THE EMPLOYERS' MANIFESTO.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14843, 8 December 1913, Page 7

THE EMPLOYERS' MANIFESTO.

COMMENT BY MR HICKEt

(rnxss .association tklzcbah.l WELLINGTON, December 6. Mr P. 1 Hiekey, secretary of tho United Federation of Labour, returned from Auckland to-day, and had something to say in regard to the, manifesto issued by the employers on Wednesday last. "The official statement issued by the employers bristles with inaccuracies," he said. "Of the many statements made, some of them are so contrary to iact that it would be merely wa.sto or tizne on our part to reply to tlieni, but thero is i one point to wuich the ejiiployers bavo referred mcro than ouee, ituti that is tiiatj tho Prime Minister proposed that the dispute should be referred to tho arbitrament of Sir Joshua Williams, but that it was rejected by the Waterside Workers' Uuion, through , tho Federation of Labour. This is grossly inaccurate. The Question of the arbitrament of the dispute by Sir Joshua Williams was never submitted to the United Federation of Labour by the employers on any occasion, and why they insist upon repeating ttiis canard we are unabie to say." It was said by the employers, continued Mr Hiekey, that the preambles to the constitution of the I.W.W. and the Federation of Labour wero almost identical, but it was most extraordinary in the interest of trnth and justice that the employers did not make tho discovery that the United Federation of Labour had no preamble whatever. Tho employers quoted clauses of the preamble belonging to an organisation that did not now exist, and was in no way connected with the Federation. It would bo remembered that when the Federation was launched the hundreds of delegates present decided by a majority of fourteen votes to have no pre-

nnable. For what purposo the employ* ers now wished to drag in tho preamblo and attach it to an organisation that said it would haro no preamble was best known to themselves. As a matter of fact, tho letters I.W.W. had been established as a bogey in Now Zealand, and it appeared as though the employers suspected that if w.ey could hoodwink a considerable section of tho public into the, belief that wo Federation was part and parrel of tho I.W.W. it ~-- would count in their favour. Fully a column of newspaper space was devoted to theso references to tho I.W.W. on tho presumption that tho preamble of.. that body was tho preamble- of tho Federation. Since tho federation now .- pointed out they had no preamble, they... trusted tho employers would first have, the good taste to withdraw their statements in this connexion, and, secondly, refrain from deliberately misrepresenting tho Federation ou every, occasion--. they attempted to bolster up their case. As a matter of fact, tho most bit- • ter opposition that tho Federation had , had to meet sinco its inception was from the I.W.W. group at Auckland.