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Evening Star, Issue 17047, 19 May 1919, Page 4

We say fiasco, because- all the reliable

signs point to an inglorious Tfca Ofie ending to this ill-considered Big Union proposal. Tradition has it Fiasco. that a very unpopular place

is paved with good intentions. and so -we need not question the honesty cm the men who hunched the One Big Union proposal in Australia. But we do seriously doubt their wisdom. From tho hour of its ill-timed birth tried and trusted leaders in the Australian Labor movement have been maligned as plnee-seekers and enemies of the workers. The campaign in its favor was largely built on mistrust ard appeals to the worst, form of class prejudice.

We had from the beginning a wellfounded opinion that the One" Big Union was largely the I.W.W. in a new dre?-. Subsequent events have strengthened that opinion. The preamble of the 0.8. U., for ir stance, is hardly distinguishable from that of the I.W.W. Take a paragraph from the I.W.W preamble: "There can be no peace so long as hunger and wantare found among the millions of working people and the few who make up the employing class have all the good things of life." The only difference in the 0.8.LL version is the transposition of the words "want" and "hunger." In the thinnest guise the new preamble was simply M:e

old lewritten. The propaganda In favtfr of the 0.8. U. was also identical with that in favor of the I.W.W. : the same attacks on the trade unions, the. fame libels on tried Labor men. the same intolerance and fantastical nonsense, accompanied by sw almo&t •childlike lack of appreciation of the elementary facts of life. In a, word., liistory was repeating itself. The workers wore being antagonised instead of being united, and the tragedy of 1.W.W.-ism in its formation in America in 1895 and succeeding years was faithfully reproduced in Australia.

In the light of the history of industrial organisation we can only express enrr amazement that the 0.8. U. received any appreciable support-. The principle has been tried out more than once and failed. More than 8C years ago Robert Owen formed the General Union of the Producing Glasses. It grew to more than ICO.QGO members very quickly, and vanished as snow before the rising sun. Other examples of the futility could be cited, but- ft is cru-estiouaWe wh-eili-er all industrial experience provides a more striking' example of elemental failure than the Australian attempt.

The I.W.W. in America has been truly described as "a snarling and disiuptive force." Th-e 0.8.TJ. propagandists talked roagniloquently of "tho workers of the world united as one people-" and of " political action, on the highest civilised plane." And every day's propaganda widened th-e gulf between important bodies of organised workers. Perhaps the most amazing- indiscretion, putting aside the high-sounding imported jargon, was that committed by the general secretary in Brisbane. In one speech he outlined a plan of appealing to the unionists for a verdict- by ballot, which was irreproachable. A few dnvs later, however, in the select- companv of the "Reds," he dispensed with such out-of-date methods, and declared that '-'the method to be employed by the One Bi--* Union is to 'white ant' the existing craft unions from within, and then, build the One Big Union on the min,.'" Thatsettled it, as In the nature of things it should. Our readers will be interested to know that the white ant is a- more thorough and voracious, destroyer than the borer;-so th-e 0.8.TJ. were to be built on the ruins of a white ant heap of destroyed unionism. In the face of tliis, can there be any simple souls who still retain -their ! faith in the. 0.8. U.: We wonder. One of the most successful examples of bit: unionism on the line.-? of indust-rv. ;:s • distinct from the dreamy proposal we are j criticising, is the Australian Workers' I Union, favorably known thiciu-hout Atis-trt-raJasia as the A.W.U. Tn ths interests iof risky expfs-iment the A.W.U. was io ! be turned over to the white ants, but the I A.W.U. object to the prescribed treai- ] ment. In our cables last woek our readers i learned that the A.W.U. hare the 0.8.L"., and declare them to be i 1.W.W.-isn> in disguise. The repudiation I does credit to their intelligence, and was i the only way to rave Australian unionism I front black disaster We will now hear inuch about Labor fakirs and such bighflcire nonsense, but the Au-jtralian workers -will likely trust tho men and the machiao which have protected them rather than tho new evangel which promises the moon and fails to provide the ladder. To the discerning workers in our own country the Australian experience of the past few months is a valuable lesson of what to avoid. Fortunately, there forces which work unceasingly on the side of common sense.and common right, but disaster hns befallen large bodies of workers ebfore today because they have too trustingly parted with their rights and privileges to the keeping of well-intentioned but none tho less mrffruided demagogues.