THE ARBITRATION ACT

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2181, 10 September 1907, Page 2

THE ARBITRATION ACT

STRONGLY CONDEMNED BY SOCIALISTS.

(Special to Times.)

WELLINGTON. September 9. The Socialists, who appea'r to be making considerable headway here, held a crowded meeting in His Majesty’s Theatre on Sunday night. The meeting was addressed by Mr. D. J. McLaren, secretary to the Waterside Workers’ Union. The speaker said it was difficult to deal with “this precious Bill” by taking isolated sections because the whole effect of the combination of sections had to be taken into account and the objects that wore being aimed at in this combination. He held that the Bill was dangerous in tho extreme, not only to wage-earners, but to tho country as a whole. It aimed at restricting the power of the workers’ unions, dictating as to the disposal of funds and generally turning the unions into more State, bureaux, thereby killing the real spirit of unionism. The Minister’s idea that the law must be enforced was described as a re-echo of tho old Conservative cry of “Law and Order,” wbicii the employing class bad meted out to Mr. Millar and bis fel-low-strikers in IS9O. The stand of the Hon. Mr. Millar to-day, said Mr. McLaren, was just the same as that taken by tho Conservative Government- in Sir Henry Atkinson’s time and it is met by tho same high reply of labor that where law is tho embodiment and expression of justice there is no need of appeal for the people to observo the law—they recognise it as their best interest to do so. and wiicro order is a preserving of common liberties the people will always respect- it. as tho highest good. "Nut legal coercion, but moral force,” concluded the speaker, “Is the true groundwork of any rational system of arbitration.”

A member of the Socialist party afterwards submitted a resolution condemnatory of the Government’s attitude towards labor, his chief argument being that under ilie arbitration system profits on capital had increased out 'of all proportion to the increases given to labor. The motion was agreed to.