WHEN LABOUR RULES

Evening Post, Volume 91, Issue 91, 15 October 1923, Page 6

WHEN LABOUR RULES

SECTIONAL OR INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT. KIROV OtJB OWN CORRESrONDENT.)

LONDON,-7tli September. Ab a demonstration organised by tha National Union of Railwaymen at Plymouth Ml-. J. ff. Thomas', ALP., was the principal speaker. If in the course of political warfare, he said, the Opposition of to-day became the Government of to-morrow, there were certain fundamental principles that must be recognised by those entrusted with the responsibility of leadership, and kept in mind by the rank and file.

No greater mistake could be made than to assume that, if Labour came into power, they would be justified in using their power in a sectional or individual spirit. The Government of this country . must not be conducted in the interests of any particular class or section. Labour's protest against existing conditions,, its complaint o! the legislation of the past, its grievance against those it was trying to displace, was that too often they had used their power in the interests of a class instead of the community as a whole. Labour must not make the mistake of following' that bad example. Labour had not been defeated because of a monopoly of brains on the other side, but only because of the internal jealousies and saspiciohs in their ranks. The workers ought to take as much'interest in the affairs of their country as they aid in spprt. The working class had made the mistake of doing with their thinking, what the rich did with theif washing.

Referring to the Ruhr and reparations, Mi-. Thomas said that this was the last Gbalition Government Germany •would have; If it broke down, there would" be a dictatorship Hy the militarist party or on the lines of the Bolsheviks in liussia, and either would be dangerow to Europe. The freat mass oi the trade-union movement in this country desired friendship with France, but i'fc was not going to stand aside and allow six hundred men in this country to be out of work for every one man in France. He hoped the British 6overnmerit would not be ihfluence'd by their o«ft die-hards or. the . Jingo Pi-ess, but would boldly assert that thoro was no solution, of our difficulties and no prospect of trade improvement until Europr was at peace.