The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1901-10-26
New ZeaIandizing America.

NVW GGdidiulElHS HI1Oii So,
! TT ENRY D, LLOYD is one of the
profoundest reasoners on economic
subjects in our country today. He
| comes up from the ranks of the COM
mon people and therefore has had
abundant opportunity to study their
needs and aspirations, and suggest
the proper methods of organization and
legislation. He belongs to the rational
cult of socialists. Were he other than
a conservative teacher and philosopher
it is not likely that he would be filling
a. position as professor in the Chicago
university, which is sometimes called
the Rockefeller high school.
The other day Mr.. Lloyd was in Salt
Lake and delivered lecture before the
Ladies' Literary club, in which he re-
viewed the social and economic con-
ditions of New Zealand. In selecting
this colony of Great Britain as an eX-
ample of the social theory of govern
ment practically applied he could have
chosen none better. In fact, without
New Zealand as an illustration. he
could present nothing tangible in proof
of the wisdom of his philosophy, al
though New Zealand has not yet
reached the boundary of Mr.. Lloyd's
ideal state.
Mr.. Lloyd said in beginning that he
had not found in New Zealand CO.
operative commonwealth, perfect
people or a Ethiopia, but he had found
d people dealing with public questions
in so novel and successful a way that,
whether we would approve of them or
not, we would be compelled to admit
that they were interesting and might
be of great Importance. He impressed,
too, upon his hearers the fact that New
Zealand had not been settled by re-
ligious martyrs, political eXiles or men
and women in search of a Ethiopia, but
by plain, matter-of-fact people in
search of a better living, and to this
he attributed in great part the ad
vancement made on that island.
Mr.. Lloyd then outlined the policy of
meRt of New Zealand prior to the
great strike of 1890, which he charac
terized as a revolution and d turning
point in the development of the coun-
try; that on the; election day following
the strike the. sun set forever on the
conservative party of New Zealand.
and was quickly followed by revival
of the democracy. The changes
wrought under the new system were
then outlined, including the land sys-
tenn. the government ownership OF
railroads, compulsory arbitration laws,
woman's suffrage and old-age pension.
The compulsory arbitration law, he
said, had been brilliant success. The
old-age pension has done away with
the aged tramp on the highways of /
New Zealand. The public ownership of
railroads has completely done away
with the system of fvoritism in rates
so common in other countries and the
roads are run for the public service,
not for the governments profit. The
system known as the cooperative |
group, through which the government |
gives employment at good wages to |
elderly men without means of sup i
port, and to what he termed soft !
handed men, men unused to manual |
labor, Mr.. Lloyd considered one of the !
most commendable features of the So |
cial system of New Zealand. In clos
ing, the speaker advised the Amer |
leans to not go to New Zealand to I
that country, but to stay !
at home and New Zealandize America. |
That last remark about New Zea-
America is certainly good |
counsel, and the picture he draws of |
the contentment in that country is en- |
to the optimist in this re-
public. Yet failure is written on all |
of cooperation in this coun-
try except such as have been estab
lished by people allying their religion
with business affairs of life, which has
been so successful among the Mormons
because obedience to authority was the
principal lever in the cooperative
plan.
To carry out their purpose of high
er form of government than exists
New Zealand had the adj
of isolation. In the beginning
Of great things, that counts for some
thing. Their commerce with the rest
Of the world is carried aboard ships,
and it takes a ship a long time to reach
any port in New Zealand. Hence trade
could not be as savage as
It is here, nor the struggle for a liv-
ing SO keen as it is in American cities.
So there was a chance for a more
equitable distribution of the products
If labor, and where such a condition
prevails the trust has no show; there
are no tramps, no paupers, few jails.
Instead, everybody gets living wheth-
er he be swift man or only soft
handed" man, and all complaints are
settled by arbitration.
But it will be some time yet before
my attempt is made to New Zealand
re America.
All the Way.
lot only from Denver, but ALL THE
Way from Nevada Oregon, Idaho and