MR M'COMBS'S ATTITUDE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12064, 20 July 1917, Page 6

MR M'COMBS'S ATTITUDE.

LETTER TO THE LABOUR PARTY

Mr .Tamos M'Combs. M.P., Tins addressed the following letter to Mr J. Glover, honorary secretary of tho New Zealand Labour Party :

Sir, —-In compliance with the request of your executive, I wish to set forth, in writing the reasons which compelled me to sever my connection with an organisation which 1 had hoped would cive its undivided attention to the furtherance of Labour and democratic ideals.

I cannot question the right of tdio Labour Party to stand for State control ov to ask that the issue be submitted to the people, and as a supporter of tho principle of the initiative and referendum I could not resist tho placing on the ballot paper of anyjssuo which was supported by a requisition signed by at least 10 per cent of the doctors; all the issues to be decided on tho bare majority basis. 'lhat, T take, is tin- democratic position, but it does not necessarily follow that I should bo one of the 10 per cent to ."•iyu the requisition, nor he a nai'U.* to requesting that the issue should bo placed before the people. Let those who believe in State control form an organisation of their own outside tho Labour Party, and then when they securo tho required requisition let them petition Parliament. I am convinced that the Labour Party in New Zealand will make a fatal blunder by taking the initiative in this matter. To attempt to nationalise a trado which half the people want, to see wiped out is bad tactics in tho first pja ce, and in the second place in is a. bad beginning for' the national ownership of monopolies to take over a business which to make a financial success of would .spell the greater hurt to the oeople. The. greater the financial success the greater the hurt. The prohibitionists hv their years of work have, in my opinion not only won the right to have the issue placed before the people on an unfettered vote, but havo won tho right to have their proposal tiled. In support of this contention I would remind vou that at. four successive polls the people of New Zealand declared against the. continuance of the liquor traffic. The voting was as follows: Majority Xo Against Year Continuance. License. Continuance. 100-2 .. 1 •18.440 VA,™ I<)D', . 18-2.881 108, i liH 15.FW4 Xs : mito 221,171 t 1011 . 205, HOl 250,0f.! 51,-8-It is true that in 1914. just, nfter wnr was declared, the people hesitated to disturb the existing conditions and voted for continuance by a majority of 10,000. But by all the rules "ame the liquor traffic should havo iong since been wiped out, and the issue submitted in 1914 would then have ,>eon not continuance or national prohibition, but restoration or non-restora-tion. and there is little doubt what tho verdict would have been. Statements have been made that the carrying of national prohibition would throw 10.000 employees on the labour market, and this, of course, should concern a Labour Party. The. tacts, however, are that there are onl\ 1013 barmaids and barmen, and the total number of hands employed in the blowing industry is only 741. Hotel servants not engaged in the bar trade number 4079, and tho managers, together with hotelkeepers and relatives assisting, number 2i42, but nimbly those or most of them would still find employment in their present occupations. Anyhow, if trie money now spent on liquor were diverted into the useful trades and industries of the Dominion it would give employment to a greater number of persons than i* now does. A reference to the New Zealand Official Year Book shows the following facts—- £ Hands Value of TCmploved. Product. £ Knsinoprincr v.-orks . 2,1'2'2 751,485 Hoot factories . . 2,072 (110, Hi.l Clothing factories , *2,917 SO"J2S Breweries . . . *HI (>'i 1,750 Tho Plight Hon John Burns, in quoting from the House of Commons Blue Book, gives the following table: - Paid in "Wages out of £IOO value, produced. £ h. d. Ship building • • • 1" " Railways . . . • " Agriculture . . . <27 18 0 Cotton nianuftu'hire . . 27 10 0 Brewing- - . . 710 0

From whatever point of view that we look at it tlie continuance of the liquor traflir is not in the best in to rests of the workers. T would like to warn members that Muno of the brewers are very anxious to be bought, out. .while some of tho hotelkcepers are merely anxious to confuse the issues, and having gained their cuds they would have no more use for a Statecontrol Labour party. Jiecently the brewers of Auckland tried to float a company in .England which was not altogether a success. Kroiu private information received they know that there will shortly be a surplus of £6.000.000 in the State Treasury, and they are turning greedy eyes in its direction. Xow every penny of that £6,000,000 : s urgently wanted for educational purposes, for increasing the pay and pensions for tin: soldiers and their dependents, for increasing the old age pensions and for a number of other purposes. We cannot afford to spend £t>,ooo,ooo and more in acquiring a. business which a majority of the people have more than thrice vetoed.

Thoi Labour and Socialist movement throughout tho world is coming more and more definitely into line against the drink evil as a hindrance to all social and political progress, and on a matter so vital there can he no compromise. Professor Kmile Vandervelde, the great Socialist leader and head of the Belgian Social Democracy, was to lead the attack against drink at the International Congress of 1914, and the following is taken from a. Socialist paper of Brussels in which ho sets forth tho .lines of his attack. He says: "Tho organised Socialist abstainers ought, apart from their general action against alcohol, to undertake to organise the propaganda in the heart of the party, to bring influence to bear especially upon the young militants to convince their comrades that the action of alcohol is depressing and paralysing; that it diminishes the fighting value of the labouring class, and thai, when it reaches a certain point il renders them incapable of any patient and continuous effort."

In the field of legislation the groups of abstainers ought to load the party into a fight- against the alcohol capitol in all its forms. Tho measures to tako vary in different countries, with the stage of the anti-alcohol agitation, from limitation of the number of drink sliops to total prohibition. But everywhere tho Socialist Party owes i> to itself to be in the front rank with those who seek to • free the. workers from the. domination of those making and selling alcohol. These are our theses. Many, doubtless, will find them ultra radical. Rut this radicalism is necessary. One should 110 more compromise with alcoholism than with tho pest or with cholera. In conclusion. I wish to state that my position is tho snmo as that stated alt tho conference —that I would have to work for tho Labour movement outside an organisation which was lend-ing-itself to the furtherance of Stato control. On matters of policy nnd on questions of exprdiencv 1 am willing to bow to tho decision of the majority, as ..witness my attitude in the recent muni-

cipal contest, but on questions of principle I claim the right of individual judgment. My political pledges which I made to my constituents havo in no way been violated, and no party has tho right to demand that I shall acquiesce in a change of programme after I am elected. Of course, I know that this position would not. ho challenged by the S.D.P.. under whose auspices I was elected.—Yours faitfully, J. M'OOMBS.