The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928. THE ARBITRATION PROBLEM.

Hokitika Guardian, 23 May 1928, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1928. THE ARBITRATION PROBLEM.

Xo oil© who h;is followed the controversy over the arbitration system that began a. long time ago in the newspapers, and lias been brought to a head at tile Industrial Conference, can have expected, says an exchange, that the parties to the dispute would easily find n basis for agreement. In this respect the report on the arbitration system just- presented to the Confereme can hardly lie said to have disappointed anticipations. On the one crucial point, the distinction between optional and compulsory arbitration the representatives of Capital and Labour on the Joint Committee have been unable to reconcile their conflicting views, and they have therefore contented themselves with stating their respective eases at length, and leaving it to the Conference to make a final decision. These two statements contain many interesting recommendations and suggestions hearing on the principal question at issue. If lit, on analysis, these are seen to be for the ' most part clauses,’’ explaining the precise methods to he adopted in the two alternative cases of optional or compulsory arbitration. It is still true that as the workers told the Conference in their statement, the difference of opinion on this one point is “the fundamental bar to an agreement.” And under these circumstances we think it regrettable that the employers have not been able to recognise ’.die advantages rain ferret! upon the whole community by the compulsory system. It is easy to point to individual instances in which compulsory submission to Arbitration Court awards has appeared to inflict injustice on either employers nr wageearners. But looking at tho whole question from the loftier ground of industrial peace, it seems to us impossible to deny that a compulsory system of arbitration represents the only effective protection for the general public against constantly (reciuri ing industrial warfare and the only practicable means of attaining finality in any given industrial dispute. In regaixl to these immensely important issues, it seems to us that the employers have committed themselves to rather a limited and short-sighted view of the situation. The wage-earners naturally are determined to protect the interests of their class as far as,they can, and they can hardly be blamed for expressing strongly their desire for the maintenance of a tribunal to which in the last resort all industrial disputes must he submitted, and whose decisions must in every ease he accepted as final. It should ho noted that tho workers are not determined to uphold the Arbitration Court in its present form, but would be satisfied with any other similar judicial body. But the history of modern industry reveals with painful clearness the helplessness of Labour in its struggle with Capital if its right of collective bargaining is not defined and supported by .the Courts and the law, and we can hardly be surprised that the workers in this country, knowing what compulsory arbitration has dona for them, should he extremely reluctant to abandon it.