TRADE UNIONS............INTERESTS 181
till then there will be the necessity for those who suffer from these handicaps to organize themselves. And what harm is there if they do organize themselves. I could understand the force of the complaint if this organization was engineered by the employers. If it could be proved that we are the tools of the employers, that we are playing into their hands, that we are organizing separately with the deliberate purpose of dividing the ranks of labour, then there would be sufficient justification for condemning this conference. Indeed such a conduct could be denounced as treachery. But can any one say that this move of ours is engineered by the employers and that we are out to help the employers and ruin the cause of labour ? I challenge any of our critics to do so.
There is therefore no necessity to be ashamed of or to offer any apology for holding this Conference. The reasons and motives amply justify it. There are one or two men from the Depressed Classes who have disapproved of this Conference. There is nothing strange in this. Some of them are the tools and hirelings of others. Some are misguided. The Depressed Classes are so weak in themselves and the word union has such a charm in it, especially when it falls from the lips of influential propagandist that it is no wonder they are deluded; but such people forget that there can be no real union between parties whose feelings and attitudes are in every respect opposed to each other and where one of whom claims rights and interests which are adverse to the interests of the others. Union among such people would be nothing but fraud upon the weak and suffering party. Every sincere man who repudiates the fraud is maligned by these imposters, as one who would sow division. Division, indeed! Yes, a division it may be, but it is a division, where a real difference and a real antagonism exists. This antagonism arises chiefly because one section of Labour claims vested rights against another section of Labour namely the Depressed Classes. Nobody wants to create a difference. What we are doing is to recognize the difference and to prevent the difference from working an injustice to us.