A FUTILE SUGGESTION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1918, 28 November 1913, Page 9

A FUTILE SUGGESTION.

Sir, —I sot' in vol!!' issiso of yesterday a proposal I rum Sir Joso/h Ward that •Sir .lusinii! Williams kJioulcl l>o asked its arbitrate on the deplicrahJo dispute thai is causing so much ijitterncss and suffering in tins colony. Thisjgk every saw: man must wish to see j'jnace oncij more established, ii is surely V'tior that thefight should go on indefinitely thajithaf. any agreement should Lii eoino. to between, parties, one oi' whom openly preaches "tho breaking of any and every agreement, should advar.iago bo likely to acerue by doing so. 'Ihimgh im oho iviil doubt the ability of so ommojii, a Judge and so admirable a man to discover a basis of agreement which would be acceptable, to the parties concerned, swell discovery would be wluelcss in tho present circumstances. The. "Federation" has declared that it has.nothing in common with the employers, and preaches war to ilm knife with tho .employing classes. How, then, ca.ii any agreement be binding on. such a body, and, if not binding, what is the use of making it? The difficulty is not that lh\< employers do not want a sett-foment, but that no settlement is possible with jneiy who refuse to bo hound _ by ti'.o .most ekyuentary rules of conduct, T/ie. light should go on, no matter at lviint. sacrifice, until normal conditions am once more established. Tiwrn, and not till then, the whole position as batwoou employer and employed, not as between employer ami Federation, in. tko industries involved in this dispute, could he considered. The cleavago in liliis case, is not between Labour and Capital, but between those who believe in fxece.om within the law and tho samuify of the given word, on the one hami.,;aittE-'those who do notj on the other,—■t.'amjjetc..