MEN WHO MATTER

Hokitika Guardian, 13 September 1930, Page 8

MEN WHO MATTER

r — •* (From Sydney “Bulletin.”)

• >«.»}.' ;• • . J E } y'ii J |( . •• .• > ■Three. years ago, ?, foreseeing the in''vitabie approach -of a crisis, unless extraordinary, measures** were taken, '! he Bulletin .urged again and again that the leaders of the trade unions ef « Australia, and .the ■ directors of the Commonwealth - ißank should be rou"bt-'together. The. board of . the .•eople’s bank Ijas show.pv must have shown,pwbat .was coining, and why it ■/as, coming. * , Jsie un ion lead-ers-did: not know what was coming, pnd .now. thatt.ife had'; cja>me—or is at least .on the. doorstep—they :do not know what brought it. How should). iitliey know? For the most part they hear one another and •jad one another, wherefore they are merely confirmed .in their opinions, hetheiv right '.or wrong. Doubtless there..are some among fthem who h£ve n glimmerings of ~ thei-. truth—at least a suspicion that: something is wrong somewhere. But for the most part thesg are in,, parliamentary or other ■'obsv and dependent;. on. .the votes or then (Labor. rank file, and they • ;to., save , their., own, jobs by sayiitig either nothing at. all, or what they jpre. expected to: i say. Nobody •'.'’ho.i.has watched. .Federal Ministers during- the past, few weeks can have : ny. doubt that Mr iScullin is in pre(:scly that position. The time spent by Sir Otto Niemeyer and others in addressing Labor politicians is, therefore, almost wasted. It is not they ho stand in need of conversion; hot i 'jky who need the light. It is their bosses.

Three years ago it- was urgently necessary that financiers who did know, should be brought into con--lact with; the union leaders, who obviously don’t. It is more urgently necessary now. Then) these leaders —ere, not the real rulers of Australia. To-day there, are. Without their help Australia may he saved from a most serious crash, but it will he saved only ’ with difficulty, if at ah. It is no use deluding ourselves with the idea that these gentlemen in Melbourne can get vjs out of our' difficulties that it is merely a matter el arranging for somebody ■ to'pay n -few millions of interest for us. That will >- e lp us out of one ditch, to land ofl in another. We can escape oniy by complete revision of our creeds. Things that we have regarded as .n----dispensables we jfihall have to learn are pious aspirations. Nobody wants to believe this, least of all the men who have been proudest of our standjird of living. Nobody on the Tahiti the other day wanted to believe that the vessel was going to founder, and they must give up their comfortable cabins and take to the boats. But they had to do it, all the same. If the ship is sinking, it i,s only a fool who will stay in his comfortable cabin, protesting that to talk ol drownintr is absurd—why, be novel felt drier in his life. That is what union leaders .are doing. If they are right, they ought to meet Robert Hibson and his hoard or some other body of .financial and economic exports, and show why. At any rate, as W e have seen during the last few months, their influence is far too great to allow them to lie disregarded.