The Sun THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1928. FIGS FROM THISTLES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 262, 26 January 1928, Page 10

The Sun THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 1928. FIGS FROM THISTLES

INDUSTRIAL peace is the leading theme in Great Britain these days and it is also the most popular aim of the idealists. As far as the mass of industrialists is concerned, however, the majority of industrial capitalists on the one side are cautious, while on the other most of the workers are suspicious. Yet, in spite of these mixed feelings and much confusion of ideas as to securing practical means for establishing firm peace in industry, the movement toward it gathers momentum and promises to arrive somewhere near a workable system of co-operation and conciliation.

The subject at least has gained the serious attention of the British nation and actually overshadows at the moment public interest in tin-hare coursing and the hectic pleasures of gadabout Society. Perhaps this wholesome change in national thought has to be attributed to the suppression of publicity for unsavoury divorce cases. The people must have a popular theme lest they perish of ennui. In any case, the thorough airing now given to the question of industrial peace is to he welcomed and accorded ready support. After the fury of destruction in four years of international warfare, the supreme need of Great Britain as a combatant nation which paid the highest economic price for victory, is peace in industry and a prolonged opportunity for repairing the ravages of conflict. In the words of the British Labour Leadex-, “industrial peace is not something that is negative. It is something that gives a freshened energy, a brightened hope, and a freer heart to pursue industrial success. What Australia has to teach us in this respect is mostly of the nature of warning.” And if British thinkers were foolish enough to be impressed by the crude arguments of some of New Zealand’s economic professors, the Dominion’s long experiment in industrial conciliation and arbitration would not be a lesson in wisdom. Fortunately, other testimony of a more convincing nature is available. So far, it has been as difficult for British workers to win concessions from industrial capitalists as it is to get figs from thistles. A study of the long conflict in the coal industry alone proves that, and there still is little prospect of peace on the British coalfields, where the attitude of the majority of the owners is opposed to any scheme which involves curtailment of their power to manage a muddled business in their own way. Workers, generally, are in a suspicious mood, and are not inclined to be influenced by vague appeals for mutual understanding and goodwilL They want deeds, not words; they would prefer higher wages to the highest wisdom. In the simplest of language, they want a square deaL Until they get it, all the fine talk about industrial peace will be accepted merely as sheer claptrap. It may be noted appreciatively that Sir Alfred Mond, one of England’s leaders of industrial opinion, admits that there is need of a square deal in British industry. He asserts the old truth with all the enthusiasm of the man who believes he has discovered a new one, that “low wages and long hours will not cure depression for which the remedy is high production at cheap cost and high wages.” Exactly! But why has Great Britain been the slowest country in the industrial world to realise that truth and to practice it 1 It is largely because of the fact that industry and economic enterprises have been owned and controlled by irresponsible groups of wealthy people. Quite the best comment on the lively topic of industrial peace for Britain is that contained in a “Puneh” cartoon illustrating the dock strike of 1889, as reproduced by the “Manchester Guardian.” A working man is shown addressing a gorgeous employer. “I don’t want to be unreasonable” (he says), “but if, in a general way, you’d think less of your luxuries and more of my necessities, it would be better for trade all round.”