LABOUR PARTY RALLY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19155, 24 April 1924, Page 11

LABOUR PARTY RALLY.

MEETING IN BURNS HALL,

jMR MASSEY DENOUNCED.

Prominent members .of the NeW Zealand Labour Party, who have been attending the annual conference of tho party in Dunedin, addressed a Labour rally in the Burns Hall last evening. Of the speakers advertised to address the meeting several were not present, haying left Dunedin to assist in the strike campaign elsewhere. Tho audience, which included a considerable proportion of ladies, was large enough comfortably to fill the ground floor and tho back part of tho gallery. The platform was hung with samples of striking placards, used by the British Labour Party in their recent election. The chair was taken by Mr E. J. Howard, M.P., who was accompanied on the platform by ■Messrs J. A. Leo, M.P., J. Munro, Al l’., H. Holland. M.P., R. Semple, and M. J. Savage, ALP. The Chairman explained that when the< meeting was arranged it was intended entirely to deal with tho Labour Party and its activities in Parliament, but since then something had happened in the history ot the country, and naturally most of the speakers would deal largely with tho strike. He wished to call attention to one or two matters connected with tho strike. How did the trouble start, and did the railwaymen do all in their power to prevent it? A reference to tho name of Mr T . E. Sidey drew the sarcastic interjection, “Where is he?” Another Voice; He’s in the museum.— (Laughter.) Mr Howard: That’s where he ought to bo. Mr Howard continued to outline .the facts loading up to the present situation. Air Holland and all the party had urged Mr Massey that Parliament should be called together to deal with it. No matter how or when the matter ended Parliament would in the last resort have to deal with it. —(“Hear, • hear,” and applause.) Tho country was held up because a section ol the men were in trouble, and that trouble could only be dealt with by Parliament. The whole of the blame rested on Mr Massey and his Cabinet for not calling together Parliament. —(Applause.) That was one argument they could always use. This was tho work of Parliament, and it ought to get opportunity to deal' with it. Mr Massey said he could deal with the matter, and this was show bo dealt with it. The whole country was held up. He thought Mr Alassey wanted this trouble. —(Applause.) Air Alassey had taken part in politics when recently at Home as he ought not to have done, and the result was that ho hud put Mr MacDonald in power. That was Hot his intention. Mr Massey had not been able to injure the reputation of this country, but ho had injured its goodwill, and this affected the prices of our goods at Home. They would notice that our /produce had fallen in value since Mr Massey’s visit. Air Massey argued that if he could create a feeling that the workers were trying to hold a pistol to the heads of the producers ho. would b© returned to power. As a matter of fact the speaker believed that this would be a boomerang. He belieed that Air Massey would go Ip the country very soon. . The Labour Party had done everything possible to force Mr Massey’s hand to call Parliament together, because Parliament would have to settle it in the final analysis. Air Alassey was afraid to call the House together for fear Air Holland would beat him on a motion of No-confidence.—(Loud applause.) Mr Alassey was just kept in office by those wno went in as Liberals and voted as Conservatives. It was for them as citizens to demand that their House should be called together.—(Applause.) Air J. A. Lee, M.P. (Auckland) stated, amid applause, that it was singularly fitting to see such an audience in spite of the weather, in order to hear why Mr Alassey should be given his marching orders. He would say that the electors of this country had no confidence in Mr Massey.—(“near, hear.”) It wa 8 because of this fact that .no had done his best to force the railwaymen to strike. \v hen the next election came along, one fact was certain, and that was that the Labour Party would emerge strengthened from tne contest, and to such on extent that had never before been possible, and if the elector* did their duty there was just tho possibility that they would become the Government. The speaker dealt with the Labour Party’s effort s in the House in regard to housing, wages, and the cost of living, and he charged the Government with endeavouring to use the present strike to get out of all its previous mistakes. Continuing, the sneaker said Mr Massey had stated that he did not have sufficient money to pay civil servants a