Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

The Press. Monday, January 20, 1919. Blind Leading the Blind.

'A statement made at tho recent meeting of the New Zealand Transport Workers' "Federation by the secretary to the Watersido Workers' Federation deserves some attention, if only as a sample of tho ignorance of industrial matters which is to bo found on tho part of some who aspire to be the leaders of Labour, i The delegate in question said tho Transport Board asked the members of the Federation, to group on industrial linos, in order that they might be able to form an efficient national labour organisation that would speak for the whole of organised labour in this county. ' Ho added: —

"The object it had in view for tho futnre was to own and control tho industries. Instead of tho Tramway Board running the trams, the cdntrol should be vested in the tramwaymon, who would run the trams for the benefit of tho citizens. • Thore was no need- for any middleman. Tho Tramway Board had to depend on the engineer's report, but did not themselves know anything of the industry. Tho only'efficient moans was for the men who- operated tho industry to control it. In. the Railway Department the same thing applied. They would get just as efficient service if the railways were controlled bv tho A.S.R.S."

Of course, there is a perfectly legitimate, and indeed laudable way in which "organised may own the industries if it wishes to do so. Any large tody of men may form a cooperative concern or company, and subscribe the capital either to start a now industry, or to buy one already established. yto do not gather, however, that it is proposed by the delegates to whom we have referred, that the Transport Workers' Federation shall buy out either the Now Zealand railways, or evon the Christchurch tramways. His idea seems, to be that the manual workers in any undertaking are entitled to its ownership, without regard to the people who .■find the money to start itj and cany

it on. In the caeo of the tramways, it is expressly urged that tho Board, as representatives of the ratepayers who are liable for the interest on the loans and the maintenance of the servico have no right to any control over tho undertaking. Whether this sagacious person thinks that general managers and traffic managors are crjually "do trop," is not clear, but we should not be at all surprised to -find that ho considers himself fully qualified to undertake the job of any one of them.

It is indeed deplorable that such arrant nonsense should bo talked while tho lessons of the orgy of Bolshevism in Russia are still plain for every intelligent person to road and profit by. The Bolshevists, thought that they ought to own all the industries, and in some instances tliev extinguished the alleged "rights : ' of tho "Bourgeois" owners by murdering them out of hand. "Whether they took this extreme measure, or merely displaced them and' drove them to menial forms of labour, the result was the same. The direction and control of all great enterprises requiro experience and special qualifications, and without these those enterprises cannot be carried on. Tho factory operatives soon found that they could not securo raw material or organise its conversion into manufactured goods, or dispose of the finished article. In some cases they endeavoured to re-enlist the co-operation of the skilled heads, butt many enterprises were ruined, and l hideous want and suffering are being experienced throughout Russia to-day because of the stoppage of production and dislocation of transport. Even the Bolshevists, however, had tho sense not to interfere with tho running of the railways, at least this was so in Siberia. In an article entitled "The Red Flag; in; "Siberia,'' in the November number of tho "Fortnightly Review," Mr R. O. Atkinson, describing a railway journey which ho made from Vladivostock to Harbin, says: I'The Major [a fellow-passenger] pointed out one statiou where several men had recently been killed by order of workmen who had come from the cities and found that too little had been changed from the old routine. Faded, torn flags floated from every station. Tho old stationmasters, however, had never been removed, nor have they been unto this day. They still dress in their bulky black coats and go about their business, leaving politics to those who havo more time. The Bolshevists havo recognised, as did the Kercnsky officials, that thero was ono institution it was unwise to interfere with too much; and so the trains have been left free to go along on their own momentum as long as they will." The first thing necessary for the satisfactory solution of labour difficulties in New Zealand is for the workers to choose as leaders men of oommonsenso and intelligence, who will take the pains to study industrial and economic principles, and honestly endeavour to secure the interests of the workers in accordance with those principles. The recent manifesto of the Federation of Labour gave some ground for hoping that this ideal might be realised, and it is all the more disappointing, therefore, to find pure Bolshevism being preached among tho transport workers, and apparently allowed to pass without protest. I

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19190120.2.14

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16425, 20 January 1919, Page 6

Word count
Tapeke kupu
872

The Press. Monday, January 20, 1919. Blind Leading the Blind. Press, Volume LV, Issue 16425, 20 January 1919, Page 6

The Press. Monday, January 20, 1919. Blind Leading the Blind. Press, Volume LV, Issue 16425, 20 January 1919, Page 6

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert