LABOUR PROBLEMS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1209, 18 August 1911, Page 8

LABOUR PROBLEMS.

THE BLIGHT OF REVOLUTIONARY ' SOCIALISM. ARBITRATION LAW. AN. INTERESTING .RETROSPECT. (By Tclecraph—Press Association.) Christchurch, August 17. The annual meeting of the Canterbury Employers' Association, held this evening, was of especial interest', as it marked approximately the twenty-first anniversary of the establishment of the association. Mr. J. A. Erostick (president), in moving Hie adoption of tlio re part, gave an interesting retrospect of the position of employers and employees. He said that tho great advance in education in New Zealand and other countries during the past thirty years had brought about a genuine and laudable desire on the part of the adult population to exercise their full rights as citizens. All might have been well had it not been for tho blight or revolutionary Socialism. iVo country was altogether free from its operations, or had not felt its blighting influence, lor, notwithstanding its protestations, revolutionary Socialism struck its first and most deadly blow at the very class it professed to.assist, and upon which ils very existence depended. iV prominent Socialist in England was reported to have said only a few days ago that lie urged tho use of a mightier weapon than all the Dreadnoughts of Britain, a strike aga'inst handling tho foodstuffs arriving in England. That was the type of man who had travelled at tho expense of the men upon whom tho severity of the blow hd recommended would first fall. The poorest were always the first to suffer, the rich last. Tho talk about the idle rich had practically no application in New Zealand, and certainly none whatever in reeard to the members of the association. The nationalisation of industries of which a. good deal was heard nowadays was nnt a new idea.

Experiments that Failed. [ In 1&I8 the French Government established national workshops, but the experiment lvas a fatal one, alt!:oii".t persisted in until the people starved. At Brest a similar experiment in connection with municipal affairs resulteu m strikes in almost every trade, and the same results had ' obtained in England wherever the principles of Socialism were applied. The Right Hon. John Burns, given a free hand to make experiments on the Socialistic lines he advocated for years, ■ stuck to his guns ■ manfully, but had, to acknowledge eventually that, his theories were unsound, and as President of the Local Government Board, he could find nothing good to say of the experiment. The speaker also referred to similar experiments in America and to tho New Australian experiment,. and added that he had introduced . the subject because their interests' as employers, were identical with those of their employees, 1)5 per cent, of whom, if left alone by the meddlesome revolutionary Socialists and professional agitators, ' would certainly give a fair day's work. for a fair day's pay. Honest workers were fellow citizens with their should bo treated as such, and should never lw exploited. Referring >to the v fact thatserious differences of opinion between employers and employees would arise, ha, remarked that the Arbitration Act had' no accomplished all hat. was '• anticipatpated from it by its promoters, and for this partial failure employers were in 110 small measure to' blame, as they did not, till two or three years after the passing of tho Act, attempt to form unions of employers. An opportunity was thus afforded the extremo Socialistic section of the Labour party to ask for amendments year after year almost unchallenged. These amendments were always ! in one directibn; imposing further and still further restrictions 'upon industries. Tlio employers at the time indicated wero disorganised, and thero was no cohesion till the pinch came. It was only comparatively recently that employers had made any organised attempt to induce the Government to amend labour" Acts =0 that the interests of all parties should be fully protected, and industries left free to devc'Jop. Some employers ho knew said that the: Arbitration Act. should be repealed,'but his on;n 1011 was that it should not, and would not, be repealed, though the Dominion's labour laws most certainly needed amendment in the direction of greater individual and personal freedom. When those laws were placed on a fair and equitable basis, public opinion would insist upon tho strict observance of their provisions. Country Workers. Referring to the organisation b£ country workers, he said nothing could prevent it, and no attempt should be made by. the employers to stop it, but he would say to every farmer in New Zealand: "Be ready to meet any emergency. Tt is. the surest way to secure industrial peace. Do not feel_ aggrieved because your workmen organise for their own protection. You also have the same,right, and you must organise if you desire that, your interests should be protected." He contended that th© organisation of- the farmers would not Ire complete or. effective if it-was separated from the genera! body of organised employers. The great problem to be solved in the immediate future was to maintain a fair equitable balance between the payers and receivers of wages. Under existing conditions, the industries of tho Dominion had not grown and' could' not grow in proportion to the increase of population. "Whilst an: incessant demand had been'made for less work, sliortor hours, and rnoro pay, the foreign manufatturep had been pouring his goods into tho country, to the value of millions sterling annually, anc| thereby not only depleting the country of much of its created wealth, but discouraging the expansion, of. many industries, which, during . the past thirty years had been struggling info existence. Tho genuine workingman was an important factor in the prosperity of any country, and although for a time he had been driven into the ranks- of Socialism, ho believed that many of their best workers, and many unions of workers, now realised that the fields of industrial enterprise had been sown with . Socialistic weeds, the product of which was not only unprofitable, but, unless rooted out, would ultimately choko all the genuino growth from which prosperity comes, and in its place would be reaped privation, destitution, and possibly anarchy. Order v. Chaos. The employers of New Zealand should face their responsibility, and insist that industrial, order should take the place of Socialistic chaos. The position of tlio genuine worker should be improved, tho position of the employer niadc more secure. The. New Zealand employers must endorse the remarks recently made by Mr. Justice Haydon in a speech at Sydney, in which ho laid down the principles which guide employers and employees in settling their differences. The speaker quoted these principles, and said that their adoption would lead the Dominion towards greater prosperity. He pointed cut that fully !)0 per cent, of the population of New Zealand had to work for their living, and yet New Zealand occupied the proud position of having a greater wealth per head of population than any other country in tho ' workl, being -£335 per head, as compared with X"2!)l in the United Kingdom, and ,£263 in tho United Stales. The basis of New Zealand's prosperity had been economic, and tho natural resources being very great, the, damaging effects of political interference had not been so disastrous as it would otherwise havo been, but the time lmd arrived when the country miist.be freed from tho baneful effects of ultra-Socialistic legislation. Tho speaker then dcnlt at some length with tho complex and varied naturo of tho awards of the Arbitration Court, showing that in respect to preference to unionists . th« Court had accepted the responsibility of making 43 variations on this one question, 21 different conditions regarding holidays, and -18 regarding tho employment' of apprentices. There were !I8 industries in the Dominion affected by awards, 15 industries being in competition with foreign markets, and 53 In competition with tho Dominion only. Une matler calling for immediate attention was the absurd duplication of awards in one industry. Fur example, freezing works might cover 13 distinct awards, engineers 10. builders 0, tanners ". printing establishments fi. farming -6. butter factories 3, and cloth- , ing factories 5. There were' actually. at_

present 51 awards governing these eight industries, lie asked if this was not sufficient evidence that someone' had blundered, and that tho time had arrived when such an unsatisfactory state ot things should bo amended. There were fifteen rules of the Court as to how workmen's wages should l;o computed. lie did not suggest that the Court was alone responsible for this unsatisfactory state of things. He believed that much of the tolamo rested upon the employers, but tho judicial training of the Court should have caused it to have sounded a note of warning much earlier than it did. Concluding, he said that the multiplication of awards by the Court could not go 011 indefinitely as the making of laws by tho Court without regard to uniformity must, if continued, end in hopeless confusion. It was to the interests of all employers that the workers of the Dominion should be prosperous, that they Should have something beyond the bare necessities of life, and that industrial enterprise on tho part of the employer and honest work on the part of the worker would bring about a period of general prosperity such as New Zealand has never seen.