LABOUR MINISTER’S TASK

Southland Times, Issue 23792, 14 April 1939, Page 6

LABOUR MINISTER’S TASK

“JOB WILL NOT BE A VERY PLEASANT ONE” “I can say that in the next year or two my job will not be a very pleasant one as Minister of Labour,” the Hon. P. C. Webb is reported by The Standard as having told the conference of the Federation of Labour. 0 “In the first year or two of its existence the Government did much to improve your conditions. It brought about a standard of living undreamt of only a few years ago. I venture to say that few, if any, ever dreamed that it was possible for a Labour Government to accomplish so much in such a short time.”

Now they had to stabilize things, and to raise the standard of living of the lower paid workers. Constantly chasing higher wages would not get them anywhere, and he wanted to appeal to them for co-operation along those lines.

“I am hoping that, with your cooperation, I will be able to improve things for you. I am relying on the common sense and good judgment of your officers to co-operate with me, and I assure you that I will co-operate with them to the fullest extent. No power that the capitalist class wields can block us marching on to our goal. If we do that, it is only by splitting up into factions and fighting among ourselves that we can lose. If we combine together, and organize and fight for what we know to be right, and intelligently direct the affairs of State, all the powers of banks and mammon will not prevail against us, because I know that the Government will go to the full extent along the road the people want us to travel,” he concluded.