The Dominion. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1912. LABOUR IN CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1408, 8 April 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, APRIL 8, 1912. LABOUR IN CONFERENCE.

The conferences of labour organisations which are being held this Easter are believed by many of the trade union leaders to be of quite unusual importance. The public, however, will have ample excuse for feeling a good deal perplexed by the divisions in the ''labour" ranks and by the glaring disagreement between what the average wage-earner desires and what tho leaders of the labour bodies.are fighting for. The average man desires decent wages and reasonable conditions of work, but he is not permitted by tho conductors of the jarring "labour'' machines to believe that good wages and conditions can bo obtained excepting through the carrying out of a mass of eccentric experiments, none of which holds out any prospect of greater social eflieicncy or increased production. The platform, for example, of tho people who are aiming at the establishment of a "national federation of affiliated unions" bristles with proposals for enlarging tho functions and the expenditure of the State without containing a single proposal that looks like increasing, and so cheapening, tho supply of tho nectaries of Hfe. Tho vury first lino of tho "imnwdiftto Jflhtkg £lfttloxm"- Is -"ft fitat<t

owned ferry service." What will (his mean Io tlr average citizen who may use. file service cxeepiing tj,;,f, h,. may pay less for his ticket over the counter, but a gresU deal more in taxation, direct and indirect, to pay for the inefficiency and waste that is ; inseparable, from Stale control:' The uiijiii difference between State ownership and private ownership is in the fact that Slate nuinagei'jcnf, means management by men ot. doubtful competence who have no incentive to spend thriftily. Most of the proposals for increasing the power of the State to spend money on behalf of individuals and classes are merely attempts to get something for nothing. The State is the community, and (he community cannot treat itself to anything free. What is apparently given free is in reality too often an extremely expensive service, payment for which is made in taxes, direct and indirect, and in an increased cost of living. But wo have no doubt that the main conference will pay little attention to such considerations as these, for "the labour movement" in New Zealand is now undisguiscdly Socialistic in some of its aims and in all its tendencies. For the time we must expect to see large, numbers of wageearners continuing firm in their adherence to the Socialistic platforms; there will come in due course a recoil, amongst tho wage-earners, from the inevitable end of the drift towards Socialism, and a reconcentration upon their purely industrial concerns. ' -»

Nobody will deny that the increase in the voting strength of Labour gives the labour organisations the right to feci hopeful about the future of the Labour party in Parliament. If the present political situation could last organised Labour would possibly occupy a very strong position. But the present political situation cannot last, and the difficulties arc great in the way of organising tho Labour vote so as to secure genuine Labour representation. There arc in tho new Parliament four Labour men, three ol whom were elected with the assistance .of Kcform voters. This small party is already deeply discredited by the brazen defiance on tho part of two members of it of the pledges they gave in order to secure their election—so deeply discredited that the Weekly Herald, one of the official organs of the Labour party, has called upon the conference to repudiate Messrs. Payne, Veitch, and Kobertsox, who, tho Herald declares emphatically, have Ceased to be Labour members at all, and must be considered mere units in the Government army. The bad beginning of the Labour party in Parliament has had a very damaging effect upon the "Labour movement," and tho speeches in which Messrs. Payne and Roiiertson- have endeavoured to justify their dishonouring of their pledges have merely intensified the public distrust of a cause whose champions can hold such extraordinary views upon questions of honour. Nor has the Labour movement been assisted by the readiness of some labour organisations to applaud and defend tho behaviour of Mr. Robertson. While we do not I expect the conference of the Labour party will .deal with these members, we may be pretty sure that their behaviour will influence it in its treatment of the question of Parliamentary candidates. The discussions at the conferences will be awaited with interest, especially because of the introduction of the singular "unity scheme" in which Mil. Mills, of Milwaukee, hopes to enrol everybody in the great cause of_ becoming happy and prosperous by increasing the wastefulness of State paternalism, which is to be developed to such a noint in the end that we shall as a community have to live by taking in

'".di other's washing. The grim hostility of the Federation of Labour to the Trades Council organisations will require the conferences to deal frankly with the strike question. While awaiting the discussions we may conclude by wondering why the leaders of the Labour movement cannot sec that it would not only not hinder or hamper their cause, but would commend it to the sympathy of a great many peopk who now "regard it with disfavour, if organised Labour recognised that the wage-earner will probably benefit more than anyone else from the establishment 'of clean government and the enactment of the administrative reforms which the Reform party is determined to have.