Australians Keenly Debate On Labour

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 377, 11 June 1928, Page 7

Australians Keenly Debate On Labour

“Land, Not All Green CLASH AT GENEVA i (United P.A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association) GENEVA, Tuesday. The Australian workers’ and emj plovers’ representatives at the International Labour Conference at Geneva, Mr. Walker and Mr. Sandford, were the central figures in a debate on the wages question. Mr. Walker stated the case for the arbitration system and Mr. Sandford condemned it. Both speakers were 1 listened to with the greatest interest. Mr. Sandford’s speech received

| warm commendation from the em- | plovers’ group. Mr. Walker read a ! prepared statement, which was really a precis of the labour legislation of Australia. He painted a rosy picture | on the conditions there. I Mr. Sandford, in replying, said the outstanding result of arbitration had been an increase in the cost o? living, which made the wages increases mere illusions, and rendered difficult competition with other countries. The Courts created class consciousness, which soon led to envy and suspicion and engendered aD atmosphere inimical to the interests of the workers. “HUGS BROWN PATCHES" Mr. Sandford scathingly criticised Mr. "Walker's beautiful picture. He j said that from a distance Mr. Walker ; regarded all Australia as being fields of green. He forgot to mention the huge brown patches of unemployment, strikes, and losses on Government enterprises. If Mr. Walker had been able to frame his picture in a border amid full employment and with attractive balance-sheets, it might be possible to argue that the tree of compulsory arbitration had borne good fruit. Mr. Sandford quoted the Tariff I

Board’s declaration that the industrial unions should realise the critical position into which Australia was drifting, and the necessity to prevent the wages gap from becoming wider. Otherwise the board said it could see nothing but economic disaster ahead. He warned his hearers that it was only the prosperity of the sheep industry and of wheat production which rendered possible the venturesome legislative experiments of Australia.