LABOR AND THE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 February 1916, Page 4

LABOR AND THE WAR.

It is a well-accepted dictum that labor is the backbone of a country, for without the workers no country can thrive. How necessary it is, therefore, thnt there should be no kink in this backbone can easily be seen. Strength minus intelligence may well be regarded as misdirected energy and may lead to chaos. The attitude of a section of the workers relative to conscription is difficult to understand without attributing to them a' lack of sufficient intelligence to enable them to get a true grip of the situation. They either will not, or cannot, see that to oppose conscription and yet not to enlist is to brand them as triflers and hypocrites, instead of being men. Last week the representatives of Labor organisations met in conference at Wellington and issued a manifesto which stated: "This conference, representing 87 organisations of Labor (including all trades and labor councils, with the exception of Otago), regret that n section of the community should attempt to intioduce the conscription system that has been consistently opposed by the working classes in all parts of the Empire." It will be noticed an assertion is made in the above manifesto that conscription has been consistently opposed by the workers in all parts of the Empire, and yet at the Bristol Conference a resolution was carried by 1.502.000 to (102,000 expressing horror at the German atrocities, and giving a pledge to the Government to assist as far as possible in the successful prosecution of the war, the mover remarking that if Germany won, nothing else on God's earth mattered. The Wellington conference put forth an absolutely untrue statement, showing they were ignorant of what the more intelligent section of the workers are doing iu connection with the war. They

must have *lmt their minds lo the lesson com eye J by the Merthyr-Tydvil byelection, i'.'iiich was won by Mr. tSianton (svbo had to contend against the powerful opposition of the anti-militarists) on one plank alene—tiie vigorous and relentless prosecution of the war. if the Laborites, instead of taking up an attitude of unenviable isolation, were to take heed of the action of such intelligent and right-minded leaders as Mr. \Vm. Rosier, piesident of the Railway Workers and General Laborers' Association of New South Wales, they would be more profitably and. sensibly employed, than in showing hostility to military service, which is imperative to save them and the Empire generally from becoming the victim; of the campaign of carnage, slaughter and destrii.-tion on which Germany has entered. Mr. Rosser, in a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald, describes the conflict as "'a war against a war," and though opposed to conscription he has enlißted. If all those who are opposed to conscription followed his example, instead of making noi6y protests, there would be no need for its enforcement. He points out that Germany's object in seeking world domination is to take by the throat every principle of freedom, justice, liberty, and ,social progress so dear to the hearts of sincere and earnest lovers of humanity the world over. The position, he contends, can only be met honorably in one way, and that is by the Btep he has taken—enlistment. Those who do not give their personal aid'to the Allies are helping the enemy, and now is the time, above all other, to act, and not to pass hostile resolutions. It may not occur to the ardent opponents of militarism that the only logical course open to them !« to fight militarism till it .is crushed. Those who approve conscription and do not enlist Mr.,Rosser, not men, and are useless to the world at this period of its dire need, or, indeed, at any time. In this moment of wo>ld crisis, as in most things, delays , are dangerous. More than that, it involves disaster to all we hold most dear in life. The enemy will not allow us an indefinite period of time to argue about the situation. Now, as never before in our history, our country calls. Will it be said in future that it went down in disaster because its sons in its dire extremity remained deaf to its call!