Problems of the Pacific 



345 



rest of the people. These two monop- 

 olies had done what monopolies always 

 do — they had gotten control of the gov- 

 ernment ; and the government of New 

 Zealand was a government of monopo- 

 lists, by monopolists, for monopolists, 

 and there followed the result which al- 

 ways will follow on the application of 

 such power and such motives in so wide 

 a field as that of human welfare. The 

 farmers in the country were effectually 

 turned into tramps on the roadside ; 

 the}' were followed there by the farm 

 laborers and by the country tradesmen, 

 and the cities became centers of conges- 

 tion of the entire population. Then 

 those scourges of our modern civiliza- 

 tion — shelter houses — were established ; 

 soup kitchens followed. Then began an 

 exodus of the best blood of the land, the 

 young men and women from the farms, 

 brought up on farms, wanting farms, 

 knowing how to farm, having money 

 and stock, and taking them to find foot- 

 ing in another land. All this because 

 the monopolists wanted the soil. 



At this moment occurred what proved • 

 to be the turning point in the history of 

 New Zealand — a greatlaborstrike, called 

 the miners' strike, followed by a strike 

 of the seamen of the companies which 

 controlled the steamship lines running 

 between New Zealand and Australia and 

 the rest of the world. This was fought 

 in extreme bitterness and brought the 

 country to the verge of civil war. But 

 the strike was a failure. 



Just why this should have broken the 

 heart of New Zealand it is difficult 

 to say, because New Zealand is not a 

 workingman's country. Like our own 

 country of America, it is particularly 

 an agricultural country. But they had 

 learned the secret of sympathy with 

 others who are oppressed, and could 

 sympathize with the workingmen. 

 Whether it was that they were then 

 reach- to move and unite, and wanted 

 some one to give the initiative, and that 

 the workingmen gave this initiative, it 



would be hard to say. But whatever 

 the reason was, the people of New Zea- 

 land turned to find a remedy, and they 

 did find it. There was only the one 

 side on the next election day in New 

 Zealand. It stood for the workingmen, 

 with the exception of a very few of the 

 conservative party. It was a revolution. 

 One of its leaders said it was a substitute 

 for the French revolution. It was a 

 bloodless revolution, but it was a revo- 

 lution. 



You know that in times of great pub- 

 lic suffering and calamity, in times of 

 panic, there is a natural tendency to turn 

 toward a revival of religion. In this 

 case the people of New Zealand turned 

 to a revival of religion, but in their case 

 it was a revival of democracy, the best 

 kind of religion. 



Now, to show you I am not using too 

 strong a word when I describe this as a 

 revolution, let me give you as rapidly 

 as I can a compact review of the things 

 which have been done under the inspira- 

 tion of this revolution. I think I shall 

 be able to make good to you the propo- 

 sition that there is scarce to be found 

 in all history the equal of this move- 

 ment; neither in the number of prob- 

 lems attached, nor in their novelty, nor 

 in the success of the movement has there 

 ever been found anywhere in the world 

 by any democratic people an equal evi- 

 dence of the breadth and political capac- 

 ity of the common people. 



New Zealand had been a country of 

 landlords, yet the system of tenants was 

 entirely revolutionized, and in its place 

 federal ownership of the public land was 

 substituted. A tax was placed on land 

 and on incomes, and these taxes were 

 naturally made progressive, so that the 

 more land a man had and the greater 

 his income the more taxes he had to pa} 7 . 

 By this means the government accom- 

 plished what was their darling purpose, 

 the abolition of the millionaire and the 

 pauper. New Zealand is a lovely coun- 

 try, entirely devoid of the ordinary as- 



