STILL AFAR OFF!

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3570, 9 July 1912, Page 3

STILL AFAR OFF!

THE LABOR MILLENNIUM. (From Our Own Correspondent.'l SYDNEY, June 25. There is an inter-Stato gathering cf laborers in ‘.Sydney just now. Its object is to amalgamate all the Australian laborers'’ unions into one gigantic body, which, it is fondly droamed, will then be able to enforce its v. ill on the rest of the people, and bring, into existence that Elysian period when the least skilled and*least competent members of the- population shall -receive the maximum wages for the very least modicum of work that it may be found practicable to give in return. The utterances of" the “organisers.’’ hear a very strong family resemblance to those- of other ambitious demagogues, who have preceded them in other directions- They intend to turn their backs on the political Labor party, and to refuse to have anything to do with legal arbitration in the settlement of disputes. Their hand js to be against every man. If the body could be really relied upon to take a stand of this kind, the development might be regarded ais hopeful. Political “Labor’’ has degenerated into little better than a conspiracy to promote the fancied interests of a favored class at the expense of those- of the immense majority of the people. Legal arbitration has added enormously to the difficulties and cost of carrying on the industries which constitute the prosperity of the State, -without at all ensuring industrial peace. The litigation and ill-feeling, and the other disabilities which it has brought with it. are very real, very oppressive, and very galling. The advantages which its promoters promised) have proved altogether illusory and chimerical. It will-burst up sooner or later, and anything that would hasten its termination would be- welcome. But the new union won’t help- to got rid of it. Its vote may bo .reckoned on with perfect confidence by the organisations against which it is railing. To suppose anything else would be to suppose that the Ethiopian had changed his skin, and the leopard his spots, which is quite too much to hone for..