The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1919. THE CAUSE OF UNREST.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 December 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1919. THE CAUSE OF UNREST.

"Neither strikes, nor brutal deeds, can alter the economic law that] higher wages lead to higher prices." . This was a statement made recently by Mr. C. A. M' Curdy, K.C., Parliamentary Secretary to the British Pood Ministry, in the course of an interview with the Daily Chronicle. It is | difficult to arrive at any single cause for the present unrest that

is in world-wide evidence, rathe must we look for a combination o causes, which may probably bi found to be party political am partly economic. There is, how ever, one outstanding feature tha is responsible for much of th< trouble that has been growing apace among the workers, and tha is the profiteering and rationing during war-time. Prior to the out break of war, industrial unrest ii Britain was assuming large pro portions, and when the rates o pay and conditions of service an taken into consideration, the mar vel is that an upheaval of grea magnitude had not taken placi long since. This factor is mention ed as evidence that the presen wave of unrest is not the result o the war, but a logical sequence o: the awakening of labor to its jus rights. The actual cause of unres" is more deeply rooted than is gen erally credited. The steps tha have bef" taken in Brisbane t< remedy >..>nie of the chief grievan ces are. tantamount to an admis sion that the treatment of labor ii the past has been oppressive anc unfair. It has been a severe mis fortune to the world, and especial ly to the proletariat, that Sovie Russia came into existence with iti doctrine of brute force, terrorisn and anarchy. This pernicious ex ample has fired the blood of tin younger and more festless of tin workers, who are unable or un willing to discern the yawning gul: into which Bolshevism leads. Mr M' Curdy considers that not one ii a hundred of the strikers at Horn* knows anything, or cares to knov anything, about the philosophy o: anarchism or syndicalism, but thane is looking for a way out of hii own personal troubles higl prices, the irritation of profiteer ing, and the limited share of thi comforts of life. By some* disrup tionist propagandist he is told tha a strike for higher wages will bal ance his budget and enable him t( get even with the profiteer. It doei not occur to him that, by striking just now, when greater productioi is the only effective counter-movi against high prices, he makes i nore difficult than ever to get wha he wants from the Government from his employers, or from thi trading community. During thi war, the workers received wage: far beyond any sum theretofon given. They had a taste of wha high wages were like, with the re suit that they want not only high er pay, but shortened hours o work, better conditions of life, anc the right to dictate terms to tin employers,«the effect of which maj paralyse industry. If the positioi is accurately analysed, the, resul would most probably be that i would be found that the workeri are now more concerned abou )btaining and wielding power thai they are about wages. They fai to understand the economic lav that higher wages lead to highei prices. It is not by an increase o weekly pay that they will benefit but by an increase of things tha wages can buy. Until this fixec law is thoroughly grasped, ther< san be no effective remedy for un rest. Labor has made good it: slaim to a place in the sun, and tin slaim has been fully recognised ii practical ways, but it has not gain ed the right, and never will, t( thrust the rest of the communitj in the shadow by direct action anc its disruptive consequences. It is fair to assume that the great niaj 3rity of the workers have nO syia :>athy with Sovietism and violence The extreme section, however, are vidently affected by that doctrine ind their efforts to promote anarmy should be firmly suppressed >y all sane Laborites. The first ;hing that Labor should do is to >all a truce to all strikes. They yill then find means provided for ;he attainment of all reasonable lims. More houses are wanted, nore clothes, more furniture, more if everything that will make the ives of the workers and their famlies brighter, happier, and more :ontented. It is detrimental to heir best interests to be continualy involved in strife. The great esson.they have to learn is that >roduction, and not wages, is the lominant factor in their future yelfare.