MUST GET TOGETHER

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 62, 6 December 1930, Page 21

MUST GET TOGETHER

Economic Problems BEN TILLETT HITS OUT (By N.Z. Welfare League.) In a recent number of “The Seaman" Mr. Ben Tillett hits out about present troubles. It is interesting to note that he advocates a conference of all interests—Commercial, Financial and Labour —such as we have urged for some time past. We wish that Labour leaders would here take the same view. “Who," says Mr. Tillett, “will deal effectively with the wild men in the Labour Party as in other parties? Who can be patient with the fools, in whatever political party they are, who sneer at working men, or with the half-wits who shout for less work, less hours, more pay, more pensions as though these things could be evolved with a magic gesture, as conjurors produce rabbits out of < property hat? Let us be realists and look at the situation as it really is to-day. Critical Turmoil.

“The industrial world throughout civilisation, representing producers, bankers, financiers, and those dependent on wages and labour, is at the moment in the stress of a critical turmoil, yet there does not appear to be any real sane governing principle in the relationships between them. This is a time when man’s power over nature has developed to an extraordinary degree, industrial efficiency has doubled, yet, not merely is there a world condition of bad trade, but there is a disastrous unemployment problem. The result is a state of confusion, with the ravenous claims on the resources of the country. , “There are those who shout for more payments from the State, and their chief cry is that as we could find money for the war so we can find money for. their nostrums to be put into practice. But they overlook the fact, that we did not find the money for the war; it has not yet been found, for we are still paying to the tune of a million a day m interest, while the huge debt remains. ‘These cries for more payments are the cries of despair. In -my view, what is required is a get-together policy for all grades of society from the labourer to the great organising and producing capitalists, the bankers and the stock exchanges. The relationship between the workers and the employers must be placed on a more satisfactory economic footing. A very grave responsibility rests upon the trade union movement. The practical men with practical _ brains, who are administering the affairs for the unions, can, I feel sure, offer a contribution towards a solution. But the wild men in any party or class can only offer harm and delusion. Restoration of Confidence. i “We want confidence restored. If we all pull together I am positive we can extract this country from the slough of despond into which it is rapidly sinking. If, instead of listening to the fools who live in a world of moonshine, we look around us we can see plenty of practical work to do, so that we can make life better than we found it, and the experience and the skill of all who can make any contribution should be available without any artificial restriction. “For the critics within the Labour movement to skulk behind the platitudes of Karl Marx is a mere stupid subterfuge. It is idiotic not to face facts, and the ostrich-like policy which refuses to meet the inevitable avalanche of change speaks little for the value of that entcism. Trade unionism, in its organisation, must be as scientific as is capitalism. Where it does not kno.w of changes it must learn, or perish’. - J, ’ “Whatever our differences of political opinion may be—and every man is entitled to hold his own as vehemently as I hold mine—a means of discussion is wanted in order to avoid the conspiracies and suspicions of the past.