THE FAULTS OF LABOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18760, 13 January 1923, Page 13

THE FAULTS OF LABOUR

ITS FAILURES IN SELF-GOVERN-MENT, IN PARENTHOOD, UN IN DIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR. No thoughtful person will eagerly as.,time tlie role of candid friend, nor is it .always sound strategy to make a frontal attach upon the lauit-s of one's comrades, let there can ho no forward movement of great or lasting value without a_ clear recognition of existing delecUs; and this is particularly the ease where Labour is concerned, hrafc because unbiased consideration tends to show that very, many of Labour's faults are, after all, no more than limitations imposed ay unkind circumstance; and next because directly we ask, “What is the best thing that could happen to Labour?" we find the answer compels us to consideration of Labour’s faults. This is just another way of arriving at tho conclusion, long since accepted by sensible persons, that no section of tho community can prosper at tho expense, of another. Injury indicted upon the nation s Labour is injury iuflieted upon the nation. Labour has wasted many valuable years —years of hoping and scheming—so that: “There shall be in England seven halfpenny loaves sold for a penny; the threehooped pot shall have ten hoops; and I will make it felony to drink small beer. Most emphatically it is not upon any such lines that Labour’s advancement will be achieved. Wo need a clear-cut indication of tho really desirable goal. And that goal would have been plainly iu the sight of a!I men for generations but for the dust and clamour created by the too sophisticated in their efforts to lead or to coerce a following tov/ard the useless and the unattainable. Sensible L*fibour, distrusted Inc clamour and wasted effort, asks, "What really do we want?” The answer is obvious and admits of no gainsaying. The best thing that could happen to Labour would be that Labour should be more highly respected. This, being a true benefit lo Labour, answers the essential test; it would also be a benefit to the entire community. _ . . How is this changed condition, this increased respect, to he brought into being? Ts the suggestion iust one of those useless proposals which clever people call “counsels of perfection” ? First, such counsels are not useless: the striving after a perfect ideal, even by the individual, cannot fail to bo of some benefit to him and to others. But to so unfortunate a pass has tlje world come that for the present it £eoms wiser to leave this and similar reflections and pass on to matters generally deemed more practical. There is no spectacle much more horrible than that of the man who is content to “ape the gentleman. ' There is lio spectacle more ennobling than that of the man who takes matters further and endeavours to be a gentleman for already he is one. Money can be obtained sometimes, and even kept occasionally, without havin'* beau earned. Respect' must always be earned if it is to be retained. Neither a nation, 'a community, nor even a small section of a • community, need hope to earn respect unless a certain pleasure of self-government has been established, and is put to practical use. Time we -are at grips with the first essential; Labour ideas of self-govern-ment need very thorough overhauling. Trade unionism undoubtedly has its great merits, yet it is lacking in two important essentials: self-government is practically unknown among the rank and file of trade unionists, while definition of and adherence to policy are not insisted upon as they should be. Both these serious faults are’ here laid to the charge of working men generally, not because it is suggested that .Trade Union leaders are impeccable, but because it is so clearly the duty of the majority to see that their advancement i« being nromoted by their accredited leaders,"who are. after’ all. the very small majority of trades unionists. Sensible working men ar e perfectly well aware that they both desire and need advancement on certain lines. They know, too. that such advancement often has nothing to do with immediate gain, either in time or money. It is such aspirations which trade union lenders appear to neglect, and the fault lies with the constituents of such leaders, because clearlv it is in the power of th« constituents to impose their will upon representatives^ Working men assert that their snneriurs net only hlack-eontcd workers, but even employers of labour—frrnuently follow the example of Labour. In this there is a certain amount of truth, but there is one wav at least in whmh working men would be wise to conv those whom they assert copv them—one way, that is, as regards general noliev. for there are a ♦hensand and one lift l ' l ways iu which labour would do well to copy others differently occunied. Self-government.-

AA'orking men do not concern themselves sufficiently in tho management nf their own affairs. It is in this direction that thev would do well to follow on the lines laid down by the Middle Class Union. It is of no use to return a member nf Parliament unless that member is made clearly to understand what the wishes of Ins constituents are, and that lie is expected to do what lie can toward* tho carrying out of those wishes. Similarly, when men are on strike, every one of the strikers who is endowed with ordinary common sense wishes nothing so much as to get back to work «... ~...cKiy a., possible mi readjusted conditions, or possibly on the old conditions which have been threatened. At such times, then, these sensible men should not permit themselves to be too deeply engrossed in their own individual concerns.

