THE COMMONWEALTH CRISIS. Trades Unionism on Top.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 200, 30 April 1904, Page 6

THE COMMONWEALTH CRISIS. Trades Unionism on Top.

THE present posture of affairs in Australia has a deep and absorbing interest for us in New Zealand, and for the Mother Country as well. But for us especially, seeing that we have gone the furthest in meeting the demands of the aggressive trades unionist. The so-called Labour Party, for that is how trades unionism always likes to label itself, has, for the first time in its history, got its hands on the reins of power. This result has been brought about in the Federal Parliament by the practically even numbers with which the regular Government and Opposition parties returned from the elections, and by a great accession of strength to the third or Labour Party, which has played steadily for its. own hand. Defeated on a Labour member's motion to bring State employees under the Arbitration Act the Deakin Ministry has gone out, a.nd Mr. J. C. Watson has just formed a Ministry from the ranks of Labour to take its place. • « • How will it shape ? What will its policy be ? Well, the opening movements do not inspire much confidence. One of Mr. Watson's very first acts was to secretly cable away a message to the English press setting forth his intentions as Prime Minister. He declined to allow it to be published in Australia That was only when it leaked out that he had sent such a message away. One would have thought that the first act of a Labour leader would be to take the Australian people into his confidence, and not bother his head about the English press. But trades unionism works chiefly by caucus, and doesn't like too much publicity. All that we know about Mr. Watson's policy so far is the echo from the inspired English press that the new Premier has stated it shall be a cautious policy. • • • Another thing that doesn't tend to inspire confidence is the indication that Mr. Watson has not had a free hand in choosing his colleagues. He wanted to win support by detaching some prominent men from the other parties, and yet all the portfolios save one have been allotted to obscure Labour members. The Labour caucus has pulled the strings, and Mr. Watson would seem to be the chief puppet in the show. At any rate, it is to be hoped the House will give the new

Ministry a fair trial. If \t is wjse and moderate it may win support in unexpected quarters. On the other hand, if it too soon manifests that narrow, suspicious, selfish spirit, which so far has been the curse of trades unionism, a coalition between the two powerful parties between which it has come like a wedge will put the quietus upon Watson's Labour Government. • • * There was a great deal of rugged truth in that speech of Sir John Forrest's last week, lie said the Labour party had hurried Ministers to their doom, and were now going to be their executioners. What i& the attitude of the same party in New Zealand ? They have just kicked away the ladder by which they have risen in declaring at their recent Conference that henceforth they shall be an Independent Labour Party with the accent on the Labour. This is their gratitude towards King Dick and his party for delaying everything else to push on with Labour legislation during the last ten years. Even so mild a Labour representative and so good a party man as Mr. Tanner has the coolness to say that " the bulk of the legislative effort of the Government of late years has been concentrated on the farming and agricultural section." * * * The truth is trades unionism in these colonies suffers badly from swelled head. It calls itself " the Labour Party" as if there were no labour outside of the artisans of the large towns. It expects Parliament to be always legislating in its interest. Farming and agriculture can take a back seat and cool their heels till Labour — otherwise trades unionism — has had all its wants supplied. Among those wants is the demand to take off any tax that remains on the head of the unionist and heap it up on the backs of the farmer and the employer. For these reasons it is interesting to watch what the trade union bosses will do on the other side now that they have got their chance.