The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “The West Coast Times.” MONDAY, FEB. 28th, 1921. A USEFUL LEAGUE.

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” MONDAY, FEB. 28th, 1921. A USEFUL LEAGUE.

Thosk of our readers who have read the second annual report of the Welfare League, published in our columns, will, wo hope, recognise that the League has attempted and is carrying out a work of great value to the public interests. It is propaganda work which is educative for the public mind, and the results are not to be seen immediately on the surface. But as events are shaping in this and other countries, just now, it night be believed that the Lea,'lie’s advocacy of sanity of action in regard to labour'Vlisputes will lie having its insinuating effects on the minds of tlm people. There is no doubt as to the necessity for concerted action to counteract the work of the extremists who are ever attempting to pull down, and take no thought ot building up. Mr Skerrett’s review of the Dominion position is all too true, and after reading bis exposition of the situation, the conclusion is reached that, there is time for concerted action to establish hevond question the rights of the peoples’ constituted government’, as against domination by the rule of labor as the extremists would have it il given all their own way. As wo commented on Saturday, the time has arrived for t-io law to he enforced in an orderly way, and both parties responsible for the effective maintenance of industry and commerce, the employer and employee, should he maid* to subscribe to the law provided to deal with their disputes or demands. To ignore the liyw of t.ie land, and permit the parties to have their own way as to how, when, or where they will seek to enforce their demands, is to allow the thin end ol the wedgtj for mob law. The country established a. costly Labor Department and all the paraphernalia for dealing with the labor laws imposed for the betterment of labor conditions, yet this system is rendered important when the extreme leaders resolved upon their own way of settling what t.iey believe to l)e their wants. The impotency of tlie Department is painful to watch, when we see the country suffering in a hundred ways because a body of men who cannot get their own way for the asking, resolve upon the holding up of the whole community by way of penalty. The penalty should be on those who thus trifle with the law, and impose loss and disaster on the countryside. But they invariably escape any punishment—while the people suffer all the time. This has been repeated so often that even State employees take it upon themselves to defy the country which supports them. The Welfare League has not referred to this aspect, hut it is one that needs handling no less . determinedly than the other branches of aggressive unionism which is planned for the country’s undoing rather than the peoples’ betterment. Tho extreme leaders took full advantage of the war conditions to abuse their fleeting power, and it is high time now the tables were definitely turned, and tlie Government asserted itself as the supreme power in the land authorised by the people to rule the people sanely and wisely and for tho greatest good for the greatest number.