The Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1913. WISE COUNSEL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 4 November 1913, Page 4

The Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1913. WISE COUNSEL.

Wo have never been enthusiastic in our admiration for either Mr W. A. Veiteh, MP., or Mr H. D. Bedford, the one-timepugnacious, little Labour member for Duiiedin. : But the statements of both of these- gentlemen ■ concerning the present industrial upheaval are.so eminently sane that we are impelled to" applaud them. Mr Bedford, who is at the present trr.s lecturer in political economy at the Otago University, speaking as y an earnest advocate of the cause of LaIbour, said: "To me the strike in its origin, in ite conduct, and in the wild barbaric utterances of its leaders, is nothing short of appalling. There is no salvation along the liae of broken agreements. Labour *&:»• not expect to be respected unless c-s word is ite bond.' Its cause is V)-) grand and sacred 'vo be stained wi+b the repudiation of solemn undertakings. The attainment of the groat ideal of economic readjustment is only hindered by that alienation of 'public sympathy which' springs from spurned covenants and 1 flamboyant defiances of law and incitements to incendiarism and-plunder. The spirit and methods of Labour are pitting back the hand of the clock. I would like here to impress upon the itftention of the public that, this organisation . only represent a .section of Labour. in New Zealand,: and. that section,.!" believe,- a small one." I trust that in its judgment' the. pub% will not he guilty of the injustice of Indiscriminate condemnation of whatever calls itself hy the name of lahour." After unsparingly condemning the syndicalism methods of the Federation as opposed to tEe fthns t-f the other section of Labour—to use,

the constitutional machinery to ettain its end and to wield the weapon of the strike only when every other resource has failed—Mr Bedford sa\\s: "I wish it to be clearly understood that in condemning the Wellington strike I am doing so in what J conceive to be the interests of Labour. L ;un no unsympathetic, outsider ready to curl the contumelious lip at every demand of Labour. My study of economic conditions has convinced me that in New Zealand, as well as in other parts of the world, Labour is not adequately remunerated for the -services it renders, but the great bulk of Labour in this Dominion realises that the way to renovation is the ballot-box and not chaos. Great changes must come, and in this generation. I earnestly hope they are not to be delayed by the use of the futile weapons of the French Revolution. I believe that the issue of the fearful struggle in Wellington will be filially to discredit the methods of syndicalism and turn a muted body of Labour u»oa the htpei'til patk of legislative activity, along wkich signal victories are to bo KAn.'witbout first reducing society to destruction and anarchy. Labour's great ideal is not to destroy wealth, but to get a better share of it."