The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1913. EXPLOITING THE PUBLIC,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1761, 28 May 1913, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, MAY 28, 1913.

EXPLOITING THE PUBLIC,

Tiie sinister story concerning a proposed oombinat.ion between wrtain shipping interests and the Federation of Labour, which is just now receiving very free circulation, is bound to cause a good deal of uneasiness, and the shipping companies would be well advised to take the public fully into their confidence in the matter without delay. So far there appears to have been "a tendency to shuffle and evade a

clear explanation, and it is just as well that those most intimately concerned should realise that they can only do themselves injury by such tactics. The story, as it'reaches us, and it comes from a source in which wc have reason to place a good (leal of confidence, is that the Federation of Labour has sought, and has succeeded, in arranging a conference at Christclnirch with three of the leading shipping companies on tiie question oi tho employment of free labour by tho companies in question. Tho action of the Federation is the outcome of the Tiniaru strike, when the Federationists who refused to work the port had their places taken by free labourers, composed of farmers and others. The free labourers at Timaru have won the day, and by so doing have not only prevented heavy loss to the shipping and farming interests affected by the delay in the loading of the vesrsols, but have also struck a severe blow at tho already somewhat demoralised Federation of Labour. The Federation, it is asserted, is now seeking to regain some of its lost prestige by means of an undertaking which it hopes to secure from the shipping companies, providing that in future the companies will notemploy free labour—that is nonFederationists. In return for such undertaking on the shipping companies part the Federation would be prepared to enter into a guarantee that there will be no strikes in connection with the vessels of the companies concerned.

This is the bald outline of the story: what it would mean to the public is quite another matter. It is inconceivable that the Federation of Labour would be prepared to tic its hands in such a manner as would prevent it pressing the claims of its members unless it received some material advantago which would render such action unnecessary. How, then, would the public be affected by such an arrangement? Would not they, as usual, he called on to pay the piper 1 It may be statecl that the shipping companies would not bs put to any extra cost by such an agreement, and therefore would not require to "pass on" any extra charges to the public. But eveq if this should be the case at the moment, there is not the slightest doubt as to what would be the ultimate outcome. Should the shipping companies betray the men who have come, and who would under existing conditions continue to come, to their aid when there was just cause, what will be the position 1 It will simply mean that the companies will destroy their only means of fighting what may again develop into an organised Labour tyranny: and the public will be the chief sufferers, through having the added costs which the shipping companies may be forced lo concedo passed on to them. Free labour defeated the tyranny of the Waihi strikers, and it broke the imposition of the slaughtermen's strike; and now tho Federation of Labour is seeking to destroy this weapon which is the chief defence against the exploitation of the public by tho organised efforts of the Labour Trust.; The shipping companies might gain a temporary advantage by such an arrangement as is outlined above, but we cannot conceive that they would be so foolish as to believe that any agreement of tho kind would bo long maintained, or that it would be quietly submitted to by the public. If the shinping companies, or any other of tho employing interests, are going to enter into alliances with Labour organisations which must ultimately work to the detriment of the general public, then the people, through their representatives in Parliament, will have to take a hand in the matter. So far as wo are aware, none of tlic shipping companies have yet committed themselves to any course of action with the Federtion_ of Labour: and they may have no intention or doing anything of the kind. But it is just as well in a matter of this nature that there should be no room for doubt as to what is going on'behind the scenes, and no uncertainty as to the view the public take of such alliances.