ONE KIND OF UNITY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1807, 21 July 1913, Page 7

ONE KIND OF UNITY.

•. » . A FEDERATION MEETING,

HOW THEY MEET ENEMIES,

A few of the leaders of the recent. Unity movement which gave rise to. the Labour Congress. addressed a meeting in tho Opera House last night. There was a sparse audience, made up of about 200' people, who.were niorely silent spectators,' about 50 people who were keen partisans on the side of alleged unity, and two or more, but certainly two, who ventured to express disagreement with tho speakers. Mr. P, 11. Hickey spoko 'of the need for unity to fight tho repression by which tho working class were, as he said, threatened by the Bill which the Government are (Tho Bill ho referred to is, of. course, tho Bill to protect workers from molestation by strikers.) He said that there could bo no room for any Labour party outsido of his party, and no possibility of any further nnion with the decaying Liberal party. Mr. W. T. Young spoke almost entirely of the secession movement, endeavouring to prove that tho seceders were in a hopeless, minority • He produced two signed, one by "Your ex-Mayor, David M'Laren," and another by J. T. Paul. "A nice pair," said someone in the audience. Mr. Young concluded with a remark or two about the objective of the federation —tho socialisation of: tho means of production, distribution, and exchange. "That objective," he declared, "is to all intents and purposes the objective of. tho United Labour. .party, bnt the United Labour Jarty use other words-to express it." 'i' 4.i.f wo y° un S nien, both of whom bore ■ the appearance of manual workers, had ventured an interjection or two. They had said to Mr. Hickey onco, "Who pays you?" and once to Mr. Young's prophecy of a 34-hour week, "You'll never get it." This is hoiv Mr, Robert Semplo, the organiser for the „ United Federation, Bpoke of tho men who ventured to disagree Vith his friends: "If all mankind was like them, the only thing they would be likely to'get is legs on their stomachs from crawlin'. I came here to discuss sacred questions with reasonable men and women, and if you, interfere I'll turn, the hoso on you proper.; I woji't stand interference from human blowflies like you." (Loud applause.) And, again, shouting fortissimo: "I'll tell you who pays,me. I receive my pay from honourable men, to champion an honourable cause, far too honourable for such skunks as you to be associated with." Other names ho called werp "spies,". "scabs," "crawlers," "rattlesnakes." Presently someone objected to the two young meii remaining,' alleging (without good; reason) that ho could not hear well. In actual fact, ho could have heard Mr. Semplo out in the 6treet. The youths were asked to leave, and a man 'actually laid hands, though not roughly, on one of them. They went; out, still showing some defiance and resentment against the cries of the people in the hall. Samples of tho cries will suffice to show why they resented them,—"Out scabs," "Get out, scabs," "Go and bury yourselves," "You ought to be dead " And the cry "scab" came from all quarters at once. Last of-all, Mr. Semplo. vowed ven-' geance .on the 6eceders: "I'm going through New Zealand to fight them fellows with the gloves off,- and I flatter myself I can scrap a little bit, anyhow."