NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1026, 16 January 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

We arc sorr.v to sec. the official organ of the railway employees urging them along a course which is contrary to sound public policy. The Railway Review, after admitting that it is'"supposed to avoid politics," goes on to express its sense of the need for someone in Parliament with "a first-hand knowledge of the conditions of State employment."' "It is sincerely .to be hoped," says the Review, "that this serious deficiency will be remedied at next general election, and it would be a great pleasure to announce in these columns a definite move in this direction." Wo agree, of course, that it is altogether desirable that Parliament should include men who are practically acquainted with the life of all classes of the people. But unfortunately the Railway Review means something else besides that. It asks what the Amalgamated Society is doin^ - to help the "outside" trade unions m. their political battle, and after referring to the "'one able man" whom those bo'dies have put into Parliament, inquires: "Are we going to provide him with, colleagues The Review explains that it "can only ask the question and leave it there," because the subject is such a. delicate one for. a "non-political" organ. We should think so. This new attitude of the Review is but another indication of the danger which menaces good government through the circumstance that a large .number of electors.are Government employees. A large and well-organised body of men—and the Amalgamated Society is by far the largest trade union in the Dominion —can, if allowed to do so, exert a. political pressure, which at times amounts almost to dictation. With employees in control, how would the interests'of'the public fare'! The remedy, as we have many ;timcs pointed out, lies in the cultivation of conditions' that will improvo the standard of our politicians and in the transference of the _ control of the .railways by . commissioners responsible*.'not. ,',to & . Government .anxious .: for: . solfrpreservati'on, but to'»' Parliament-alone. 1 ' In this connection we regret to note that t-he Railway Review goes so far as to fcondone breaches of the entirely proper and necessary regulation which forbids railwaymcn to push their claims for' promotion by > personal application to members of Parliament.