The Daily News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1911. FIGHTING THE CHILDREN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 97, 14 October 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1911. FIGHTING THE CHILDREN.

In Australia progress is handicapped by the selfishness of the ruling class. Contrary to precedent, the ruling class in Australia is the class which supplies the brawn, dominates the brains, the initiative, resource and enterprise and fights its own class with poisonous bitterness. A little cablegram showing that the wages bourds have succeeded in making it impossible for apprentices to be bound to sonre trades for some years is an indication of the reactionary powers of coteries antagonistic to national- progress.' The worker" practically regards the schoolboy, who is a potential tradesman, as a menace, and by the sinister machinery which he possesses precludes boys from becoming tradesmen. The selfish supposition is that the number of skilled workers shall be kept so low that there is no possibility of any existing skilled worker, however competent or incompetent, being at a loss for a job. He is obviously scared that industry shall go ahead too fast for him. He has no national feeling, and takes the extra-' ordinary stand of fighting the l>oys. We have already seen that there is no shortage of unskilled labor in Australia. This wicked antagonism to boys in restraining them from becoming skilled workers drives them necessarily to "cul-de-sac" employments, which leaves them as men severely handicapped in the battle of life. When the. Labor Commission stated that there was a lack of skilled labor in Australia the Trades Hall at Sydney protected violently, pointing out that there were some unemployed. These selfish people apparently will not see that there must always bo employment, whether a trade, is manned by 10!) men or lflo,oofl. The idea of keeping trades short-handed and preventing masters (are they '•masters"';) from creating more work, is- so peculiarly twisted that it is essentially and solely Australasian. The Trades Hall says that, some skilled workers are unemployed. The, Chamber of Manufacturers state that the Labor Commission's estimate of the shortage i* too low. The Trades Hall assumption is that any worker 'belonging to an organised coterie should be able to insist on obtaining work whether the man who has work to give wants him or not. In fact, it is sought to entirely kike away the power of selection from the man who pays the wages. If this system were introduced into more important callings than those represented by the Trades Hall, it would have a remarkable effect on society. For instance, a banking concern might l>e dictated to as to the person it should appoint to the management of a branch; a powerful union might insist that the rawest medical graduate should be superintendent of a great hospital; or push the latest youngster with a law pass on to the bench. The one thing T.rades Halls and those kind* of organisations do not concede is that the man who sup- . plies a job has a right to the selection of the individual who is in his opinion the fittest to take it. When there is open antagonism to any system by which boys may become skilled workers it would appear to the student of these remarkable conditions to be time for a change. Initially in both Xew Zealand and the Common wealth the limitation of the number of apprentices proportionate to a given number of journeymen, was by way of preventing masters from exploiting boys and using them for man's work for boy's wages. This was fair enough, where it could be proved that excess of apprentices was inimical to adult workers. But where a body of men with the State letter in their hands order a close season for the favored adult and insist that juveniles shall not be allowed to learn to earn their own livings, the pusitiou is very near the breaking point. We shall see. providing there is no political -omersault in Australia, that the Trade- Mall and allied inslituliims' antipathy to an increase of the number of .-killed workers will be respectful!} li-leiied to by the political slaves of the- men with the hob-mtiled boots. We shall, also see that thai Chamber of Manufacturers who are regarded by Trade- Halls as associations of noxioii- lan. neee.--ary nuisances will be "put ill its place." and made to place its neck under llie Imb-nailcd boot of the persons who don't want boys to learn trades. But we -ball also see in the time that will -urely come a revision to conditions wherein poisonous restrictions are withdrawn by common consent and the individual ha- lo win his way on his merit or go to the wall if he has none. The pre-ent -y-tein is the system dial spoon-f Is the wa-ler. and it ~U time the wa-ter was tub] a few truths about himself.