decent wage, yet a few weeks ago he had stated that ho was prepared to spend £IOO,OOO on the Singapore base. It waa not a characteristic of the Labour Party to come before the public and say things contrary to fact, and he would ask any person to challenge him on hi s statements. In regard to the question of housing, the Labour Party wanted to do something to assist, but as soon as the applications began to come in, Air Alassey got “cold feet,” and called a halt to the scheme for raising money. The.all knew that tho average farmer sheltered under the moratorium; probably for this millions were needed. , Tho moratorium would expire in December, and when it was lifted there would be a revulsion of feeling as far as tho working farmers were concerned. A great deal more money and a revaluation was required if the farmers were to be enabled to carry on. Tho Reform Party was guilty of all the crimes, and none of the virtues on the political calendar. They had arrived-at the point ihat every intelligent man and woman was realising that the Government was not standing by them. It had created dissatisfaction among all civil servants, and the state of unrest was not purely and simply the concern of the railwaymen ; it was widespread, and they were all wishing the railwaymen every success. —(Applause.) No one could deny mat the Government had caused more dissatisfaction among the people than anyone else. The speaker dealt with conditions among tne prison warders in Auckland and among the police, and stated that there was a great deal of unrest caused by the impossible conditions, and wherever they went they would find dissatisfaction caused by a reactionary Government. Continuing, Mr Lee outlined the case of the labourers who received only £3 16s per week, and pointed out that. Air Alassey had stated that it was the mission of (ho Government to help the prosperous, whereas the Labour Party would do this among all classes as much as possible.—(Applause.) T'ho Government had not done its duty, and it was tottering to its fall; there was no doubt about that. Wherever a Labour man went he found discontent against the Reform and Liberal Parties. Air Massev’s parly was cold-blooded, and he himself was so callous as to force the present trouble to got out of bis own sins, and he thought that by pushing tho men to (ho wall ho would win public favour. The Reform Party hud made a grave mistake; it had bitten otf more than it could chew. The Labour Party did not believe in strikes, and if it had been in power it would remove them by removing the. cause. —(“Hear, bear ”) The Government had fooled with the position, and done everything to prolong tho strike, ami had made tho position so intolerable that the men had to stand up against it to get better wages. The Labour Party had done everything to find a solution, as had the railwaymen. They •were all intelligent and honest men. and only wanted what, was right The press, said the speaker, had undoubtedly taken a very fair attitude in connection with the strike, and it evidently realised (hat the men had a ease, and that the Government had not given the matter the consideration it should. Ho expressed the hopo that the press would continue to serve up only news to the public and not views. (Applause.) In conclusion, the speaker said the tailwaymen deserved their support, they could not be called disloyal, and were behaving splendidly in the present dispute, and as good citizens.—(Applause.) The Labour Party would support them to tho fullest, and if the public would remain behind them they would win, and whatever the outcome. Air Massey’s plan would not succeed. Mr R. Semple said that lie knew perfectly •well of his own personal knowledge that the executive of the A.S.E.S. did all that men possibly could do to prevent this crisis. They exhausted every possible means before even referring to their own rank and file. Their members tired of being treated like children, gave to them a mandate to do what had been done. Yet some cf their opponents said they had no right to consult the rank and file. The usual propaganda against Labour was to try to discredit the men who were at' tho head of such a trouble in this. The Labour Party detested strikes because beneath them was a deep-seated wrong. As soon as Mr Holland felt there was going to bo trouble he offered his services'to Mr Massey to mediate. He hold nut tho olive branch, but Mr Alassey practically insulted him for his trouble. Air Massey had not even tho courtesv to. reply to some of Air Holland’s telegrams. The labour Party had been assembled here onlv a wlicn this crisis canic, and they could.

