The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1910. TRADES UNIONISM IN OFFICE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 963, 2 November 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1910. TRADES UNIONISM IN OFFICE.

A Melbourne cable message which we print 10-day reports tnat ' a.l luture bedeial buveinment contracts will contain a, ciause giving prciereiico to unionists." Taken quite aurally tuis uns no citar it. .s uim.ous enougn tuat wuat has is that tue l'tcLsrai nas decided to mwbb ii_ai coi.u-acts Mia.l be Conserved ior muse nrius or ijui'suns wno observe Cue prmcipic ol

to un.oniits' m conmoir .oiitih.ib. uutiag.uus as iuis dcuun unduuoiedly is, uiere is reaily no way anyuody biiouid be greatiy burpris-d t.-at I'ederal biuvoin.uont snouid bo auuso its power. J; or it is quite m keeping j wiui the original- "preference to uniuuiats" ciause in its Arbitration Jjiil—a clause tuai. ovea tus .Radical ' Age had to cond-iun in one oi tno most powerful indictments of union tji'a-.ny tLat uas ever been written. The did not dare to proceed with that clause, which proposed that preference to, uniomsis should ,be compulsory in all decisions under the Act and that the unions should bo perfectly tree to do as they cuose uiidcr. tncir. rules. ,\ihat more natural that the Government, loilcd in this, icheme by .an outraged public opinion, should seek to use the machinery of government and tho public funds as weapons for the aggrandisement of the unions' power i The cable message adds that the new policy is "the result of pros- 1 sure by the unions on the caucus;" and that 'itl>e,iQovernment takes the' view: that it represents, primarily, members of trades unions, and that it must give its own supporters first' claim to Government employment." We are not given the exact terms of any Ministerial statement upon the point, but it is impossible, that any .Minister could find any better reason than this 'for . the Government's action. Its policy is brigandage, pure and'simple. That must be so plain to everybody that;tliere is not the least need to' set ; forth at length the obvious'reasons why it is brigandage. - Neither in America, with its Democratic Tammany, nor. in Now Zealand, which has given the ■world a not very poor copy of the j American, policy. of "spoils to the victors," has there over been anything quite like the Federal Government's new doctrine. Few people will be disposed to suggest that MR. Fisher thinks it quite correct to use the power and.the resources of government 1 for the strengthening and fattening of unions and unionism, although one cannot feel j equally sure about the views of" his colleagues. But the Government has no option in the matter—excepting, of course, resignation from office. II is ruled absolutely by the caucus, and every "member of the caucus is undjr the thumb of the orga:jis3d lab-1 our bodies. Although their members make, in the aggregate, a very ' small proportion of the electors, the. unions aro extremely well organised, and blessed with plonty of funds. They, own the Labour members, and' so . the caucus, and so tho Government. The new policy is a remarkable warning of what government must mean when Trades Unionism is in office.