The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1911. LABOR'S WEAPON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 93, 10 October 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1911. LABOR'S WEAPON.

In the earlier days of industrial arbitration in New Zealand the success of the demands conceded to Labor led Labor to the conclusion that it was "on velvet" Many branches of Labor achieved Mitatantial "rises" in wages, and there arc few who disagree that the concessions were on the whole just and equitable. It was claimed that the Act administered by the special Court was so satisfactory that it represented the death-knell of strikes. Tt might have been believed in those earlier days that the concessions obtained represented the summit of the ambition of the wageCarners concerned. But it was perfectly natural that success should lead to further efforts, especially as a rise in wages among united workers inevitably diminished the purchasing power of the workers' cash. While the arbitration system therefore proceeded on the assumption that the workers' demands must always be conceded and that the man who supplied him with the means to work and the money for doing it. had no right to objection, the Act and its administration were, satisfactory to its creators and those who benefited under it. When, however, a limit was placed on the pace I at which wages were rising, it was held, j not so much that the Act or the Court was a failure, but that tho President of the Court was not doing his duty when ho showed that he was a judge and not a mere partisan. Here is an expression of opinion from a Labor candidate which is explanatory:

"The fact, is that every union in Xew Zealand is distrustful of Judge Sim, and having once made up their minds about this, they look round for a better method. Then they hit upon the strike. The strike notion has got into their blond, and nothing we can do can prevent n strike from happening." This gentleman has prophesied that the strike will happen at the end of this year, in a month or two. The futility of any Act of Parliament in preventing bodies of persons doing exactly as they intend to do has been proved many times. and there is precedent showing that the Act can he ignored with impunity and the weapon of the strike used to the advantage, of workers. In reviewing the current wages of workers who arc under an award of the Arbitration Court, it is perhaps a little difficult to understand their point of view, unless it can be assumed (hat organised Labor is incensed at the idea that a limit should ever be placed on the value of work. Jt might easily be conceded that the most skilful workers in any branch of Xew Zealand industry have a substantia! grievance on the ground that the worst worker is paid at the same rate as the best and has. under present hard and fast conditions, no incentive to achieve higher skill. Unfortunately, however, the feeblest workers prates of bis "rights* equally with the best, and that terrible ogre, the "capitalist," without whom the worst worker couldn't exist, is looked upon, not as a means of subsistence, hut. as an enemy of the race. The workers in unison have reason to regard employers, singly or in numbers, as useless excrescences only if workers are capalih- of finding their own jobs, admini-lering trade and commerce, and of paying io industrial working partner-, a tiller wage than is paid under the prcr-cni- system of private employ. A strike i- threatened not because masters have refused to pay adequate wages, hut because a judge who is the buffer bet.ween payer and paid does not always e,,n~eii|, to more heavily tax the former. There are several questions organised I,,'ihor never asks itself. It does not ask who created its job or where, increased wages come from, so long as I. hey come. It is angry when demands ;<ro not immediately conceded, hut it never offers better service or higher skill in return for benefits received. It has a nihil ions not to excel as artisans or in skill, but 10 push wages up irrespective of any Increased ability on the part of the payer io meet the new condition. It has no means of ascertaining the ability of the wage-payers to increase wa"es, merely assuming that unfair treatment is meted out from sheer "cussedncss." The proportion of workers, speaking of workers affected by the Arbitration Act, in Xew Zealand is a mere handful. They do not represent the people of Xew Zealand and ate not to be considered as of

