INTOLERANT LABOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15821, 21 July 1913, Page 4

INTOLERANT LABOUR.

It is interesting to observe that an extension of the application of the offensive expression which first received more than a limited currency in New Zealand at the time of the Waihi strike is now being threatened. A refusal on, the part of a working man to submit to the dominance of the revolutionaries who recently forced their industrial and political platforms upon the Labour Congress in Wellington at which they shut out argument, suppressed free speech, and ridiculed the idea of compromise and of moderation, will apparently put' Mm in the like condemnation with "the enemies of Labour." Thi9 we gather from the official organ of the United Federation of Labour and of the Social Democratic party. The meeting at which, after the close of the Labour Unity Congress, it was decided to maintain tho existence of the United Labour party for the purpose of "fighting the revolutionaries" has produced from this publication a characteristic onslaught. The promoters of this revolt against the wild proposals and overbearing methods of the syndicalist section of the congress are assailed in the official organ of the United Federation of Labour in terms that reflect the arrogance and intolerance of that organisation. They aro "disgruntled bourgeois politicians/ "scarcely one of them a bona fide worker "—in which respect, presumably, they are in the same category as Mr Semple, Mr W. T. Mills, Mr Tregear, Mr P. C. Webb, and other persons prominent in the United Federation of Labour—and they include, also, " those few professional secretaries" who, it is represented in an illuminating sentence, work ,: corners " in secretaryships,

" employ a few unfortunate typists to do the Teal hard work," and, we observe with concern, in this way '' graduate into boss sweaters." Those who follow tiles© " conspirators against the cause of united Labour" are warned of what they may expect to have said of them:

If the movement inaugurated by Meats Fowlds and Co. on Thursday evening last is persisted in, it will be proclaimed a "blackleg" movement by the workers of this "country, and the men who desire to bo as " Labour" men and who participate in the conspiracy of it will earn for themselves the right to bo regarded as traitors just as 6urely as they would if they should sell themselves to the master class to do "scab" work in time of strike.

This graphically illustrates the spirit of intolerance that is exhibited by tbo syndicalists towards the members of the working classes who are not prepared to part with their right of private judgment or to entrust a paid executive in Wellington with the power of ordering them out on strike upon grounds in which they have no direct interest.