WELFARE LEAGUE

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 53, 26 November 1920, Page 7

WELFARE LEAGUE

A STATEMENT OF ITS AIMS

DISRUPTIVE FORCES

AND THE NEED FOR OPPOSING THEM

the aims of tlie Welfare league were tho subject of. a speech delivered by •the president of the league (Mr. C. P Sherrelt. K.C.) to tho. Chambers of Commerce Conference yesterday'. . 'Mr. Skerrett said ho believed that the league was the one national organisation that wa* non-party and non-sectarian. It was out to further or protect tho interests of no individual and no particular class. Its effort! had been to represent that great part of the community which, thoughtful as it was, was yet indifferent to the political questions that really vitally concerned it. It was a curious paradox of modern times that in nearly every democratic country the people were governed by the representatives noil of the majority, but by the representatives frequently of an insignificant minority consisting of persons who were pushful and energetic in public affairs. A Pernicious Propaganda. ■ When the league was started, it found a. pernicious propaganda widespread in this country. This propaganda had not ceased yet. It aimed at the destruction of capital laud K>f private enterprise. Those responsible for it would not hesitate to • advocate the confiscation of all the sources of production and exchange. And what would they substitute? They proposed to substitute the control of the manual worker over everybody else. Their propaganda led to the go-slow policy and the limitation of outlput, particularly in regard to ..those things without which . business' and industry must cease. And accompanying all the propaganda ivas an effort to obtain the' governance of ((lie country—an effort persistent., constant, unfailing. ' The promoters of the league had found all these efforts uncombated _ and unopposed. It was no one's job to offer the opposition that should have been offered: so the league ii'ook up the task. He submitted that during the last election the pledge inaugurated by the league had done more to secure stable government than anything else. The .pledge put to rnosit of the candidates had been: "Will you pledge yourself that on no account will you vote for or associate yourself with the revolutionary and disloyalist 'section of the Laboifi ,Party.'" It was not the aim of the league iio restrict the representation of Labour in :'the House ;oP .Parliament: • The .league' believed that'it was to the interest of the country rfhat Labour should have adequate representation, but it was opposed to the representation of anyone by revolutionary Socialists and disloyalists whose avowed object was to pull down the pillars of civilisation and flo break up the Empire.

Employer and Employee. At the present time it was apparent that unless some change in the relations between employer and employee was made, the country must have something approaching national ruin, or at any rato industrial chaos. There were two eohools of thought on this matter. One .school advised, people to refrain from trying to mend the present state (if affairs. It contended that the best thing to do *88 to wait for the dav of disaster which would surely come, either through the failure of some great general strke, or (what was more likely stfll) through the inauguration of hard times. The Eccond'school believed that one should persist in teaching and preaching that the true interests of the employer and ithe worker were inextricably interwoven; that (though this was denied by every Labour leader) _ there was a common ground upon which the employer and the worker could meet with mutual profit; and that the solution should be found .in a system of fair dealing and justice, uot only on the part of the worker, but oh the part of the employer also. The Welfare' League' belonged--to" the second school. The league believed fiat it would bo unwise and wrong not to pursue patiently and persistently the course on which it had embarked of teaching the doctrine that the relationships of the employer and the worker were not necessarily antagonistic, and that in truth the two parties had great interests in common. The meinhers of the league knew that the w-ny was long and arduous. What was needed was a radical solution. He regretted having to say so, but he believed tho solution was a long way off. for very many reasons'. The chief reason was that the solution depended on ; education,' on the "ducation of the worker, and the education of the employer. Ideas That Must" Go.

The worker must be taught in his own interests to cast out of his mind the idea that he could get increased wages and shorter hours and at the same tiine produce less. Jlejivust cast out of his mind the notion that there was no relation between wages and production. He must : be taught that it was Tolly on his part to treat the employer «s his enemy. He must cast out, of his mind the idea that payment by results was a pernicious •thing. He must be'taught that it was madness to stifle individual ambition, lo stop the development of talent and powers in workmen, and to set the lowest ■standard of physical competence and mentnl capneity. These things were part of a systematic altemot to make business impossible, so that the present state of affairs might give way to control and management by the Soviet. The inexorable logic of economics, however, was teaching the workers their lesson. They were learning that increase of wages nnd reduction of output did not alwnys spell increased comfort, contentment and happiness. The lime would come, far distant as it might now be, i? y i ?,P r Opagnnda and the educational part of the league's work would have its effect.

™F ne employer needed to be educated. I he old elas? of employer that exittert before the war still lived. The employer mst be taght that the time had long gone by when labour was to be regarded as a more pawn in the laws of supply and demand. No longer could human flesh and blood bo treated ao liable to • tne , variations, of .a commercial law, nor cold the country bo indifferent to the .happiness and welfare of so large a number nf people The employer must be as careful in the conservation of the welfare of his labour as he was in the conservation of his capital. He must be prepared to revise his notion of the relationship that labour in the futnrn •was to bear to him. He must be prepared to give labour a better status, and to give it a fan- share of the joint production though the sneaker would not My that under present conditions workers were not getting more than their fair share). It would be wise on the part of the employer to odve consideration to the removal of the great terror of the working man—the fear of unemployment.

■The Ideal Scheme. i T j" J$ e i(leal scllpme that the league had before it. individual ambition would be encouraged. Individual 'exertion would be encourased, for the worker .would he pa:d by results. Tim monopoly by which trades unions had the pole right of supplying labour to an industry must go by the board, The ohw-'t would be achieved by education. The createst opponents of th" movement t<> .better the status an solidify flio position of the worker to-day were tho .trades unions. The reason of their ■£ X !:TTI wns fißht ' nßnt ftn<l "instant fleht between the worker and the employer. Directly ftabilitv was produced, +he age of the Labour leader was fronp. The league stood for nubllcily in the proceedings of all conferences- between employers and workers when public interests were involved, as they were in conferences concerning shipping and other great public necessities, ft would, continue to force upon tho notice of the* people the necessity also for increasing the number of permanent employees on the wharves, and for reducing to a minimum the nimunt of casual labor employed. Casual employment vp» no good the public ,and' wjs demoralising to the men. (Applause.)

Four Branches of Activity. The league had established four .branches of activity. The first was a vigorous educational propaganda, the second tndustiisl study and juedi&tlon, the third contrcltotion <U-