LABOUR AND WAGES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 9014, 27 December 1907, Page 5

LABOUR AND WAGES.

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln reply to your footnote:— You surely do not contend that Labour is responsible for the present ruling prices of wheat, flour, oats, butter, cheese, and the necessaries of life generally? Yet, by your footnote, no other conclusion can be taken. The presence of rings and combines in our midst operate on many of these articles, and the further last that similar rings are operating on many of our imported necessaries, even down to tinned and dried fruit, are of themselves factors which explains the cause of the abnormal prices ruling for many of these commodities. These with the other factors mentioned in my last letter go to nrove that the persistent reiteration on the part of the press, that Labour demands are responsible, is fallacious, and won't bear investigation. These rings are admitted by all to exist, both internally and externally, and those composing the rings agree that so far as they are concerned, this collective method of operating is highly advantageous. It is this new feature which is responsible, along with those already mentioned, for increased prices. Of course, if you include in your term "Labour" all capitalists, landlords and those composing these rings, then I can understand your position, and agree that "the ever-increasing demands for shorter hours and higher wages has resulted in increasing the prices of commodities." If this was your intention, then, of course,, no answer was possible to refute your article. But your allusion to "Unionism perpetually securing higher awards and shorter hours," let me into the trap of concluding that you referred to Trades Unionism, and your further reference to the "three friends of Labour" almost convinced me that I was right in my conclusion. However, Sir, to get down to bedrock, it would be interesting, I am sure, to your readers if you would abandon the general, and comedown to more specific treatment of this important question, by giving us concrete instances where the hours and wages of Labour have increased the prices of commodities that are every day necessaries of life. We would then have something tangible to work upon, and we might then come to some conclusion that might interest the author whose letter you base your general charge upon, thus helping to answer your query, "Where will it end."—l am, etc., G. D. MACFARLANE.

(Our correspondent raises various questions, which would require very much more space than we have at our disposal to discuss at all adequately. We, like him, desire that Labour (that is every form of Labour) should receive just recompense, and we believe that Labour can best attain the object at which it aims by working in a practical common-sense way. Our correspondent surely must be aware that higher wages and shorter hours mean increased prices for the commodities manufactured by those whose wages are raised and hours shortened. He cannot have studied the effect of Arbitration Court awards without realising the palpable fact that one result of arbitration is that the general public have to pay more now-a-days for many things than they had to pay a few years ago. That shrewd and far-seeing statesman, f the late Mr Seddon, warned the' Labour party against riding the Arbitration Act to death. We venture to say that if the Government for many years past had avoided faddy legislation, and had endeavoured to inaugurate in God's Own Country something approaching an equitable system of taxation and a vigorous land settlement and rail-, way construction policy, that the workers as a whole would be infinitely better off than they are to-day. Our correspondent must not suppose that we are opposed to the Arbitration Act, but we recognise that, like every other Act, it requires to be administered with reason. It is an Act which can be either used or abused; but, in any circumstances, it will not do for this country what can only be accomplished by fearless legislation and progressive administration. Instead of tinkering with the Labour conditions here and there we would rather see the reforms effected that would really benefit the workers—and we use the term very broadly—throughout the dominion. So far as our correspondent is concerned, we reiterate the statement to which he has taken exception, viz., that higher awards and shorter hours tend in the direction oE making living dearer. His arguments have not caused us to change our view one iota. We put it to him, by way of an answer, that it is quite impossible to build a house with either flour or butter.)