The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, SETEMBER, 24, 1945. HAS LIBERALISM A FUTURE?

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 226, 24 September 1945, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, SETEMBER, 24, 1945. HAS LIBERALISM A FUTURE?

JN New Zealand the old-time Liberal Party has completely dis- - appeared; the remnants of that one-time mighty combination have been incorporated within the National Party. In lite United Kingdom the Liberal Party has been completely eclipsed, it being entirely eliminated from the House of Commons. .Even that outstanding leader of modern thought. Sir William Beveridge, suffered defeat at the general elections. But is Liberalism as a political faith finished? Has it been exploded as a political theory ! Is there any likelihood of a revival? In fine, has Liberalism a future? In New Zealand there are many people who still persist in calling themselves Liberals. The number is not known because there has been no recent opportunity for the Liberal mass Io go on record. II is probable that if a Liberal Party were launched to-day it would be able io claim but few votes. In the United Kingdom the. voting' fell into three main groups:— Lalmm; 11.H41.501 Conservative 9.056.672 Liberal 3.000,9’26

Il will be seen that the Labour vote amounted Io 50 per cent, of the total. But can Ibe Liberal votes be validly bracketed with the Conservative total? The Liberals may .be said to have voted against Labour, but it is equally tenable io assert they voted against Conservatism. If the Liberal Party had put no candidates in the field it cannot, be claimed that all the Liberal votes would have been cast against the Labour candidates. Obviously, some would have been east to the right and some to the left, but it is impossible even to guess at.the proportion of the whole which would go in any direction. That the House of Commons with its preponderance of Labur members, is not representative of the opinion of the country as a whole is obvious, but that is only to say that, the situation which has always existed has, in this instance, been greatly accentuated. If the Liberals are unable to find a way to secure•representation in the House of Commons the electors will be voting for a political vacuum. They can he expected to tire of pursuing such a course. The extinction of the party in England seems to be as certain as is the improbability of a revival of the Liberal Party in New Zealand. That, however, does not dispose of the question, which is that of the revival of Liberalism as a creed, not the revival of a political party. What. then, is the creed of Liberalism? Liberalism as a political term had its origin in Spain, where the party struggling for freedom against oppression adopted the name of Liberal. It was an appropriate term, for its root is the Latin Liber, free. The old Roman idea of freedom, however, stood over against the idea of slavery. The slave was a member of the household, but he was not. a member of the family and hence lie was not free. Within the free group, however, there were obligations resting on each individual. The freedom of the member of the family was restricted by those obligations which he had perforce to fulfil. In the creed of Liberalism there is the freedom of individual initiative, but there is also the burden of community obligation. Rugged individualism is only part of Iho creed of liberalism: its counterpart is social obligation, which in modern society involves the transference of income from one section of society to another. The old age pension is a ease in point: it is Ihe transference of'ineome from the more fortunate to the less fortunate sections, quite apart from any consideration of individual merit. Society could not contemplate leaving part of the social family to sink, and it was the Liberal regimes in England and in New Zealand which introduced the Old Age Pension Acts and extended them. Old age pensions replaced the less efficient and more expensive poor law system which drove the aged to the poor house, separating husband and wife in different institutions. But Liberalism, while insisting upon the right of society to engage in transference of income from some groups Io others, did its best to leave free the individual to exercise his capabilities to enlarge, his income and to reap an appropriate reward in so doing. This was and is the unique feature of Liberalism as a creed.

The law of polarity is operating in English and i'll New Zealand polities to-day. There is a deep cleavage separating most electors to the Right and to the Left. The remarkable feature common to these two tamps, however, is that they are agreed on one thing: that the coercive power of the Slate shall be employed to preserve the status of special groups. Illustrations of that can be provided by recent history: the farmers operating on a conservative Government in New Zealand secured the reduction of the exchange not for the benefit of society but to shift the weight of farmer responsibilities to other sections. The present Government accords the members of the Waterside Workers’ Union especial monopoly conditions which permit of their engaging in profit exploitation of the non-union workers on the wharves. The singular feature of the present’time is that extremes are meeting in a very distinct manner: both are enlarging the function of the State to the detriment of the economic freedom of the individual. One stresses the benefits to be derived by the employer and the other the benefits to be derived by the employee. Both sides tend to forget the fixed income group save those that have, bargaining strength such as professional groups and the public servants. The small trader, the salaried professional and the investor or rentier are left out of the picture. This scramble by pressure groups can hardly be called a philosophy of polities, for it is but the exercise of power. It must inevitably lead to chaos. The only hope is that a reaction against, this civil economic war shall set in before the incentive to individual action is seriously curtailed: for if that curtailment does ensue then there will be not sufficient for any effective redistribution of national income to be made. This is the situation which has nearly been reached in New Zealand today. for despite, concessions, subsidies, and wartime bonuses many people on the lower income levels are in dire distress. When this hoped for reaction sets in it. will take the form of a return to Liberalism as a political creed. It. docs not matter whirl: Party adopts this policy: it is the policy which is important, not the. name of the Party. Liberalism is a ereed of optimism ns opposed to Socialism and Conservatism, which are both pessimistic in that they are not adventurous but protective. Britain to-day must become adventurous in its economic policy, and so must New Zealand. Both for the moment arc inclined to the policy of Protectionism. When this present phase has run its course then will the public mind be ready to adopt new methods and new policies—that is. unless the nation loses completely its faith in itself.