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MR. REID AND SOCIALISM.
VIGOROUS SPEECH AT GEELONG.
FURTHER ATTACK ON SOCIALISM.
Melbourne, May 17.
Over 1,200 persons assembled in His
: Majesty's Theatre, Geelong, this even-
ing, when Mr. Reid delivered au ad
; dress on "The Present Political Situa
; ihm." The meeting was held under
>--ihe auspices of the Farmers' League.
Mr. Reid'was received with cheers;
" and after preliminary remarks he re-
ferred to" the Reid-Deakin alliance and
the'written compact tan -which it was
based. Regarding socialism, be (¡aid:
J?>?tWf:4¡l\ know'ät means the substitution
ÇJof j natibnal* ownership of the means of
" production, distribution, and exchange,
for the present condition of private en
^terprise; '"The present objective of the
¿ Lábou'r ;Pariy i6 moderate socialism in
' stead of réârkot socialism, lt does not.
qualify the thing, lt only qualifies the
manuel' and conditions under which it
is to be achieved; * Mr. Watson says he
does uot:'want to bring in this'policy
in a singh3~bound.' Mr. Holman says :
'We admit" that if we carry this out
at once it ivpuid throw the whole com-
munity into ii state .of chaos;' but th«
ia tq. pe the. beaconiiigbt, "and just-as .
theîâiiaïiher *who navigates stormy seas
tho; |aäb,ötrjf" Party may. be driven back
by âdveïse^toniis and vicissitudes. But
at;|tëi^h the mariner jturns' his prow
tb||^iô. «eslihed ^m%?aBd"*so the La-,
bpúi. iPàity, toûr. ïn^èhd;-eventually to
w^rk jip to it. -Thev Labour Party are
qhitpi jiönest in that they have nailed
their' coloui s to the mast and are pre-
parad ;,ip/^^ or fall ;by it. We on
oùr^side-^come forward, to oppose them,
4nd'istahd?" or 'fall by. our/opposition.
Bûtvbetwêàn'these tw<), parties who stand
like ; manly and honourable antagonists
prepared tb take the "risk"of collision or
Polvtical defeat there :«bands the miser
J&bhv wretched remnant .which will take
neither' one side nor'the pother, but
hang to. tlie skirts of the very men who
have expressed their unbounded con-
tempt for jthem . (Cheers.) Mr. Deakin
is to speak in Sydney to-morrow night.
Will he at' last come out and tell the
people thatlie is prepared to stand with
the anti-socialists or the socialists?
A Voicer Not be.
Mr. .J5,cid.:;-Tn this groat shook be-
tween the two parties there is no room
for trimmers'7 pr men who do not know
which side they will take, because when
the shock-conies they will be effaced,
as all such'trimmers or traitors deserve.
(Cheers.);; - lr'want to say a word or two
on tho; gestion of fiscal peace. You
haye s^a*a letter in the Press to-day
which sets/forth the views on which I
will stand or fall.
A Voice I You will fall.