only get behind the men whom they knew to be right. He had never known a party to act so unanimously as the Labour Party on this occasion. Ho had boon appointed strike organiser in inis district, and he accepted the position because he felt ho would be a coward if ho did not do all in hia power to bring about a just and speedy settlement of the dispute, They ought to convince the people of this country that they were particularly anxious to end this difficulty, but the men must get justice in the process. The door of Parliament had been slammed for eight months. Mr Massey elided up the door for 10 months, and voted himself 10 holiday on ■Cabinet pay, and if any of his supporters could prove that the country had benefited one iota he (the speaker) would leave the country. Ho defied any of Mr Massey s supporters to prove that Mr Massey had done one sensible thing while on this trip. He told the people at Horne that tho people of New Zealand had sent him Home with a free hand, and the executive of tho Labour Party had to cable Horne to put that falsehood right. Kver since Mr Massey returned Mr Holland had renewed his protest about the closing of Parliament, and if Mr Massey had agreed to the reasonable, rational, and constitutional demand of the Leader of the Labour Party and opened the doors of parliament to carry on tho business of the country this crisis would never have happened.—(Applause.) If Mr Massey felt that he had a strong case, as ho said ho had, would he be afraid to call Parliament together to face the situation? Was there anything of the semblance of “revolutionary propaganda” or “Bolshcyism" in this demand for a constitutional settlement of the dispute?—(Laughter and applause.) He referred to tho leaflet that ho said was being placed in every home in the country, and declared that its case was absolutely unanswerable. Many of Mr Massey s supporters and friends in tho House spent mere than £3 14s a week on refreshments. Referring to the question of the 43-hour week, he said it was a false assumption that tho man who worked longer hours gave greater service to the State. As a matter of fact, the longer the hours the poorer the quality of service. He referred to his experience with a team of 36 men tunnelling under model conditions. They broke all the records that had ever been put Up in Australasia because they were well treated and worked the shortest possible hours. It was not true that if you ground men down to tho dust you would make good citizens of them. Ho ridiculed Mr Massey’s claim that his ■Government had done more for those that had fallen by the wayside Ilian any other Government. When a mother was left with Children tho State should take tho place of the breadwinner and not leave her to struggle. It was not only a disgrace but an absolute crime to put a mother before a tribunal and question her because of her need of relief. During tho last two years Mr Massey had been paying particular attention that “these roosters” (indicating people mentioned in a paper he held) did not fall by tho wayside. —(Laughter and applause.) If they did it was because of tho load of dividends under which they were staggering.—(Laughter.) During the last two years Mr Massey took from the pockets of wage earners £16,000,(XX) in reduced; wages. He took from tho civil servants £4,000,000. Mr Semple attacked tho British shipping companies for their huge war-time earnings. From 1914 to 1022, he said, they “raked in” £44,490,000, and that applied also to banking atul insurance companies and other combines. Wherever you had great wealth on the one hand you must have groat poverty on the other. He urged his hearers to read Mr Holland’s pamphlet if they were inclined to put faith m the Liberal Party, and claimed that there was no difference between Mr Massey and Mr Wilford. He combated tho idea that the men were eager to strike, and said they had been absolutely driven to it. Mr Ramsay MacDonald had avoided one strike after another because he know tho grievances that wore causing the trouble, and had set about putting them right. No man in the Labour movement warned turmoil and strife. They wanted a peaceful, happy, contented people. They did not want to fan the flames of class hatred. Force was not part of tho Labour Party’s programme. That dirty weapon belonged to the capitalist system. They were prepared to discuss at any time any channel through which this trouble might possibly be settled. He concluded by reiterating the demand for the summoning ol Parliament. Air J. Raglan expressed the gratitude r,f tho meeting to the speakers for tho lucid way in which they had presented the case and moved —“That this meeting of Dunedin citizens assures the railwaymen of its sympathy, and calls on Mr Massey immediately to convene Parliament to deal with this question.” Mr W. Herbert seconded the motion, and said that there must be something very wrong with tho conditions in the ranway service. . . , j The motion was cameo unanimously, and the meeting closed with cheers tor the railwayman, for the Labour I arty, and lor its loader.