69.
0A4may/
Your Eyes !
"Taste Tells"
Consult .011' Ar
Johnston's
Elliott & Elliott
,
Opticians
SAUSAGES
and
Piccadilly Arcade,
Perth Tel. B7988
FRANKFURTS PERTH, THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1963.
NO. SAM.
SEVENTIETH TZAR.
PRIOR THREZPINCR
Pointed Warning Repeated: War-time Surrender of Liberties Necessary, but only Temporary
Inherent Danger of "Benevolent" Social Despotism in the last century.
There must be
,ocial control to ensure that the *Evil we are Fighting to Crush -lividual does not trample on the But it the community. rights better that that control should be Must Be Avoided in Post-War ercised by natural associations nised by the State, than by the State in-
is
of
exrecog-
Legislation
.
.
.
The war itself is but the We live in a rapidly changing world. expression, rather the eruption, of forces struggling deep within the social Rival social systems are interfabric of all nations-of humanity itself. We in Australia are menlocked in a life -and -death struggle for existence. aced from without-and now there grows the danger that we may be menissued with she formal apa statement in aced from within. A year ago, probation of the Hierarchy, a note of warning was sounded, which we repeat in the passages quoted below from that statement. Will we have to fight for that, too, We are fighting for liberty. on the home front when the war with the Axis is won? .
.
As we continue to face the imminent prospect of battle on our own shores, some will say that we should forget everything except the war, and that it is foolish to talk of any kind of freedom unless we can defeat the enemy. This is an unconvincing argument. There is no conflict between the war effort and the ordinary man's aspiraOur soltions towards social justice. diers will fight better, our munitions if they toil, workers will redouble their can really be convinced that the order for which they are fighting is superior to the order an invader would impose.
It is widely acknowledged that it is not enough to attain superiority in armaments. Unless the men who employ those armaments are animated a greater spiritual and moral idealby a heartfelt conviction that the New Australia will he better than the oldarmaments will not be enough. The minds of Australia's sons will be freed for their immediate task if they know that, behind them, their own freedom and that of their families is vigilantly guarded and is not being sapped away by forces which would turn Australia into a Nazi or a Communist dictatorship. In time of war, the seeds of dictatorship are sown more easily than at any other. The extraordinary measures which may have to be adopted in wartime-however necessary they may be
For Value and Service
in the vast majority of cases-may come to be used as a model in time of peace;
and, while they preserve the appearance of political liberty, they may be as effective as pagan Communism or Nazism in destroying the freedom which the individual and the family ,hoirld rightly enjoy.
itself. Too much power is as dangerous in the hands of the State as it is in the Absolute hands of the individual. power corrupts those who exercise it. It is better that authority should be shared among smaller bodies than concentrated in the hands of almighty
Governments.
The laws and regulations of the last twelve months have brought about a greater measure of equality in the social conditions of the people of Australia. Increased wages for the work -
(1) There must be freedom for the individual: The industrial, political and social system must serve man. Man does not exist to serve the system. (2) There must be freedom for the family: This involves the gradual adoption of the principle of the Family Wage, and of policies to restore ownership to the people. (3) There must be a disciplined freeThis involves dom for industry: the gradual development of Industhe selfensure to Councils, trial government of industry away from the red -tape of Government control, and at the same time the proper subordination of industry to the good of the community. In a most fundamental sector of the community's economic life, it invol-
* Social Services No Solution ers and heavy taxation on large incomes have done something to bridge the gap between the very rich and the very poor.
Temporary Surrender of Liberties. We are faced with the danger that emergency laws, necessary in war -time,
may be used as a model for repressive It is legislation in times of peace. well that this warning should now be ,oiced, so long as it is clearly realised that it is a warning concerning future developments, and not a criticism of laws which are necessary in the at:, normal period of war. The people of Australia have volun-
Bub of Justice. Justice, however, is not only a matter of greater equality. It is a matter of freedom as well. Both must be maintained if justice is to be fully achieved. The two ideas go side by side. The error of the nineteenth century was to give freedom to the capitalist while denying justice to the peoIt may be the error of this cenple. tury to give a semblance of justice to the masses while destroying the free-
tarily surrendered their liberties to the Government because of the crisis. This is a temporary surrender. With the passing of the crisis these liberties must be restored, for many of them are the basic liberties of the ordinary
dom of all.
man. New laws will be made to render Australia's war effort more efficient. The implications of all these laws should be carefully examined and the freedom of future generations should not be needlessly destroyed, The freedom which we wish to preserve is not the unbridled licence which was given to the individual capitalist
Man is a being with a supernatural destiny, and he has a right to the freedom which is necessary to attain that destiny according to his conscience. The whole question of the real freedom of the worker and his family is thoroughly bound up with the policies The duty which Governments adopt. of Governments is consciously to asreal freeexercise to individuals sist dom by adopting policies which today command a wide allegiance among the people of Australia. The policies indicated are tour in number:
the restoration of Australian agriculture to prosperity and security. (4) There must be freedom for the small community: This involves a policy of deliberate and planned Decentralisation. The Menace to Freedom. In the modern world two things im peril the freedom of the worker. On the one hand there is the fact that in the vast majority of cases he has no control over the means of proThese almost invariably duction. belong to another-be it a private employer. a public company, or the State. Thus the worker, instead of being regarded as a co-operator inproduction, is treated simply as a labour unit, a substitute for a machine, supplying -goods in the production of Any specuwhich he has no voice. lator, no matter how ignorant he may be of the industry, can, by buying a few shares, exercise an influence on the The worker conduct of a business. who devotes the toil of a lifetime to production has no voice in its control. On the other hand, apart from the question of ownership and control, the great factory in itself has almost entirely destroyed the creative work (Continued on Back Cover.) Yes
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