additional money into the venture; and, in addition, brought to the office hundreds of pounds’ worth of advertisements every year.
After an unfortunate experience on the managerial side, the Federation Executive placed J. Glover in charge, and since that time he has retained his grip on the business side of the paper.
THE FEDERATION AND INDUSTRIAL UNIONISM
Whilst the active Federationists advocated Industrial Unionism and continually spoke of One Big Union, there never was a serious effort made to transform the Federation into an Industrial Union.
We adopted, with certain alterations, the I.W.W. preamble, around which, wherever the English language is spoken, there have been waged some mighty verbal battles. The endorsement of the I.W.W. preamble resulted in some very spirited attacks upon us from the reactionary Labour officials. This attempt at “Americanising” New Zealand’s unionism (as it was termed) met with their bitter opposition, and in the campaign which ensued, and which at times developed into a virulence rather difficult to imagine in these placid days, they received the unanimous backing of the press. I do not remember a daily paper ever publishing a single statement in the Federation’s favour. This antagonism on the part of the press and reactionary officials only convinced us more than ever that our attitude was the correct one.
In the work of administration, the Executive, between conferences, had unlimited power, although Conference was the supreme authority. The
40
