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LABOUR REPRESENTATION IN
THE COUNCIL.
To the Editor.
Sir,--With your permission we, the
executive of the Pohlitical Labour Piarty
of Western Australia, wish to urge upon
our fellow-electors in the Metropolitan
Suburban Province the necessity of tak
ing action on Wednesday for the -"ur
pose of ensuring that a large section of
the community shall be represented in
the Legislative Council. The Political
Labour Party have nominated Mr. G. 1'.
Pearce for the purpose of giving the
electors an opportunity of placing a
labour representative in that House.
We confidently appeal to the sense of
justice which exists in all men. that th,-.y
will recognise the justice of our claim
to have a voice in the Legislature of the
colony.
There are many measures that will
come before Parliament that are urgently
needed in the interests of ihe people,
and which it is absolutely necessary
should be passed into law; and it is es
sential that the workers should have a
voice in the moulding of this legislation.
Such a measure as the Arbitration Act
must be influenced to a large degree by
the self interest of those various mem
bers who are of the House, ands seeing,
that the workers are so directly interest
ed in this measure and that they form
such a large section of the community,
we claim that we have a right to make'
our voice heard on this most important
question. It is desirable that the ques
tion of payment of members should be
definitely settled before the ensuing'
general elections, so as to enable the
people to have a wider choice of candi
dates. The absence of this prmvision
will necessarily chedk many from coming
forward who would be desirable cands
dates. Legislation in the interests of
reform to be thorough must be moulded
by those who ial4 the.need of such legis
lation, and who' a~ fami?har with the'"
lines on which suoh legislation shoul4.
run to be efiective. We wish to poina
out that the various interests suchh as
the legal, land wning, and property,'
interests are already largely. represent
ed, while the largest section of the com
munity (the workers) are entirely un
represented.
The platform of our-nominee is as fol,
lows<-(1) Payment of members; (2)
one adult one votes (3) compulsory in
dustrial arbitration; (4) taxation of un
improved land values: (5) redistribution
of seats on a population basil; (6) Fac
tories Act. We claim for this platform.
that it gives to the people that voice.
in the management of the country which
is their due. For the industrial planks,
we claim that they secure for the workers
those conditions of labour so long recog
nised as desirable by all sections of the '
community, whilst the whole of the plat
form is quite within the region of practi
cal politics. This is borne out by the'
fact that all political aspirants adont
this platform; but past experience indi
cates that it is used for electioneering
purposes only. On the other hand, a
direct representative of labour, if from
self interest only, is more likely to oush
this legislation to a successful issue.
The labour party were the first to
formulate this platform, and by thoeh
untiring efforts have made these mea
sures of reform vopular.
We now appeal to the electors of this
Province to assist in placing in the
tiouse the nominee of this party, Cr. G..
F. Pearce, who, by his services to or
ganisod labour and continuous advocacy
of reform during the past ton years,
has, in our opinion, oualitied him to a&
sist in placing these necessary measures
on the Statute Book of the colony. That
the workers have fully recognised Mr.
Pearce's sterling ability and worth is in-.
dicated by the fact that at the recent
labour congress, which represented
10.000 unionists. he was elected to the
position of "residout - and his intimate
knowledge of the legislative rc'uiro
mints of the workers was responsile; fr
the largo measure of success which at
tended the deliberations of coigres..
We further wish to state that provision
has been made of a financial nature 1 y
the labour party to place Mr. Pearco in
a position to carry out his duties as a
legislator shoun., he he returned on Wel
nesday next. On behalf of the v'orkerc
we appeal to the electors of this Prr,
vince to return Mr. Pearce in the in
terests of labour.-Yours. tce.,
W. DIVER. Prtsi:cist.
J. 'W. (ltOF'l-' Se. :; ary.
Political Labour Prc a; '-.A
Perth, Atugust 27.
$