NOTHING TO LEARN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 7

NOTHING TO LEARN.

MR. ,KEIR HARDtE ON THE LABOUR ! . PARTY. | ; f UTi TELEGRAPH —rEBS3 ASSOCIATION—COI'VIUGHT. Adelaide, December 10. Mr. Keir British Labour M.P., although favourably; impressed" by What ho has seen in Australia, says ho' lias not yot. boon ablo to pick up, any. points for his own ■-■party. .' Tho Labour parties 'in England, >'he considers, aro moro highly organised , than those; of Australia and more comprehensive. • !

THROUGH BRITISH SPECTACLES.;.: : "OVERDRAWN PRAISE."./ ; ; '- r Mr. Koir Bardie seems'to be taking a similar ,|ino to that taken ..by 'his colleague, I Mr. Ramsay Maudonnld, who hold" that''Australasia had not gono to the root' of tho problem: that it was useless to try t : b" regulate, wages without jrcgulution prices; that' What is.needed bytlio labour people is sound' economic:.thought);and a systematic effort to captnro- the- sources ofsupply. ■■.; V; '" ; •; ■' When tho.British Association met at Leicester, ill August, Mr. 'Ramsay. Ifac'donald read a paper before the economic section on ; the Labour Legislation 'of the ; 'Australasian' States." Labour legislation iu 'Australasia: he said, had been' characterised- by 'attempts to fix a minimum ' wage : by statute, or by arbitration courts and.; -wages boards. Tho • chief interest in those'.experiments lay in tho attempt that was being made by them to secure a national standard wage, for tho tendency of both courtsj; and boards was to go beyond a miniuium'^tl-jctly'.'speaking. The New Zealand experiment : proved, however, that, whero thcro was no agreement—and there could bo noue—as to-what was an; absolute standard , macliinory.'J created to settle a nominal standard from time to time, would simply necessitate constant demands being made for nu increase..in.wages A CHIMERA. Such a thing was'>futile, and must break down. A national" standard wage was u chimera. The New Zealand Arbitration i Act had been more effective in organising tho masters than tho workmen, and it had, therefore, raised .prices anil rents. This ho found to hi pretty generally,.admitted, and was borne out by -Tho-Victorian wages boards affected ouly 'ceHiMfi," tl-ad^s," "and their; influence upon prices t.' was obscure. They seemed to have improved .the,character of tho work done. Nominally, they only levelled up t» recognised standards^- 1 but ■ practically tliey tried to do moro;-and the workers did > not accopt that limitation./ Their ■ effect uponsweating had been exaggerated, but they had been working under 'conditions which would yield to them a miixhiium' beneficj'al refeult, e.g., small number of'workpeople' affected, and a market on tho rise,, His o\yn inquiries' led him to the conclusion .that, they could be applied with comparative caso under factory conditions, with some'little ■ difficulty under homo work conditions', 'and hardly at .all under sweating conditions! ; NO PARALLEL WITIIIBRITAIN. )

Even if they agreed 1 ,! With what ho could only rugard us tho altogether overdrawn praiso given to Australasian labour legislation by some writers, they muGt'Tcraemborr'in considering how tlioy could aptily it to their own country, tho industrial differences between them and those colonies. Particularly— ; (T The opportunities which a protcctivo. tariff gavo to increase, notninul wages without increasing the workers' share of tho .national production. v,T Vi^ (2) Tho small industrial ' population; and tho simple industrial constitution of_ tho, colonies, which permitted thorn l to try ' many experiments, aud oludo for a long tinio what; was fiunlly to be fnilure." ; (3) The fact" that tire.Australasian industrial problem was limited' and simplified by: the consideration that production was as yet practically exclusively fpr' tho Homo market. (1) Tho greater opportunities of apparent Buccess given to such .courts and boards by tho greater willingness of' the colonial minu to net generously to the worker. i 1