THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 305, 18 September 1908, Page 9

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

, ;!;;.ADDRi:ss. BYiJiR'. d. M'laren. . D. M'Laren addressed a meeting fronj the. Quec.i's Statue-yesterday at noon. Them was a large gathering, and tho speaker was .accorded, a good hearing. Doaling with tho present! attempt..:to. amend - the Conciliation and Arbitration Act- Jig- said tho Government and Parliament had-now before them a measure of mixed principles—a form of voluntary conciliation .(which 'many of the workers' unions liad already said they were, opposed - to) and arbitration without assent on tlia part of; tho. parties interested backed up by compulsion; ad lib. .. Any attempt to present tho arbitration law as" a means of economic boctermentilor thejworkers tho speaker regarded; as a .fraudulent practice. He was strongly'opposed to sectional strikes as beiiig',.a:. foolish method of settlement, but maintained, that the workers should never give!.ill) their right to strike, as it meant /giving iup tho bright to withhold from sale the only commodity'which tho workers pos-scssctl-rtheir labour- power, while every otliei\class in the State exorcised the right of' Suspending tho sale" of their commodities whenever they thought the prico could thereby be enhanced. .Tile facts of- tho present • industrial situation were that the employers did.'not Svant the Conciliation Boards and of course, they must go. The workers were dissatisfied' with- the Arbitration Court, and that "fact -was being ignored. The workers \ were "only -'to receive'compulsion with pains arid ;pennlties if they attempted to break through the arbitration net. Mr. M'Laren urged'that, the'workers' side could only bo put by having • adequate representation of Labour* in Parliament,- and all attempts of tlie Government to bring' peace by bludgeoning the. workers into submission iiiust end in failure. ' ' '