A FALSE DOCTRINE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXIV, Issue 17730, 2 December 1919, Page 4

A FALSE DOCTRINE.

There are men seeking election to the Parliament of New Zealand today who subscribe to the I.W.Wdoctrine — "Between the working class and the employing class there can be nothing in common." The direct meaning of this is: "Once a worker (or so-called "wage-slave"), always a worker" —till the glorious day of "emancipation," under the red flag. Meanwhile the workers are to be "class-conscious," and they are practically forbidden to aspire to be employers. The truth is that there is no hereditary aristocracy in New Zealand, no "master-class" by direct descent. The baronetcy for the democratic Mr. Seddon's successor is likely to remain in unenvied singleness. Very many of the employers in town and country have risen from the working ranks by energy and thrift. The roads from one grade to the other are many and broad, and numbers change over. The worker of yesterday is an employer to-day. The absurd phrase "master-class" is used here by Socialists as if it were an exclusive ring of employers by divine right, rigidly closed against any worker, regardless of his merit. A worker is free to develop into an employer; the opportunities exist for observant eyes, and willing, hands and minds. But the man who broods absurdly on "social injustice" and the "right to strike" has no eyes to see and no ears to hear the knock of opportunity. The policy of the Reform Party is to provide a maximum of opportunities for every willing worker and for every worker's energetic son.