Problems of Industry.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16858, 11 June 1920, Page 6

Problems of Industry.

The special conference of tho New Zealand. Fmployers' Federation, which has been considering tho problem of securing industrial peace and progress, has recorded its opinion in a series of resolutions which we print to-day. These resolutions outline a practical and useful means of counteracting the causes of discontent and lawlessness, and no representative of organised. Labour can urge against them that ■they reveal any "anti-Labour" inten-

tion, cr that they can- hare any tendency injurious to the interests of the great body of wage earners. What injury can Labour take from a clcser co-oporatioi and more intimate relations between employers and their cmplovees ? or from the inculcation of j sound economic doctrine, such as that the more the country produces the more there will bo to'go round? or 1 from payment by results? or from ex- | tended provision for unemployment and invalidity insurance and the encouragement of workers to own their own homes? The Labour extremists need not toll us, for we know quite we'll, that al] this ; s very much opposed to their views. It certainly • contains nothing to help the destruction of what they call "the capitalistic sys- '• torn," or io further the creation of that chaos which thi-y call "the co-operative !'■ commonwealth, ' but which mos" people who base their opinions on facts j and not on fancies regard as merely the wrecking of_ the world's efficiency in order to redistribute tho world's discontent. "We shall return to these levolutions on another occasion, but in the meantime wo camiot but regret that the conference so positively rejected the idea ri a national conforenco between representatives of the employers and representatives of organised Labour. Many prominent Labour men have, indeed, expressed opinions with which other opinions cannot possibly find a means of making contact —opinions that- contain not one inch of common ground for friendly discussion. But, absurd as these opinions are, those who hold thorn would be obliged, if a conference woro held, to defend tho:n, and they could not defend them without giving some account of the veal causes for such, industrial unrest as now prevails. Tho task of allaying this unrest, and placing industry on a basis of greater mutual confidence, would be made much easier by a fuller understanding of the processes of thought of militant unionist. Further than this, even the best-inten-tioned and most sincere endeavours by tho employers to follow the advice ill tho resolutions will run®.a gravo risk of failing in their purpose, if organised Labour is loft free to bo persuaded by its leaders that the door has been slammed in their faccs.