The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22. EMPLOYERS IN ARMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81871, 22 October 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22. EMPLOYERS IN ARMS.

The position between master and man in New Zealand is especially interesting because of the experimental nature of the legislation governing the relationship. The worker in New Zealand has had a good deal done for him merely and soiely because, exerting his absolute rights, he has demanded it of the State. He is helples s singly or in small bodies, but united he is strong. Only of late 'years have the employers of the colony seen the absolute necessity of taking a leaf from the book of the employed.

Capital is a very excellent thing in small lots, but it is a great power in bulk. Interest in any object is powerful if evinced by a few persons. Where the interests of many are identical and where the many combine tu conserve those interests, the combine, especially if the combine is capitalistic, is irresistible, The New Zealand Employers' Federation, which conferred in Wellington lately, has become frankly aggressive. I n i ts leport it eet out that as labour had combined and was antagonistic to employees generally, the employers had to combine and meet antagonism with the same weapon.

In a country where the majority rules and where ihe vote of the dusi-carter is as weighty as the vole of the merchant p;i ince, capital is alleged to nave no particular influence in poiitics. Ihe majority is supposed to tuie, and ihe majority up to now haveruled that by ail legal means the employer should be treated so thai the employed may get the greater fruits of his labor. it is all very well while there are any fruits—wincli, ol course, the employer makes possiblebut there must be a job for a man who .wants to earn wages, and present the sworn enemy of the employed holds the gift of the job Hi His hands. It is problematical wiietiici it is to ihe best advantage -ol tile woikeiS 10 keep up the aggn ssive attitude thai foices tile employers lo iiit back. Captial hits liardeievery time, supposing capital wants tu hit at aa. Ihe worker cannot aimox tliu capital of ihe and he hasn't co operated sulhcientk >ei to make the capitalist =>ar\;. Each depends upon the other.

I.N America, where capital holds sway. It is a remarkable ihing that although capitalists, have given numberless evidence, v { hear.lcss pandering instincts, wage* an; higher i,l skil.ed trades than they are 111 New Zealand, where the capitalist lias not been allowed to develop inio an ogre. We dont want him lo growto be an ogre here, bui failing combination of workeis 10 run businesses tncmsclves there is no wa'v toward expan-ion of trade besides expansion of capitalists and capitalisation, there have been 110 open fights between the two opposing forces in laie years merely because capitalist have s,;mply been Jyasjivei and; not active resistors to Jiu growth of labor aggression. While it is clear

t.iat capitalists shotikl nul b ,. ;i n, mnJ 10 use means employed by American millionaires, u i s c | ear that ihe pro gre.ss of the country is handicapped by legislation that prevents the introduction of skilled persons, ihe pro hiljitory limitation of apprentices, the fetish of a like wage for any worker 111 any given trade irrespective of his qualifications, and preference lo unionists.

Ihe worker can and will stand out for what lie naturally deems to be his rights while the country is on the crest of the wave of prosperity, but he is never able to battle through in a time of distress The position is that if the capitalists are driven to aggression they may carry the aggression over the good times into the bad times, if ihe ill-feeling that is fiankly admitted by both parties continues to be shown. If "bosses" are an evil in the present state of society they are a necessary evil, and they are less of an evil passive than actively resisting'. Ihe active resistance of the workers- in the lime when there is no job to work at is useless, and il is 10 UlO interests of all parlies concerned to hold out the olive branch as soon as possible. Settlements outside a court are always the most satisfactory settlements, but they arc unhappily very infrequent now-a-daj's.