The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1913. TO SUPPLANT LEGISLATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 81, 5 December 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1913. TO SUPPLANT LEGISLATION.

' l '- ■ i i j/ . , \f Discussing labor logishitapji .gener-

ally and ' the resolutions passed by j certain sections of the workers in fa-; voi" of a federation of labor covering the whole of 1 Australasia; the Sydney Daily Telegraph remarks that -there, could not be a keener censure on La-! bor government which these, ipeu sup- j port, nor a more emphatic coudemna-, tion of what is called “Labor legislation.” For what is the purpose of isuch a federation? Clearly not tobring about any legislative reforms, since j were that the object it could be ac-; complishcd only by each self-governing part of Australasia acting separately. The end in view, however, the “Telegraph” says: “is to supplant legislation and set up a reign of brute force i

under which rights or wrongs would count for nothing, and organised labor would be a law unto itself. We see the beginnings of that now, when, because a few men in New Zealand considered that'they had a grievance against their employers, other employers, who had nothing whatever to do with the matter, were to have their businesses injured and the whole community to be put to endless loss and inconvenience. But that is not ail, for the strike is being extended to Sydney, where all that the people know about the why or the wherefore of it they have to learn by reports; from 1200 miles away. No'one in Sydney has attempted to interfere in! any way with the New Zealand work-! ers, yet the public are to be punished just as if the whole quarrel had beer of their own making. At the same) time, both New Zealand and Anstra-i Jia are enmeshed in a network of arbi-l

tration law s to an extent that seriously

embarrasses the ordinary course of industry. And the Labor Govern-

ment is promising more and more of them. Vet, as far as preventing labor disputes is concerned, it is all to no purpose. As a member of the, Federal Caucus plainly admitted in bis place ill Parliament the other day.! where anything can be gained by striking all the laws that all the Labor

Governments can ever pass or promise to pass are to be ignored. That is the idea at the back of tin's federation proposal. And the wider the area of the strike and the mure people injur-

ed by it, irrespective of their being connected or unconnected with the cams!', the more reliance is to bo placed upon it for overriding the laws which, with tongue in cheek, the labor party professes its faith in.” That this is the position becomes more and

more apparent, anti the latest attempt to dictate to New Zealand what she shall or shall not do which the Hon. Vv. M. Hughes, president of the Australian Labor Conference, made on behalf of the Red Federation, i? in keeping with the programme.