THE WAIKATO TIMES With which is incorporated The Waikato Arpus. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1929.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17837, 9 October 1929, Page 4

THE WAIKATO TIMES With which is incorporated The Waikato Arpus. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1929.

QUEENSLAND’S EXAMPLE

What was the cause of the downfall of the Labour Government In Queensland? Mr W. McCormack, who was head of the Government, gave his explanation recently in an address to Labour members of the British House of Commons. He was at least candid. “We failed,” he said, “because our own people considered we, as a Labour Government, were fair game—that they could go slow. We gave them good wages, and good conditions and we expected good service, and we did not get it. And in one after another of our industries we were compelled to close down. There was nothing wrong with Socialism but there was .something wrong with our propaganda and our people had not that civic spirit which is necessary if we are to succeed.” Mr McCormack showed some appreciation of the reason for the lack of that civic spirit. He said he felt that in the past they had perhaps stressed 100 much the question of higher wages, and laid too little emphasis on the Socialist ideal, so that in the mind of a great many wages and conditions obscured the larger vision. He believed that the defeat would be of value, and that the reactionary period of rule which was to come in Queensland would he of great educational force.

Many a politician in Mr McCormack’s position would have sought refuge in the claim that his Government was the victim of circumstances —that it wa3 natural for the people to want a change after 14 years, especially as his country, like all others, had been passing through a lean period. To some extent those causes certainly were at work, hut the leader gave expression to far more fruitful thought by frankly declaring his disappointment and seeking the deeper causes. He has by no means lost hope. Apparently he hopes, partly by education and partly by the reaction that will follow a period of conservative government, to see more of the civic spirit aroused. Unfortunately, however, people learn little by swinging from one political allegiance to another, almost as mechanically as the seasons follow one another. Nor do we find that wordy appeals to such abstractions as “civic spirit” or “the Socialist ideal” give much of a foundation for a better social life. It is not the repetition of the phrase “fresh air" that has brought Western peoples in general to more healthful ways of living, but rather the example of those who believed in the tiling itself and who devoted themselves to assuring that fresh air should be given to those who suffered most from its lack—consumptives and children. Will not more healthful social relationships be made acceptable in the same way—by the example of those who accept the co-operative idea for themselves and, at whatever sacrifice, give others the opportunity of enjoying its benefits? People having no experience of the boon of fresh air will board up every window and every chink to keep out so great a boon. So, too, the people of London slums used their set-in baths for coalstorage until they learned to use them for washing and bathing. Attempts to introduce forms of government dependent for their success on the people’s spirit of co-operation seem to us to he doomed to repeated failures until larger numbers of people are trained by actual co-operation. Every day more and more are being trained in the exercise of the civic spirit—in farmers' co-operatives in municipal and State services and in private enterprises run on co-operative lines. Unfortunately there are many theorists—both Socialists and capitalists—who oppose such progress and constantly stress class hostility. Fortunately, on the other hand, those who believe in the power of good-will are always free to exercise it in some measure, and every effort to organise business on that basis .ucceeds in at least one sense. Though as an organisation it may be overthrown by external powers, it will have instilled into a few more people the group spirit. There have been failures in the early experiments in co-operative business, just as in those run on the old lines, but on the whole they have a splendid record of achievement and progress, and as the lessons of failure and the better ways are better learned, the record improves. But the gain is not merely in such progress hut in the guidance given to the larger communities of mankind. The experiments help to show where it is best to accept public control—as in the postal services, municipal electricity and so forth—and where we can continue safely to enjoy the freedom and variety of competitive enterprise. But most important of all is the training given in the spirit of co-operation.