The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19. LABOR AND THE COMMONS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 189, 19 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19. LABOR AND THE COMMONS.

Y\ e have already endeavoured to show that non-payment of Labor members in the House of Commons by levies on the associations they represent or by grants from the public purse would allow Parliament to revert to its old standard. The old standard gave only those men who were able to afford the luxury of politics a chance to enter the Commons. Trades Unionism and .physical financial organisation made it possible to place representatives of .the workers in Parliament, most necessary representation when one considers the workers represent the vast majority of the people of Britain. Everyone remembers that the famous Osborne case made it impossible for levies to be made on trade union funds for the support of trade union representatives in the Commons. Although in ,N.ew Zealand levies are not necessary because the State pays all its representatives whether they are elected by the people or are given a political place by the Government in power, the principle laid down by the Osborne judgment is of intense interest to every Labor member in .any Parliament of. the Dominions. And, therefore, Mr. Walter Osborne's contribution on the subject in the Daily Mail is likely to be read with keen interest by those who see in the judgment the thin end of the wedge that may drive out very necessary labor, representatives in the Mother of Parliaments. Eew people, wrote Mr. Osborne, realised the political importance of the trade union levy case as it was being dragged wearily through the courts for upwards of three years. It was not until the Lords had confirmed the decision arrived at by the Appeal Court that the public generally awakened to the fact: that it was .not .merely a trade union squabble hut a constitutional matter of some importance, and one that might materially affect the course of political life. The members of the Socialist-Labor Party professed to treat the matter lightly. It .could but strengthen their position; the trade union members were sufficiently loyal to the Socialist alliance to pay voluntarily, and it would be easy to get a Bill through Parliament to reverse the judgment. By such statements they showed how little they understood the issues involved. It was only when they found that their expectations on tlie other points were unfulfilled that they threw off their apparent indifference and displayed "both anger and disappointment. Even were payment of members by the State an accomplished fact, the Labor Party as at present constituted could not share in that advantage. Parliament could *orily pay its members as being servants of the State, and this could not be claimed by men who were admittedly and contractedly bound to the service of a third party and compelled to do its bidding, a system declared by the courts to be contrary to public policy. Much speculation is rife as to what course the Government will adopt. Payment of members would seem to be the only possible course, for poverty must not be allowed to : be a barrier to representation in Parliament. The poorer, and therefore the more helpless, a section of the community may be, the more it requires the assistance and protection of Parliament. PajTnent of members and returning officers' fees makes that representation possible, and would break down the present Socialist monopoly and give access to poor men of all political creeds. Mr. Osborne continues:—

An attempt is being made to magnify the effects of the judgment by declaring that the ordinary objects of a trade union are being restricted and that the Trade Union Congress, trades councils, and such bodies are endangered, and that a union cannot promote legislation in the interest of its own members, such as regulations for mines or factories. Yet there can be no objection to these matters being referred to the law officers or some other committee of inquiry. It is not for political reasons only that the early attention of Parliament is demanded for this subject, for the trade unions and, through them, the industrial position generally have been profoundly affected by the Socialist alliances. The affiliation of the trade unions with the Socialist organisation and the adoption of their creed has to all intents made Socialism the test of trade unionism and has had the tendency to keep the more moderate men either out of the unions or from taking any active part in them, while it has attracted the more extreme men. Thus the unions are becoming like ships with too much sail and too ""little ballast, and the effect is already felt disastrously in the industrial world. jVlany thousands of .staunch and wellbalanced men have left our unions during the last few years rather than suffer the Socialist domination.

While level-headed laborites fight wildeyed Socialism, there is some hope for the Labor Party, for it is likely enough that the majority of the workers of Britain would rather build than destroy. The matfcr will probably resolve itself into a question of strength of organisation, and no class would be able to fight dogmatic and destructive Socialism so effectively as organised and sane workers.