In Defence of Labour

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 64, 8 December 1937, Page 7

In Defence of Labour

V

.s.

Sir, — As a child I remember seeing a highly-coloured picture of a seminude man, hands clenched above his head, a, wild. demented look in his eyes, -while immediately above him great fiashes of lightning Tipped the sky. The picture was labelled "Ajax Pefying the Lightning.'' I thought at the time: "What a. eilly mau." Now, I wonder is your correspondent "Ajax" a desqendant of that "sU'y tnan", becauae from the way he ex plodes it would look like it. Refiily, Sir, nis letter is so devoid of reasoning, and such a mass of contradietions that one /ivould almost think that "Ananias" must have been an ancestor also. I suppose I mnst reply to some of his "silly" aRegations, or some of his friends might think th,ey are true. Now tlie one about joining a Trade Union. Preference to uniomsts was introducetl and made law in the times of Seddon as a measure of protection for the working man. Subsequent Tory Governments whittled away the "preference clause'' in the I.C. and A. Act until it became a dead letter, and the averago man was afraid to join a trade union for fear of losiug his job. The Labour Government restored preference to unionists, and rightly eo, as auy fairminded man will admit. There is, however, no law to compel one to contribute to "political party funds." There is, however, a clause in the Trade Union Act permitting a registered trade tinion to vote a certain amount of its funds to political purposes. This can only be done by connent of the mombership, and no member may be levied for that purpose. Which business may one not start in without Government permission? There are several that are licensea, I know, nndL have been for years. But "Ajax"j

should be specifie in his charges. Those sweeping assertions of his are very misleading. Personally I, as a small dairy-farmer, am rather pleased wltn the guaranteed price for butterfat. At least I know what I will get for it, and am not at the mercy of trusts and combones. As regards the 4 4 domineering inspectors," I have always found these gentlemen very helpful and ready and willing to give advice where necesSary. Maybe "Ajax" regards them in the same light as the burglar regards the police'man. ■ If a man owne a cottage and has let it for a term, he still can get possefesioa when the term is up. Not before. If "Ajax" would only refer to some of the lists of sharehodlers in the "Big Institutions, ' ' it would probably dispel his ideas of the "thousands of small shareholders. " And in any case tho small shareholder is 'just as anxious for , big dividends as the big shareholder. and no more particular how they are made. I did not say the electors could not change the Government, but I did assume that it would be many years before they would do . so. And -I think my assumption is a.good qne. Finally, Sir, if my first letter waa 4 4 exaggerated abuse," as "Ajax" says it was, I am sure you would not have printed it, knowing the high standard you demand in your correspondence colnmn. — Yours, etc..

Hastings, December 7, 3937.