may be, that in a crisis fails to function, is as useless as the greatest medley of craft unionis it is possible to imagine.
In the days of which I write, I am correct in saying that miners, no matter whether coal or metal, labourers, watersiders, etc., comprising the Federation, did not think of themselves as miners (and these divided into two groups), labourers or watersiders, but as Federationists, and that it was to the Federation—that is, to their class—that they owed allegiance and not to the particular craft union of which they were directly members. They thought in terms of the Federation and of the working-class as a whole; and that, I imagine, accounts for the almost passionate attachment of thousands of workers to the Federation.
THE FEDERATION AT WORK.
Should a dispute arise in any given locality, the Executive would invite representatives of the union affected to meet them and, if possible, arrive at a solution of the difficulty. Whatever the decision might be, the final acceptance was always left to the men affected to decide whether or not it met with their approval.
Quite early in its career the Federation demanded a Royal Commission to inquire into the sanitation and ventilation of mines. It hammered at this idea until the then Minister (Hon. R. McKenzie) decided to set up a commission, but appointed the two miners’ representatives without consulting the Federation. The Federation immediately demanded the withdrawal of the two gentlemen appointed, and insisted that its nominees (Messrs. J. Dowgray and W. E. Parry) should constitute the miners’ representatives on the commission.
42
