The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday. October 28, 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1164, 28 October 1913, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Tuesday. October 28, 1913. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Thu strike of the Wellington watersiders still continues and, judging from recent reports, there is little hope of a settlement. The proposals recently made to the strikers by the employers and Harbour Board were turned down. The employers have now handed to the press the following for publication: — •

The employers have decided that iu view of the repeated breaches of agreement made by the waterside workers, they cannot see their way to resume work under the late agreement, but they are agreeable if the men resume work, and form a fresh organisation, to enter into an agreement lor a term on the basis of the wages now being paid, without any material alterations of the agreement under which the men have been working; the agreement to be registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, iu order to ensure a definite guarantee that the terms of the agreement will be carried out faithfully.

The employers have decided to no longer recognise the Waterside Workers Uuiou as au organisation. The following resolutions have beeu passed by the Wellington Chamber ol Commerce :

i. That the Wellington Chamber of Commerce regrets the circumstances that have arisen in connection with the cessation of work at the Wei lington wharves, and expresses the hope that the employers interested will adhere to their original resolution that they will not further recoguise the agreement made with the Federation of Labour iu January, 1912. This Chamber also further urges that any new agreement should be made under the Arbitration Act.

2. That in view of the fact that the .shipping companies have taken a decided stand, this Chamber, representing the commercial interests of the city, strongly supports the above com • panics in their attitude, and particularly desires that at the present juncture no weakness should be shown on the part of the companies ; on their part the commercial men are prepared to suffer any and all the resulting inconveniences. 3. That the Government be asked to provide for the adequate protection of those engaged iu carrying out their duties on the wharves or elsewhere.

The dislocation of shipping at Wellington caused by the strike, means a considerable loss to bun dreds of business men and in some cases may result in ruin. But the merchants and employers have decided that the fight shall continue until an honourable settlement is arrived at. The employing class have just about had enough of the arrogant, domineering and to-hell-with-agreements style of business indulged in of late by the Federation of Labour, and it is time a check was called, and the Red Feds, taught to remember that they do not run the earth. The sooner the leaders of this off-shoot of I.W.W.ism recognise that the present strike was a mistake and entered into without any reasonable cause the better it will be for the future of the Labour movement in this country.

Thk cables inform us that richly anecdotal additional reminiscences of King Edward by Sir Edward Eegg have been published, and are creating tremendous interest. King Edward was a life-long reader of Reynolds’ newspaper. When a court official attempted to dissuade him on the ground that it was a revolutionary paper, King Edward responded : “Never mind, my friend. I know what the Government thinks. I want to know what other people think as well.’’ The intimate relationship with the Dudley family is recalled. Earl Dudley’s grandfather, who was very eccentric and absentminded, was dining with the King and Queen Victoria. Liking a choice dish, and forgetting palace etiquette, he turned to the Queen

and said : “Yon really ought to take some.’’ The Queen smiled and thanked him. Alter shoit intervals he repeated the advice a second and third time. The Queen finally remarked : “It must be a very good dish. That is the third time you have told me.” Earl Dudley then exclaimed: “D n the woman, so it is!” King Edward was distressed when the Dublin Crown jewels vanished. He pulled off his gloves and thumped the table savagely, saying ; “I will have no scandals. I’ll never come to Dublin again. I’ll give nobody honours,” The biographer said he had never seen the King in such a rage before.

Thk increasing cost of living is a problem of moment all the world over, in New Zealand as elsewhere. The favourite remedy of the Labour propagandist—a rise in wages—is apt to prove a twoedged sword, according to an English writer, who discusses the subject as follows: “If the present labour unrest is based, as is believed, on the assumption that the cost of living is increasing in greater proportion than the rate of wage, advance in wage will not in itself mitigate the evil. Wages enter so largely into the cost of production and distribution of the necessaries of life that any advance in them must in the aggregate increase the cost of living. It is well known that not only the artisans and the labourers in factories, but all transport workers, including even the London street waggoner, have had increases in their wage, without any corresponding addition to the volume or value of the production. Obviously, such must be added to the selling price. There have been many attempts to attribute this advance in selling price also to increased production of gold, tending to the depreciation of its value as a medium of exchange. But Ibis is not suppotted by the fads, as in the seventies there was no excess of gold productions in association with the very high cost of living, as has recently been the case. Moreover, in the fluctuations in both, items since then there is no regularity or seeming relation. However much one may theorise, there is difficulty in getting away from the one dominant and undoubted fact—that the appreciation in values of commodities is due to the demand, alike lor commodities and labour, exceeding the supply. Until the supply overtakes the demand there can be little relief. This, again, can only be achieved by the efficiency of production improving, either as a consequence of more effective mechanical assistance to the manual worker, or by more continuous utilisation of these appliances by the men working full time. If wages are to be maintained, as all hope, and if the cost of living is to be reduced or kept stationary without the standard ot living being affected, or ot the justifiable desire for little luxuries is to be gratified, then the efficiency of production, and consequently its economy, must be im proved. Therein lies the sole remedy for such measure of labour unrest as is founded on the direct aim of the worker to improve his economical conditions.