UNITY OF LABOR.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3329, 22 September 1911, Page 2

UNITY OF LABOR.

PROFESSOR MILLS AT THE GARRISON HALL.

The second of the series of lectures of Professor W. T. Mills was delivered at tlie Garrison Hall last night. The weather was extermely cold, wet, and boisterous, but despite the adverse conditions there was au attendance of about 200 people in the hall. Mr A. S. Richards, President of the East Coast Trades and Labor Council, presided. Professor Mills said that he had come to New Zealand to undertake a lecture course with the object of healing the breach in the ranks of labor and, if possible, cementing the warring elements and welding them into a perfect fighting machine. One of his objects in visiting Astralasia had been to obtain data for a book lie was writing. He was convinced that tlie variety of organisation in New Zealand did not exist because of fundamental differences between the N.Z. Federation of Labor and the Socialist Party. There were 400,000 working people in the Dominion, 60,000 of whom belonged to organisations, but there was no official headquarters. They had the Socialist and Labor parties claiming to represent labor. These bodies were using their'joint strength not to help but to hinder and embarrass the other. He had taken the forms of organisation of the two parties -and had carefully read the records of the conference which had been held to endeavour to effect an amalgamation. The platforms were almost identical. He had been told that' the Socialist Party was insisting upon the socialisation of property, while the Labor Party were starving for gradual public ownership, which was one and tlie same thing. It was simply splitting hairs. If there was no .more serious difference between them than that they should soon get together. He bad interviewed a good number of revolutionary socialists and had 1 asked them to explain what the term revolutionary socialist meant without using • the word “revolutionary” and “socialist”; but .they had been unable to do> so. He had been told that there were some people In New Zealand who were opposed to industrial unionism, but when lie had questioned' them on the subject he had found they were in favor of it to a man. He had also been informed that Mr McLaren was .a sworn opponent to the principle,' and he had gone down to endeavor to convert him., but Mr McLaren had proved to him that lie had drawn out months before a scheme to bring about a union of transportation workers. There were too many small bodies acting independently. The same trouble had been experienced in the States and in England. There was so m'uoli duplication that it took the whole of the revenue to pay the fares of the delegates to conference. A steamboat with so big a whistle that when it blew the signal to start there was no steam left to propel the boat. All that was left to. do l was to get the different groups that-existed together and then make the groups into one great national federation. The large unions of England were organised along the lines of industries. The big strike recently there had been made possible by all. the transport workers being organised. Tlho band of industrial brotherhood had even spanned the German ocean, and the workers in Germany had helped those in England. He. (Professor Mills) was working in such a way at his scheme of union that ho would not make things any ( worse even if he failed. The national organisation he was striving to effect could only be a success as the successor of organisations already in the field. There had boon complaints because they were admitting persons to their ranks. No organised party in the world prohibited clergymen from joining its ranks. Tlie parsons were here, and were going to take a hand in every fight, and to the extent that they supported labor they would not bo against it. Tlie parsons, the lawyers, the writers, the thinkers, the workers, are who were nulling to come in would help to build up a great federation which would .fight and oppose monopoly. Where' was the final authority to rest? One delegate from each union was elected to attend the annual conferences. All of the different groups having been in session together

would meet in joint session. The reason he wanted the big national federation was because the union could not do business with the employer. The employer, however,, would stand still and listen 'when he was told that they represented an organisation that embraced every worker in the Dominion. Seventeen hundred farm laborers had come before the Arbitration Court at Christchurch, but had been told that to give them an award would upset the whole social arrangement. If the judge had .been able to look beyond the spokesman for tlie farm laborers and seen 200,000 workers, he would have come to the conclusion that not to make an award would upset more social arrangements that the making of an award. Tlie greatest 1 enemy of labor now wiasi the lack of information pn the part of laborers themselves as to their own affairs. Was it possible for labor to fight its battles and win unless they had absolute and ample information as to the causes it was fighting for. The real people of New Zealand had to be reached at their own fireside, or they would never be reached at all. The people would not come to hear lectures and could not he reached on the street. Milwaukee, the largest English-speaking city in the world, was controlled by a Labor party, and this had only been brought about by the patient and systematic dissemination of literature. The same course needed to be followed here. He wantd an organisation tliat would send its literature to the farthest farm' house in New Zealand. If the father did not read it the mother would; if the mother did not read it the boy would. The son might be spanked occasionally for asking questions, but both _would benefit by the process. In conclusion he asked the unions to. discuss this question of unification, and work to an end that Avould secure one large body that would represent and fight in the interests of Labor.

. Professor Mills will address a meeting of ladies at Chilton’s Hall at 3 o clock this afternoon, his subject being “Education,” while to-night he will lecture in the same ball on “Public Ownership of Monopolised Industries.”