THE COMPANY'S VIEWPOINT.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 76, 29 March 1920, Page 5

THE COMPANY'S VIEWPOINT.

Mr. H. W. Hopkins, attorney for the Waihi Gold Mining Company, writes: "I read the leader on the above subject in your issue of Saturday last with much interest, but .was disappointed that the writer did not deal with the broader questions that are involved in a dispute of this nature. The writer appeared to mc to have taken a very superficial view. The article was little more, than a plea for compromise at any cost —in order to save the township. He writes: 'The probability is thai- the settlement will be a compromise, so why not compromise now and save trouble';' He instances the coalmining Uispute, but surely if the histroy of the coalmining disputes in New Zealand during the past five years j has demonstrated anything, it haß been . that compromises and concessions buy ■ but very temporary peace, and tend j rather to, encourage fresh demands and j to lend to further disputes. It must be ! remembered that the workers' demand, is always for an increase, and if-each : fresh demand is to be dealt, with by j giving something .'though rather less j than the workers choose to ask I. at what point will it be permissible for the employer to stand firm? The representatives j of any company, as tiyistecs for such company, with the fullest possible knowledge of the position and resources of j the company they represent, undoubtedly I have the right to state tho maximum . rate of wages which they consider they j should voluntarily pay. If the workers , consider the offer below the standard of a fair thing, they have their remedy in an appeal to the tribunal specially established by the Government of the country, Kor the representatives of the employers to raise their terms simply out of fear df the strike-bludgeon pr to save trouble, would be sheer weakness and an invitation to fresh coercion. If the representatives of the workers have the right to arbitrarily say, 'We will not submit the dispute to tbe Arbitration Court,' surely the representatives of the companies >avc a greater right to say, 'We will not agree to your demands except as the resist of a ruling of some arbitrator." No one of intelligence will grudge the manual workers the improved conditions which have resulted from their organisation, but they should realise that if union brings strength, it brings also responsibility for the right using of that [ strength."