RIGHT TO ORGANISE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 10 August 1925, Page 7

RIGHT TO ORGANISE

TO TBI IDITOII. Sir, —From your report we learn that the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association has resolved that "so soon as the Government withdraws its embargo on affiliation with the Alliance of Labour, the attitude of the members of the association thereto be ascertained by a further postal ballot on the question." That is interesting as suggesting that the attitude of members requires to be again tested. Does it mean that, having had time to think, some of them have changed their opinions as to the wisdom of the affiliation? We rather think it does. With all respect to the P. and T. officers, we think they have been badly misled by faTse reasoning which has been presented for their guidance. In a further resolution the association declares :—

That the Post and Telegraph Officers' Association has always possessed the - constitutional right to organise along such lawful lines as it thinks, fit, and again expresses the belief that the embargo placed by the Government on the association's intention to affiliate with the Alliance of Labour

was unconstitutionally imposed,

Let us examine what is claimed by this resolution. It is, first of all, that the association has a right to organise. Nobody denies that right. The association's members are exercising the right now. The association does not claim that they, have a right to organise in any way they please, but only on "lawful lines." This reaches the crux of the matter. What are lawful and constitutional lines of organisation for their as : s'ociation? The Government says that affiliation with the Alliance of Labour is not on such lines, and hence tho '.'embargo." To judge fairly on this question it is necessary to ask what is the object of the proposed affiliation, and to what will the association be committed in joining the Alliance? The objective of tho Alliance of Labour, as stated in its constitution, supplies the answer. It is "control of all industries by the workers who operate them in the interests of the community." As applied to th» Post and Telegraph Service, this means control of tho Service by the operatives engaged in it. Now, there is nothing in tho law-ond Constitution of New Zealand which gives a right to the P. and T. officers to organise for the purpose of exercising control of the Service. The Department is a Service of the Crown, and its control is by law vested in the Parliament and Minister as representatives. To organise for the purpose of substituting other control is not organisation on lawful and constitutional lines ; therefore the Postmaster-General is only upholding the Constitution in placing an embargo on such line of action. If any officer of the association thinks these conclusions are wrong, we invite such officer to show where in the Constitution, or by what Act of Parliament, the Postal Officers are given the right to organise for taking control of tho Service. Our opinion is that many members of the association recognise that our reasoning on this question is sound. Others are misled by arguments which take somewhat this form.

There is no specific law debarring us from affiliating, and that proves .it is lawful to affiliate. It ia an old fallacy to argue that what the law says nothing against it therefore upholds. Negative evidence is presented as positive proof, and members are misled by failing to note that to say you are in favour of something just because you have not declared against it is a mere trick of sophistry and nothing more. When John's teacher caught him stealing apples he fpund it useless to tell the teacher that his mother favoured the act because she had not warned him not to steal. 'Yet by just such, a specious plea have numbers of the P. and T. officers been misled. TKe officers have ;i right to organise, but not a right to organise, with tho Alliance, to take control of the Service. Such line of action is not in accord with the Constitution of tho country. It is not on "lawful lines," and the sooner they recognise that fact the better will it be for all concerned. —We are, etc.,

N.Z. WELFARE LEAGUE.