Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1912. LABOUR'S EL DORADO.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 87, 12 April 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 1912. LABOUR'S EL DORADO.

After many lecture*, many meetings of unions, and some conferences, the Labour Unity scheme has taken a definite form, accepted by the representatives of workers estimated to number 60,000. Professor Mills has been the principal organising power in thia large, ambitious work, and it must be admitted that he has given his employer* a surprising amount of strenuous service. We confess frankly that , we did not expect that the American orator, who has a geniality and tact equal to his activity, would get to hia 1 goal in less than twelve months. He has been the chief agent in tho preparation of plans which have been approved, and it is for time to show the extent to which the Unity theory will harden into fact. Wo are not iv the confidence of the Labour leaders, but our belief is that their present aspirations may have to be modified. They are .trawling in a. big sea with an immense net, but our opinion is that the mesh is on the large side. In their anxiety to get a haul of big fish, the trawlers may lose many of the smaller ones. In short, the Unity scheme is designed, ostensibly, for all workers, manual and mental. Tho desire is to catch and hold all men and women except those who are employers or capitalists who are not direct employers. The aiittas to have a dividing line between Labour, in the broadest sense of the word— or "the useful" people of New Zealand — and non-labour. Therefore, an invitation ia extended to "teaebflre, writers, artiaUi, actors, civil

engineers, barristers, solicitors, minis"ters, physicians, 6urgeone, trained nurses, and so forth." This group would be ono of ten, and would have only one vote on the National Executive. It would be a professional tail to the Labour body, but the tail would be so weighted that it would have no chance of wagging the dog. The scheme is an effort to strongly pit the whole of the employed clats, including professional men directly employed by the public without the mediation of any other employer, against the employing claes. The object is to achieve success in an orderly, evolutionary manner, by political and industrial organisation, with a general strike as "a last resort." Thus the movement is frankly one for a Labour domination by , "right," if employers can be always induced to admit tho "right," and by "might" if the employers are not willing to be otherwise persuaded. In brief, the gun will not be fired, in the final issue, if the employers agree to hold up their hands. Moreover, it is hoped to gradually eliminate the private employer — to supersede him by the State as a banker, farmer, and manufacturer. The "Unity scheme" is a modification of the working plans of the Socialist Federation of Labour. The new " United Labour Party " is out for the "co-operative commonwealth" by evolution, and the Federation wishes to establish the industrial "new Jerusalem" by revolution. The Labour Party shows a pink banner against the Federation's red flag. Each puts its final trust in tho general strike, but the Labour Party has to be given credit for a reluctance to rely on syndicalism. In the ordinary course, the " evolutionaries " stand for "the settlement of industrial disputes on the lines of legally established agreements and awards by methods of conciliation and arbitration." The Federation has contemptuously rejected the statutory conciliation and arbitration process. Broadly cpeaking, ' the Unity scheme embodies the principles which the Labour Party adopted at the Easter Conference last year, with the addition of a definite claim to the "right to strike" as well as the right to work. The new features are mainly in the provisions for enlarging the membership ot the party, which, will include "Socialist societies, Single-tax clujbs, and any other propaganda organisations," if the new form of the oft-changed Labour Party acts up to the whole of the American organiser's advice. The Post has already given the Labour Party credit for some of its ideals, notably those connected with land, but we are in disagreement with the party on a number of the points set out in i the Unity scheme. Things visionary are curiously jumbled up with things practicable in this latest appeal to the country. "The initiative, referendum, and recall on proper petition and by bare majority" ia- alone sufficient to put us at serious variance with the United Labour Party, for such a system would tend to make a farco of representative government and mark a reversion to the chaos from which representative government was evolved. The country might be in a constant state of instability, the plaything of the forces of agitation and counter-agitation. We notice that the "elective executive," for which th« Labour Party once raised & clamant democratic voice, has now gone overboard. The explanation is simple^ — caucus. When Labour becomes the Government the caucus: will set up the Ministry, and it will be for the Opposition to clamour for the " elective executice" in the name of democracy. We aro inclined to think that the United Labour Party has set down more than it expects to be able to accomplish for a long time yet; much of the manifesto may be merely paper currency. It has to be remembered that th« party is in competition with the Federation of Labour, and each hae to bid highly for doubtfuls. The Federation has captured a number of unions from the Trades Council group, and the reorganised party no doubt hopes to return the complij ment. There is a keen struggle for supremacy between these two Labour organisations, and the United Labour Party expects to prevail ultimately. In the meantime the United Labour Party has definitely marched away from th« Liberal Party, -whatever tho present Labour representatives in Parliament may care to do. Labour has decided tc- fight alone in the political field ; indeed, the present Labour programme makes impossible any genuine enduring, alliance between the Liberal and Labour parties.