Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, NOV. 26, 1926. TRADE UNION LAW

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16201, 26 November 1926, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, FRIDAY, NOV. 26, 1926. TRADE UNION LAW

It is now goucrally recognised at Homo that for tho last few years Trades Unionism has boon subordinated to a political movement; that it has failed to resist the temptation to embark on largo and militant political and revolutionary activities. The result lias boon stagnation in industry, an army of unemployed, and enormous losses in production, the effects of which have fallen on all sections of tho people. Tho stand that was taken by the Government and people in combatting the general strike was the beginning of a now conception of industrial relationships. Tho groat majority of workers, whether unionists or not, showed on that occasion that they were just as loyal to King and country as anyone else. They had no heart in tho strike and soon found that they wore suffering from a misguided loyalty to leaders, too many of whom had usurped the power which had boon put into their hands and were prostituting trades unionism for revolutionary principles. Tho consequence has been a demand that, tho dictation of loaders, who have been treating the workers as pawns in tho revolutionary game, shall cease. It is realised that tho present stato of trade union law is a menace to the security of the country and a very considerable handicap to national prosperity. An endeavor will bo made at an early date to amend this law, with the object of rescuing and making articulate the honest, loyal workers who are now suffering under tho yoke of the noisy, irresponsible and lawless (dement. The matter was considered at a. Unionist Conference at Scarborough a few

.weeks ago, when it was resolved: "That in view of tho experience afforded by the general strike of May, !!>"(>, this' conference is of opinion that tho present stato of tho law relating to trades unions constitutes a? menace to national security, whilst depriving of political and industrial freedom, and that this conference therefore urges tho Government to introduce legislation to amend tho law: (1) To make illegal any strike called without a secret ballot of the members of the trades union affected. (2) To increase the security of tho individual worker against, victimisation and intimidation on account of his political beliefs, (3) To

make mass picketing and tho picket- ■ jng of a man's private residence illegal. (4) To require tho national accounts of trades unions to be audited by certified accountants." Speaking after this resolution had been passed and submitted to him, the Prime Minister, Mr. Stanley Baldwin,! spoke of tho lesson of the strike. Whatever might be urged on behalf of its economic, character, (he logic of tho strike, he said, was plain. Had it been successful it would have overridden the constituted Government of the country and the will of the community as there represented, and brought to an end our Parliamoniarv institutions. The threat which the general strike offered was one which the Government—or any Government —was bound to resist, and the spontaneous reaction of the community was such as to win the reluctant ad*miration of the whole world. Those who called the strike learned their theories abroad,-but the material with which they had to work was British. . and the strikers themselves behaved i with a restraint, and orderliness typical of our countrymen and in strange contrast to the' violent doctrines which, for the time being, they were used to give expression. "Theevents of this last year," continued Mr. Baldwin, "have set all men thinking. yVe know that if democracy can learn it can only learn by experiments. li has made the experiment. Has it the capacity to learn? The events of the last few months have brought to the forefront the necessity for a reexamination of the existing Jaw concerning trades unions. Yon cannot smash the system, and if vou could it would be wrong. But tho country is greater than tho masters of industry or the trade unions. A difficult problem we have to solve is to reconcile tho rights of men in combination with the rights of individuals, and both of them in relation to the wider community of which they are only a part. I think we must remember in the words of Disraeli that, popular liberty is something more substantial than tho exercise of the sacred rights of sovereignty by political classes. A. very pregnant saying. Wo are fully ahvo to the importance of the question which is so much exciting your interest. As soon as we have completed our examination of the subject we shall prepare a bill and proceed with it m Parliament. And now it seems to be hardly necessarv in the presence of a gathering of this kind to say there is nothing in the outlook to-day to dispirit us. There is nothing to make us lose, courage. There is a good deal to make us exercise pati'ence. I told you some time ago there was much thinking going on in the country. There is. I believe that employers are thinking. I believe j that trade union leaders are thinkin" ; I believe that the working men are flunking as they have never done before. I believe there is a genuine desire when these troubles are over amongst many men whoso minds have not hitherto been turned in that direction to see if we cannot come together to increase the production of this country, to get work going so that we may get better wages and more prosperity. I take it as a good sign that to-day there arc trade union leaders studying problems in Amoncn I instead of in Russia, and before I sit down I would like to remind vou of a tow words used by Disraeli more thai' eighty years ago in a situation not dissimilar from that in which we find ourselves to-day, showing with wh-;t unerring instincts ho laid his finder on the spot in 1544, showing that wo who represent the Government to-day. however feebly, arc trying to foil-w----in tho direct succession and applyir" to tho problems of this age the tempe'r and spirit he would have applied in his time had he had the opportunity. He was speaking in Yorkshire: 'We are asked sometimes what wo want. Wo want in the first place to impress on society that there is such a thing as duty. We do not do that in anv spirit of conceit or arrogance. We do not pretend that we are any better than others, but that we are "anxious to do our duty, and if so we think that we have, a right to call on others, whether rich or poor, to do theirs, [f that principle of duty had not been lor.t sight of for the last fifty years you would never have hoard' oi' the classes into which England is divided. We want to put an end to that political and social exclusiveness which we believe to bo tho bane of this country. We do not come out like a pack of pedants to tell you that we are prepared to remedy every grievance by tho square and" rule.' Tt is not so much to the action of laws as to the influence of manners that we must look. But how are manners to influence men if they are divided into classes, if the population of a country becomes a body of sections, a group of hostile garrisons? We see but little hope for this country so long as that spirit of faction that has been so rampant of late, years is fostered and encouraged. We call it a spirit of faction, for the principles on which tho parties which nominally divide ths country were formed have worn out and ceased to exist, anil an association of men, however powerful, without political principles, is not a party hut, a faction. Of such a state of society the inevitable result is that public passions are excited for private ends, and popular improvement is lost sight of in particular aggrandisements.' There, over eighty years ago," added Mr. Baldwin, "yon have expressed in words far more eloquent than I can find exactly the points upon which we during tho last three years have been working, and are working, and will continue to work. Wo have passed in Western Europe in the- last ten years through a, whole century of experience and of change, and as a result the world is giddy. It is the same in religion and in politics. Those who remain in parties joined together by fixed principles are in the minority, and the majority are driven about this way and that, the prey of every specious speaker, of every quack, whether in religion or in politics. So let us remember to keep those ideals before us, always based upon the great principles which have come to us straight from Disraeli, and if we- go forward in that spirit, we need have no fear that we shall be able to cope with the difficulties which occur from day to day."