The Dominion. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1908. THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 245, 9 July 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1908. THE ARBITRATION ACT.

The most obvious thing about tho new and imposing patch that; the Government proposes to apply to our tottering industrial legislation ,is its accurate reflection of the Governments uncertainty of mind. If compulsory arbitration were sound in principle—and not, as the past year has demonstrated, a legislative sow's ear that ho ingenuity can convcrfc iiito a silk purse —we should not hesitate to sky that the Bill is anything but a bad one. 'It contains some excellent provisions, but it bears' on every page evidences of haste; uncertainty, and confusion in its drafting. It embodies, in a most disorderly assemblage, ,half a dozen distinct principles; it lacks coherence; it has no single governing idea; it is ill-arranged; it contains the most carefully-drafted clauses side -jy side with the crudest fumblings. It is, in fact, exactly the measure that might have been, expected to emerge from an embarrassed and bewildered Government in' a country in which tho work of legislation has become unskilled labour. Six months have elapsed since the Denniston trouble warned the Government to prepare its policy, and yet the Bill is practically an extempore production into which has been crammed various provisions to meet the defects that have been successively made apparent in the last few' months. '

The Bill nevertheless marks an enormous improvement upon the superstructure at present erected on the principle of compulsory arbitration. Whether that foundation is sound is another, question. But assuming for the present that justice can be done on such an unstable platform, the greater part of the Bill is a largo step forward. It is something, to have the law protected, by a thorough and comprehensive definition of a "strike," from the ingenuity of embarrassed AttorneyGenerals. It is something to have decency and justice protected, by tne abolition of 1 the penalty of imprisonment excepting in certain cases, , against a Prime Minister who openly declares that ho will not allow the law to take its full course. It is something to have placed boyond doubt the liability of persons who instigate or assist a striko. Valuable, too, are the provisions for increasing a trades union's responsibilities, and. limiting claims for "back pay." There is no occasion—and we have no' space—to discuss all tho details of tho Bill, which has other good points to commend it. . The machinery of the new system of Councils of Conciliation seems fair and reasonable, and likely to avoid delay and really promoto the true conciliatory method; Whether a Magistrate will be able to cope with all the disputes, arid yet carry out his ordinary duties,' is, however, more than doubtful. The reinforcement of the Arbitration Court by extra assessors in each case is wholly commendable. , It is a remarkable circumstance that this noteworthy change is provided for in tho very last clause of tho " miscellaneous" provisions of the Bill—an afterthought, as it were. • Tho clause dealing with tho " needs-wage " and " exertion-wage" hardly calls for notice. It is purely permissive, and delightfully vague: the best that the.Government can do as to the manner of fixing the "standard" on which the "exertionwage " is to be based is to leave it to tho Court to calculate the standard in any manner that it thinks fit! This provision also is tucked away amongst tho miscellaneous " clauses.

Olauso 9 will bo hotly opposed on many grounds. Such a-provision as that in Olauso 9 making it criminal to cease work in certain industries without first giving twenty-one days' notice may be wise, but it should really have a place in a special measuro. It is a new principlo that should be laid down in a separate onactment. Tho proposal to suspend, and excludo from tho benefits of an award, any union of workers that engineers a strike, is a good one, and the credit of this idea is Mr. W., Fkaser's. Wo havo unceasingly, urgod the adoption of this scheme, and it is'Satisfactory'to find that the Government lias ;followcd advice tendered in this matter, and has also adopted our own suggested extension of Mr. Phaser's idea, namely, that a.'barriershould be erected against I tho registration, for a certain'period, of any fresh union of the kind involved in the'affected district. That will at any rate leave the employers a free hand, and givo them freedom from the contract that the workers have failed to observe. One defect in tho Bill is the provision which makes the employer of a penalised worker the agent for collecting tho fine. Employers will probably resent this interference with jheir. pax-sheets as likoh. to tond to breed

fresh ill-feeling between employers and men. On the whole, as we have said, the Bill is a good one if compulsory arbitration is good. But the feeling is growing that compulsory arbitration is bad at root, arid that to expect peace, justice, and real progress from'it is a vain aspiration after rainbow gold.