THE GOLDEN RULE IN TRADE
MR JUDKINS’ ADVOCACY
“Fraternalism in Industry” was the subject
of an
address by Mr WH Judkins at the Gipps Street (Collingwood) Methodist
Church yesterday
afternoon.
Mr Judkins said that Australia had just passed
through a great crisis.
If the questions submitted to the people had been carried he was afraid
that any
attempt to bring together employer and employee would have
failed. Blatant
unionists said, if workmen would not join a union, “to hell with them!
Kick them out
of existence!” No wonder unionism went down when it had no sane
argument for
its opponents, but trusted rather to vacuous and offensive
epithets. Unionism
did not take as its basis the Sermon on the Mount, and it was
bound to fall in the
end. He was preaching a Christ-like spirit in trade and
industrialism.
That was embodied in the golden rule. Put against that the utterances
of some of the
militant unionists, “Send the non-unionists to hell!” Was it
right for one
man to say that another should not work because he happened not to
belong to a
union? The very fact that men were compelled to enter unions was
the strongest
reason why they should not join. Blatant unionism was going to die, and
there would spring
up in its place a sane-unionism, that would be more Christ-like in its
principles.
Militant unionism said that there should be a minimum of work. Any
attempt by unionists to
drag down the level of efficiency was going to drag down the
country. If they had
the interests of the country at heart they would give the best that was
in them always. It
seemed to him that the reason why the Labour party got such a set back
on Wednesday was
that they cried out for power against monopolies, whereas if the power
had been granted,
they would have built up one of the greatest monopolies in the world.
(Applause)
From THE ARGUS 1st May 1911 page 6
