"THE COMING STORM."

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9044, 10 March 1908, Page 5

"THE COMING STORM."

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Your leading article on Saturday, under the above heading, drawing attentim to the prospect of serious trouble in the labour world, is not without foundation. Those who have been watching closely the phases labour has passed through are not at all surprised at the present position resulting. The Elackball trouble is unique in su far a3 it draws forcible attention to a phase that has been obscured hitherto—namely, the victimisation of those who espouse their fellows' grievances. We have heard a great, deal about professional agitators, both from employers and the press, deprecating the existence of such a class, and urging that where there was a legitimate dispute working, rather than professional delegates should ir.eet the employers in conference. Is it not cases like the present one that has created the professional agitator. Even where men hold executive positions in a trades union, they feel, and sometimes experience, this same tendency in a mild way. This is not done openly, but covertly, and has had its effect in causing a difficulty to find anyone outside the professional to appear for the Unions before either the Conciliation or Arbitration Courts. This accounts for the unanimous votes of sympathy' that has been given in the present case. From the north to the south every Trades Council has sent along its word of cheer and hope that the men will be successful in sheeting home to the employers the charge of victimisation. The mutterings you speak of will become audible in the event of this not being established, and the resultant position will be a repititionof what was responsible for the establishment of the Conciliation and Arbitration Acts. Already the responsible heads of Unions are considering their attitude in the event of the men being further penalised by the Arbitration Court; and, if rumour is true, the last position will be worse than the first. The Act has been damned by the employers, and the workers are now seeing it into hotter quarters. What the ultimate result will be depends largely upon circumstances and results. One thing is quite palpable, that the Act does not fill the bill, neither from an employer's nor a worker's standpoint. Neither has anything tangible to take its place, and we may have to undergo a series of strikes before we evolve a saner method of settling this vexed question of Capital and Labour which, to my mind, will continue to see-saw so long as their interests are opposed. How to harmonise or co-ordinate these two is the pi'oblem of the future, and must be settled before industrial warfare will cease. Once labour realises that it is the mainspring of all wealth, and acts rationally upon this knowledge, then we will approach the time when mere labour disputes will cease. —I am, etc., P. McD. G. Masterton, March 7th, 1908.