A VOLT FACE : WHAT IS IT?

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 27 March 1909, Page 3

A VOLT FACE : WHAT IS IT?

It consists of a change of base so executed that instead of facing your opponent you present to him a view of your back. It is to all intents and purposes the equivalent of the boxing man’s “side step” and it has just been performed by the Flaxmillers’ Association. When the Union approached these gentlemen in January last, again through the press in the following month and finally verbally regarding a Government enquiry into the industry, we were told by them that they could not see that any good end could be served, and that by no possibility could royalties be regulated by the Government. This assurance was reiterated by Mr Mabin in the Dominion, and yet in a report of their representatives (Messrs Broad and Cohen) meeting with Sir Joseph Ward at Palmerston recently we have a fresh assurance that their forthcoming deputation is desirous of conferring with some of the Ministers upon, amongst other things, this very question of royalties ! If the present scales are as inimitable as we have been lead to believe, why waste the Ministers’ time discussing them ? It they admit of improvement by legislation, why quibble to the Union ? The Association has side-stepped !

THE CASE OF KENNEDY. Kennedy was one of the prime movers in the abortive attempt to obtain an award for Canterbury farm hands. The Lyttelton Times, in an article approving Judge Sim’s recent remarks regarding non-union labour, instanced the fact that since the attempt to form a union Mr Kennedy has not been able to obtain employment from any farmer in Canterbury ! There’s one side of the picture ; non-pre-ference tor would-be unionists. Have a look at the other side. The New Zealand Times in a caustic leader headed “compulsory unionism,” wherein it drew a piteous picture of the conscientious objector to unionism reduced to penury by the oppression of “arrogant political trade guilds controlled by parasitical wirepullers,” directly charges Judge Sim with instigating a system of ; now if this alleged boycott is as heinous as the Times would make out, one would naturally suppose that it would hold the case of Mr Kennedy in equal abhorrence. By no means ! The one thing is compulsion by labour —a hateful thing ! The other is compulsion by capital a perfectly justifiable weapon according to the anti-labour press.

“ A DANIEL COME TO JUDGMENT.”

When Judge Sim refused an award to the farm labourers there went up from the leading dailies a paean eulogising the decision, which forcibly reminded one of Shylock’s utterances in ‘ ‘The Merchant of Venice ” “ O wise young man ! O upright judge!” But now that the same dignitary is insistent that an existing law shall not be broken (not, mark you, that a new one shall be made, but simply that the old one shall be observed), these same papers vapour futility about “oppression,” “boycott” and “arrogant trades guilds.” And we, like Bassano in the above mentioned play, smile and murmur to ourselves “We thank thee, Jew, for teaching us that word.” PIyAY THE GAME. And bear well in mind that the first thing to be done is to get a good grip of the rules regulating the part that vou are going to play. It will pay every one of our members to put in a couple of hours study with the Union rules. If there is any point therein which seems obscure to you—get right into the Secretary’s back-hair and stay there till he explains that point. If there is any particular rule that doesn’t appear to you to fit the case its made to meet —come in, state your objections in open union and we’ll guarantee either to satisfy you or get that rule altered. We aim to make this Union the most up-to-date thing of its kind within the next twelve months, and we’re right after your help to do it. Your’s mind ; not the bench-loader’s, or the sorter’s at the next mill, but yours. And to intending members we would emphasise and amplify the above advice. Read the rules before you join, see just what you are taking on before you tackle it. You wouldn’t sign a receipt for your wages before you counted the cash; why then should you bind yourself to a set of rules before you know what they, aref A member who does not- know the rules which govern his Union is a possible source of trouble at any -moment. He’s liable to commit a breach of them ; we’re remarkably liable to kick about it as soon as it comes to our knowledge ; he kicks back —and there you have a made-to-measure case of “oppression by the parasitical wire-pullers who control this arrogant political grades guild.” ! Play the game according to the rules and it saves us all bother. OUR MEMBERSHIP ROEE.

It’s growing steadily but there’s stacks of room yet for new men of the right sort. Remember this, that the man who takes a lot of convincing is, ninaty-nine times out of a hundred, going to be a good man when you do get him convinced. As a rule he’s the “solid Muldoon” and that’s the man we want. You’re not wasting time convincing him, you’re

spending it, and once you get him in. line your outlay is more than justified. Your Secretary has got a big district, remember. Your Committee can’t do a great deal of recruiting just at present. But you are just the man for the job! You’re “It”—if you’ll only set your mind to it.