A POOR SPIRIT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 131, 3 May 1940, Page 6

A POOR SPIRIT.

Employees as well as employers concerned with the Wellington Clothing Trades Union are most indignant regarding the circular issued by the secretary of this union counselling its members not to participate in any scheme the employers may have to raise money for patriotic purposes. Its indelicate phrasing and offensive direction against the employers well merited the prompt denials of the truth of its statements and the rebuke administered to its author by employers’ interests. It is a good sign that employees within ilie union have, not hesitated to express indignation, as stated _in Wellington, for the great majority of trade unionists are behind the Government in this conflict; but it would be a wholesome direction to members who do not come within this extensive group if the leaders, showing a much clearer perception of the need for co-operation and energy in this war, expressed their wholehearted condemnation of this most unfortunate circular. The effort to raise funds for w r ar purposes in general is a national one; it requires the most earnest support of every citizen who cannot go overseas to fight, and anything calculated to unduly affect the patriotism which lies behind this spirit of giving should have the closest attention of the authorities. Workers in industry have been most helpful towards the appeals already launched, and they have always received credit for their donations. It was no less so in the Great War, and the-nasty allegation that; the employers then “got all the credit for the money subscribed by their workers . . . and some of them took advantage' of the position to avoid giving themselves” is a distortion of the truth, calculated to inspire disharmony in union ranks unless quickly disproved. The Government and the trade union leaders should act promptly in this matter. The cause at stake is too vast to uermit of the introduction of tactics now exposed.