The Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1913. ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 12 August 1913, Page 4

The Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1913. ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION.

The Government, true to its promise, has framed an amendment to the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, which will be brought down as soon as the opportunity offers. We have not been permitted to know the contents of the Bill, but we have been assured that its aim will be to avert, as far as possible, industrial upheavals such as those which have been experienced in recent years. The position of the Government is rather .unique in the matter. It is unable to ascertain what is the opinion of Labour. One section of Labourites is bittorly hostile to the Arbitration Court, as at present composed, while another clings to it tenaciously. It is clear that what , the Government has to do is to protect the industries against desolation by strikes and lock-outs. How can this be done ? Is it possible to get up a tribunal to which employer and employee will appeal with confidence, and the decisions of which will be respected by both parties ? Would a Wages Board, composed of parties to the . dispute, as in Australia, be'one whit better than the Arbitration Court, as at present eonsti- ' tn ted ? Is there any power in the land that can compel a man to work if he does not so desire? What is the value of an agreement, if it can be broken with impunity? Under the law as it at present stands, the employer is surrounded by all manner of restrictions. He is compelled to employ only those who are identified with a Union. Ho has to observe Union rules, and pay Union wages. His business is controlled by the State, instead of by himself, only that he, instead of the State, has to pay the piper. On the other hand, the employee can do practically as lie chooses. If he does not like his work, he can leave it almost at a (moment's notice. If he can discover an imaginary grievance he can precipitate a strike cwid ruin the cu-

ployer. Tho whole box and dice I of industry is at tho mercy of the 1 Trades Council or the Labour Federa- 1 tion. Is this as it should be? Is ( sueh a condition of affairs conducive to industrial development or to the ■progress of v the nation? Ie it not destroying the individuality and the manhood of the worker? Is it not producing an army of industrial dependents fearful of the consequences of individual action ? Is if not crushing out all ambition and enterprise, and creating inefficiency and a corresponding qurtailment of our output? Can the Government bring about a better order of things go long as it permits the pernicious system of preferenoe to unionists to remain upon the Statute Book? Can we call ourselves -a free country, when w© compel men to become Unionists, or to starve? Let the Government wipe out this obnoxious and tyrannous thing, and see what the result will bo. Give men the freedom to sell their labour at a fixed price, and to engage in trades, whether Union-, isfcs or not, and we shall hear less of the intolerable strike. There are thousands of working men in the country who would rid themselves of caucus domination if they could legally da so. They are tired of the tyranny of labour .agitators. and strike leaders. They would be quite satisfied to work under the reasonable conditions that are laid down By the Arbitration Court". The inost important duty of the Government, as we conceive it, is to restore the independence of the ,worker by wiping out , the clause giving preference to Unionists. . Once this; is done, the way to : industrial peace would be .made eas* ier. For yeara the* country got .along without preference. .The awards of. in those days; It was only when a minority, of. agitators found themselves in the position that they could dominate the majority of peaceable workers that the 'trouble began. The Government knows all this. It knows that the great force of public opinion is opposed to tyranny. And if it does not take drastic measure to rebfcore the individuality of the worker, it 'will | deserve the political destruction- that its inertness will most surely precipitate.