Trades and the Workers

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 670, 23 May 1929, Page 12

Trades and the Workers

By

“ARBITER”

In America, that industrial paradise of which we hear so much, the poultry industry is the greatest in the country. More money is invested in poultry than even in iron and steel. * * * Workers’ Battle It is refreshing to have a farmer’s viewpoint expressed in a strain sympathetic to the worker. At the Farmers’ Conference at Auckland yesterday Mr. W. J. Poison, M.P. for Stratford, did so. “I am not one of those who goes about asking for low wages.” he said, “because I believe the workers in the past centry have fought a greater battle than the farmers, and I don’t wish to reduce the standard of living. “I am not making a Labour speech; I have no sympathy with Socialism. But I must be fair to my Labour friends, and I cannot but recall the struggle of the workers back in 1850, when children of six and eight years worked 12 hours a day for a few pence a week, and the average wage for a worker was 10s or 12s a week.”

Industrial Conference There is little doubt that the industrial conference, which began so well last year, will be resumed by the authority of Parliament this year. It is understood that the employers have, through their organisations, urged the Government t, reopen the proceedings which were hardly sufficiently complete, and have the common problems of industry discussed. The farmers, too, are anxious that the conference should be resumed, and their weight will be put in behind the movement. If the authorities show any sign of carrying out the resolutions of the last conference, the workers will welcome any further attempt to benefit industry in this way. It is of not much use, however, if the resolutions are passed by all sides of industry, and not adopted by the Government. There are still the question of workers’ compensation and one or two others hanging over unattended. Is He a Worker? Because the position of a gardener is not made clear in the Workers'

i Compensation Act, the. Arbitration Court has decreed that a man who was hurt while performing gardening work was not entitled to compensation from his employer. After outlining the whole definitions of “worker" in the Act and deciding that they cpuld not be applied to a gardener, .Mr. Justice Frazer said: "If it is thought desirable to include all classes of work performed in or about an employer's private house and grounds, the matter can be brought before Parliament; but hitherto casual employees about a man’s private house o.r grounds have not been covered by the Act, and if it is intended to bring about a drastic change, it is obvious that the position must be made perfectly clear in the Act.’’ * * * Council of Industry According to Mr. W. J. Poison, * Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, many of the delegates to the Industrial Conference last year were impressed, with the need for a council of industry in New Zealand. Certainly such an institution would go l far toward co-ordinating the interests of industry here, which at the present time are widely diverse, and in some respects disorganised. It is possible that modern tendencies,. including the growth of machinery and the failure of a succession of administrations to handle the unemployment problem, will force the hands of those concerned toward some organised control watching the interests of both capital and labour. In New Zealand, however, we have to watch closely lest we allegation that we are already overboarded and over-controlled. * * * Strike Methods This is how the Sydney “ Morning Herald” sees the timber workers’ strike, which, it says, has been rema.rkable for the campaign of intimidation and violence;“For the first time the new scientific tactics, which originated from Moscow. and are attributed to the Red Internationale, have been introduced to Sydney. They are known as •lightning’ or ‘s-hock’ methods, and have been practised extensively in America. The greatest feature of the new methods is the elaborate picketing system, which has been organised with military precision and regularity. “One of the most tragic aspects of the strike is the persistent neglect of the union officials in charge of operations to advise the strikers publicly to retrain from their cowardly assaults on volunt'irs. The men apparently think they have the fullest liberty to perpetrate the atrocities which have already resulted in loss of life. “Most of the assaults have been due to tlie» activities of the flying squads —car loads of specially selected hefty strikers armed with gas pipe batons and other conveniently sized missiles. Hike the footpads and garrotters of past days, they choose their time and place, and in this way are able to reduce the possibilities of dotation to a minimum. The unsuspecting victim has little chance of escape. Closest secrecy is maintained by the organisers.” * * * Preference and High Costs Ts the preference-.to-unionists clause in industrial awards the cause of high costs? Mr. W. J. Poison. Dominion president of the New Zealand Farm- | ers’ Union, says it is. Trade unionists all over New Zeaj land will have something to say upon j other aspects of this—aspects very ; conveniently overlooked by Mr. Poison, j True the preference clause of the j court at present is not the best in

the world, but with the present state of the labour market, where would the trade union organisations be without some safeguard of their own positions? Rather should the preference clause of the court be tightened up and made effective than be made the target of students of the high costs fetish. * * * Production In Russia The replacement by collectivism of individual agricultural producers in Russia is explained by a specialist in this line, who says: “The general economic scheme and the necessity of ensuring a regular food supply for the large cities (where live the industrial workers, the best supporters of the Soviet regime) and for the Red army, require that we shall be able to dispose of the crops without being threatened by sabotage from the farmers. The peasant is selfish and does not see beyond his own immediate interest. When he is not paid the price he wants, or when the manufactured articles which he needs get scarce, he just stops sowing. He does not realise that our industry is still in its infancy, and that if we failed to create our own industry, even be it at the price of privation and sacrifice, we should be bound hand and foot in bondage to the capitalist world. And as the Soviet regime cannot wait for a quarter of a century until the peasant’s mind is changed by contact with the younger generation, we are going to make him enter our scheme by openly extending collectivism into the country and getting rid altogether of the independent farmer.