The Dominion. THURSDAY, FABRUARY 26, 1914. AUSTRALIAN STRIKE STATISTICS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1993, 26 February 1914, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, FABRUARY 26, 1914. AUSTRALIAN STRIKE STATISTICS.

RF.cr.iVr events in various parts of the world have strongly emphasised the fact that the strike is a most wasteful and. anti-social method of settling labour disputes. There is of course no excuse for the urn of tliis obsolete weapon of industrial warfare in a country like Australia where impartial tribunals exist fta the purpose.of regulating wages and conditions of labour in an equitable manner after each side has had an opportunity of stating its case; but unfortunately a considerable section of the people for whose Special benefit these tribunals were originally brought into existence are not treating them with tho respect to which they are entitled. The consequence is that the whole aAit.vatioa system is in danger of receiving a> set-back from which it may take a long while to recover. The present strike in the Sydney industry is a, deplorable example of tho -manner in .which the law has been Itavited, and it is not surprising that the eommtiiiity is indignant at the situation with which it is faced. Nor is it to be wondered at that the general public is beginning to' dewafict thai 'the arbitration- legislation should either be enforced or repealed.

A report on strikes and lock-outs,' which has just been issued by the Commonwealth Statistician (Mis. ti.' H. Knibbs), throws a good deal of light upon the recant industrinl unrest in Australia. The. period covered is the year ISIS, the first complete twelve months for which information has been systematically collected in the Commonwealth. -Mr. Knibbs _ explains that on. the ■ notification of a dispute, forms are. dispatched, uadui; the provision of the Census and Statistics Act, IOOSj to the parties to the dispute, separate foniis being sent to the employees, trade anions and employers' associations. If the information given by oM side of the controversy substantially agrees with that given. by the other sid.ej' tho facts are considered ae&wate. If there are djscrepaneies, further investigation is made, and the matter determined as judicially as possible, waking the suintnaviscd result tu agree not necessarily with the testimony of a single individual, but to harmonise with the , eoflenrrunt evidence of the majority, or t>{ tbose whose returns seemed to be inost reliable. In the statistical result's disputes are excluded it' they involve! loss than (.mi worUpeiiplc, ur last if«.s I than one day, whore the aggregate mimber of "men-working days" lost excceds_ 100. Theo-mission oE these smiill disputes affects the final results only very slightly. Fvorn the information g.athered in this I

way Mb. Knibbs has drawn up the following table: — to stat*. «| fi || | a ; ei o> =>, -3ja ; ' &$ -*s m m S.S. Ifulci ... 134 4MU 447.9*9 »bT<«S Vwtom 29 6,1 i / i«; 3J6<18 Qiroonslafld .., 17 I,W l<,in itMi H. Aust?nliA... 5 m %n% l i.2j W. Australia 9 957 rim 5.615 -Tasmnnid 3 W oi'l '«34 Federal Capital ■I'eMitoiy ... £ 2CO i,<oo m Northern Tefrifcory ! 1W 2,558 1,675 Com'oawealth JJ3B 50,283 682,545 498,101 The loss in wages works out at £0 14s. 7sl. for each person involved, and the aggregating resulting loss in production is estimated at suiitethin'g like JtH,4«0,000 (probably somewhat less). The Statistician considers that on a basis of JO per cent, profit on production there would be an iiv media to and direct loss to employers of about half the amount of loss in wages, b«fc the indirect losses and damage to business are often enormous compared with the direct losses. The above facts and figures give a mofc iuipMrssive idea of the disastrous effects of strikes than a volume of argument. -They almost invariably restilb i» a loss to the community, and a loss to the employer; but iu the ■ great- majority of cakes tho chief sufferer. is the worker and these dojoendent upon him. The recent labour troubles in New Zealand, South Africa, and Dublin-ail ended disastrously for the men who took part in them. The expfiriente of ihn misguided workers, iiow on strike in Sydney will proliably bo vl a similar charactGr> and even if they eventually secure a- rise in, 'wages, they would probably hare obtained ccfus-lly good terms if tte>y kad lirought tlreir demands in the proper vr<iy before the industrial Court, in which c«so thoy would nob have forfeited their pay through stoppage of work.