THE GENERAL LABOURERS' UNION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17319, 20 May 1918, Page 6

THE GENERAL LABOURERS' UNION.

TO THK EDITOR. - Sib,-Your correspondent, Mr Ormrod m&lces an attack on the Otugo Oenoral Labourers* Union, and seeiks by Innuendo to charge it with disloyalty. To show how false the charge is, one iuls only to remind you that tho Labourers' Union contributed to our army volunteers to a generous degree. When one remembers that the roll of honour tells of the Labourers' Union's ilhtstrious dead— from the landing at Gallipoli to the latest heroic resistance against German forces, superior in numbers—one would think that Mr Ormrod would be interested in advancing the Labourers' Union so as to enable tho survivors to come back to improved conditions, instead of reflecting on it, and thereby leaving these heroic fighters to the tender mercies of tho employing lho cry that the Federation of Labour is _ disloyal is equally false. An the Main Body of the Tunnelling Company I know for a fact that tho majority of men from Waihi and tho •Vest Coast were members of the Federation of Labour. I have witnessed a grave whero tho Germans placed a memorial at the head of four soldiers, testifying to their bravery and m that grave a member of the Federation of Labour rests. He lies side by side with his offioer, who held different views to him. I could tell many instances where these Red l 1 cds laid down their lives for the one common cause, of tho Allies as wholeheartedly as did opponents of the Federation of Labour. Mr Ormrod bases his charge of disloyalty on tho grounds that the Federation of Labour opposes conscription. Would Mr Ormrod say that the valiant Australians whoso deeds tlirilled the Empire are disloyal ? And yet these volunteers voted against conscription oil two occasions Mr Ormrod complains that he was ruled out of order by the president of the Labourers Union. Mr Ormrod omitted to says he was the proposer of a motion and as such, according to standing orders' he had the right to speak only onco to his motion and tho right to reply after all others had spoken. I have been informed that Mr Ormrod tried to speak more than onco before his turn to reply came. Mr Ormrod has surely allowed his feelings to ran away with his judgment when he Seeks to impute improper motives to a man like Mr M' Allen Mr M'Allen not only served tho Empire in the army in his younger days, but also was such an upholder of law and order that he hai an honourable police record to his credit llis only son is serving at the front. And yat, because Mr M'Allen is a Roman Catholic even lie is not free from attacks due to loligious bias. Can human intolerance °-o further ? ° I havo been a member of a trades union ever since 1890, and this is the first time ever I heard it suggested by a unionist that a man y s rebgious opinions should bo a test of citizenship or a qualification for office lho Labour movement in all lands has ever regarded religion as a private concern. Just as Roman Catholic Frenchmen are fighting side by side with the mixed denominations of tho Empire, resisting tho common foo abroad, so a trade union must embrace men of all religions united to oppose the enemv at home on economic questions. And, as a union rcflccts tho collective decisions 'of ail its members, how can any section dominate it? My experience is that men of all creeds claim increases in pay due to industrial activity, and decreases in cost of living where Labour succeeds.—l am, etc., " J. E. MacManus. [We have no desira to intervene between correspondents, but it seems to us only fair to observe that Mr MacManus has put on Mr Ormrod's letter a construction which it does not reasonably bear. This fact would have justified us in withholding the above letter from publication. Mr MacManus has howevwr, rendered services to his conntrv in' the war which entitle him to a consideration that other correspondents, who have not performed similar service could not claim I ED. O.D.T.]