THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1912. A LIVING WAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10664, 20 June 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1912. A LIVING WAGE.

While a, great many people wi-M be found who detest he agitator, the street loafer and the man. who is tired cf Work, thtire is snot-a small section of the community which feels that in many branches of inick&'.iry the labourer is,not 'receiving what . may be termed' a "living wage." The reason for this m<ay be the foolish contention of labour urfcns that the minimum wage should.be raised continuously. In many dhstances the -minimum fixed by the Arbitration Coatt is so high that employers find it impossible to pay the efficient skm' the wage he. deserves. The discrimination between various forms of employm'&nt is too pronounced. 31 a fair adjustment we;n3 made, i*. would iprcibably be discovered that a l'vitiig 'wage' could he paid to all. Let us ta'lte an ordinary bu'siness establishiment as an' illustration. The man who drives the delivery cart in all weather's and attends to his horses regularly, has to be .satisfied with a wage of, say, £2 5s pen- week. The grocer within the shop, who hands over the goods to the driver, and has •what may be termed a sn'ug billet, receives up to £3 per week. The < leik who makes cut the accounts for the groceries often , receives as high as £3 10s per week. The same *bln<g applies to other 'branches 'of trade and industry. The man who does the most often receives the smallest pay. There l -is no incentive offered tothrift, industry, and efficiency..'..The effect of the Arbitration Count award has 'largely been to create PJuerative employment for single mcin, audi to penalise the man with a. family. The employer, much 'as he would desire

it, lias nb /power to discriminate between single and married men, or between efficient and inefficient. If lie pays the efficient man- .a higher wage than is provided by the Arbitration Court award, the inefficient man becomes dissatisfied, and clamours at onoe for- an increase kv the minimum award. The .fact is that the attempt to regulate wages and hours of labour by legal process has proved a- gigantic Ifailure. iNofc only has it failed to prevent strikes .and lack-outs—it lias diminished the output of our mar.ufcx'tiuires, throttled our industries, acivr-rd iforcign invosfcf.s, and set up a rule of tyranny Avibich has been productive of .unrest, .unemployment and uiihappiness. Hundreds of employers as well as .employees yearn, for a .return to freedom tf contract, without legislative restriction in any ehape or' form. Tf the wheel were turned in this direction, there is little doubt that labour -matters Avould adjust themselves arid aneir avouM be paid according to their ■Avclrth. Strikes. , and lock-outs might occasionailly occur, but these would be of a purely local character. There lias been too much molly-coddling in this country, \ during the past couple of decades, an!d n'ot .enough Human give-and-take. The Arbitration Act has proved a snare and a delusion. The employer has been so surrounded with restrictions 'that .-he .has not been able to. call bis soul his own', and this has reacted upon the employee, whose ,ia~ eriu'es if or employment and rate of Avages have 'been correspondingly reduced. If men could be' brought to treat each other as brother men; if capital and labour Avcire to be regarded as they should be, the one an essential to the other; if the agitator and the were alike ostracised; if the mastdr was to do,his duty by the man, cr.'i the imaa by the master, the wheels of industry Avould 'be set in motion, a.nd the problem of a living wage A\-culd require no solution. So long, hoAA-evclr, as labour sets itself up to tyrannise capital, .and ■capital acts in a retaliatory manner, ■the future aai!]l be fraught with industrial d-xefetcc. Is there no means of restoring the industrial equilibrium without resorting to strikes and disorder ? Are the ihaves and the have-nots to 'be perpetually clutching a/fc each other's throats? Wc'uild not the Legislature be doing more to so lye. the prcbkni of unemployment and of a living wage by finding icongeniial ccoiiipations for families ca the land that:- by framing class legislation to harass and stifle industry?