THE Waikato Independent. THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1908.

Waikato Independent, Volume VII, Issue 461, 16 January 1908, Page 4

THE Waikato Independent. THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1908.

The lato Marquis of Salisbury declared on one occasion “ We are all socialists nowadays the present King, when Prince of Wales, made a similar declaration; and the latest alleged socialist is Mr Rockefeller, the Oil King! When such personages declare they are socialists it shows there is a good deal of cant about modern socialism. The truth is that the ideals of socialism are far too altruistic for human nature in its present mediocre development. When human beings become not a little lower than the angels, but equal to them in altruism, then some of the ideals of socialism may become practical, but the Twentieth Century is probably the most unangelic period in the history of civilisation —a period when the worship of money and the desire for wealth is the beginning and end of most people’s existence. Then too, modern Socialism has, like religion, a hundred and one creeds, all of which differ as to the means which. are necessary to bring about the social millcnium of humanity. One branch, which has led to a colossal waste of money, takes the form of the municipalisation of various interests, and in England it reached its maximum, prior to the municipal elections there, when Socialism received the biggest set back it has ever had in that country. The reason for this was that the ratepayers found that money had been extravagantly borrowed on Socialistic schemes, which were not paying even the interest on their outlay, and the rates bad necessarily increased to such a degree that they were unbearable. The result w r as that Moderates were returned, in order to bring in an era of sound finance out of the chaos of Socialistic extravagance. According to the London Express, a similar state of affairs has been disclosed in France, especially at Brest- It appears that ratepayers there, with misguided zeal, permitted the Socialistic Party to control the municipality. In three years, they had reduced the finances to a state of bankruptcy, and out of a population of 71,000 inhabitants, 23,584 were in receipt of poor relief, many of whom, it was proved, were not poor, but wore the recipients of corrupt indulgences from the Socialistic Council. Amongst other tilings it is alleged that the building trade tell off 90 percent, in the three year.;, the local Customs diminished, and the Socialist Council spent threequarters of the £IB,OOO surplus left by their predecessors. Several schemes laudable enough in appearance were made the vcdiicle of wholesale extravagance, it was decided to organise the distribution of pure milk in working class quarters. The total expenditure was £llOO, of which £720 was paid in wages and rent. Each litre (ly pints) of milk, costing lyd, cost the municipality in distribu-

tion 3|d. Then the Council organised a municipal theatre on Socialist lines. After two years of Socialist plays the audiences so fell off that the theatre was run at a loss of £I6OO last year. Again, like in England, the Moderates had to be called in to bring financial order out of Socialistic chaos. The moral of municipal Socialism appears to be, that the faith of Socialists in the credulity of mankind is far greater than their knowledge of finance.