The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” . FRIDAY, JUNE 24th, 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 June 1921, Page 2

The Guardian AND EVENING STAR, With which is incorporated “ The West Coast Times.” . FRIDAY, JUNE 24th, 1921.

SANITY IN LABOUR VIEWS. In England, in America, in Australia and now in New Zealand, many prominent labor leaders are uttering sane views on the direction of labor organisations in order to combat the industrial situation. In England the lenders of the present coal strike would fain have had a favorable settlement arising out of the late ballot. The cable told us that they were surprised at tlie result of the polling. Outside ; the striking circle, there are leaders also exercising a saner and wiser in--1 fluence. The fact that the ‘‘Triple Alj limice” was kept out of the national strike was attributable to the leadership. In America Mr J. T. Brownlie is being quoted for his intelligence in sound advice to file Amalgamated Society of Engineers in England. He took for his text Mr Hoover’s statement “Unless productivity can be rapidly in- ' creased, there can lie nothing but political, moral and economic chaos, finally interpreting itself in loss of life on a scale hitherto undreamed of.” Mr Brownlie was alarmed at the thousands of skilled workmen at Home being discharged and swelling the ranks of the unemployed. His concern on the vital and urgent question was that all labor in the country should bo fully employed 1 on useful work, and that there should be no drones. During the war tlie Government found it necessary to organize the man-power of the nation for the purpose of accelerating and increasing th t . production of the tools of the war. To enable the nation to recover from the ravages of war, to stabilize the advantages of peace, to make the world safe for democracy, to avoid i.;iiionnl bankruptcy, to realize ns

rapidly as possible tTiat better state of society which lias been promised by the powers that be, it is imperative that th e nation’s man-power should be or- ; ganised to produce the requisites of peace in the interests of the community. So long as the present social and industrial system obtains; until such time as the people awaken to the necessity of democratically organizing the wealth-producing resources of the nation for the production of wealth, for uso and not for profit, wages must necessarily be a matter of vital importance. We (would add that the existing industrial order is susceptible of gradual change into any other system which Mr Brownlie and others of like aspirations can demonstrate to be more effective for the endfe he has in view. Th e great body of the people desire, with Mr Brownlie, that industry shall be so organized and directed as to achieve the greatest results for the welfare of all the people. Profits ure justifiable and necessary as compensation for ui&ful effort and as providing capital for further improvements in inlustry ,the ultimate end being service to society as a whole. When labor leaders hold and set forth the views advanced by Mr Brownlie as above, they are on ground where all good citizens would like to work with them. Ih Australia also there has been a sounder view put to the masses by certain sections of the leaders in the desire to see labor conditions improved by evolution instead of revolution. Now in New Zealand we have the spectacle of Mr It. Semple being very outspoken in an anti-strike speech. It is reasonable without imprudence to tnke as a very hopeful thing Mr Semple’s new attitude towards strikes and his indictment of those persons in the ranks of Labour who have been slandering him as a renegade or something of the kind. “I think,” he said, ‘‘that every practical working man who lias had anything to do with strikes will not only desire to minimise them, but will wipe them out altogether. No intelligent man who has been through a strike wants to go through another, I have seen the wretchedness and the misery they cause. To me the strike is a night mare.” He wishes to see strikes disappear, and he has his own recipe for ending them. The proposal is by way of co-operative contract whereby the worker may become his own contractor. It is a system introduced long ago by the Liberal Government, and is capably of attaining much success. But we wish to emphasise his emphatic condemnation Of strikes, and in that iittiture lie reads 'labor a sound lesson. As a contemporary remarks in condemning strikes except when undertaken in extreme eases and for overwhelmingly strong reasons—this qualification seems to he implied in his remarks—Mr Semple is not abandoning any sound Labour principle, and we may find ourselves in conflict with him again. But we welcome his general condemnation of strikes, aiid his defiance of those who hold that hard work is treason to the Labour case. If his words embolden other Labour leaders to speak up in the same way, and to encourage sobriety, industry, and good faitli oil the part of unionists generally, Mr Semple will have done a real service to industry. ,