GETTING CLOSER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1991, 17 June 1919, Page 2

GETTING CLOSER.

CAPITAL AND LABOUR. SIR JAMES ALLEN’S SYMPATHY. Some time ago the New Zealand Federation of Labour issued a programme of proposals for industrial reform on the lines of granting to Labour a share in the management of industries. The suggestion that employers and workers should meet in, conference lo consider means of attaining this end and advancing industrial peace and prosperity has since been considered by si number of organisations of employers, and generally the principle of the proposals has been approved by them. A Post reporter asked the Acting Prime Minister (Sir James Allen) if he had considered the matter, and if he thought the time opportune for some definite step by the Government in the direction of bringing the parties together. Sir James Allen, in reply, quoted from a speech which he made recently in Dunedin, and which embodied his views upon the mailer. The part of the speech referred to was as follows: —"In Now Zealand the question (harmonious industrial relationships) has been thought over by many people, lint I desire to make reference to the work of the National Efficiency Board, who more than once considered the problem. The Board had some doubt whether the representatives of Capital or of Labour were able to dissever themselves from existing difficulties to such an extent as to enable them to take so sufficiently broad an outlook on the mutual relationship of the future as would warrant any hope of more satisfactory permanent conditions being established by direct contact and discussion. But the Board believed that much could he done by the slow process of education and technical training of a suitable character applied equally to the employers as to the employed. “But workers in New Zealand, as already indicated, have also been studying the problem with the aid of the Garton Memorandum, and the Whitley reports which have been placed in their hands. I referred previously to the report of the National Executive of the New Zealand Federation of Labour, and pointed out that the executive considered the hope of the immediate future lies in the intimate and con(unions association of both management and labour, and I bey suggest machinery to bring this about. ‘We propose that for the guidance of industry there shall he a “National Industrial Council” composed of one represent alive each from employer and employees, from each of the present industrial districts. This council shall be, as it were, an “Industrial Parliament” and an “Industrial Court of Appeal.” It •shall be its duty to make suggestions for the guidance of “local councils” and to decide any disputes which may voluntarily be brought before it.’ There would seem, therefore, to he much in common in (he reports of (he Garton Foundation, the "Whitley reports, and the National Executive of the New Zealand Federation of Labour. This being so, may we not hope that some solution of the present industrial unrest is within the bounds of possibility? If this problem can he solved, we may look forward to great developments of the resources of New Zealand and to improved conditions for

our people.” Sir James Allen added that he had been watching the matter closely since he made this speech, and ho had observed the references by some bodies of employers to the conference proposal. The Government would do all that it could to assist in bringing about an understanding between the (wo parties, but the • question for consideration was whether any good would come of a conference at the present time. r l hough the signs were hopeful, the parties were still at arm’s length and mutually suspicious. That suspicion must he removed and a better atmosphere created before they could hope to do any good at a conference. The slow process of education must be allowed to work. He believed that it was desirable* that employees should bo given some part in the management of industry, so that they might appreciate the problems and the difficulties of employers, but that could not be brought about hastily. Any attempt to hasten the process by a confer- 1 once before the parties were ready to come naturally together would lessen the possibilities of good results, and might: undo the good that had already been clone.