The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1919. A MOMENTOUS CONFERENCE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 33, 3 November 1919, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1919. A MOMENTOUS CONFERENCE

The International Labour Conference which' has just opened at Washington is held in terms of the Labour Convention contained in the Treaty of Versailles. The Convention provides that 'such a conference is to moot annually to propose labnu'r reforms for adoption .-by the States composing the League of Nations, and represents a definite attempt to make industrial conditions, in some aspects, subject to international control. Under the Convention the Conference has power to adopt, bv a two-thirds majority, recommendations or draft- conventions on Labour matters, and it is suggested that the League of Nations may take economic measures against any State failing to observe the obligations imposed in this way. The agenda for the first Conference is set, out in the Convention and includes the principle of an eight-hour 'day, the question of unemployment, and the protection of women and children in industry. Of the four delegates ennh. country is entitled to send to tlm Conference, two are to represent the State and one pach tV employers and einnlnyed. Each delegate, it is provided, may vote independently.

The inancniral Conference is llclcl in somewhat unfavourable circumstances, and under obvious limitations. Airreat part of the world is aflame with industrial conflict. In many European countries serious industrial upheavals are in progress or have lately terminated and in America, the place of meeting, the Steel strike ,has just ended, a maritime strike is in progress, and the Government is makinpr strenuous to avert the full development of a disastrous coal strike. Much as they emphasise the necessity of giving methodical consideration to Labour problems, such conditions hardly tend to create th? atmosphere which would favour the dispassionate' treatment of these problems at the International Conference. It is another disadvantage that the Conference is far from heinu completely representative. The' United State's is debarred from participating owing to.the delav of.the Senate in ratifying Ihc Treaty, though the. fact that the American Secretary for Labour /Mr. W. B. Wir.sox) bis been elected as president of, the Conference no doubt implies an iuformal participation b.v the United States which mav lead up to full co-operation by that country in subsequent years. Exactly what countries have sent dele.ca.tes is not disdosed at time of writing, bnf 0 f the British Dominions New Zealand and Australia, at all events, are unrepresented. _ Probably the of an American delegation will iu ilsjdf suffice to restrict the Conference this year to deliberations of a tentative character. ( A somewhat surprising development was reported in a (.iblegrain received at Ihe end of last week. It stated that the Conference, with, one dissentient, to admit Herman and Austrian delegates. .As t-h* Labour Convention jn t'm Treaty is framed, only States which, are members of the Leagne of Nations n'' fi entitled to be represented at/the Conference. Presumably, therefore, if enemv delegates have l.i'.en admitted it must b" on an informal basis.

In spit? of lh'! limiting- circumstances in which it ha? assembled, tho Conference is a leathering to (which 'manv_ eves-will turn, find even though it is able to accomplish I'tfclc tlns year, it may be hoped that it is entering upon a long and useful career. As it is constituted, it may hi» expeeLetl to .work consistently for reform and the »rogressive improvement of existing conditions. More is perhaps to be !ion«d from thi inlerehange of ideas and the organised pressure of international public (ininiou than from penal measures directed against nartic.ulai' countries. One great object of tb". Co" ferenre will be to improve the Labour standards of eonntfies of backward industrial development, in which workers are cmnloved for low wages .ind under bad conditions. Even those countries which are most, advanced i?idustri.'illy inueh to hone, however,, from the order! v discussion and comparison for which the Conference will afford facilities. In most. Jirilish countries, cerlainl.v, both eiroloyers :ip'l workers liuve a great deal to gain from looking abroad more freely than thev have been in the habit of doing hitherto. It is difficult to believe, for instance, that the ruinous policy of limiting produ"tion "'ould any longer be regarded by British trades unionists with as much favour as it is at present if they took due note of what their American brethren have accomplished by opposite methods. American Labour leaders, like Mit. Goiii'iiits. express astonishment at the persistence in Great Britain of t.ho "ca'-csnny" fallacy, which was abjured by the American working man a generation ago. Payment by results, going hand-in-hand, as it does naturally, with effective indust rial'organisation and an equally effective use of machinery, lias made the United States a_ country of high nroduction and. high wages. In Britain, where standard wages are the rule, the position as regards both production and tho payment of labour is relatively very much less favourable. Not the least useful outcome of tho.

International Labour Conference, ii it fulfils expectations, will be to give such contrasts as these the prominence they deserve. In all the matters that fall within its, scope, the Conference is faced by the possibility of constructive activities of the highest importance. Everything that it accomplishes or inspires in the way of improvement, whether in amending the backward industrial conditions of Eastern and other countries or in inducing the employers and workers of more advanced countries to forsake prcjudices'and adopt the course that reason dictates will not only make for human welfare, but will tend to 'fortify and consolidate international peace. The conference has a very noble mission, and it is a pity that its prospects of useful work itthe immediate future are not as bright as they might be.