The Wanganui Herald. (Published Dally.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1919. LEST WE FORGET.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15970, 12 November 1919, Page 4

The Wanganui Herald. (Published Dally.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1919. LEST WE FORGET.

E-Sj'oax journals, in their feverish desire to seoux’e the votes of the workers of the Dominion, are at great pains to attempt to prove that there is really no cardinal difference, between tho policies of Liberalism and Reform, and hope by such tactics to gain a majority at tjhe polls. They dislike any reference to the past attitude of the Eeform leaders towards the progressive legisla.tion passed by successive Liberal administrations, and would if possible narcotise tho memory of tho older sections of the community, who are not to be beguiled by the sophistries of present-day Eeform. No amount of camouflage, however, - will hide the glaring fact that Mr Massey, Sir James Allen, and other Eeform leaders never had a good word tc say for Labour when the Liberals were fighting Labour’s cause, and few will question that the taint of the old leaven still remains. The following from the Feilding Star, whose chief controller was associated with Mr . Eallance and the Liberals in their great fight against land monoply and vested interests, should prove of interest to those who to-day are inclined to forget the past or are disposed to imagine that there is little difference between the parties led respectively by Sir Joseph Ward and. Mr Massey: If tho present generation would sit at the feet of their fathers and mothers and learn, from them the conditions that prevailed in the world generally, as well as in Now Zealand prior to 1892 — only 27 years ago—they would not be so prone to kick against the imaginary pricks of to-day. It was the coming into political power of John Ballance, the greatest of all Australasia’s democrats—yes, probably Ixe was one of the world’s most radical reformers—that changed the whole tone of living in New Zealand. His democratic legislation made New Zealand an example for the whole civilised globe, earning for itself the name of the workshop of experimental legislation. Before 1900 it was a courageous thing to be an advocate of unionism amongst the workers, because employers in those days did not believe in the liberty of the subject. But one of the first acts of Premier John Ballanoe was the recognition of the rights of Labour, by appointing to the Legislative Council a delegate from each of the four cities chosen direct from the ranks of the workers by the latter themselves. The right of ail men to unionise was fully recognised, and the ! first Factory Act of those days killed for all time the evil practised in tihe cities and large towns of big factories and shops exploiting boy and girl labour at nothing per week, under the thin veil of teaching them a trade—and then discharging them when they had the temerity to ask for a rise! Some employers of to-day will pause to exclaim here; Oh, for a return to non-union days! But that would not save them from the evil system of the strike and the go-slow method. The trouble is that a few Bolsheviks in New Zealand and elsewhere have turned law into license and privileges into pests. New Zealand needs a return of Hie wholesome radical reformation of Ballancism-'-and the whole world will be the happier for getting it. We need a modernised democracy—and we feel sure that it will come when most needed. The world does not labour in vain towards true reform,