The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1913. AN IMPORTANT ASPECT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 59, 10 November 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. MONDAY, NOVEM BER 10, 1913. AN IMPORTANT ASPECT.

I li(> “Lyttelton Times,” in a lecent issue, deals with Cnions and discipline/ and in doing so remarks that thero is one important aspect of the Wellington strike upon which a word ot warning should he addressed especially to the executive ot the federation ol Labour. This is, of course, putting the matter very kindly. The

“limes” goes on to point out; “When the federation was lately endeavouring to draw the whole bods’ of labour into its seheme it made a particular point of tin 1 tact that its constitution

was devised to prevent hasty action on the part ol small unions or anything in tin' shape of a sectional strike. As we understood the scheme it was

impossible for any group of workmen to “down tools” without first referring their dispute to tlit' Federation, and ifj imy workers did break an agreement, on their own account they would bej ordered hack to work pending con- ] sideration of their claims and an official attempt at a settlement. At both llnntly and Wellington, however, local unions struck without a somhlance nib consulting the Federation. The merits j [of the llnntly affair are not at all clear, but the action of the Wellington men is absolutely unjustifiable, and if the Federation was as pood m 1 its word they would he ordered to) resume work. Plainly the Federation’s discipline is far from perfect. But j that is not the worst aspect of the business. The Federation may or may | not have been in a position to control! the Wellington watersiders, hut the

failure of the Wellington M atersider* I’nicm to observe its own rules or even to accept the advice of its own responsible officers should surely have been dealt with by the federation v.itii some show of authority. The I nion had put itself iu the wrong with its own organisation, and it was entitled to no support from headquarters until it had proved lUseli amenable to discipline.; Yet we have the Federation’s officers identifying themselves with the strikers and inflaming the workers generally, and the executive shows its con-, tempt for its own rules by calling out the rest of the waterside workers ot, the Dominion. No unionist with a spark of grit in his composition canj approve of conduct of this kind, and| though the loyalty of the workers toi one another may he shown in the present trouble the effect must unquestionably be to weaken the prestige, and power of the federation even! among its own members. As for the general public, they will have scant respect for an organisation that has not the courage to maintain even a pretence ot discipline.” That at any rate will be one lesson learned at considerable cost to the country, and it ought to he sufficiently plain to make it evident thiA the leaders of the Red Federation must not he allowed to rule.