The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1922. SETTLING LABOR DISPUTES.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 January 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1922. SETTLING LABOR DISPUTES.

The acuteness of the unemployed problem in Britain has evidently caused serious attention to be directed to the question of finding a practical means for the settlement of labor disputes and the restoration io£ confidence between the workers and employees, as Well as between buyers and sellers. Whether any satisfactory progress will be made in this direction depends entirely on the attitude of the trades unions and their leaders. If they are guided by the desire to promote the best interests of the workers they will have to profit by the experience of the past 'and learn the. i great outstanding lesson that reaI son must prevail in industrial as I well as in other affairs. No per- | manent good will be achieved unI til there is a complete recogni-

tion of the fact that there are two sides to every question, and that only by giving due consideration to both sides can harmony be enthroned in its rightful place. The essence of British freedom is to be found in the system of justice which has been evolved through the ages of the past, and it is the preservation of this unique heritage that should be the aim of the workers, the employers and the public, equally with the statesmen who preside over the destinies of Ihe Empire. "Obviously there can be no justice when one section of the community regards its interests as of greater consequence than those of the rest of the community, and takes no heed of the extent to which others are made to suffer as the result of arbitrary action. In the past there have been many propositions for. improving the relations between employers and employed. Some have been tried and proved successful, while others have been foredoomed to failure. According to recent cablegrams from London, a move has been made by fourteen Coalitionist Trade Unionist members of the House of Commons for legislation in the direction of compelling the participants in any industrial dispute “which injures any section of the

public,” to submit the differences to specially appointed industrial committees, possessing the functions and authority of a Court of Law. whose decisions would be binding to both sides, under penalties. Apparently this proposal is based on a scheme that was set in operation recently in Kansas at the instance of the Governor of that State. It. is explained by the Governor (Mr. Henry J. Allen) in a book, “The Party of the Third Part.” The “party of the third part ’ ’ is the public; thQ parties of the first and second part being respectively the employer and the employee. The purport of the Governor’s message is that the public have a right to oe heard and considered in all disputes between employer and employed in the vital industries. As the result of a series of strikes, Mr. Allen devised an arbitration scheme, which varies in some important respects from the New Zealand system. The court consists of three judges appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the State Senate. It has jurisdiction oyer all businesses concerned with food, clothing, mining and transport, and has power, when any dispute arises, to intervene and issue orders fixing the terms upon which the business shall be continued. If either party disobeys the order, the Supreme Court can enforce it. Penalties for disobedience range up to fines of £lOOO and imprisonment for two years. In New Zealand the Arbitration Court consists of representatives of employers and employees, with a Judge. The public is not, therefore, directly represented. It has

no power to order imprisonment, and permits of a union deregistering. It cannot be described by any means as providing a solution of our industrial ills; on the contrary, there are indications that it has outlived its usefulness. Whether the public of New Zealand, hovjever, would agree to the Kansas system, with its drastic powers for outlawing anyone who struck or caused a lock-out, is open to question, whatever its general merits may be.