THE EFFORT AT UNITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1789, 30 June 1913, Page 8

THE EFFORT AT UNITY.

BY LABOUR LEADERS.

SPEECHES AT OPERA HOUSE. "Unity is to bo accomplished this week," said Mr. It. Semplo (Federation' of Labour organiser) at the meeting held in tho Opera House' last evening, under the auspices of the Unity Congress Committee, and the opinion was] eohocd by all . the •peakers who preceded and followed Mr. Semple. Tho meeting was orderly, and well attended, tho body of the theater and the dress circle being filled with more people than could be accommodated with «eaw. Selections were played by ■ the Waterside Workers' Band before the meeting .opened. Mr. W. T. Young presided. Introducing the epeakers, he stated, inter alia, that the coming congress would be the largest assembly of Labour representatives that had ever come togother in the Southern Hemisphere. Mr. Ford (tnvercargill) said that the coining of the Massey Government seemed to show that th'S time bad arrived when the Labour forccs should no longer bo disunited. Ha believed that one of the finest things that had' ever happened for Labour was the accession to power of Mr. Massey and his party. If they succeeded, as ho thought they would, in arriving at an agreement, the conference would mark not the end'but the beginning of the Unity movement. In furthering" the Labour movement it was necessary to reach the country workers and Hie farmers. In tho matter of co-operation farmers had led the rest of the country, and they must be shown that what Labour desired was to apply co-operation to national affairs. Mr. Howard (Christchurch), speaking,as president of tho Now Zealand Socialist party, suid that his party stood for Unity. Unless it were i-ecoginiscd as essential that the aim must be to secure for tho workers tile' whole of tho wealth, which they produced, the conference niu«t end in failure. Mr. M'Carthy (.Dunedin) said that the of the moment seemed to be: What would the conference do? Would it be unanimous on the basis of Unity? He thought not, but if it were it would avail nothing unless delegates went backto their organisations determined to inspire them with the same enthusiasm as they had imbibed at the conference. It was not;what the conference did: it was "what the workers did after the confercnco that mattered. Air. M'Carthy dealt with some of tho proposals to be considered by the conference, and declared that • one whioh particularly pleased him was that no deputations should go to Cabinet Ministers to complain and to beg, "like poodle dogs standing on their hind legs." ...Mr. Glass (Iniorcargill) declared that recent events had convinced the workers that they had acted as fools in tho past, and could not afford to act as fools any longer. If the Unity Congress failed, tho parties that would rejoice wfcre: the united press, Mr. Massey and his party, and the party behind Sir Joseph Ward. He believed that if this congress failed the clock of Labour would be set back for 20 years. Even workers during the recent strikes had taken up a position opposed to the workers concerned. This was due to the fact that workers had fallen into the habit of letting the daily press manufacture their opinions for them. • Mr. Ross (Feilding) said that he believed he was the only farmer who intended to sit as a delegate at the Unity Conference on Tuesday. Mr. Ross severely criticised the existing political parties. As to the Liberal party, he said the work«rs did not want to be represented by ghosts in tho future apart altogether from the indecency of interfering with a corpse. Mr. _P. Hickey (Wellington) remarked that it was useless to ; waste attention on the mistakes of the past. . What they had to do was to focus., attention on "llere and now." The,' position of.the workers in this country was one of danger, but if they united they could establish a dominant social-democratic political • party. The social-democratic banner had been hoisted at Greymouth. Mr. Holland (Wellington) declared that to-day they eaw a possibility of the dreams of years beiig realised. Mr. R. Semplo (federation's organiser) said that it was perfectly true that they had been divided and thrown bricks at one another, but there was no need to cry about it now. Mr. W. T. Mills said: "I have seen no day as good as this. I have no place as.good as this; I have known no time as promising as this." He went on to predict success for the coming conference. "Some peope say," was one of his . remarks, "that the Labour movement dreams of a Heaven on earth. Well, why. not? We have had hell on earth until we are tired of it, and those of .you who don't want to vote for Heaven can go to your own country as scon as you like." Cheers were , given for Labour Unity before the gathering dispersed.