THEORY AND PRACTICE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17712, 25 August 1919, Page 4

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

The announcement that Mr J. A. Brown has consented, on the invitation of the Labour Representation Committee, to be a candidate for the Dunedin "West seat at the approaching election is interesting in itself. It is interesting also in the light which it throws on the methods employed by the committee in ite selection of a candidate for this seat and on the measure of respect which it shows for the prooedure prescribed by the Labour Party as that to he ohserved in the selection of its candidates. Mr Brown may be regarded more largely as a representative of that hated capitalist class, to which some of the men prominent in the Labour Party have sworn their undying enmity,-than as a representative of the industrial olasses. He is not on this account necessarily unfitted to stand as a Labour candidate if he can reconcile it with his principles to subscribe to the platform of the party. It does not seem, however, to have occurred to any of the unions which are affiliated to the Political Labour Party and from which the Labour Representation Committee recently sought nominations of candidates that Mr Brown's name was one that should be taken into consideration hy them. Certainly not one of them nominated Mr Brown. And the understanding upon which nominations were submitted by them was that the selection of candidates for the various seats would be made from the list of their nominees. The theory is that the affiliated unions should be consulted by the Labour Representation Committee in the choice of candidates. This consultation is effected through the opportunity that is afforded to the tmione to nominate candidates. The action of the Labour Representation Committee in inviting and accepting the candidature of a person whom not one of the affiliated organisations nominated involves a complete departure from the procedure -which is supposed to govern the selection of candidates for the party.