WORKERS AND WAR

NZ Truth, Issue 540, 23 October 1915, Page 6

WORKERS AND WAR

Trade* Unionists and Conscription

In quit© unmistakeablo language tho British Trades Union Congress has expressed Its opinions upon tho war and its conduct. To tho workers more than any other class is tho question of conscription a very live one. Tho Congress deliberations, It can well be understood, would be awaited with a lot of interest, if not actual anxiety. It woukl bo not only tho opinion of tho Labor Congress that would bo anxiously waited, but a declaration of national importance. Tho power of the movement will have been more deeply rec-ocnlso-d durlnir tho last troublous n»ontiis U»at at any other period of union history. The Congress has declared, lt*ut«lf m favor of proaecuting the war to a successful issue, but it did not, hesitate to deliver an opinion which indicated, beyond all argument, that It did not view conscription as a factor m tho ultimate success. Tho Congress pronouncement has boon balled with a chorus of acclamation by the ontl-f.t-bor press. It suits tho latter, for tho moment, and for onco a Labor Congress finds itself m tho position of being a highly popular body. That, of course, will laat just co lonir a« it milia tho anti-Labor party, which will forgvt m a moment all tho adulation it now pours out, and again consider, and Hpoak of, tho union movement as something Immeasurably worse than German raillLarUjm, and all the rest of it. All tho time, however, eroployerdom la not forgetting that the work^ra tire using their opportunity and poA-or to try and make profit mongering impossible. Employers are. m fact, Uitl<? concerned ftboul any - f-«s-Kil'»iluns aguinwt conscription, for they have v method of compulsion which is, to some extent, quite m» effective. It con.sim» In Bimply "sacking" men, especially single men, and refusing to givo any of Ihn *ingl<> men t>;npioymenL It j« not exactly conscription, but tho rvsult iw not far different.