MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1917. AN ABORTIVE LABOUR CONFERENCE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 29 January 1917, Page 4

MONDAY, JANUARY 29, 1917. AN ABORTIVE LABOUR CONFERENCE.

There seems little doubt that serious labour trouble is likely to loom up largely in the Dominion in the near future. Considerable unrest has been experienced for some time past. As the unnecessarily cruel rise in the cost of living, since war commenced became more and more oppressive, the masses of the people have transferred

their sympathy to those who are tile chief sufferers. There is scarcely a man in a community like this, who has given any thought at all to the unprecedented cost of living, who does

not 1 egret the circumstances that arc the real cause, and who would net do what he could to remedy the in jus rice of them. A man, who has a home to keep, must deny himself and his family with what are necessaries in this country if he does not earn more than three pounds per week. In cities, where rents are out of reach of the incomes of many wage-earners, herding and deprivation are becoming a disgrace to our civilisation, and it is not surprising that every effort to ameliorate this condition is being made by those who are the chief sufferers. An abortive conference was held in Wellington last week between the Waterside Workers' Federation and employers. It was predestined to failure, because the Federation asked for what the employers cculd not very Avell give without adding to the ever-increasing burden on business men generally, who are not benefitting by war profits and therefore cannot pay higher wages or concede shorter hours. For any section of labour to strike for hlgner

wages is simply an act cf the grossest selfishness. It is a course which involves a recurrence. If one industry gets higher wages it creates need for increase in other industries, and a nat-

ural rise in the oust of everything produced. I! is not against employers that labour should proceed to better their conditions of life, but against that body which can control the price or everything that is required to properly feed, cl dhe and educate labour's children. Conferences are sought with men who cannot or will net help them. svhiiC there is a power that may exercise a new habeus corpus, conscript wealth, fix a price for food, and do all such other things capable of arresting the systematic avarice and robbery that is now rampant. It is futile to approach employers, because it is but a mere handful of them that are amongst the exploiters. Manufaetur-

ers working for the Defence Department are lined in the Supreme Court if they attempt it. Then it is to that great source of power that worker:; must look if they wish to have the sympathy of the whole country behind them. The rise in prices has brought no corresponding rise in income, and to strike fcr increased income is simply striking for still higher cost of living. Labour must see that that is inevitably the case; they know that there is a power that can be used to make conditions bearable. Why do they shy at that power, why do they not attack it if it will not bend to their needs. Labour knows that it is wrong to assume that high wages offsets high prices, simply because the wages of so many cannot rise with the cost of living, and it is those persons who suffer most seriously. For labour

to gain the strength to effect a change in social conditions that will universally benefit it must not split up into selfish cliques. We have had the experience of a certain class of labour getting its demands by the Arbitration Court or getting what it sought by strikes, but in a year or two the trouble had arisen again. Strikes are the greatest sources of hardship for the lowest floor of workers. Then why not ' organise for a re-mcdelling of social conditions. Killing your industries in many instances, and bringing starvation to the very door has failed time and again. Is this experience valueless? Labour has it in its power to reach out for the only remedy that will bring industrial peace and healthful and bearable conditions of life. A great cry is going up the world over for measures that will reduce the cost of living. Strikes for higher wages have proved a dismal failure; labour has realised that strikes must be recurrent and can only be partially effective up to a very limited stage. Then, speaking broadly, it is not with the employer labour has its differences, it is with that body which it

elects to control all social and political questions. If we are badly governed, as shown in the social life and condition of the people, it is no more use going to the employer than it is to go to a policeman if a criminal law presses unduly hard or unjustly. Government is the source of all the laws under which we live; our Government has absolute control of our social conditions, and nothing seems more absurd than to attempt to permanently end industrial strife and bring about bearable conditions of existence than to attack, garrote and strangle individual employers. One section of labour gaining higher wages, simply means higher prices for those who are less fortunate. Labour must use its force to alter existing social conditions. Mr. Lloyd George is setting a very excellent lead in Britain. There is justification for every man and woman who works to down tools against present ,social conditions, but it is little short of, sheer madness to go on strangling;any one section of industry. Strikes by one body of work-

ers are the essence of selfishness, whereas organisation to effect the much-needed change in social and political conditions is likely to add to the happiness of all who labour, employers and employed. The haphazard control of industries must end and a sensible system emanating from Government must replace it before any permanent good can result. The Wellington Conference failed because both parties were to some extent misguided. It is not higher wages that is so essential as a reduction in the cost of the means to live. Very nearly the whole country is behind such a postulate, and the linking together of every class of worker could very soon bring abouf. the supremely vital change.