LEGER-MUEDOCH.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 25 November 1912, Page 3

LEGER-MUEDOCH.

Sir,—To' deal properly with all the issues raised by Mr Murdoch's last letter it would fill a wliolo Chronicle—with prospects of tho missive landing in tho W.P.B. Have been away from home for a week, away' from opportunities even of pen and ink. So I will deal hero with his question of tho Waihi trouble, and leave tho rest, which matters for another letter. To havo a clear idea of the causes which led to the Waihi fight one must go back to the first five or six years, subsequent to the passing of the Conciliation and Arbitration Act. During this time the workers received some small concessions. But employers hated the Act and denounced it bitterly at Home and abroad, till so mo four yciars ago, when through the mouth of Sir John Findlay the employers made public the fact that the thing had gone far enough, and that concessions had to stop. Awards since have shown that this policy had been adopted. Since then employers have turned entirely and collectively in favour of tho Act, workers' union have withdrawn from it disgusted and the Federation of Labour started—to the groat chagrin of the "old stagers." The Waihi Minors' ( 7 nion was under arbitration for years, but all its grievances being left practically untouched it left in disgust, and joined the Federation of Labour. This body arranged an agreement with the mine owners settling all grievances to the men's satisfaction. Now is it possible that even a small body of men would without pressure choose to leave .such an effective organisation, which had greatly benefited them, to go back under arbitration which gave them nothing unless through the subtle action and encouragement of the mine owners? The Federation had pressed in one Act from them what arbitration could not do in ten years; therefore the Federation must go. Trust their linnncial majesties to find a small knot of men to do their dirty work; and we have the strike. Apart from smaller considerations, the Waihi Minors' Union wore justified in resenting this move, on the score that industrial development presses them to concentration, and that meant disintegration. If small factions are allowed to break away to antagonise tho main body unionism is impossible. To protect unionism from dissolution at a most critical time is what Mr Murdoch and other wiseacres call a "blunder." If arbitration's dominating influences were absolutely impartial it would be sheer folly for the workers to be tied under it. If wage workers' wages can be fixed by law based 011 "how little a man can live on,"

why not fix tradesmen's wages on the same principle? The worker lias his lnhour power to sell, the hoot trust its hoots, the meat trust its meat, the crockery trust its wares, etc.: why fix what the worker should sell his labour power at, and allow merchants to sell at will and retain the power to raise prices, and indirectly reduce the workers' wages the next day of the Court fixing;? A child should sec the weakness of it.—Yours, etc., H .LEGETI. Hokio, November 22.