“IF I WERE MAYOR”

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 24, 20 April 1927, Page 8

“IF I WERE MAYOR”

MR. BLOODWORTH’S POSITION HIS POLICY ON STRIKES “If I were mayor and there was a tramway strike, what would I do?” No answer forthcoming, Mr. Bloodworth supplied one himself. ‘ Well, I will tell you what I would do. I would do exactly what a mayor should do. If the men were in the right I would say so, and if I thought they were in the wrong I would very quickly tell them. I will say what I think to be right even if in doing so I lose my position. I don’t want to win popularity by saying the things i thought people wanted me to say.” In defining his position as mayor of Auckland in the event of industrial trouble occurring, Mr. Bloodworth in his address at Grey Lynn last evening delivered himself in the above way. The best way to stop strikes, he said, was to prevent them. On the Arbitration Court he represented a large number of organisations, more so than any other Labour representative, and if he was an advocate for strikes he would not have achieved the success he had done or been complimented from time to time by both the Arbitration Court judges. “A labour leader,” said Mr. Bloodworth, “never gets any credit for what he does. You hear all about him,> 01 course, when there is a strike on, but let me tell you that for one strike ther* are twenty that are stopped.” Referring to the 1913 strike, Mr. Bloodworth said that it was the ony time that the labour organisation owhich he was an executive offl c® r been involved in a strike. " ut 0 that occasion, said Mr. Bloodwor . strike fever was in the air. Tne were people who knew of the part had played in that strike and he was not ashamed of it. “The Auckland did not have to protect himself against me on that occasion, marked Mr. Bloodworth. “The newspapers all say there is no room for party politics on the City Council,” concluded Mr. Bloodworth. “But party prejudice is the only issue they can raise against me.” _