The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1915. CATHOLICS AND THE VICTORIAN LABOR PARTY

New Zealand Tablet, 29 April 1915, Page 33

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, APRIL 29, 1915. CATHOLICS AND THE VICTORIAN LABOR PARTY

HAT may be described as a sort of mild political crisis has arisen in Victoria, W through the misguided and suicidal the Political Labor Council of that State. *3) Annoyed, apparently, by the vitality and ** -N activity evinced by the Catholic Federation at the recent elections, the Con-/ ference, by a vote of 98 to 48, adopted the following extraordinary resolution — 1 That rule 38 (g) be amended to read: “No person shall be eligible to become, or permitted to remain, a member of the P.L.C. who is a member of any other organisation which selects or lends support to candidates for public positions.” ’ This means, of course, that no Catholic whowishes to remain or to become a member of the Victorian Labor Party, will be allowed to continue his membership in the Catholic Federation. We have described the resulting crisis as ‘ mild ’ — although white-hot indignation is naturally being expressed by Catholics and non-Catholics. at the monumentally stupid blunder which produced it—because we do not believe that the new rule will ever become seriously operative, that it will have any serious or lasting consequences— least so far as the Catholic Federation is concerned —or that it will amount to anything more than a nine days’ wonder, of a rather ridiculous and ignominious kind. We have seen many such attempts on the part of Labor executives to dragoon their followersthough none, perhaps, quite so stupid and high-handed -and we have never yet known any of them to succeed. * We have no information as to the exact procedure adopted by the Conference in coming to a decision on this matter. In this part of the world the invariable method followed in preparing the agenda paper for Labor conferences is as follows. Each of the organisations having representation at the conference is allowed to draw up a limited number of remits, and these are all forwarded to the central executive. The executive arranges and classifies the remits so received, dropping those which have been duplicated or which overlap, and the whole revised list of remits is then submitted to each of the organisations. The organisations discuss the remits, generally at a special meeting called for the purpose ; and the appointed delegates are specifically instructed how they are to vote on each proposal. There is a further full discussion at the Conference, and the final result may be taken as being as near an approximation to the voice of the Party as can well be secured. So far as we can gather from the reports in our Melbourne contemporaries, no such procedure was followed by. the Victorian P.L.C. It seems clear that there was no proper notice, and no adequate consultation of the branches and knowing fairly well, as we do, the general

spirit of the Labor - movement ■in ! the Australasian democracies, we do not for a moment believe that this piece of hasty and ill-considered panic legislation truly represents the views and attitude of the Party /on which it has been imposed. ' This opihion is confirmed by the fact that already some of the largest and most influential unions have entered a vigorous and emphatic protest against the proposal. ■_ V;' --/-' * ■- ,<■ ■ ■ The object of the new move is perfectly clear it is to drive a wedge into the Catholic body, and to "coerce as many as possible of the Catholic . Laborites into abandoning their allegiance to the Catholic Federation. Catholic sympathisers with. Labor are bidden peremptorily to give up either their Faith or their Party. Left to themselves, they are perfectly willing to follow both. They will be true to their Faith—their most precious possessionin questions involving religious issues; and they will be absolutely loyal to their Party on what may fairly be described as party questions. The Political. Labor Council claims the right to control them in both fields. The claim is a piece of unheard of and intolerable tyranny, and the attempt to enforce it is at the same time unspeakably and unpardonably stupid tactics. At the best, organised Labor, in its conflict with the immense resources of wealth, privilege, and monopoly, requires all the friends and allies it can obtain. In New Zealand, at least, this fact is now fully realised and at the last elections in this country even the most extreme Labor wing— violent and hot-headed- ‘ Red Feds.’—saw the wisdom of coming to some sort of friendly understanding with other political parties, and so making an end of the insensate division of forces which has so long been a source of weakness in the Labor ranks. The result was that Labor achieved by far the greatest parliamentax-y success it has yet obtained in the Dominion. The wiseacres of the Victorian P.L.C. have taken the opposite course, and have deliberately started their Party on the path of disintegration and destruction. If they persist in carrying their feud to the bitter end, there will be but one resultand it will not be the Catholic Federation which will be the sufferer. But we do not believe that the present stupendous bluxxder will be allowed to stand. A great Catholic meeting of protest is to be held in Melbourne to-night, and the Catholic Federation is also officially considering the position; and the Catholic body, fortunate in having leaders of great sagacity and ability, can be trusted to make a wise and firm pronouncement on the matter. In the meantime, we venture to think, there is no occasion for precipitate action on the part of individual Catholics. If the new rule is insisted on, they will, of course, ultimately hfpve to resign from the Labor Party ; but for the present let them stay where they are, and use their efforts to vote it out. They are not all fools in the Victorian P.L.C. ; and when the wiser heads see the impending break-up of their Party they will have the courage to face the consequences of their false step, and to take the path which has been trod by greater than they—the fateful path that leads to Canossa.