NEW ARBITRATION BILL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12905, 10 September 1907, Page 9

NEW ARBITRATION BILL.

VIEWS OF SOCIALISTS.

(srECIAL TO 'THE THESS,") WELLINGTON, September 9. The Socialists, who appear to be making considerable heauway here, h-eid a crowded meeting in His Majesty's Theatre on Sunday night. The meeting wus a'cwiitwed by Mr 1). iMc-Uii-eji, secretary to the Waterside Workers Union. ihe apeakcr said a was diwcuit to deal witn "Uus preciOius uiil by tuliini; iw»,au;d scUous, because the wiioie eUo-'t of the combination of sections had to be taiii&n into iiecount, and the oujocta tiiat ivelo being ain:ed at in tii.e eoiuuiliatioji Jio heid that the Hill was dangerous in the extreme, not only to tno wage earners, but to tho country as a whoiu. It aimed at restricting the pcnve.r ol the- workers' Unieiu by striking at their leaders, interlerin.g with the internal management of tiie Unions, dictating «-3 to the of funds, and generally turning the Unioris ijitb mere (State bureaux, thereby killing the real spirit cf Unionism. The Minister's plea "that the law must ba enforced' , was described as a re-echo of the old Conservative cry of '"law and order," which the ompioyir.!? dacs had meted out to Mr Miliar "and his fellow strikers in ISOO. "The stand of the Hon. Mr Millar to-day," said Mr McLaren, "is just the same as that taken by the Conservative Government in Sir Harry Atkinson's time, and it is mot by the same high reply of labour—that where law is the embodiment and expression of justice, there is no need of appeal for the peonle to cl**erve the law. They reeognis? it ni their bmt interest to do so, nnd where order ie a preserving of our common liberties the people will always res->ect it as the highwrt good." "Not Ic-ga] coercion but moral force." concluded the speaker, "is the true groundwork of any rational system of arbitration." A member of the Socialist party ofterwanL? submitted a resolution condemnatory of the GovernT-ent'e attitude towards labour, his chief argument being: that under the arbitration system profits on cnpital had increavd nut of all proportion to the incrrisef given to labour. Tho motion wM agreed to.