“ SUPPRESSED WAR.”

Hokitika Guardian, 9 October 1929, Page 8

“ SUPPRESSED WAR.”

PRESENT INDUSTRIAL CONDITION FAILURE OF ARBITRATION. “The determination of the Commonwealtn Government to foolish tiie Arbitration Court may be but a prelude to the abolition of the arbitration system altogether,” remarked Mr Albert Spencer, president of the Auckland Employers’ Association, in an address given at the annual meeting on September 26. Mr Spencer said that Mr Justice Frazer, who had just returned from, a holiday visit to Australia, had no doubt made himself fully acquainted with the industrial position over there. This, coupled with his own experience, should be of great value in the administration of the Arbitration Act in New Zealand. The indications just now all pointed to a revulsion of feeling against the more or less unsatisfactory and costly system, which had evolved from the admittedly praiseworthy efforts of the old Liberal Government to promote industrial peace. “It may be questioned whether peace at any price is not unsound, and against the public interest,” said Mr Spencer. It may be questioned that, when the price is paid and the peace is not forthcoming, the writing on the wall warns us that the whole system has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. At the Industrial Conference last year,'the labour delegates made an admission which may well be noted.

“Their report says:—“Both employers and employed are the victims of a system which has organised industry on the lines of a tug-of-war, and permeated the whole national life with sectional habits of thought and outlook.” The gradual rise of trades unions and employers’ associations in mutual opposition had reached a point where it was generally recognised that the normal condition of the world of industry was one of suppressed war, but this state of suppressed war was no good to anyone, said Mr Spencer. The workers were no more satisfied now than they were years ago. The employers were more and more reluctant to launch out in any competitive enterprises; and investores were more and more determined to leave industrial investments severely alone.

INJURY TO INDUSTRY,

Philip Snowden had said more cannot be taken out of industry than is produced. Good wages could not be paid out of an unprofitable industry. The more prosperous industry, the better were the chances of labour getting higher wages. This was quite obvious and sensible, he said, and was a direct negation of the view that any wage fixing tribunal could fix wages irrespective of the conditions of me industry in which the wage earner was employed. Thereforb, ithje court could not, working on its present basis of a cost of living formula for arriving at a wage standard, expect to promote industrial peace, or avoid doing that injury to industry which was only too obvious just now, and was the cause of investors declining to subscribe capital for industrial venvuies.

“It is a matter of regret that the New Zealand Arbitration Court cannot relax some of its rigidity and be a little more elastic in its awards to enable employers to meet the falling prices and changing trade conditions which are taking place” said Mr Spencer. “If this were done it would be a step toward a more rapid recovery, and unemployment would be considerably curtailed. Unfortunately the Arbitration Court has shown very little inclination to meet the position ; in fact, in some quarters critics are of the opinion that the court has degenerated into a wage fixing tribunal regardless of production costs, or the earning industries with their varying conditions.”

Continuing, the speaker said that this wage-fixing court only directly benefited a small fraction of the wage earners of the country, amounting to a litle over 7 per cent. The rest of the workers who came under no awards got no direct benefit from the court; on the contrary, the purchasing , power of their wages vivas reduced. There were a great number of people with fixed incomes such as old-age 'pensioners, widows, clergymen, shareholders, property owners, etc., who found it almost impossible to live on the greatly reduced purchasing power of their incomes. “As Mr J. S. Dawes, the vice-presi-dent of this association, said recently the labour unions must realise that the battle is not between labour and employers, but between labour and economic conditions,” concluded Mr Spencer. “Once this is realised the parties could be got together, and some solution might he found. On some such solution the future industrial prosperity of the country must depend.”