proportionate importance to the. true I producers of this country. But evea | under existing conditions organised | workers who toil under .'in award are » comparatively well off. They have not! the incentive to strike that the British, | French, German, Austrian or Italian workers had. Apart from the unpleasant immediate consequences of a more or less general Xew Zealand strike, such a cause would le unquestionably useful in effect. It would smash the Arbitration Act, and the individual would once again stand oa his own base, a free man, dependent for the size of ihis wage on his skill. The dropping of "preference to unionists" (which means the spoonfeeding of the inexpert) would give some spur to ambition which is in most trades in New Zealand as dead l as Uoadicca. Tiro assumption that one man who carries a kit of tools is as good as every other man who carries a kit is producing a proportion of spineless "workers" whose strength lies in a label • and whose ambition is "knock-off' time. If a strike is going to resurrect the dead and buried independence of the individual, his pride in his work and life belief in himself and love for his skill, a general strike will, in its eventual effects, be the best thing that has happened in New Zealand for some time. Inefficientsi without labels would not keep efficients out of jobs. The cancellation of registrations by unions that have taken place means that their members will have the "right" to strike, b«t if human nature is suffering under a real sense of wrong it will strike and riot and do what seems best to it, whether a registration exists or is cancelled. While there seems a chance of the Xew Zealand Arbitration Act being badly mangled in the near future Britain is about to fit itself up with one on the ' Canadian plan. The essential features ] of the Canadian system, which will be followed very closely in the Bill, are ] that any employer or workman involved in> a dispute has the power to appeal to the Minister of Labor asking for the reference of the points in dispute to a board consisting of three persons, one representing employers, another workmen, and the third an independent person acceptable to both sides. This.board then summons witnesses and makes exhaustive enquiries into the circumstances'. This board has no power to enforce its findings upon the disputants, but, as a general rule, the parties do not ' care to reject terms of settlement proposed by the board. One remarkable feature is that once & dispute has been referred to the boards it is an offence punishable by heavy fines for the parties to force a strike or lock-out, or for the employers to make any change in the working conditions in force, at the time when the dispute was referred to arbitration. Under such grave conditions as the late British strike, however, the threat of heavy fines would have been ineffective in curbing the, temper,- of hundreds of thousands of men. When blood boils written law becomes a feeble weapon

A LITTLE LUXURY.

The other day the Government was con- | gratulated on the success of the Government training ship, the Aniokura, The chief utility of thi* training ship, as showu by official figures, is that it has supplied to privately-owned mer chant vessels DS boys. That is to say, a fatherly State undertakes the duty of providing a State ship, excellent State officers, and a reasonably good training for a limited number of boys in order that private shipowners shall benefit to a small extent. Naturally' the drafting of so small a number of boys into the mercantile marine is not of overpowering advantage to shipowners, but the point is that the public support this scheme obviously for the advantage of people very capable of doing without. The ancient gunboat Sparrow was purchased for unknown reasons and lay off Kaiwarra doing nothing for a long time. It seemed a pity to waste her. and so she became a training ship, and has had some decorative and ceremonial uses ever since. The public seems to believe. in some vague way that this ship and those boys hivvc some connection with the Navy, and apparently accept this as a reason for her upkeep. Yet since she became a training ship only 10 boys have passed nut of her into the Royal Xavy, and any one of the boys would have been welcomed into the Xavy, even if the old Sparrow had been scrapped at the moment she went out of commission. There is a suggestion now that there should be added to the Government fleet a sailing ship for t'ho training of boys. Unless it is clearly laid down, that the t boys are to be trained for • the State service and not for the use of private employers there can be no better.' excuse for a training sailing ship than for an obsolete gunboat training school." If the Government intend to train sailors for private persons, there is no reason why it should not undertake the upkeep of training schools for boys who will enter into other crafts and callings. There is no guarantee that tbo Aniokura boys will remain sanlors,' ; and many of them drift back to ,shore employment. Xo one has ever sou«lit to justify the upkeep of the Aniokura on the grounds of State utility, because she has no State utility. She indeed represents a kind of hobby, useful for the employment of an excellent staff who might be doing fine work for the State instead of putting in valuable time training boys, for other people. The excuse cannot be made even that the boys need State care and sanctuary, for most of them come from good homes and are in no sense needy. When it is mentioned that the Amokura' is a. "success" it should be shown that the State whose ship she is has benefited. Xo one can show this.