THE NATION AND ORGANISED LABOUR.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 223, 19 September 1919, Page 7

THE NATION AND ORGANISED LABOUR.

(By F. G. EWINGTON.) Castastrophes excite thought. When that Wear-eyed cat of legend made havoc amongst the mice, they held a conference to consider remedies. Finally it was agreed that the 'best defence •would be to put a bell on the cat's neck, so that warning might be given of hi-* approach; but the question aroee: Who sliall hell the cat? A very pertinent question, certainly. Similarly, if we could only bell the refractory Labour section, we -would be warned of strikes and could lay in a stock of coal and Champion Muscle Raiser and *hen consign Labour to Howkk. Ho-wick is advisedly suggested, because Jericho and Hongkong are too far off. Yes, but wtho ■will bell Labour? Kcho answers: Who? A comic eingers popular song was: '"Consult my Solicitor." Without intending tihe slightest dierespect to foiS learned friend, I would rather consult Mr. Savage, one of the Labour candidates for Parliament. I feel sure I iwould get a square deal. Mr. Savage took fche chair for mc at two Socialist meetings which I was privileged to address. Something I said then <had an explosive effect like touching gun , powder with a red-hot poker. Two men were apparently going to eat mc alive, and my friend, Mr. Savage, saved them from a very serious attack of tion, because I would have disagreed with them. With the impartiality of a judge and the firmness of a Britieti Field-Marshal Mr. Savage ordered them to sit down; they did, and order prevailed. That brings tis to my first great prill* ciple: Order. 'Order is ieaven's first law, and tbfs confess'd One nmst be greater tuan the rest." We see the necessity for that in the nation, from the Governor down to tide junior telegrapii boy. 'Homes, trade unions, hospitals, every organisation, must be orderly to succeed. Those "who cannot obey cannot govern. Indeed, order is one of the .primary principles of Democracy and life. Democracy in its fundamentals entails personal responsibility and accountability. To whom? To the people—tihe nation. Laibourers, whether physical or mental, are only a part of the nation. It needs no argument of logic to demonstrate that the whole is greater than a part. It is proved by the logic o£ facts. Nobody knows it better than the working man. For instance, ihe pays for c rail-way fare from Auckland to Remuera, and gets a ticket for the whole journey; but what? are the heavens falling? Lα and behold, he gets turned out at Newmarket because the train is going to Mount Eden instead; and our 'hero has to walk along the dusty road to Remuera, saying, as he goes, anything but his prayers, because Siejpaid for tihe whole journey and got carried only a part of it. Exactly so: the whole is greater than a part." If then we -waul, to <be democratically governed, and order and majority rule are fundamental principles of Democracy, tihe nation cannot and will not and should not submit to the indignity, injustice, and nrin by disintegrating sectional or class rule, ■whether by rich ot poor. The nation, confident in its strength to enforce right against might, government against anarchy, and to prevail according to the people's love of peace and order, is but" sJowdy aroused by pin-pricks and even by somewhat violent graspings at dictatorial class rule, alias "direct action." H e that believeth doth not make hatrte, not because he is a slow goer, as if "tomorrow will do," ibut because 'he magnanimously forbears, for peace sake, and knows that when the clock strikes, right and order, whicli are integrating forces, will triumph over disorder -and wrong, which, are disintegrating , . But -Whenever a "part of a nation tries to dominate the whole, a crisis in due course arises, and then the nation, from a feeling that self-preservation is a first Jaw of nature, asserts its power to protect the whole against a part, and .prevails to maintain law, order, justice, and liberty. History shows ttiat the nation, once thoroughly aroused, prevails, and prosperity and mutual forgiveness result, and peace flows like a river. Xow, I desire to impress on extremists who cause industrial, social, and political trouble here, that they not merely punish a few persons whom they -want to •'get at," but they punish and really muke war on the nation. Just fancy, in a place like Auckland, we cannot buy more than a quarter of a ton of coal! "That is only one of many pin-pricks, and the way in which the nation ihas welltreated Labour shows how positively ungrateful it is for Lahour to rend the nation. This is what the Xation has done, and of course Labour has in some the full and in other instances, the principal benefits of it all—provided education, maternity home?, old-age pensions, widows' and children's pensions, hospitals, compensation Courts, State loan-;, houses, workmen's trains, a minimum wage, short working hours, sanitary factories, freedom from imprisonment for debt, protection from distraint for rent, preference to trade unionists in the Labour market. Appeal Boards for wageearners, and has restricted prices, rents, and interest, and in many other ways tried to make the worker's life a life really worth living. They are only some of the good thing-; the nation has done for Labour, and I challenge anyone "to instance another country in the wide world where so much has been done for rt, and where more -sincere hopes and intentions are cherished to continue and even extend such good things. As for what good the unorganised community has done and is doing for Labour will appear in my next article. I fully admit that Labour has had an up-hill fight inch iby inch, and that noble-minded men like Lord Shaftesbury were not backed up by others as they should have been.