REPLY TO N.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3660, 24 December 1920, Page 4

REPLY TO N.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE.

(To the Editor ) -. Sir, —I see by a recent issue cjf your paper that the N.Z. Welfare League arc again wailing and gnashing their teeth over the Labour Extremist and paid agitators, ami the ‘ crocodile tears ' they shed over the poor toilers stirs one 7 s soul to j pity. How anxioute the Welfare League : s 1 agitators are to pounce on the Lab- £ j our men! But I have never yet read of any protest from them against ' the way the sawmillers are exploit- | iug the people- of this country. Noth, ing -is said when the sawmillers make a law which- is unconstitutional, ie. ? that any person buying timber, say. in Manunui or Taumarunui, has got. to pay freight on that timber as though it had been railed from Ohaknue. (Oh, 1107 this is business!) But when the toiler wants a little more remuneration for services rendered, or a little better conditions (and, God Knows, they are greatly needed in the King Country) what a howl the Welfare League sets up.' To produce timber in many of thorn ills, it costs about 12/ or 13/ per hundred feet, and for this same tim. ber the millers are receiving anything from 30/ to ,70/ per hundred feet. Now tile, toilers in, the , mills know' these facts,, and con.-

sequently want a little better share than they are receiving at the present time, and* for forming a union for this purpose- they (the Welfare League) have the audacity to spill their spleen, and infer that the men. can be led away by any Jack-a_nape / who comes along. You try it on, Mr Welfare League, and see how you get on. Yon will find that the average worker in the sawmills has, a mind of his own, and can express it just .as forcibly as they can, and if they wish it, I shall he only too pleased to accompany them to any i sawmill in this district and assist | them in every way to meet the men for the purpose of putting their views before them, or I am prepared to debate the issue with them, and I am not a paid agitator. Re the cir_ cular letter of mine, which they quote. They evidently do “not know the circumstances which led up to that letter being issued (which was at the request of ,my execu_ tive),, or else they have cunningly chosen to ignore thofce circumstances; and, of course, all their talk about bloodshed, etc., is just so much moonshine, and can, only orig_

£nate in the distorted • brains of some imaginative people. Wake up. Welfare League! You arc standing on your own toe. In conclusion, let in.e say that if the One Big Union fox the workers is wrong or immoral, then please enlighten me where and why, because I am seeking the truth and I realise that life is too short and time is too'' precious for anyone to be obsessed with the wrong idea and notions, much 'less to postulate them I am not married to any idea ■or notion, and will drop what I pow believe in (like a hot spud), if they can prove me wrong. So come along. Accept the qhallenge to debate and put forward a little constructive policy, and I feel sure they will do more good that way, than by taking up the columns of the - newspapers , * throughout Jt his Dominion only whin-

ing about other people and their doings. As for strikes, I have given jseveUal addresses tjhfc King Country, entitled '‘Strike Failures; their Causes and Cure.” Also one at Ohutu, and when the men through their Unibn write their employers three times- in one year asking for a conference to discuss mats • ters, and are ignored, who is to ' blame if the men become impatient and cease work? Surely the workers are entitled to some consideration in. thbse matters.—l am, etc., . FRANK XANGSTONB. .