AN INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 229, 21 June 1919, Page 6

AN INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE

Some hopes _of a purposeful attempt to improve the existing relations between employers and wage-earners in this country are raised by a letter on the subject of a national industrial conference which was addressed during the week by the Hon. W. H. Herries (Minister of Labour) to the Federation of Labour Executive. Mr. Herries, it is true, said he thought it inadvisable to at once summon such a conference, as the Federation had proposed, but he mentioned as a reason for delay that Mr. Massey had certain proposals in the matter under consideration. In view of the late trend of events in Great Britain any proposals the Prime Minister bases upon his observations and experience in that country may easily be of far-reaching importance and break new ground. Full prominence has been given to serious industrial upheavals and disorders in Great Britain since the armistice, but quieter constructive efforts, of which 'little has been heard, are likely to exert a much .more important influence upon the future of British industry. Those who are labouring in Great Britain to solve the problem of industrial unrest aud to create an entirely new industrial atmosphere arc by no irteans inclined _ to .give up in despair, Some evidence on the point appears in the outcome of the National Industrial Conference which sat in London in March and April last. It was mentioned on Thursday that, Bills are to bo laid before the House of Commons to give effect to recommendations made by the conference in regard id minimum wages and hours. As might be expected some of the proposals-advanced'b,v the conference relate to developments already accomplished in this country, but it concerned itself- also with one great problem at least which is as far from being solved in New Zealand as in the Mother Country—the problem of abolishing the conditions in which employers and wageearners are constantly on terms of more or less acute hostility and substituting conditions in which they would regard themselves as partners or as fellow-servants, each with a defined share in-a common .task. The Conference recommended the establishment of a permanent, national industrial council of . employers and-workers to advise the Government on industrial questions. What the British Government intends to do in the matter has yet to be disclosed, but the creation of such a-council sooner or later is the more likely since the number*of trade and district councils constitute under the-Whitley scheme is steadily increasing. - The aim of these bodies has- been broadly defined as that'of securing'the largest possible "measure of joint action between employers and work-people for the safeguarding and development, of the industry as a- part of national life and for the improvement' of the conditions'of all engaged, jn the industry,. What information is available goes to show, not only that the. councils are increasing in number, but that they are. making most satisfactory progress.

An interesting opinion on the prospects opened was given recently by Mr. J. H. Whitley, who was chairman of the committee which recommended the establishment of such councils. He emphasised the point that at the outset the councils, Were designed not as an. emergency measure, but as a permanent step in industrial reform, and that it must take time for alj tho possibilities they held to be realised'. The Whitley reports, he observed, were written from the point of view that "all industry is service, and' that all who are engaged upon it, whether as employers or as employed, are servants equally, one with another, serving each other, serving' the nr.tion, and serving mankind." The idea- was not at all that of providing another kind of arbitration organisation, only to be assembled when disputes occurred.

It was the old idea (Mr. Whitley added) that employers and employed' could only meet in conference when they ha;! something to quarrel about, and tlint all their meetings must'be battles. But when you begin to think of industry as service these meetings begin lo look Very different. They are seen then as discussions between I'ellow-servants who arc also servants of each other, who seek to discover the, best way of carrying out their common, task. ■ That, of course, must include ail questions concerning the conditions of life of (he workers, for ro one call work weil who is not 'cadilig a healthy and happy iil'e.

In New Zealand, with inconsiderable exceptions, we arc still at the stage when and wageearners meet and confer only when tlicy have "something to quarrel about..'' In Great, Britain definite and substantial, though hardly as yet general or rapid, progress is being made towards _• a state of affairs, in all respects infinitely preferable. It need not hinder efforts to the same end in this country that, some Labour representatives persist, in regarding the employer and

skilled director of industry as a person to be ultimately eliminated, and industrial councils as a substitute for i.he political sysiem of which they can never be more than an offshoot' It is the essential merit of the Whitley scheme thai", it brings employers and' wagc-carncra to a better understanding as t-hey proceed, ' and so progressively broadens the basis of co-operation and increases the beuefits that reward joint action in the right spirit. .No doubt. Mn. Massky will be. able to tell the people of this country , on his return that unless ihey bestir themselves the Mother Country is very likely to give them a pronounced had in what is most essential to permanent - industrial reform.