The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1920. ONE BIG UNION.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1920, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1920. ONE BIG UNION.

The resolution passed at a .meeting of trades unionists at Auckland last, week is a fair sample of how these syndicalists would wreck this fair land. The ostensible object of the meeting was to condemn the decision of the president of the Arbitration Court relative to the bonus award, but advantage was taken of the opportunity to strike a blow at Parliament, for obeying the behest of "the employing class" in its industrial legislation. This accusation has become perfectly harmless by continuous usage as part of the'stock in trade of the extremists. From one point of view it is quite logical, as these extremists flout constitutional methods and rely upon direct action. The sting of the resolution is to be found in its tail —the abolition of the present capitalist system and the substitution of a system of "production for service instead of for profit". To that end. and to prepare for the inevitable struggle, a pronouncement was made in favor of "bne union in each industry, and one big union of all workers"Sovictism, pure and simple. It might be asked: Whence springs this new-born interest in production ? If ii n'ire genuine--:wjijcii'

it is not—how cordially it would be welcomed! Unfortunately it is mere camouflage to cover up the real aim—Labor dictatorship; to be in a position to govern by coercion, by paralysing trade,and all national and individual activities, and by adopting the bandit formula of "Stand and deliver". Even Lenin has been compelled to admit the failure of these tactics in Russia, and has had to enlist the help of the arch enemy of the proletariat—the capitalist. There is a striking allegory in which the winds are said to have challenged the Sun to a contest for' mastery. Needless to say, the Sun was victorious. The moral conveyed is that the power of creation is infinitely greater than the forces of destruction, and unionists would do well to take this to heart. However glibly the extremists may talk of production, their whole being is centred on the use of destructive agencies, so that the few who- can thrust themselves ' into the front rank may dictate to the world and tyrannise oyer their fellows to their hearts' content. The just aims and aspirations of sane Labor command universal sympathy and support, but the revolutionary movement for a Labor dictatorship by means of one big union should meet with thorough condemnation, and most of all by the workers themselves, who, under such a regime, would, as in Russia to-day, become slaves to the will of those who recognise neither law nor jnstice, but are a law unto themselves. If the unionists desire to stimulate production, they can do so by working in harmony and co-operation ;with Capital, and the result would be to reduce the cost of living, save the loss entailed by going slow and strikes, and materially improve the general welfare of the workers. "Production for service instead of for profit" is an admirable sentiment, but in a hard and practical world like ours it can never he more than a shibboleth. What the Socialist who is always giving utterance to it has to do is to prove how production can be maintained without the stimulant of payment by results. He lias never yet been able to do so, and whilst man is constituted as he is, there is little probability that he can in the future.