Mr. lléid: It is only one man Vbo
says that; ^.XHéar, hear.) I have been
desperately urged behind the scenes by
friends-asking mo to give 'just a lit-
tle more* duty on thig thing nnd the
other- -thing, and wc will help
Ïou to - fight - " tho socialists.' I
ave been besought to stretch
'my life-long convictions to gain the
, 'support of the Protectionists, but I de-
spise a 'victory which I can win by
treachery, and I tell you that under
." .this white flag I will respect the inte-
grity of'-their'policy, but I will not
betray ihê character of my own. Last
election I asked the people of Anstra-"
lia to alter this tariff, and make it a
; revenue1 tariff. I do not run a ma-
chine, I do not turn the votes of a
caucus. Every man who stands with
me is free to, vote as he likes, and if
he Totes against .mel]I will not call
'.-him á political blackleg. You know
that we have 29 members, and the
Labour Party have 27 (with Mr. Hig-
gins and Mr, Kingston), and Mr. Dea
1kin, giving him every possible vote,
has only 19. Do you not know that
these 19 will have to take a side when
the battle comes on? If the Labour
Party come into power, it »rill be ab-
solutely incapable of passing a high
tariff, because, as you know, in their
Ministry they had four protectionists
and four freetraders. Victorian Lab-
our protectionists forget that they are
not all Australia, and that the other
States return red-hot froetrade Lab-
our men. These freetraders would be
the first to vote "with me on «ny ques-
tion of a high tariff. It is not the
{(resent attitude of Labour Party 1
ook at, but what they are aiming
at.. You have to crawl before
you can. walk, and walk before you
can run, but the moment you get off
your knees you walk, aud as soon as
you can run-you run. We have to
look ot their objective. My point is:
That this policy is not one which will
woife out well for the workers Of Aus-
tralia. Some people think that under
socialism all "the workers will be Uko
civil servants: To the man who has
to look for employment that picture
of permanency is very alluring, -but
the first act of the socialists will be
to transfer the burdens of private en-
terprise to the shoulders of-the Gov-
ernment, and I know ~"tbere are some
men behind the Labour Party who
have no idea of paying the owners
for property taken over, any more
than they have of going to heaven.
In Sydney there is a Socialist League
which asserts that all private property
has been . stolen, and in your own
State Tom Mann has formed a party
which does not .talk about compensa-
tion.. I am said to bc working on be-
half of tho. privileged classes, but
when I was in power in' New South
Wales I was the first public man to
put on a land and income tax. I
fought the large owners then. I
would fight them again. I do not
agree with the policy of the
Labour Party. and will fight
it to death. (Cheers.) We have the
Trades Marks Bill, in which is incor-
porated a unioji label. It is not com-
pulsory, but it can only be used when
the men making articles are unionists.
The manufacturer can sayf "I won't put j
the label on ; " but the trades unionist
can say, "Unless you do, we will use
all the power wo possess amongst the
working classes to boycott your manu- !
factures." (Cheers.) Let me put it !
in this way : The manufacturer has a j
factory, in which he employs 600 j
unionists," and he also has five or six em- I
ployees who have been in.his service j
for" 20 years. Unless he dischargea j
those old hands and turns them into j
the streets, ho cannot put the union j
label upon Iiis goods. (Cheers.) . j
A Voice : Oh, give us something
new-, j
Mr. Reid: Yeä; I suppose yon don't
like it. (Applause.) I am pointing out
that this is an attempt to U6e the pow-
ers of government on behalf of one sec-
tion of the workers against another,
i (CheeiE.)
After- going into details on the sub-
ject of socialism, Mr. Reid concluded .1
"Not only is socialism contrary io
human nature and the ambition of
human nature, but it is contrary to
iiio best interests of humanity and
progress. Of all the statesmen who :
have lived since Plato gave his treatise
on socialism, four hundred years before
the Christian era, not one single ßtates:
man in any country in the world has
put his name on thc back of the scheme
of the Labour Party. There is no
political economist in the whole world
of any eminence-except Mill, and lie
only in a few sentences-who has put
his name on this scheme. There have
been experiments, and they have been
failures. The South Australian Go-
vernment established twelve village
settlements, and not one of those .exist
to-day. Wherever it has been tried it
has failed. The people of Australia,
who stand in a far surer position than
those in overcrowded countries, will
aot engage in this mad experiment
TI util some country in a more desperate
condition has tried it. (Cheers.) This
policy of socialism is not the policy of
progress, Of free, men working out
their own industrial prosperity. It is
the policy of despair, and calls on a
myth-the State. Tho State cannot
eat or drink; it cannot write a letter
or earn a penny. It is the idea of
the masses of Australia to bow down
the knee to authority again. Keep
your law and order; but so long as law
and order hare prevailed, allow the
greatest, unborn genius and power of
humanity to Lave free course, and, in-
stead of Australia bowing the h»©e to
men who call themselves "the^ State,"
let them keep command and remain
' their own masters. {Prolonged cheer
j »»g.)_
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