SCOTT BENNETT AND SEMPLE

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 33, 20 October 1911, Page 14

SCOTT BENNETT AND SEMPLE

Among the Waterside Workers lit Lyttelton.

This Inoirnmg I lived for a couple of hotlrs. Comrades Bennett and Semple addressed & well-attended: meeting or wharfies in the Corotnatioa Hall ©,t Lytteltooi. Comrade Bennett spoke for §5 minutes, and was listened to with that rapt attention which showed tlhat every word was sinking into tih<e minds of those toilers. That ejn#rv shot fired by Scott Bennett hit ts4 bullseye V&b demonstrated by the of appla-use. First, Comrade Beftpiett explained (in his Juoid !&nd ooavlnoing style) the- reasons Why fcke Watereid>e workers should be purb 4nd parcel of the N.Z.Ir.L. He laid ttiat the nliaai wlio oouldinot read the signs of times that tfe &tq bn the ©Vβ of the, greatest upheaval of moaern times must be ston« bjlind. (Applati§e.) Iβ his m&st-erly" Style he snowed tjh-e denoienQlee <x jb&e old %orn oiwfe unions, shoVed aofir w& present form of craft unionism is a sbuxce of weakness, and put t«id <m*ss| fof Industrial Unionism in tall its Hβ showed pAajinJy |»#O6O workers how they w&?& &v& P&isE robbed of the greatw part pi W& which their services &4fl ,w the ooanmodities they find Wound up by telling us that We jbad wo. forces to fight—the &ployj»s olass »nd their Labor lieu(hjokeys of the master-class and lie called them), the *'goo 4, Jj&Q&j ftSft coniservative craft tfcntfojft bmoials, wM> did all they could, by the dirtiest underhand methods infagiHfubM, to prejudice the rank Jjp&, of tbeir tuiicns against the

Then Bob Semple spoke of some er the methods used by the craft union officials in order to keep the workers from the truth. Bob read the report of a request sent by the Otago Trades Council to the various religious denominations in Dunedin asking the ministers to set aside Sunday, October 22, as Labor Sunday, to offer up prayers to the Almighty for help for tho workers. Said Bob: "It's about time we workers got off our kuoes. We have crawled to the employers and thedr lackeys long enough; it is time wo realised that we can have no rights unless we have tho might to take and keep them. It is time we stood on our feet like men and demanded what wo want."