UNIONS AND POLITICS

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 5, Issue 61, 26 June 1936, Page 4

UNIONS AND POLITICS

It is to be hoped that the Prime Minister’s statement the other day to a newspaper reporter—that the law would not be allowed to stand in the way of trade union membership of political parties—was merely a general declaration of the Government’s belief in political liberty. If it was morethan that, especially as much more as the Government’s critics have already found in it, Mr Savage is in a distinctly difficult position. The liberty of the individual is one thing, and the Prime Minister can’t be praised too often for announcing it on every possible occasion; but the liberty of a union is a different thing, and, if it is not controlled, may easily make individual liberty a sham. Those critics are quite right who have pointed out that there is a very good reason for legal restrictions on the use of union funds. If a man is compelled not merely to join a union but, as a member of that union, to join a party, he may find himself contributing to one party through his union levy and voting for another in the secrecy of the ballot box. That would be neither good law nor good party politics, and it is to be hoped that the Prime Minister will reconsider his statement and modify it.