Allotment plot cultivation and so forth should ho occasionally abandoned in order that meetings may be attended. Otherwise we shall have again and again repetitions of that sorry spectacle of men really wishing to return to work while their leaders, for political reasons of their own, are delaying that return because in so doing they seem to justify their existence, while they hinder the settlement by shouting such catch-phrases as “National pool.” A phrase like that appeals to the extremists and less thoughtful. And it is those extremists who, attending meetings more regularly than their temperateminded fellow's, give the leaders what can bo made to appear as a very definite mandate from constituents. It is the duty of the individual trade unionist, just as it is the duty of every other member of the community, to see his duty and to do his duty. Quite recently ratepayers have been aroused to the necessity of recording their votes. As a consequence the threat ot more pay for idleness than for work has been removed. Let the trade union members follow this example, and the danger

of their interests being neglected that the political ambitions of their so-called representatives may be advanced will also be removed.

Labour at present is suffering mainly because it has permitted the great power of its unions to be wielded bv men (forming quite a small group) who are content to ape their betters while making no serious attempt to become in any useful way like those betters. And these men are" so much elated at newspaper notice that they do not trouble themselves to insist upon newspaper justice—even allowing a flagrant misinterpretation of the word “definitive” to pass without comment. Real Education. — We find an exactly similar condition of things if we look at Labour's educational world. How is it that the workman’s children are said to get their education for nothing, and, having got that education, are still spoken of as the uneducated ? Simply and solely because the

workman lias neglected hi* duty to his children. He has been content to admire false ideals, has been pleased and lulled to a sort of sleep by the showy and generally half-acquired accomplishments of his children, and has neglected to see that those children are given a solid educational foundation upon which it would he possible even for the children themselves to build. The truly educated man or woman is always the child of parents who have themselves been in the habit of reading for amusement. Therefore it should be a part of trade union policy to insist that the "three r’e” are thoroughly taught in the schools, that there shall he no abandoning of the teaching of the alphabet, scrapping of parts of speech, or teaching of simpler spelling (which latter, being always wrong, will always mark the uneducated) : even if to carry out these suggestions come time must he taken from that now devoted to dancing, paper-cutting, and sketching bananas. We now come to the consideration of other duties of the rank and file. Neither the gentleman nor the good c;‘.izen has done his whole duty when he has seen to it that others do theirs. We need a etill more intimate form of self-govern-ment. What standards of common decency does trade unionism impose upon its members?

Very few, unfortunately. Fighting or foreign policy seems to have required so much attention that them has been none to spare for home government. It is true that the man who’present* himself drunk on the occasion of a strike parade is very soon bundled into the background. There the interest of trade unionists in the sobriety of members appears to begin and end. The man who drinks to excess is all too often the hero of tho workshop. Again, it is also true that the .member who attempts to address the chair while wearing his hat at a meeting will probably he called to order- yet not mfreauently members who are obviously under the influence of drink attend such meetings and are sometimes permitted to harangue the assembly. When a strike is in progress, should a stranger appear upon the scene and blackleg, there will be no delay ajiout following him to his home and at least remonstrating with him. Rut should a workman disgust a tram-load ot passengers. that will be no one’s concern, although such a man lias given the reasonable claims of Labour to public respect a far more serious set-back than manv blacklegs could accomplish in a much longer time. Unfortunatelv quite a large number of working men who have undergone a certain amount oU military service now think it heroic to bellow obscenities in public places. Should this be no concern of trade unionists who seek the_ respect of other sections of the community?

-- If.— If the community as a whole could say, speaking of Labour generally, “These men have sound common sense ; they are seeing to it that their representatives represent them; thev are putting a stop lo that stupid political greed which attempts to hito og. more than can be chewed; they think that reforms which may not be spectacular may yet he useful; they are determined, too, that their children shall he given sound rather than flash or freakish education, and that their own member* shall maintain certain simple standards of decency”—then indeed a great advance would have been made. " And Labour, being found worthy of more rfcspect. would in many other ways gain added consideration, which would be to the advantage not only of Labour, but of the State generally. Looking back over what lias just been said, we are compelled to admit that tiie whole trouble seems to lie in this: Labour has been too precipitate, there is a well-marked tendency to rest content with continued aping, rather than an honest striving to be. We find the least well educated professing to think in continents; and men whose fellows seem unable to manage the affairs of farthing loan clubs clamouring that their chosen representatives are capable cf undertaking the duties of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, We find, too, that the accomplishments of the educated are being imitated, though no real effort i* being made to secure for the rising generation anv cu'ch educational foundation, as shall render th#ir children or their children’s children reallyeducated. And we find that standards of ordinary decency are of small account, save where some immediate, advantage is to be gained by their observance.

Let Labour abandon mere specious imitation and become more truly statesmanlike, dealing with those things which are of real importance and -which are really within its powers. Let Labour insist upon education, rather than allowing its children to bo subject to the fads and freaks of persons who, aiming at cheap notoriety, are careless of the awful mischief they do in its attainment. And let the minority- who would brand their fellows a* men of objectionable habits—and therefore not worth serious consideration — be compelled to alter their ways. Let us cease to ape and strive to become. —The AA’orlds AVork.