THE ARBITRATION SHAM.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9068, 7 February 1908, Page 3

THE ARBITRATION SHAM.

The Lyttelton Times declares that *the alternative .to the Arbitration Act is not “freedom of contract” ’but the. direct regulation of industries by statute law. “If the A«*.t became a dead letter” writes our cohtemporary, * ‘ Parliament ; would simply extend'’the principles of the ■ Factories Act. It would fix minimum w^ge s for all trades, and rigidly define ’the conditions of labour, creating thus a systein far less' elastic, and less acceptable to both employers and workers. ” It would be a happy relief to find that a man had only one devil to contend against, instead of half, a dozen demons. The average manufacturer mow has to study the Factories Act, and, on an average, about five awards. He is threatened and menaced by all six. The Government, by hook or by crook, bolsters up , the Arbitration Act, but everybody knows that it is one of those shams which must go sooner or later. Last week the Government resolved itself over the Denniston business, not only into a superior Arbitration Court, unrecognised by law, but also into a Star Chamber, secret compacts and agreements. When it comes to this, the end is not far off. Let us have the Factories! Act extended by all means, instead of three or four awards working against one another under one roof. If Parliament sees its way to fix wages for all classes of labour, by all means let it do so. In order to do this it must also see its way to find work for all unemployed persons, also to provide due sustenance for the idle, the incompetent, and the vicious in the comnot be thought that we do not reverence and uphold the great princples of arbitration, conciliation, / and union, because we fail to dis- ' cover them in our present arbitration system. The former are the pure gold, whereas the latter is the spurious metal.- A conciliation that will create union is good; an arbitration which will complete the woik is also good; and a union which will establish harmony between employees and employers, and , reconcile capital and labour, is very \ good. On the other hand a "com\pulsory conciliation that does not dcmciliate, is evil; a compulsory arbitration which antagonises and injures all engaged in industrial pursuits,, is. also evil; aad a com- \' \ pulsory ur»ion which®divides masters k aud men into two hostile camps, is ;i very evil. The Legislature can pass a compulsory Factory Act to fix the conditions of labour, but to call? such legislation either conciliation, Nitration, or union, is an insult to the ordinary intelligence. To call into ■existence and to give a legal status to a horde of mischief-makers, agitators, and plunderers, is an abomination, and when it is done under the pretence of its being either of the sacred principles of conciliation or arbitration or union, it is simply revolting. We have seen men, women, and children, under our present laws, deprived of their natural rights to learn trades or to earn their own livings. Are we to call this a State benevolence or a State tyranny? For many years past there has been a State terrorism in New Zealand, People are afraid to speak or to act lest they should be punished by the thousand 'and one men in authority, who have become the- minions of a central despotic Government. Is it not tiie case that the man who foments discord, or stirs up strife in New Zealand, establishes a claim either to possess a Government billet, or to ’become a Government parliamentary candidate, and ultimately, perhaps, to secure a seat in the Cabinet?—WairaDaily Times.