THE PEOPLE WHO PAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1764, 31 May 1913, Page 4

THE PEOPLE WHO PAY.

The protests which have been made throughout (.lie country against the rumoured "alliance" between certain of the shipping companies and the Federation of Labour have had the effect of dragging into the light for public scrutiny some idea of what was actually afoot. It is now admitted thai a conference had been contemplated, and the public, we suspect, despite the explanations made as to what was actually under consideration, will continue to have doubts as to the probable outcome bad the matter not been ventilated in the columns of the press. In these troublous times, when industrial unrest hangs as a continual menace over tlie heads of the large employing interests, it is perhaps not surunaiug to find an inclination to ro-

sort to agreements and understandings to avert threatened dislocation of business, even when such agreements involve the necessity of heaping up some additional burden on tho general public. For too long the public have played the role of looker-on in the settlement of these labour troubles, even when it has been apparent that they arc deeply interested in the outcome. After all, when a set of employers, for the sake of avoiding trouble, concede the demands of their employees, it is in seven eases out of ten at least the public which have to bear tho burden. Therefore, the public, through the press and through the various organisations which represent their interests, should make it plain that they arc determined, as interested parties, to have a voice in any settlement arrived at; or at least that they _ will make such protest as lies within their power on every occasion ,that an attempt is made in this way to exploit them. The farmers of the conntrv, commercial houses as represented by the Chambers of Commerce, and employing interests generally, through the associations which voice their views, have made it quite clear on the present occasion that they are determined to fight any agreement which has for its object the suppression of free labour. There is no uncertainty about their view of the matter, and it is made plain that, however powerful the interests may be which favour an arrangement calculated to place the heel of the Federation of Labour on the neck of the free worker, the united voice of the general public cannot with safety be ignored. Tho shipping' companies may not have intended to enter into any selfish agreement, prejudicial to the interests of the community generally, but if they had had any such idea in view it must surely have been brought home to them by the outcry which has been raised at the mere suggestion of such an arrangement, that the people have passed the quiescent stage, and are actively alive to the fact that where such agreements are likely to be to their disadvantage they must, in self-protection, interfere. This is as it should be. After all it is the public who pay.