LABOR AND POLITICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 308, 23 May 1911, Page 8

LABOR AND POLITICS

INDUSTRIAL DRILL FIRST. Auckland. Monday. The attitude of tlie New Zealand Federation of Labor towards politics was explained to a Star reporter by Mr. It. Semple, organiser for the Federation. Same special interest attaches to this on account of this body not at the moment joining forces politically with the Trades and Labor Federation. '"lt is generally rumored," said Mr. Semple, "that the New Zealand Federation of Labor is a body that takes up an anti-political attitude. That is not so. The Federation recognises that the workers must be first drilled in the field of industry to have a knowledge of what they want and how to get it. When they are so drilled their political party will naturally be the reflection of an intelligent and organised industrial democracy. Take, for instance, the referendum in Australia. We contend that the defeat of the Labor Tarty in that effort was due to the fact that the industrial organisations had been neglected—that the Lahor party had gained political supremacy merely through momentary enthusiasm and not through continuous agitation and education in the industrial field. The very people who thrust them into power when appealed to give them power to do what they thought their duty to do refused thevi that power, That proves conclusively that the workers were not well organised and did not know exactly what they wanted. The X>w Zealand Federation of Labor, profiting by the experience of Australia, is determined that the education work shall be done in the industrial world first, and when we realise that sufficient work has been done then we will turn our attention to the political machinery."