LABOUR REPRESENTATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15715, 7 September 1911, Page 6

LABOUR REPRESENTATION.

The rather mysterious statement that has been put forward by tho Labour Representation Committee announcing its intention to extend its operations to the larger sphere of national politics need not alarm tho friends of progress. Labour has been strangely slow ;u realieing its own strength in this country, but at last it is awakening to the fact that universal suffrage ought to give tho victory to tlio big battalions. Of course it will nob do this so long as the battalions aro broken up into Half a dozen sections, fighting among themselves, but directly they are properly organised and judiciously lod.no combination of other forces can prevent them coming into their own. Wo do not know how far the Labour Representation Committee represents the spirit of the workers or how far it can expect to influence their votes, but we aro satisfied that an organisation commanding the confidence of the great body of electors who are without a recognised leader in the present Parliament could render a very real service to the country in the approaching crisis. The interests of Labour aro indissolubly associated with the interests of Liberalism, but there is no reason in tho world why the workers, while still faithful to their old allies, should not take t)io position in the progressive party to which their numbers entitlo them.