Labour in Australia.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16857, 10 June 1920, Page 6

Labour in Australia.

Tho report presented at the annual conference of the Australian Labour Party in New South Wales, os summarised in Tuesday's cable news, contained one passage of more than passing interest, in so far as it shows that in Australia, as in Great Britain, the saner section of Labour is trying to shake itself free from the embarrassing company, or control, of the extremists. In the passage we refer to, a plea was made for harmonious relations between tho Party and the Labour Council, but it was added that "in order to sccuro " this, it is absolutely imperative that " the personnel of the Council officials "shall be changed, otherwise unity of "effort is out of the question.'.' This appeal is on tho lines of one issued about a fortnight ago by the A.L.P. to tho various trades unions, in which it was pointed out that tho delegates chosen by the latter to attend the Labour Council should be earnest men, with real sympathy with tho Labour movement, men, moreover, "who have "an intelligent conception of tlio real " industrial needs of tho hour, and who " will not waste their uuions' repre- " sentation on those studies in economic "futility which have robbed the "Labour Council of all its old-time use- " fulness." The officials who control tho Council afc present, it is remarked, are men whoso ideas "are strangely foreign "to the definito constructive policy for " which tho Labnur movement stands." The members of the Labour Party want to sec the Labour Council a representative, useful, and consultative body, whoso meetings may be attended by Labour Ministers desirous of keeping in direct touch with industrial needs and developments. The ruling spirits cf the Council apparently do not want to see it anything of the kind. Thev do not care twopence for political action, and their preference for the methods of direct action naturally hamper the work of tho A.L.P., whoso members have to bear, in numerous eases undeservedly, a share of the odium provoked by the language and aspirations and actions of tho militants. The A.L.P. would, indeed, agree with Mr Philip Snowden, who, in. his recent address as President of the Independent Labour Party, hitherto regarded as expressing the view of the moro advanced section of the workers, declared himself as a convinced opponent of direct 'action, and asserted, as to the extremists' policy of violence, that "we must recognise " facts, and although the alternative "to a spectacular revolution may be "comparatively dull and uninspiring, "it is tho only sure and certain road "to tho .final goal." The ideals of Labour do not commend themselves to many people, bub they would appeal to a wider circle if they were couchcd in less provocative language than is too often the case, and if the measures by which it is proposed in some quarters to attain them were more in consonanco with' commonly-held ideas of honesty, fair-dealing, and common sense. Labour is, of course, entitled to everything it can secure by political action, even to the Government of the country and it will hold such gains as it makes by this means in much surer grasp than if they liad been wrenched from the rest of the community by direct action. This is what the Australian Labour Party recognises, in its efforts to free Labour from Trades Hall misgovernment. If it succeeds in defeating the extremists, the lesson should not bo lest to New Zealand.