NOTES AND COMMENTS.

West Coast Times, 13 June 1912, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Federation of Labour has been devoting attention in conference to a revision of its constitution, and as a result it has evolved something more satisfactory, seemingly, to its own peculiar sense of the fitness of things, than its former. constitution was, and more in harmony with what its loaders conceive should be the solution of the industrial problem which they arc striving to aggravate. Having discovered that it is “ the historic mission ” of the working class to do away with, capitalism, the Federation has adopted as its new watchword “The abolition of the wage system.” Once have the wage system abolished,' and the world will, of course, become a pleasant abode of happiness and prosperity. The people will bo the owners of everything; the employer, otherwise the capitalist, will no longer have any existence. “The working class and the employing class,” we read in the federation’s now manifesto, “have nr,thing in common.. Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organise as a class, take possession of the earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.”

lueeb is nothing new in all this • but it would bo more to the point if some litibour loader would only Jiegin to preach the doctrine of the interdependence of employer and employee, ana show how much they have after all in common. Misapplication of the term “worker” and distortion and contempt of the old aphorism “the labourer is worthy of his hire” arc piodnctivc of a good deal of misunderstanding and foolish talk. The Federation of Labour -will not help matters by studding its constitution with more socialistic nails.. When it can preach Socialism of a. reasonable or of a practical kind it will perhaps offer the worker something that ho can lay bold of. But as a prophet the Socialist present!; a weary spectacle, and the leaders of the Federation of Labour m strlying to make the worker believe that the-wage system ought to be regarded as the root of all evil, and therefore to be abolished, for all their talk of bringing him into his heritage merely advocate a policy of destructiveness without offering the scantiest assurance that the state of things which the abolition of the wage system might be capable of bringing about would not be more than that against winch they urge rebellion, ihofederation is bent, however, upon a tilt at a windmill.

A correspondent, who addresses a elter to iw tins morning, shows very loarly why there are so many travelling agents of the Federation-it a very payable proposition. The wages good, and the job is easy, and th e ending lights are determined to pro]ong t he Waihi and other labo'nSt m tL aS 1011 \ aS POSSible orZ i rnt. ' T b6 abl6 t0 travel p ; the interest of the worker Jhoir existence is a t stake th'-Wu strike will shortly involve i; jT'; S a ® liated with the New Zeaaml Federation of Labour (Re- ) is t-ia current opinion in official hbour circles to-day. That the Federation •n Waih. is up against a dead end and must now either hack down or make ono last desperate* bid for victory by ;: !Il, ‘ S out a) 1 dilated Unions, is noi G 7 ”PP«™nt. The Federation con--10 s nearly the total mining industry - al and gold-and a large propo,of the transport service. This means that if the call is made for I geneial “down tools” coal supplies 'dl be cut off and the shipping industry paralysed. The Auckland tram«av employees will probably g 0 out if “• . altogether, the prospects are that the people of Nmv mo™ ' VIII b f V6 an opportunity of 'vith Svfr a t!leoretlca l acquaintance ''ith Syndicalism before long. It mav * "® n . to af W that “The Voice” is jiunetneally opposed to the Federa-

]] hj know whether or not Mr Bernard Ward, the Ar.hu™ sontative on the Westland County Council, is a millionaire, but what «hat wo do know is that he does not ccupy that pnbhc position for what he can make out of it. Indeed Ids sti aight-opt utterances at the meet-

ing of the County Council on Tuesday ; indicated pretty clearly that his public- ! spiritedness rises to heights above! tho more considerations of his pocket. I Mr. Ward declined to have anything I to do with to-day’s conference unless j it was clearly understood that thei 1 should be no expense incurred by the Council. It is pleasing to note that the Other members of the County acquiesced in the suggestion and today’s conference on Charitable- A. Board matters will not cost the Borough Council nor the County Council anything in the way of expenses. In regard to tho representatives of tho Charitable Aid Board we prefer wait and see before presuming to prophesy anything about what they will or will not do. Mr. Ward’s spirit was also in evidence on one occasion at the mceeting of the Charitable Aid Board last Friday. “I am prepared to stay here as long as tho members like, for I am paid for it,” declared Mr, Bruce, with some emphasis, “I too, will stay all night, if necessary,” retorted Mr. Coulson, “and 1 am not paid for it ! ”