LABOUR UNITY AND LABOUR RIGHTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 183, 2 August 1913, Page 9

LABOUR UNITY AND LABOUR RIGHTS.

(To the Editor) *"iry—A corrcspnfti&>nl. in your Tuesday", issue, under, tlto title n(' Tom Blnodworth, advocate?... rules, and ■ prip-;-iplcs, htth fantastic iMid arbitrarr, for .voikcrs' guidantc— »o jpuch so, in' fact, thai their adoption would- speednV mean Uiarchy and chaos, pure mid simple. J'"or instance, lie maintains that "workers nave the rigid to work or not to nork when it pleases them,'' and, by implicaLioii, strongly deprecates agreement!! or amtracts of any sort to otherwise hind Ijiem. Such a rule, once in full opcra;ion, would produce some remarkable md unlooked-for remits — result* in iome cases not always such as tout correspondent might contemplate* For instate, a building at a critical stage of :ta erection might be left Io totter and fall should the workers be pleased to ttaec work at th:it juncture. A policenan, being a "worker," might leave a rjlood-gnilty criminal go free if the forucr considered he should cease work at ihe critical moment of the litter's ar--est, Even an onginedrivcr on a train, I surgeon in the middle of n vital opera:ioo, or a helmsman steering a great Jiip through a dangerous channel — all ;hcse. according to your correspondent, ir-c amply justiilcil by virtue of their ights as "workers" in ceasing work "whenever it pleased them.'* As a profressive Socialist myself, who aims and lopes for the ultimato brotherhood of nan. I do not consider the prornulgaion of principles such as the above will ;omracnd themselves to the approval oil reasonable people—l am, etc., j T. E. WHITE.