TRADE UNION FUNDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18016, 15 February 1922, Page 10

TRADE UNION FUNDS.

Sir,—The Welfare League is concerned to ;oiow what is being done with traje umon funds, and states that the uses to which those funds are put should be a matter of concern to " workers and members of the public." I agree that the matter is one that should concern, and I believe it does concern, those who as members of the unions contribute to the funds, but I cannot quite see how the disposal of the funds becomes the concern of members of the public, or the Welfare League for that matter. I can understand the general public being curious, just a 6 I am sometimes curious, to know not how the Welfare League spends its money, but where and how it gets the money it spends. Such curiousity is natural and legitimate, but I hope I would not allow that curiosity to lead me to suggest publicly that the league be-'-ame possessed of its funds by improper means because my curiosity in "the matter was not satisfied Does not the Welfare League understand that it is not so much the matter as the manner of their criticism which makes it offensive to al! fairminded people? If they really want to know what tfaecomes of the money the unions collect why not ask the unions direct? Why insinuate through the public press that the funds are being wrongfully used? Does the Welfare League understand that unions in this country are on an entirely different footing from unions in the Old Land, and that it is therefore impossible to draw useful comparisons between the two? In this country industrial unions are lawful associations of men nr women, enjoying legal rights and being subject to legal restnetions. Unions in Great Britain do not-have the same legal status as unions here, and therefore do not have the same legal rights and are not Hibject to the same restrictions. Lr.:onism in Great Britain is free and untrammelled. Here it is State controlled and restricted. I have never been able to understand why State control of unions in this country should stop where it does. Our inci.nie is limited t>y law, our objects are restricted by law. Why then should the law not go further and demand that the books of the unions audi' We fHT d , t0 a Comment StateVnnr r nT Ul u tfc6n be completely b7 finSmS* th 6, enUn ß lem «ts would M nn.U and conclusive. Personallv I wtat nae left would not bo unionism but E i° n i, ut if the "orkerVpreie State controlled unionism, if i„ oll " words they prefer the letter to the spirit well, a Government audit of the books is the way to complete what legal prefe? ' ence to unionist* began. Such an aX would reveal some startling things no to • the hnd suspected by the Welfare ■ L«oe. Such an audit would pS officials from Welfare League Sa ten*. .And at the same time it would rob unionism of the little freedom it still possesses. X. Bloobwoeth.