LABOUR’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Evening Star, Issue 23448, 13 December 1939, Page 3

LABOUR’S ACHIEVEMENTS

REVIEW BY MINISTER ADDRESS TO PARTY SUPPORTERS " NO ROOM FOR WINGS ” An address in the nature of a review of what the Labour Government had achieved since it came into power was delivered by the Hon. P. C. Webb to members of the Lahour_ Party and the Federation of Labour in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall last night. Mr A. J. M'Donald, president of the Otago Labour Representation Committee, who welcomed the Minister, was in the chair. Mr Webb stated he was on his way to Invercargill to inspect sorae > land which needed clearing and draining, hut having an evening in Dunedin he wanted to meet them. It was through them that the Labour Government came into power. It could not do without them. It was through them that the Government had been able to convert this country from the industrial hell it was five years ago to its present condition. They could go on faster, but it was for them to help, he stated. The Minister went on to speak of the old days, when, he said, if a worker spoke out of his turn lie was sacked, and whole families of children were victimised. All this had been changed, and he wondered if the people who had benefited realised what they owed to the old battlers who had laid the foundation and had made the present-day conditions possible. They had to talk to get into power. They had to supplement that with deeds. The Government had no apologies to make IJor what it had done. No other Government had clone so much for the great mass of the people in such a short space of time as the Government of New Zealand. The task was not completed, however, because they were in power The big job was ahead. There was not a capitalist in any part of the country who was not prejudiced against tho party, and 'while they used soft words, would endeavour to undermine the Government. It was up to the unions and other Labour organisations to continue working. They wore tho salt of the whole movement, and that was why he was so glad to see so many of the old school there.

The Minister went on to speak of the flood of unionists which arose when unionism became compulsory. There arose, too, a mushroom growth of new officers, who imagined overnight that they knew everything about the Labour movement, and swelled out their chests. There were in the party to-day a large number of people who for years opposed Labour, but _ who were now militant left-wingers in a party they did nothing to create. There was room in the movement for all shades of advanced thought to assist the _ party, but there was no room for “ wings what they wanted was one unified body to assist In advancing its ideals. Some people thought democracy was all right so long as they controlled it, but just as soon as the workers elected a Government from their ranks it was called Hitlerism or Fascism, or some other form of dictatorship. Mr Webb also spoke of the 1 cherished ideals of democracy for which the Labour Party stood, but if they once lost their punch and their ideal they would lose their soul in some form of dictatorship which would arise.

Touching upon conditions which existed in 1935, the speaker said the factories were then working only half-time 1 and young people were on the dole. The Labour Government had changed all this, and these workers were now profitably engaged. So far as manufacturers were he considered they had received a fair deal from the Government and had nothing of which to complain, although some were unfair in their criticism of the Government. Manufacturers had never had a better opportunity in their lives. A large number of them, like a large uumber of the farmers, were so biased against the Government that the latter would have to make some largo gesture before they were right. They were a party of idealists, he told his listeners,-but they lived close to realism. The Government was out to improve conditions for the people, and they were going to get on with the job. To-day there was not a man who could work for whom a job could not be found. To-day he had 2,000 vacancies to fill, a number in country districts away from the men’s homes, but the object was to get jobs for them closer to their families. Mr Webb went on to refer to the No. 13 scheme, of which he was the originator. There were a number of men, it was asserted, who loafed on the job, but he could assure them if they did loaf on the job they could find another employer. The Government had no time for loafers, and if it paid standard rates of pay it expected those concerned to work. Speaking of the subsidising of private employers, the Minister said that when

seasonal work was over the Government would have 10,000 men at work cleaning up farms and opening up Crown lands.! Machines would be employed, and these would relieve mankind of the heavy; burden of toil. . While they had control of the taxing machine they would see that the people got the benefit of the work done, and that the profits arising from their efforts did not go into the pockets of a few exploiters. “ I believe the Labbur movement in this country is strong and healthy,” Mr Webb concluded. ‘‘ There are many pitfalls ahead, but so-long as we remain true to the principles' of unionism so long will we be secure with the conditions we enjoy and the government of our own. making. - Bus let us go talking like a lot of petty kids, with left wings and right wings and front wings and back wings, and we will be gone. There must oe onewing only. The job we have to do is too °big for us to be wrangling and fighting among ourselves. At the conclusion of his address a resolution returning a hearty vote of thanks to 'the Minister was earned unanimously.