COMPULSORY ARBITRATION

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1928, Page 4

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION

ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR MURPHY.

WELLINGTON, March 27

A vigorous attack on the present system of compulsory industrial arbitrtion was launched by Professor B. E. Murphy in an address before the National Industrial Conference today.

It was an open question whether in a changing world complete industrial peace ws attainable, he said. It could be taken that the arbitration system lid operated to its best, the work of administration having been carried out on a uniformly high standard. He had been forced to the conclusion, however, that the principle on which the arbitration system was founded was unsound, and against the public interest. Under all systems of wage fixation it was possible for parties to get together themselves, but not in tin- nnblie interest, and it was not in the | uhlic interest that a public tribunal should exist to ratify such arrangements between immediate litigant parties. In another direction, the Court had to deal with tiivial matters, such as deciding whether the spreading of raspberry jam on cream tarts constituted skilled labour. The Court had been defended on the ground that it provided industrial peace, but in his judgment continual application to the Court, and continual contention, was merely a thinly disguised type of war.' Industry should be regarded as a social

servi" . In his opinion the rcspoi>»ibility for industrial progress and peace should rest mi the shoulders of the responsible leaders of both Capital and Labour. It was uni in the public interest that the two indispensable wings of national industry should relegate that rtespun sibil ity to the tribunal. The pnin,pulsnry system of arbitral ion in practice had the unfortunate and undesirable result of keeping the parties to an industry to the existing system of settling industrial disputes. The fact of the holding of the National Conference was proof that tin' present system was not entirely satisfactory. Any privileges obtained at the expense of the noil-protected sections of the community A Labour delegate: A good joke. Professor Murphy eon tended that these who blamed the Arbitration Act for all the ills of the country had claimed for it more importance than it deserved. He did not think the Act was the main cause of our present troubles. We were cursed by duplicated overhead in several directions, bv ■ >vci-valuation, and capitalisation in real estate, and by the scarcity and expense of capital.