The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1920. A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 215, 9 June 1920, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 1920. A MOVE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Even those whose views are in some respects opposed ought to be able to agree that there is urgent need of an organised < effort to improve industrial conditions and relationships in tho Dominion. Whatever else it may decide upon, the conference which is to open in Wellington to-day at the instance of the Now Zealand Employers' Federation ought not to hesitate in taking up tho. proposal- of the Welfare League that tho Government should call a national industrial conference. The action of the Employers' Federation "in inviting representatives of the Industrial Corporation, the Associated Chambers of Commerce, and the Farmers' Union has already done something to pave the way for a national conference. It remains to tho- participation of representatives of the wage-earners and to provide for tho representation of the consuming public. For the time being consumers would perhaps best be represented by a Minister of the Crown, and tho Board of Trade and the Labour Department certainly ought to be represented at the national conference when it assembles. Action evidently must be taken on a broad basis if a remedy is to be found for the existing state of industry throughout the Dominion. The fact that a national conference will find itself called upon to deal with industrial conditions which to an unexampled degree areout of joint raises some I serious initial difficulties, but at the same time affords the strongestpossible reason for holding it without delay. Long-continued and persistent efforts will no doubt be required to correct all that is at fault in the existing state of industry, _ but some ruling tendencies in the field are so obviously at variance with common sense and so evidently inimical to the interests , of the whole community that nothing but good could result if they were frankly discussed by national representatives. The difficulty it the moment is not to devise remedies for industrial, unrest, but to understand why remedies lying ready at hand are consistently neglected or ignored. A serious mistake would be made if either employers or workers allowed themselves •it this stage to be led into the dis oussion of complex and elaborate euros for industrial disorders. The problem of the moment is to find a groundwork for better industrial organisation. Before anything else nan bo attempted with hope of useful results, it is necessary to satisfy some elementary conditions of industrial_ progress and social welfare which at present are being violated from day to day. It' is evident, for instance, that no detail idjustment will accomplish good "«sults while the common relationship between workers and employers is t markcd_ by an acute antagonism which in itself effectively precludes the possibility of industrial devel- 1 'opraant on sound lines. j It is too much to hope that tho most successful national conferencefquld be able at once to transform this state of affairs, but it would »ender invaluable service if it either disclosed the causes of the existing antagonism or showed, as it very well might, that in a country whero ♦he worker is fully protected against the tyranny and malpractice of the individual employer such causes are almost non-existent. Then, again, all parties at a national industrial conference would of necessity agree that the prosperity of the Dominion and the material welfare of its people are determined absolutely by the volume of useful production within its borders. This agreed, it would remain to inquire why so much is being dono m various directions to limit production. _ The proposition that production is the measure of material comfort and welfare of course leaves no room for discussion, but nothing would more profitably engage the attention of a national industrial conference than the extent to which this self-evident proposition is at present ignored and repudiated, particularly in the attitude and policy of large sections of organised Labour. It is the amplo justification of a national industrial conference and a standard by which hope of its ultimate results may reasonably be measured that existing industrial conditions are in a number of respects flatly at variance with justice and common sense. This appears not only in the direot limitation of production, but conspicuously in Buch matters as the payment of some classes of unskilled labour at rates out of all proportion to those earned by skilled traaesmon. It is mentioned in ono of to-day's cablegrams from London that the high rates paid to the English dockers are luring thousands of youthful unskilled men from the land, workshops, and factories. Relatively more serious harm has un. doubtedly been dono in this country by tbe overpayment of wharf labour and some other unskilled occupations. High wages have lured many skilled tradesmen into the ranks of unskilled labour, and % direct result, of'coiirss, ds to lower useful production and increase the cost of living. While such tendencies prevail, it is idle to talk of industrial progress an"d social betterment, and if it contributed in any degree to a reversal of theso tendencies a national industrial conference would be well worth while.