of Messrs. Holland and Co. They know they can trust the Reform Government to protect them from those who would Socialise the means of production, distribution, and exchange. To put a party in power which may conceivably he dominated by these so-called leaders of Labour is to run a great risk, to play with fire, in fact.