The Dominion FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1920. THE UNCONSIDERED PUBLIC

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 101, 23 January 1920, Page 6

The Dominion FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1920. THE UNCONSIDERED PUBLIC

. The Welfare League is performing a useful and timely service in attempting to concentrate public attention oil the industrial conditions which threaten to become chronic in this country. The point justly emphasised by the League is that in the conditions which are now widespread in industry and appear at their worst in industrial disputes, the members of the consuming public are more and more being victimised. For long enough they have received scant consideration, or no consideration at all, from contending bodies of employers and' workers, and of late things have been going rapidly from bad to worse. The -'go-slow" policy, or "the strike on the job," has become a standing feature in tho activities of so-called militant unions, and consumers as a body are being exploited to an extent which-has become quite, intolerable. As matters are shaping, it is fairly certain that this state of affairs will not be amended until organised action is taken on behalf of the whole population and employers and workers arc compelled to pay due regard to the public interests now' too frequently ignored. The growing practice of conducting industrial disputes without regard to the interests of the consuming public presumably implies a belief that its members will never organise for their own protection, but public patience" has a breaking strain, and it may be hoped that the people of New Zealand will not consent much longer to be bled and exploited at the sweet will of the contending parties in industry. ■ Some dcbateablc questions are, of course, raised in connection with the regulation of industrial conditions, but it is not at all in doubt that as matters stand the public are the unresisting victimsalike of Labour organisations, which go to extreme lengths in endeavouring,to en-' force extravagantly unjust demands, and of weak-kneed employers, who find it their easiest and most profitable policy to conccde whatever demands are raised and pass on the cost to tho consumers. In a practical attempt to remedy this state of affairs support would'of necessity be looked for both from right-thinking employers and" from right-thinking members of trades unions. Granted an effective organisation of public opinion on the lines now being attempted • by the 'Welfare League, there is no reason to believe that support from these quarters would be withheld. It is conspicuously true of the industrial conditions which impose so much hardship on the general body of consumers that they confcr no genuine or lasting benefit on anybody. 'Where the aim of improving wages and working conditions is pursued intelligently by those who are ready to give a fair return for what they rcceiye the public has no cause of complaint. What docs call imperatively for remedy is that some sections of organised Labour in this country are pursuing tactics calculated .to destroy their own prosperity as well as that of their fellow-countrymen, and that employers have as yet found no better retort to these tactics than to yield weakly to unjust demands or tolerate conditions in which efficiency and economical production become impossible. The "goslow" policy, for instance, is on'the face of it destructive of the very benefits those who practise it are avowedly intent on The employers it immediately concerns are able to meet.it by increasing charges or prices, but its effects fall with full and crushing effect on the public, and for the public, as matters are ordered at present, there is no relief or escape. The "go-slow" policy has carried want and bardship into the homes of tens of thousands of New Zealand bread-winners who are themselves doing an honest clay's work. On that account, and: not because of any pressure it has imposed on' employers, it is fairly summed up as mean and cowardly and on a level with the operations of the sneak thief. The "go-slow" policy is in the most literal sense "a strike against the community, a strike against the workers themselves." It is a policy possible only to the dupes of distempered agitators; who aim not at improving social and industrial conditions, but at destroying the existing organisation of society. In a t;me of unrest and nervous strain men of this type have - attained a position of extraordinary influence in the ranks of Organised Labour. The result'is seen already in crippled and hampered industries and in hardships which &re felt acutely all over tiie Dominion. If these evils are to be remedied the , people as a whole must show themselves ready to unite in defence of their elementary rights, and the move in this direction taken by the Welfare League is an encouraging sign of the tinier