The Political Situation.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 540, 4 December 1890, Page 3

The Political Situation.

[to the editor ] Sib, —The present aspect of political affairs is a grave cause for serious reflection, and should engage the minds of all earnest thinkers who are impressed with the relative conditions of society as they stand represented by monied individualism end collective property—two great opposing forces that are the outcome of a false administration that recognises no God but money, and no right but might. A great teacher is reputed to have said, ‘Ye have made my house a den of thieves,* and since the supreme consciousness dwelleth not in a house made with hands must mean this beautiful world, the free gift of tbs eternal mind, not to individual man, but to collective humanity. Politics like its coadjutor religion, each alike supposed to act in its particular sphere for the benefit- and progress of humanity, bath been shorn of its ethical qualities until it presents the bare skeleton of a dead en maliam divested of those humanising principles which alone can give life and vigor to its now effete form, have become if anything revolting to the higher awpects of our »a<ure. That the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof cannot be accepted as an axiom that is even relatively true other than in the subjective sense that for all the practical purposes of life presents nought but a negative aspect I whose will-o'-’the-whisp glimmer is ever ’ evading the eager gaze and earnest chase of I those who would prove the realism of the phantasm. No one who can credit hie senses can be persuaded of its objective value since it is a selfevident fact that the j earth is the land grabbers’, and the fulness | thereof the money grubbers’. Mr Arthur,

with a startling effrontery (that, is enough to make the bones of the prophet who said the earth was the Lord’s rattle in his grave), says that 20,000 acres of rough country, or 1,000 acres of arable land, is not enough foi a man to live on. How about those who do notown a foot of land, and whose collectiverights. to ’God's free gift have been systematically ignored, defrauded by a legalised system of robbery, whose objectionable en deavors Mr Arthur, by seeking re-election under the avowed regime as uttered by him in his public speech, seeks to perpetuate. Does he think that the intelligent part of the community, who have a moral sense of their rights, will ba swayed by claptrap oratory, shorn of all those ethical principles that sinks it into absolute selfism of the most contemptible kind? Whoever votes for Mr Arthur does violence to the collective rights of the masses, of whom he is a. component part, and therefore/sbould exercise his vote with a conscious rectitude that fears to do evil for anyone’s interest. It is only by setting before ourselves, individually, a thoroughly defined digest of tuose political principles our conscience commends, and then collectively acting up to the - standard of our ideals, that will secure reform. It may be fairly admitted that Mr Kelly is not all that could be desired, but he has some understanding of those more advanced ideas that are wholly wanting in Mr Arthur. It is to be regretted that Mr Kelly thinks fit to support Vincent Pyke’s Bill. All schisms tend to disunion. True political science contains within its elements the sum total of human happiness, irrespective of dogmatic ideals, which should be left to take care of themselves. It ie not desirable for the State to meddle with matters of conscience from a dogmatic standpoint. Either candidate leaves un representd a large number of advanced thinkers, whose ethical ideals, with respect to political science, are too transcendental for either to grasp, much less to eliminate, nor could any would be representative in the present contest hope for the slightest success, pitted as they would be against the gross individualism of the monied class, whose all absorbing interest is public plunder. We have the spectacle of a splendid public estate rapidly becoming indiviJualised by legalised, but none the lees corrupt manipu’ations, coupled with a crushing taxatinn that falls upon the disinherited masses with overwhelming farce. So that the fair (ace Of Bft'ure has and is being diverted from the beneficent purposes for which the majesty of the great Giver intended it to a trading commodity for the greedy speculator to fatten upon. This legal claim to individual owner*Bhip of land may discard, but dues not annul, the moral principles undprlying the collecdve

rights of humanity, Mr Arihur does not approve of perpetual leaseholds, which is the basis of progress and justice. It Mr Arthur would take the trouble to investigate the principles embodied in perpetual leaseholdst he would see that individual ownership in land is freighted with monstrous contingencies that are destructive of the primary principles of nature's law, which-neither he nor any may violate without subjecting themselves to relative consequences that will bear in the future lhe fruits of remorse, and further might see, from his own standpoint, that perpetual leaseholds offer the peculiar advantages claimed forthem bo’h from an individual and colleo’ive standpoint, and may yet be sorry he has not availed himself of its privileges, which are safety, honesty, and justice. Individual ownership o( land is the foundation of all the moral evils of Society, and the basis of that glaring, fraudulent, and social evil, corporate banking, whose manipulations call aloud for redress since they are eating out the virals of the progress, prosperity, and happiness of the people. Sir, I again ask is the earth the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, or is it the laud«grabbers’, and the money-grubbers’; whose'soula are densely materialised by the cold and heartless sophisms of an ever increasing and fradulent individualisation of wealth, stolen by a system of legalised robbery from the ranks of labor ? The avowed principles of Mr Arthur sh u'd lead every true man to recognise hia duty to society, to himself and posterity, and to vote for none but those whose watchword is liberty, progress and equal rights. Then let us pray that come it may, And come it will for a’ that, That sense and worth o’er a’ the earth May bear the gree’ and a’ that, For a’ that and a’ that. It’s coming yet for a’ tha% That man to man the world o’er Shall brothers be for a’ that. Correspondent.