THE TREND TO SOCIALISM

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVI, Issue 95, 20 May 1938, Page 3

THE TREND TO SOCIALISM

NOT THE SEDDON POLICY. DUNEDIN, Last night. Mr AY. A. Bodkin, member for Central Otago, speaking at Balclutha, said that the policy of Seddon and the other great Liberals were entirely opposed to that of the present Government. The Liberal Party had stood for private enterprise and gave every man a chance to become a little capitalist in the capitalistic world, lie challenged any member of the Labor Party to show him any young man who was worth his salt who did not look forward to a day when lie would become a little capitalist. The expectation of reward sweetened labor and none got on except by individual effort. Private enterprise offered men and woman a reward for their own efforts. AVhat, then, had Socialism to offer them? To-day in the ranks of the Labor Party there were all the failures and a lot of misguided people. It was because of this that there was such a definite swing over at the recent municipal elections. It was tlic rights of British people a --el t ing lliemselvcs: it was not the popularity of the contestants. The Government was out to take away the country quota in order to strengthen the cities and was gradually eliminating' small traders and concerns in its endeavors to do away with private enterprise, said Mr Bodkin. Since the Labor Party took office there was between £10,000,000 and CJ.i.(.(lll, olid pro, iously in New Zealand now wor! iiej in Australia, Africa, and Hie United Kingdom, and (he Ilovcrnnicnl was losing taxation from tliia. The result of this loss was that the Government had to dig deeper into the pockets of the small taxpayer.