The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1917. WORKERS AND THE WAR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXII, Issue LXXII, 23 May 1917, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1917. WORKERS AND THE WAR.

In France there are practically no class or sectional feelings with respect to the war, for the whode nation stands shoulder to shoulder against it. Virtually it is the same in Italy. It follows, therefore that there is no occasion, to discriminate between the workers and other classes in those countries, for in each case the people realise practically as one man that it is a paramount necessity to defeat Germany, because were she to succeed, all alike would lose everything they value or hope for in the matter of constitutional liberty and tho betterment of their conditions and prospects in life. In Britain, in the same connection, the people also are j united, though there have been, unhappily, labor troubles, but not, happily, ! through indifference to the result of the j war for the British workers as a body know that unless the Germans are \ beaten, they, too, will be beaten in so far as their democratic development and social betterment are concerned: they have th.c intelligence to see this, and so they are solid with the rest of the nation for the prosecution of the war. In this connection they have shown that labor men, belonging to an organised Labor movement, can bear their part whole-heartedly in the greatest war .ever fought in the interests of humanity. The same may be said of the workers of Canada, while in the United States organised Labor defined its attitude before the Government declared war against Germany. "We speak for millions," said the members of a conference representing about three millions of organised workers. "We are not a se^ct. \We are not a party. We represent organisations held together by the pressure of common needs. We represent the part of the nation olosest to th© fundamentals of life. Those we repes.ent wield the nation's tools and grapple with the forces that are brought under control in our material civilisation. We, the officers of the National and International Trades Unions of America, hereby pledge ourselves in peace or war, in stress or storm, to stand unreservedly by the standards of liberty and the safety and preservation of the institutions and ideals of our Republic." The conference earnestly hoped that the people of the United States would be spared all the turmoil, loss and> sorrow occasioned by war; but it also declared that "if, despite all our endeavors and hopes, our country should be drawn into the maelstrom of the European conflict, we, with these ideals of liberty and justice herein declared, offer our services to our country in every field of activity to defend, safeguard, and preserve the Republic of the United States of America against its enemies, whoever they may be, and we call upon our fellow workmen and fellow citizens in the holy name of labor, justice, freedom, and humanity to devotedly and patricttically giv.e like service." Nor were these empty words, for when war was declared some time after they were published, Mr Samuel Gompers, as President of the American Federation of Labor, offered, with the authority of the Federation, to abrogate the eighthour rule and other rights wherever emergencies demanded the fullest cooperation with the Government. Then, after the Russian revolution in March' Mr Gompers wrote 'to the Russian Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' deputies, urging them to continue to fight with the Allies against the "common enemy of democracy. Yet he had once written to (the German Socialists in his anxiety to bring about peace; but as an Australian writer has observed his letter was answered by Legier, the head ot the German trades unionists in a manner worthy of the Emperor or his Chancellor. He declared that the German workmen had always striven for peace against the obstinacy of the Allies, and that they would support the Chancellor in his ruthlessness because by so doing they would shoflcen the war and drive Britain out of the alliance. He then put forward the plea of necessity, and declared that any reprisals were necessary against the British blockade. This answer threw a new light on the past career of Legier and ot many of his colleagues. It showed how , n spite of a show of independence he had been used as an instrument of military policy, and how the show of independl ence had been useful Uy hoodwink the people of other countries. Legier signed .a manifesto which in 1913 was placarded through France over the signature of many French end German Socialists who had tried in vain to revive the International, and when that attempt railed he endeavored to oj range a special congress of trades unionists at Amsterdam. Until his own request was denied Mr Gompers thought, no doubt that the professions of the German So ciahsts were inspired" by a desire for a peace which would be just and permanent. Experience has taught him and thousands of his fellow citizens that their main object is to escape punishment. They are working under the direction of their Government not to make good the objects which they pro fessed before the war, but to secur. a peace favorable to Germany by persuading the peoples of the allied countries to try to dissociate themselves from their rulers. Hence the wisdom of the workers of the Old World, Canada and" America m standing solid for the war and it is to be regrett-ed that-the w-s----dom should have been found la~kin<* amongst • their brethren in Australia and New Zealand. Assuredly these lands would lose just as much as any other democracies in the world by Germany's success, and the workers would be the greatest losers and sufferers, for their ■ liberty and their betterment would be crushed together under the wheels of the juggernaut of Prussian military despotism.