The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, 1907 ARBITRATION AND AGITATORS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3774, 17 September 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 17, 1907 ARBITRATION AND AGITATORS.

It is refreshing, to find that Mr J. A. Millar has at least a few supporters amongst the Labour Party, says Christchurch Truth of a recent date. Ever since the Arbitration Act Amendment Bill was introduced, union after union has been throwing bricks at it and refusing to see any redeeming features about the measure. The Auckland Branch of the LiberalLabour Federation, however, congratulates Mr Millar on his Bill, and strongly condemns the manifesto issued by the Parliamentary Committee of the Wellington Trades Council. At the meeting which came to this decision, a speaker stigmatised the professional agitator as “ a parasite and a blood sucker of the working man.” The description is obviously an exaggerated one, but there can be no doubt that the paid agitator is the bane ot the labour movement. It is to his interest to stir up strife, because every dispute he makes helps to keep him in a congenial billet. It is much easier for him to go about with his coat on, “barracking” for those at work than to do a little hard graft himself, and one of these days the unions will come to see that a paid agitator is a very poor investment.