Open Letter to Professor Mills.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 21, 28 July 1911, Page 14

Open Letter to Professor Mills.

By WILLIAM ROBINSON. We speak the truth, and what care we _.., * or hissing: and lor scorn: While some faint glimmering we can see Oi 1< ree dom a coming morn. Dear Comrade,—As a student of your excellent won;, "The Struggle for Exisstciico " and nnv; that you are staving with us souk- months longer, I venture i.o address you and to bespeak -'or you a right royal utility on our hospitable shore, and especially amongst the clnss-eonscHms revolutionary Socialists. lii Hie past we liavo been disappointed m visitors, for their siay l,a 3 ' been all too short, makmg Hying pilgrimages to study the labor Jeg.slation of xNe-.v Zealand. When they iiavo hastily accummated sv.cii evuienee as seems to suit tneir preconceived ideas they hurry home to proclaim that the wise laws of XSfw Zc-ax..-n...1 have settled the confl let betu eon Capita and Labor in a fashion -luen the societies of cider countries wou.u do well to fodow without deJav. Amongst those laws tho lndisstrial Coneihatitm and Arbitration Act has been Mie su..jeLt of special praise and admiration, tnougli, to do" some of the shrewder Socialists justice, they have u ~' n cr. it asitance. <JonVyeteu v outside observers like C. E. (America), Professor Manes (of the Commercial University, Berlin) and J. Ramsay iUaodonakl nsnsrland) have been ct tiie opinion lhat whoe arbitration n.igiu 7vork fairly wexi so lorn; as the colony was prostiorous a«d h continued to be -the phT.san. business of the Arbitration Court to lai&o wages it would prooaijiy cease to satisfy the woiKer wnen tin, tribunal vas compelledby economic depression to, cut wages i nis latter has hardened on more £~au ono occasion, and the result has L«ee:i strikes. All the legislation ti*at lias been passed in recent ijhs been independent of labor or iq.bor representation, for we have no Labor x-u,rty or Labor leaders in New Zeaianu, tlit: only truly Labor rer>resenia:.ive in ;\ew Zealand "is Mr. IvlcCullougn, ol the Arbitration Court. Yet tfio, sir, is hardly true to-day "for the >./.. J'eaeration of Labor—the strongest ana i:u.Sv virile of organised i-s outside tr.c jurisdiction of the Arb,t:ation Court. The craft unions on one or two occasions have nominated a low of ttieir representatives tor i'ar-i-amen-ary Honours, but tne electors iiave liau no conhuence for they have invariably been betrayed. Witness, ail the trades union secretaries and presidents of councils in the pay of t£is capitalistic Government to-aay, and men who are Legislative Councillors for no other reason than they know the j strengh and weakness of the Labor movement, and endeavour to reconcile labor to its exploiter by a system ot compromise. In the work mentioned at the outset (chap, xxvv., p. 4UU) I read: --All political parties anywhere now in control are composed oi capitalists. These parties are controlled by capitalists in the j interest of capitalism, and cannot be ! used to carry out the purposes of the Jjabor unions." This, then, accounts for the bitter feeling, legislative inactivity, trades union meetings with no hie, antipathy to Socialists and professional job-hunters, of which Wellington is rite. Comrade ! When men ' are fighting for a principle, they can afford to wait because if their principle is really true no matter how radical it is, the world will sooner or later adopt it. If the principle is not really true, no worldly wise alliances will further its acceptance, tor stupid as public opinion seems, because it is so slow- in forming, it never finally accepts a principle that is not true, it is popularly believed that Labor can gain its end by an alliance with the Liberal Party, by a series of compromises, but such*' is not my opinion. Reforms, in my opinion, are corrupted and delayed by compromise. Anything that is done on the basis of a compromise, of principle must be done over again and again until it rests on the bedrock of eternal truth involved In it. So we find several who have paid the price, others just waiting for some immediate gain for themselves—some office or emolument—and entering into political alliance to gain their ends. Socialism is our only hope.—Yours, etc., WILLIAM ROBINSON.