The Dominion THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1913, THE RIGHT OF FREEMEN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1792, 3 July 1913, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1913, THE RIGHT OF FREEMEN.

Both the mover and the seconder of the Addrcss-in-Reply in the Legislative Council yesterday indulged in some very plain speaking, and their u'tterances generally will be read with, a great deal of interest. A variety of subjects was dealt with by each, and in a manner which entitles them to congratulation on their maiden .efforts in the Upper House. The Hon. J. Duthie, who moved the Address-in-Reply, was especially successful in his review of the Native land question, and land settlement generally; the military training-scheme in its bearing on the young men of the community; and Labour matters; while the Hon. W, Eaknshaw ajso secured the close and earnest attention of the Council, more particularly when making his very outspoken references to the -trend of Labour activity. No one, we think, can question the soundness of Mr. Duthie's contentions concerning the harmful effects of the spirit of unrest and unreasonableness which is so noticeable a feature in our industrial life at the present time. How far this state of things. is due to grievances which have given riso to growr ing antagonism on the , part of employees; and how much of it is attributable to the noxious influence of mischief-making agitators, who live by fomenting industrial strife and class hatred, may be an arguable question. For ourselves, we have little doubt that while here and there just cause of grievance may exist, the conditions of work generally in New Zealand leave little cause for legitimate complaint; and that the root of the evil is to be found in the deliberate efforts of many of the leaders of the Labour movement to create strife, and by so doing make their services appear the more necessary to the unions which keep them, Mr. Easnshaw dealt with this

phase of organised Labour's methods "with thu gloves off." As an old and active member of the Labour party in the time of Ballance and the early days of Seddon, when Labour was most successful in securing consideration at the hands of Parliament, he was able to compare the aims and the spirit actuating the Labour leaders of those years with the present-day conduct of many of those now at the head of the Labour movement. His scathing indictment of the coarse-tongued, wildly reckless leaders, who by their violence and bitterness of speech seek to inflame the passions of the working classes, regardless of the injury they are doing the cause they profess to serve by arousing the contempt and antagonism of the mass of the public outside, of Labour unionism, was apparently fully in accord with the views of the Council, as it certainly is with, the opinions of the bulk of the' people of the Dominion. A cause which has to depend on coarse and vulgar abuse, or on the advocacy of those who imagine they can w;in public support by personal offensiveness, is a sorry cause indeed. There are many sound Labour unionists who realise this, and deplore'the foolishness of their fellows in permitting the control of the Labour movement to fall into such hands. Perhaps the most interesting reference to industrial matters in yesterday's debate in the Legislative Council, however, was Mr. Duthie's comment on the granting of preference to unionists. The hon. member struck a note which will appeal to all who possess in any degree that spirit of freedom which we claim is an inherent part of the, birthright of every British subject.' It is the right of freemen to look to the State to protect them from coercion where their individual liberty is concerned, and the provision in so many Arbi: tration Court awards which takes from a man that liberty of action, and compels him, in order to secure the right to work, and to save himself_ and his family from starvation, to join an organisation with which he has no sympathy, and which may be repugnant to all his instincts as a freeman, is, as Me. Duthie, in his downright fashion put it, a blot on the industrial life of the country. The Government proposes this session to introduce a Bill to amend the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and if it does its duty by the freemen who constitute the great, bulk of the people of New Zealand, it will see that the menace to their liberty involved in the coercion of the preference clause is removed.