Labor Unions and Politics.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 505, 11 September 1890, Page 2

Labor Unions and Politics.

Ito the editor.] Sih, —Lately you have had several letters on the political phase of th? present labor troubles. Will you kindly publish the following extract from the Sydney Bulle’in

“ Attempts to pub forward distinctively Labor candidates for Parliamentary seats have come to nought. The personal jealousies among the leaders, and of the leaders by the workers in general, have proved a formidable, and, indeed, an insuper able obstacle at the outset. Moreover, Trades Unionists, although collectively powerfu 1 , are in but few constituencies sufficiently compacted to carry in candidates of their own nomination. And the ordinary politicians who are apt at courting the union vote at election time by vague expressions of sympathy, and declarations of good intentions, have almost without exception proved unstable. The very rottenest of reeds have indeed been the working-man candidates No sooner are these fairly ushered within the portals of Parliament than their very natures appear to undergo a metamorphosis. They change exteriorly, interiorly—physically and mentally. They affect chimney pot hats and frock-coats. They commence almost at once to ape gentility, and concentrate their efforts upon the object of emancipating themselves for ever from the thraldom of wagf~3arning, in order to enter the more comfortable ranks of the tradesman or employer. They become eminently • respectable,’ and are at pains to emphasise their ♦ moderation.’ Ordinarily a labor- * agitator’ sent into Parliament is in most cases lost to thecause, This result may be attributed principally to the intermittent and aocidental nature of the inflienoe exerted at elections by the working-class. It is only by chance, and under exceptional circumstances, that they manage to shove in a man of their own choice. Once in Parliament, such a man quickly appreciates his situation. He feels no assurance that those who got him in can keep him in. He sets himself to so comport himself as to secure his return by a general vote instead of by a class vote. He has learned how impotent the labor-vote really is.”—l am, etc., Elector,