WORKERS WARNED.

Waikato Times, Volume 120, Issue 19990, 14 September 1936, Page 8

WORKERS WARNED.

MINISTER’S APPEAL. NEED FOR co-OPERATION. DANGER OF A CRASH. (Special to Times.) AUCKLAND, Monday. The Hon. P. Fraser, Deputy—Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party, in an address to a large audience made an earnest appeal to trades unionists for earnest «co—operation with the Gov—ernment, without which he said. the workers would be unable to maintain what they have already secured. He said that at the last election "harbour asked the electors to support a few main principles, and swept 'he country It is easier to cheer than to help the Government to carry out its programme in a serious way. To-day we ask all who have any regard for Labour and for democracy to help Lab--our in a sensible and organised fashion. “There had been no mention of the 40-hour week in any of the Labour Party's pre-election decuments. The party stood for the highest standard of living that could be secured at. any particular time and it realised the value of plenty of leisure. Reason for 40-hour Week. “ To those who have threatened all sorts of things in a selfish, inconsiderate and not understanding way. to those who have threatened to throw Industry out of gear 'because they have

Minister of Health, Education and Marine. not got just what they want, I say that the 40-hour week is not mainly for the benefit of those in constant work, but for the benefit of those who have not had a chance to work. “ The Government has promised that within the next two years it will introduce a national superannuation and health scheme, which will abolish the fear of poverty from this Dominion for ever, but the Government and the trade unions cannot maintain what they have won unless the unions work in co-operation with the Government they helped to elect. All that is needed is understanding, because no trade unionist wants to see ihe Labour Government crash or what it has given him taken away—and there is a serious danger of that. “ Not only trade unionism but democracy itself is at stake,” Mr Fraser continued. 44 Therefore, the message that I would leave with you in Auckland is that if democracy fails in New Zealand it fails everywhere. A few weeks ago Mr Attlee, leader of the British Parliamentary Labour Party, wrote to me: ‘We are all looking to New Zealand 'because if you succeed we can use that success to win Britain for Lab“lf Labour falls It can only be because the workers fall to support It properly. If the workers betray the Government, democracy will crash with It. “ A Labour Government must govern with the consent and help of the people generally. If it cannot enforce the law with their support it must abdicate, unless it uses its power against the working people who elected it. Against the Government. 44 1 tell trade unionists frankly that they are making things impossible for the Labour Government. They say that they do not wish to embarrass it—and then they proceed to do so. If a Government is made ridiculous, it is not fit to govern. 44 I invite the transport workers to think of this: Strikes or aggressive action on the waterfront are not against the shipowners, but against the Labour Government, for much of the produce that is exported is the property of the Government. If it misses the London market the Government will not be able to go on with its humanitarian legislation. “ If we go from democracy to dictatorship the fault will lie with those thoughtless people who for their own petty ends endangered the whole fabric of Labour.”