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Hokitika Guardian, 8 February 1928, Page 2

Tin-: best time to bear the real trulli about the heads of any great public organisation, says an exchange, is when they happen to quarrel aiming themselves. This general statement applies with especial force to Ihe trouble raging round -Mr A. .1. Cook, mi long kilo"’n as the ‘‘stormy jietrel nf the Labour movement. True to bis tixed policy of refusing to deal with the •apitalists. ami icier ing every opinion but his own. Mr t ook has made a iero•inus attack upon many of the most dstngUTshed Labour Tenders for participating in the eo i lie re nee recently convened by the employers to consult about industrial conditions with the worker-. Mr Ben Ti 1 lett was a Labour ■\iieinist long before Mr Cook appear'd mi the -cone, and lie lias a long and bomnirable record of self-sacrific-ing effort in the cause of Labour, and Mr Cook’s vindictive attacks have rous’d bim to vehement retaliation. Mr Cook, according to Mr Tillett, is a “morbid megalomaniac.” a “tin Xoro’’ whose insane devotion to his own policy has “left a million women and children without food.’’ The workers have ample reason to distrust .Mr Cook’s judgment, and his aetnujs have moved beyond doubt- that lie is loyal not to tin' cause of Labour, but only to his own conception of himself.' As to the capitalist. Air Tillett reminds the workers that, whether they ITkc it or not. the capitalist system .still holds the field, and it will take more than -Mr Cook's “perversions of fact” and “hysterical denunciations” to dislodge the employer from his strongly entrenched position. Finally. Mr Tillett urges the workers to take this conference seriously as “the most important departure in British industrial history.” and wo can only hope that tinvast majority of the trade unionists at Home will follow his advice.