Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9104, 25 March 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1908 EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE arrogance of Trades Unionism is illustrated bv a statement reported by the Post to have been made by one of the most temperate members of the Wellington Trades Council. Referring to the industrial situation at Blackball this member said:—‘.‘lf the workers feel that they cannot get satisfaction from the Arbitration Court, they will adopt other means—lam sure of that. We have reached a crisis in the labour world.” This dark saying by a temperate man evidently means that if Arbitration Court awards are against Unionists they will take the law into their own hands. Therefore the Act is a farce and a dangerous farce, because it shackles one side and leaves the other side free—to exercise violence if it chooses. It is clear that the sooner we reach a crisis the better will it be for all the people, other than the few in the Trades Unions. Thanks to the pandering of politicians to the demagogues and agitators of trades unionism a belief has been engendered that industries exist solely for the benefit of unionists. And there is not a politician in the laud who has the moral courage to tell the unionists that this is not the case. Organised unionism has terrified the placehunting politicians, and it remains to be seen whether those in office have the courage to enforce the laws they have themselves made. If they have not that courage, and any section of unionists are allowed to defy the law then most certainly a crisis will have been reached which will require drastic treatment, and an eventual resort to force. It is high time the unionists were made clearly to understand that businesses and industries do not exist solely for the benefit of those engaged in them, and that labour is merely a marketable commodity, subject to the law of supply and demand. No business or industry has ever yet neon established with the sole object of aft'ordir. <* -'mploymeut to others. 33ut all •nr labour legislation for some time vast lias been based on the theory that industries exist solely Lor the beuefitTof the: employees engaged therein. If this were so then as the Dumber of those seeking employment in particular industries increases the prices of the , articles they produce must advance until the burden on the real wealth creators becomes absolutely unbearable, and disaster is readied in the effects of which all will share. The Dominion is at present galloping towards disaster, and will speedily reach it unless the unionists are taught that they have no more right to artificially increase the cost of the labour they have to sell, or shorten the hours of work, or limit output, than the tradesman would have to force up the prices of his wares or give short weight or measure.

LAST Thursday Dr Findlay delivered what is called an important speech at Cheviot, hub we look through it in vain for any statement of interest on current events. Like Sir Joseph Ward, Dr Findlay appears to think that there is safety in statistics and therefore he reeled off a rechauffe of the results of the Advances to Settlers and Lands for Settlement Act. Curiously enough as a subject of special interest to the members of an Agricultural and Pastoral Association, he chose to speak at considerable length on the enormous value of the Advances to Workers Act, which enables working men m towns to claim assistance from Government, in the shape of loans, similar to those given to settlers, in order to become owners of their dwellings. We have the greatest goodwill towards any measure which encourages workers to practice thrift in order to become their own landlords, but it was a little heartless to dwell on the facilities town workers have to obtain the freehold in a district like Cheviot, where settlers have to try to believe that the leasehold is the only really advantageous form of land tenure. Had Dr Findlay explained to some of the town Socialists how, out of their savings, they might purchase homes for themselves, he would probably have met with serious interruptions from those whose object in life is to persuade the workers that under the present conditions™ they can save nothing, and that the worker who owns land or houses is the enemy of his fellows. No doubt in addressing a town audience Dr Findlay will deal with agriculture and other subjects which are not of so controversial a nature as the theory that working men can save anything.

IT is hardly possible to take up a newspaper without finding some allusion to the high cost of living * in this country. Not a meeting of the Conciliation Board , or a sitting of the Arbitration Court goes by without some demand for increased wages being supported by the argument that the cost of living has increased by 20, 30 or 100 per cent in the last 3 or 4 years. - Justice Sim the other day rebuked the labour representatives who claimed that the, cost of living in Wellington had increased 30 or 40 per cent iu the last three years and as an ‘obiter dictum’ laid down that the increase has not been more than 20 per cent, during the whole period that the Arbitration

Act had been in force. Naturally we should expect that the Labour Department would settle the question by the publication of statistics, such as are frequently produced in other countries; but the . secretary of the Department is far too canny to commit himself in this way, as it is much oaiaer to speak feelingly of the enormous rise in the cost of living, than to exhibit the fact in definite figures. What we require are family budgets for man, wife and two or three children, which is about the number of an average household. Half a dozen of these could easily be obtained for incomes of £2, £3 and £4 per week in each town, and the figures corrected for the prices ruling during the last three years. The results would give us some definite information on the subject of the cost of living, and we feel sure that it would he found that the rise was not nearly as great as is popularly supposed. As the question of the cost of living to-day is of general interest we publish in another column an estimate of the cost of living for a family in which the bread winner is in receipt of £3 per week, and shall be glad to publish similar authentic budgets which may be forwarded to us for publication.