The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 8th., 1924. THE RIGHTS OF LABOR.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 December 1924, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER Bth., 1924. THE RIGHTS OF LABOR.

That Labor has the right to strive to better its condition every right-minded person concedes and the law of tho land, says a New York critic when dealing with tho rights of Labor, gave ample protection to that right. It goes so far as to give the right of combination practically without restriction-

Tin* mil road employees have the power to shut down transportation facilities, cutting oil' the daily supplies of food necessary to the cities and allowing farm products to rot ill the fields. The supply of fuel necessary to the industries and to the comlort of the population is dependent upon the miners’ union. That the public should he willing for a relatively small part of the population to have even the apparent right to exercise such power shows the general desire that the wage-earning class shall have ample freedom to cope with employers and to protect and hotter its position, ft shows also general confidence that this liberality will not he abused, and although organised labor occasionally has gone to extremes, there has seemed to he good reason to l:e----leive that this liberal view is the right one. The wage-earning population is so large a part of the whole that in the Inoad view its interests cannot he very different from those of society as a whole, and it has seemed reasonable to beleive that as a body it wouhl not take any radically different view of its relations to the common interest from that held by the rest oT the community. The wage-earning class is as much interested as any other in policies which will promote general social stability and progress, encourage individual initiative and thrift, and promote that state of harmony, justice, and mutual confidence which is necessary to the general prosperity. Obviously this is the common end for which all groups and classes should strive, and the way to it is by toleration and good understanding, not by attempts on either side to use the authority of the government to compel conformity to its views. Social progress cannot he aclieived by attempting to adjust the organisation to lit any Pel of rules. There must he free play for public opinion and for continual experiments, and patience to wait for all settlements to he made at last by general consent. All of this implies patience on the part of those who press the vciws of Labor as well as others—patience to discuss the matters about which opnioiis differ and toleration toward those who oppose some of its oroposals. There is nothing lost to LaUir if its radicals are held in cheek or if the organisation does not have everything its own way. It is not good for any group of aspiring leaders to have unhampered power; it is better that they he closely responsible to public opinion. The Boston police strike was r> mistake, made by leaders who had lest their heads. They did not realise until they got well into it that the relation of the police force to the public is such that the latter could not possibly tolerate any obligations on the part of the members which ranked ahead of their duties to it. Tpoii other occasions and in other ways which need not now he specified labor organisations have shown a want of appreciation of their obligation to consider the general interests. Often the arts of which complaint is made are acts for which the organisation is not officially responsible, and which possibly the officials condemn. There is reason to believe that tin's is true of much of the nppo-1 sition to now machinery and methods. We do not doubt that the labor leaders as a rule are aware that labor in the long run is benefittod instead of injured by the introduction of laborsaving machinery, and allowance must he made for the opposition of individual workmen who see their own jobs threatened. Nevertheless, it is a mistaken attitude, and the opposition of

organised labor to improvements of this kind constitutes a valid reason why tho labor organisations should not. have absolute domination over industry. This is not saying that the members or lenders of labor organisations are any different from other people. The laws of the lo.nd furnish proof that no other group or class of people is deemed fit to exorcise such domination as organised labor, but when it attempts to exercise its influence upon the votes of its members and reaches out for alliance

with other bodies of voters, it is ]>ortinent to ask what use it is likely to make of the political power it is seeking and what the results will he upon the welfare of the bodies whose help it is soliciting, and upon the community as a whole.