INDUSTRIAL PEACE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10614, 12 June 1920, Page 7

INDUSTRIAL PEACE

EMPLOYERS’ CONFERENCE NATIONAL ENTERPRISE. On tho subject of “The Employers’ Conference,’’ Mr F. G. Dalziell writes to the editor of the “New Zealand Times” as under;—

“A representative body of employers has r,i(4- in Wellington to seek a solution of tho industrial problem, and tho result, so far as the community is concerned, is - iio you were.’ Putting it upon the bights t ground this means that our employers realise, consciously or unconsciously, that they are tho justices or managers of the national enterprise ; that t-iio risks of this enterprise are, under our present method of organisation, r-hrowu upon them; that they can see their way to carry on under the, present system, widen gives them the arbitrary control of enterprise ; but that they must, resist the adoption of any other system unless the community (which consists in the main of employees and their families) first makes some arrangement unden which it will take the risks of enterprise at present thrown upon tho employers. “All fair-minded people who will study tho po.sitioa will agree that this attitude is reasonable. It is equally obvious, however, that- it is unreasonable to expect a conference of epiployeee to arrive at a practical basis for the national enterprise, for the reason that they have not the necessary experience to enable them to fully appreciate the difficulties involved id tho maintenance and development of that enterprise. It is plain, therefore, that industrial agreement is only possible as tiho outcome of a joint conference of employers und employees. In such a conference tho essential question would bo whether our national edifice is to he built upon ‘rock’ or upon ‘sand.’ Tho only difference between rock and sand is that iu rook the particles or members are firmly united, while in sand they have only a frail unity. It is only possible for a nation to build a. great and permanent edifice if its people are united in tbe common purpose of tbc national welfare (not the welfare of ‘the State.’ vvliich is a bloodless abstraction, but tbe development of those of God's creatures who are comprised iu our nation and property). Nor is it possible for a people to remain permanently in unity unless its members arc satisfied that the national purpose is being efficiently .secured; and the only way by which permanent unity lias been secured, that is, the only way by which the tendency of the individual mind towards unity has been maintained, is by having a prior, agreement as to the proportions in which the product of the common enterprise! will go to the individual members, so that the interest of each member lies in making the national product as great as possible. In tins way tho individual will (in Hr Tilden’s words in his letter to you), ‘gain the highest good for himself in an effort to secure the general good of his fellows.’ This is the way of Christ : it is tho only Way to production, which means the development of life.”