smoother the path of the workers, nevertheless, we never seriously considered the advisability of allying ourselves with any particular political party.
It is true, of course, that most of us were members of the N.Z. Socialist Party, and that the members of that party, generally speaking, accorded us their support; but even that party we eyed with some suspicion when it came to contesting Parliamentary seats.
Political parties and politicians we frankly regarded as rather spineless organisations and individuals who were so amendable to pressure that the reforms desired could be wrung from them quite as easily as from some more definitely Labour group.
The old school of Unionist used to charge the Federation with being anti-Parliamentarian. This charge, of course, was not true, for there never was an opportunity missed of bringing under ministerial notice the urgent need of this or that reform, all of which we realised could only be achieved by legislative enactment; and, in passing, it may be recorded that, in this connection, we were decidedly successful in securing many reforms of a lasting character.
Perhaps the most adequate description of our outlook would be to say that we felt that no political party was sufficiently worth while to warrant us surrendering any of our many activities into its keeping. We were justly proud of the splendid spirit of the Federation’s membership, and just a bit jealous, perhaps, lest politicians, in their scrambling for votes, would obscure those issues which we regarded as being of front-rank importance. The class war was recognised as no intangible thing to be only referred to in whispers and among friends. We proclaimed it from the house-tops.
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