TRADES COUNCIL OR ANTIWAR SOCIETY? The Leaven that did not Leaven the Lump.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 81, 18 January 1902, Page 8

TRADES COUNCIL OR ANTIWAR SOCIETY? The Leaven that did not Leaven the Lump.

IS the Wellington Trades Council an organisation formed for the discussion of politics, or is it an organisation of delegates from trades unions, which endeavours to undertake the work for which xv was founded? From published reports of the proceedings of that body, it is evident that it temporarily put aside its own work to go into the business of war critic. It is refreshing to discover, however, that the "representative" working men who passed the resolution condemmg "the hideous and unholy war" were not at all representative, that numerous trades unions have hastened to assure the public that they had no sympathy with the resolution, and that the resolution itself is proposed to be rescinded. * • # If the "representative working men," at their hole-m-the-corner meeting, desired a little cheap notoriety, they certainly attained their object, but it is not the kind of notoriety that is likely to help trade unionism. Such conduct is of the kind that assists German calumny, and as German calumny is hurtful to German trade interests, by the same process of reasoning, Trades Council pro-Boer resolutions are inimical to the interests of trade unionism. » • • The twelve men who, by a majority of two, expressed the alleged sentiments of Wellington working men, have stirred up a hornets' nest that should make them careful before assuming the role of exponents of public sentiment again. So \ery positive are the working men outside of those one dozen pro-Boers of their own loyal feelmgs:, that they have poured in their expressions of disapproval to such an extent that it has threatened the existence of the Trades Council. All this was made apparent at the meeting of the Trades Council last week, when the whole matter was threshed out. • • • Their action at this meeting Las cleared up any idea that may have existed as to their sympathy with the peace -at - any - price sentiments of a few men. It is abundantly evident that New Zealand working men, as a whole, are unwilling to give foreign critics any peg on which to hang further slanders. And tney have given an excellent objectlesson to the men who pretended to voice their sentiments that they sounded a very false note. This incident serves to prove how foolish it is for a Trades Council to attempt to discuss matters entirely outside its province, and which may, perhaps, wreck the object for which it exists.