LABOUR CAUCUS RULE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1792, 3 July 1913, Page 7

LABOUR CAUCUS RULE.

BOGUS LEADERS,

VIGOROUS DENUNCIATION BY

MR. EARNSHAW.

Addressing the Legislative Council yesterday, tho Hon. W. Uarnshaw dealt :renchantly with so-oalled Labour leaders, [n the past, ho .said, Labour men had not ooked lor emoluments or for billets, but iV-ero filled with a .sincere desire to servo ;heir class, according to their lifjhts, regardless of what tho result might bo. 'But I am justified in saying," continued Mr. Eariishaw, "that there arc too many men, umdor tho cover of the cause of Labour, thinking more of tho fat billets they may get than of the cause they we." They, had a Parliament sitting that day in Wellington, he continued, ivhich consisted of betweon four and five hundred Labour representatives. He was [jlud, and pleased to see that there wag bo much youth amongst tho delegates. It was a very good sign for any cause when the young men. of a country wore octivo in its support. It appeared to him, however, that in the present case tho young men were only being used as pawns in tho game of ithose who were controlling tho machine, men who were not actuated by those principles which had made tho nation industrially and politically great. 'I say," said Mr. Karnshaw, "that men who are actuated by a spirit that they will get as much as' tliey can for their labour, and do as little as they can for it, are a dishonour and a disgrace to the cause, laiat these men will in public slander and blackguard men in high places (as happened at tho Opera House last Sunday night) is a scandal and a sliame and a disgrace to tho name of tho Labour cause. (H«u\ hear.) A man who will say, 'To Hell with contracts' can but lead tho Labour world to disaster." . Mr. Earnshaw went on to fiercely denounce tho American caucus machine w4ilich men ivcto endeavouring cleverly and astutely to ibuild up in this country. Surely, he' said, the greater labour world which was outside tho influenco and dominance of these men would not bo discredited by sending to this Chamber and to the other Chamber men. who would be bound body and soul—men who must put their resignations beforehand in tho hands of a caucus oommittec. This would be going back to the days of the Venetian Council of Ten or the Star Chamber of the days of the Charles's and James's. Uniler such conditions men would be sent to Parliament who would bo the puppeta and tools of men. who governed them from behind. If representatives po controlled dared to say anything in- Parliament which did not meet with the approval of tho caucus they would bo subjected to underground influences and finally compelled to resign. Their souls would not be their own. "WMat but death and disaster can comc to th'o Labour world," said Mr. Earnshaw, "if tliey are to be governed by an orgajiisation of that kind? As a working man who has done as much hard graft as any in that 'Parliament,' and who is quit© -able now to do as "much work a? any man among them, I repeat, as a working man and a Labour man, I beliove that when tho workers of Now Zealand have expressed their opinion upon 'the claim of these /organisations and these men at tho next elections, it will be realised that this machine will never be come dominant,' and these nijn will gc down as they have never gone down before. I feel very strongly upon this matter. I have had perhaps as muoh experience with regard to Labour in industrial and! political organisations as an : v other working man in New Zealand—] think I know the spirit of my follow working men."