The Labour World.

Southland Times, Issue 18859, 26 June 1920, Page 10

The Labour World.

(Conducted by D. Scott.) GOING SLOW. The English Railway-men are adopting S»-elow methods as a menus of gaining their emands the Co.-Op. News .‘-ays. B >e ’ comes clearer every day that onl> a large improvement in the lot of the tailwaxmtn | will prevent, not only another strike, but one which will not be so easily settled as the last. The members of the National Union of Railwaymen are solidly behind the demand for an all round increase of one pound a week, and in many districts nu'-rc substantial chums are being advanced. Mini- j nia of £7, £6, and £5 are being demanded, together with the abolition of the sliding scale—a pretty invention which our governing class fondly imagined to he a solution, at any rate for a year, of the problem ot railway pay. If is useless to denounce these proposals as merely the work ot a , few extremists They represent a spirit which is universal on the railways, and have a very large and steadily increasing measure of support behind them. A proposal is to be | put liefore an unofficial conference of the , North-Eastern branches of the NT .R. for •• aeries of one-day strikes to eonqul the tio>ernment to ileal with the cost of h\ing, and several districts have fixed not-di.-taut dates from which they threaten to "work to rule" unless the demands referred to above are taken up by the executive. Irivute ownership ot the railways has produced such a state of anarchy that if the companies own regulations are carried out —tnat- is. if the men "work to rule’ —■ great delay and disorganisation results. It is a mo<t effective method of protest. , THE COTTON TRADE. Complaints are made that the strong Labour organisations work only for their awn etuis but even thougu that may be .he case the genera! public very otten benefit, it the demands ot the eotr >n operatives for a public investigation of the cotton trade is successful the white light of publicity may he the means of exposing a trade that is fleecing the people of millions. A Home writer says; If a gi neral .-trike iu the cotton industry D to be avoided, it eatt only be through concessions made by the employers. The spinners and card room workers will light to the last farthing rather than allow claims which tine employers have refused to Viiscuss to hr arbitrated upon, and the weavers and kindred workers will do the same before accepting an advance which tails so far short of their demand as the employers’ offer —22 per cent, instead of 00 per cent, cut current earnings. The cotton masters are a close-listed class of men, but on this occasion they have excelled t heuisel ves, Rates of dividend have gone up during the vast twelve months far more than the 6U or 05 [>er rent, which the workers are asking. The inerea-e in profits is to be counted by hundreds per cent. Dividends of 20 | to 60 per cent, are common enough, and over 100 per cent, has been reached iu not ' a few ease,. The Spinners' Amalgamation decided a few weeks ago to press for a [tublie inquiry into the cotton trade on the lines of the Docks Inquiry or the Foal Commission. and if it is really iu earnest now would reem to he the time to challenge the •mplaycrs to come into open court. CAUSES OF UNREST. Mr J. K. Wiiiuot In. C.’.-c Co.-Op. News, ■peaking of lbs industrial mugs*, -si preva- ( lent, says : I Man right? with woman for indust ri.vi 1 supremacy, selfishly imaginin'* that in all things, even the sexes, eomivetition is ultimate and final Glib -tongueit political vote- | mongers of every shade and colour, reckon up a woman's value on a ballot-paper, while profiteers spin their thread to trap the unwary and draw it to strangulating point around the necks of the poor. Where are our dreams to-day? Who in the face of these onini pre.-ent realities, will ] dare to be a dreamer : Only the valiant | and the strong: only the man and the woman with a soul and a hope, a neverdying hope for lite future of mankind. “M hat's wrong with the world?" I was asked by a man the other day. Ves, that, is the vital question. ’iiuit is the question that needs a uelimie answer. I thought over the man’s word.--. I tried V) find an answer. I east about lor a soluCioi’-. I stood aioof and vii-wed the world Us it weni hurrying on its own-appointed way. 1 watched a jostling crowd—selfish, j uncaring. 1 beheld tradesmen reckoning the values of commodiries on the basis of a largest net return cori.-isu nt with social ®nler. Thru I found an answer. What the world ta- K.-- to day is a soul. We have grown hcartleis and hard. Our creed is a creed of selfishness---it hies reused lo be the creed of the Nazarene. We have mined our sense of proportion by magnifying the presumed merits of a soulless individualism. Ves, the world wants a soul; a soul big I enough to embrace tin- meek and the lowly, ! and until the world and they who people it, realise what they have lost and find it 4ga.it. there can be tm peace, and progress will iso us fur away a.-, Mars. W.E.A. NOTES. In a short lecture given at the meeting of the Soft Cloud.- Union m the Trades Hall on Tuesday evening for the purpose of stimulating interest in the work of the W.E.A., Mr \v . Whelan, seerei.ary of the Invercargill W.E.A., referred to the illogical 1 nature of u popular doctrine- which had found acceptance, even amongst unionists themstlvcs— "that high wages are responsible lor the ['resent, high prices, and that any increase m wages is naturally followed by a corresponding rise in the cost of living.” Although this doctrine was iu direct opjiositmn to the sound economic principles upon which trades unionism was based, no at- { tempt had been made by the Labour organisations: to expose tile nature of the fallacy by showing how it was in direct conflict with clearly-established economic laws. Indeed, in a recent lecture given by Mr R. bcmplo, organiser for the ,VZ. Miners’ Federation, his opening remarks were lo the effect that the Broken i 1 lil miners were not on strike for high wages as their leaders recognised the futility ot an increase m wages which in his opinion would be followed by an increase in the cost of living. Tim Theory of V nine which was universally accepted by every school of economic thought and taught in all universities and jducational centres stated clearly that prircs ; were not based upon the wages paid to the i workers, nor yet upon the cost of p'roduc- I tion, but upon the relative scarcity or abundance of supplies of commodities iu re [ lation to the demand for them - the equili- ] brium of supply ami demand. And if they I put that theory to the test by applying it j to N.Z. produce they would sec at. once i that the merchants in London who bought { New Zealand wool, butter, cheese, meat, j ere., had no knowledge of the amount of | wages paid to the producers of those commodities, but were compelled by competition ! to pay high prices if the goods were ! soiree and low prices if they were abundant, i while the producer in New Zealand who paid I the wages had to unit until (he cablegrams! from London informed him what price his I wool, butter, etc., hud brought iu the Lon- I don market. The price was clearly not based upon the amount of wages paid! The Broken Hill miners need have no fear that the price of silver would rise in the world’s market if they wore fortunate enough to secure a small increase in wages. If ihs output of silver was increased iu spite of their high wages, the price would actually fall. The new awards which gave increased wages to the butter factory workers had no more affect upon the price of butter than the wages of the Waihi miners had upon the price of gold. If they looked back at the increase in the cost of living which immediately followed the outbreak of- the war, they would see clearly that high prices made increased wages necessary. In other words high wages did not produce high prices, but high prices produced high wages. I At the outbreak of war. prices were normal and wages were fixed by the Arbitration Court, but ns stocks began to get short prices rose while wages remained stationary until the Government found it necessary to extend the [towers of the Arbitration Court and increase wages in proportion to the increase in the cost of living. Thus the rise in wages bad always followed the rise In j

prices. If they look to statistics for evidence against the popular fallacy that high wages created high prices they would find that over a period of normal trade covering the fifty years from 1850 to 1900, wages rose continuously while prices fell continuously.