The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1894.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 144, 18 June 1894, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1894.

For th» cam* that lacks aasistanoa, For the immz that nteds resistance, Ftr tht futon in the diitanci. Aai the gotd that we aan ae.

After deliberations extending over three years and an expenditure of about the Royal Commission on Labour in the United Kingdom has brought up its report, which cannot on the whole be considered very satisfactory. The finding of the majority, as might easily have been anticipated in connection with such an investigation, is dissented from by a minority consisting of Michael Austin, James Mawdsley and Tom Mann, who, whilst admitting the impartiality with which their confreres have summarised the evidence, declare that the few definite conclusions of the majority are either inaccurate or, at best, present too unfavourable a view ot the condition of the mass of the working population. The scanty reforms suggested by the majority seem to these three men " inadequate, and in some cases positively mischievous." Accordingly they take upon themselves to make recommendations on their own account, A summary of the majority report appears in the ''Manchester Guardian." The general impression left on the Commissioners by the evidence placed before them is that there has been a considerable increase in the general average of wage rates during the past fifty years, and also (excepting house rents in large towns) in the purchasing power of money. The daily hours of labour have also during the same period been, in most cases, shortened, and the sanitary conditions of work improved. Dealing with the question of legislative interference to prevent industrial conflicts, the Commissioners state that by far the greatest number of disputes arise from claims on the part of workmen to obtain an increase in wages, or an attempt on the part of employers to reduce them. They point out that, although it is not seriously contended on either side that the rate of wages should be fixed by law, the question ot hours of work is essentially one involving the wage rate. Upon this question they came to the following conclusions : — 1. That the proposal to establish by law a maximum working day of a fixed uumber of boura applicable.to all trades and occupations alike, will not bear eerioua examination. 2. The proposal that any trade should be enabled to decide by vote its own maximum hours of labour, and to obtain legal sanction to that decision, appears more worthy of consideration, bub we do not see how the proposal could be adopted without danger of injustice to employers and minorities of workmen, or without risk ot economic injury in some cases to the country at largo, in other districts which have lees natural advantages in competing with rival districts. 3. That) a further proposal is thab special Acts of Parliament shall be passed with regard to special trades, either directly fixing the maximum hours of labour in such trades or giving power to special boards or to public departments to regulate the hours in them. The Commissioners have bad to consider the first of these alternatives chiefly with reference to the coal-miiing industry. The evidence received was one-sided, for the Miners' Federation, Tibjch covers the larger part of the English coal mining district, churlishly refused to send representatives to give evidence. Upon the evidence received from miners and owners in Northumberland, Durham, Scotland and Wales, the Commissioners are nob prepared to advise a general rule, fixing eight boars a day from bank to bank, for all persons employed underground in mines for a number of districts varying so much rin circumstances. They are decidedly of opinion that no sufficient ground exists for legislative interference with the present arrangements as to hours of work in the Durham and Northumberland districts, and so far as regards mines in other districts no special case has been made out for exceptional legislation upon the ground thab the length of hours now worked leads to an increase of accidents or injury to health. The Commissioners review the arguments in favour of and against the extending of the sphere of employment by public authorities, and also consider the action of Parliament and public authorities in inserting conditions in contracts providing against sub-letting, and for the payment of fair wages. On the latter point the Commissioners says :— "Tk6re would appear to be a growing feeling that central or municipal authorities, whether they employ labour directly or indirectly, should recognise that lov» wages are not necessarily economic wages, and without departing altogether from the test of value of labour in the open markets, act in the spirit of the most generous employer under existing circumstances. It mu9t not be forgotten, however, that the principle of insisting on liberal wages is liable to abuse, and, if carried too far, it will only have the effect of taxing the community for the benefit of the more efficient members of the working classes, but will •also increase irregularity of employment for the less efficient and deprive them of work which mighb otherwise have been open to thorn. „_ Summarising their remarks oh State intervention, the Commissioners ob3erve that where a trade consists of-skilled workmen, possessed of the advantages which make organisation easy, and where there is no special reuson for making trade conflicts and the cessation of work a great injury to the community, or strict discipline in work of such high importance as to render dangerous trade union methods of the usual kind, the argument in favour of State intervention of any sorb, except as far as selatea to the enforcing of general sanitary

provisions and precautions against accidents, appears to be of little weight. The Commissioners are unable to agree in supporting any proposal for establishing ab the present -time any system of Sbate or public boards for intervening in trade dispute, but bhey think a central department possessed of an adequate stati and means to procure, record and circulate information, may do much by advice and assistance to promote the more rapid and universal establishment of trade and district boards. The Commissioners approve of bhe clause in Mr Mundella's Concilation Bill empowering the Board to intervene in cases of dispute. They think the difficulty of finding an impartial arbitrator might be met in many cases if power were given to a public department to appoint, upon the receipt of a sufficient application from the parties interested, or from IScal boards of conciliation, a suitable person to act aa arbitrator, and either alone or in conjunction wibh local boards, or with assessors appointed by the employers and workmen concerned, according to the circumstances of the case. Finally, the Commissioners remark that many of bhe evils to which cbeir atbenbion has been called are bucli aa cannob be remedied by any legislation. bub they look with confidence to their gradual amendment by natural forces now at work, which . tend to substitute a state of industrial peace for one of industrial division and conflict. This end, the Commissioners opine, will not be attained through what are known as socialist or collecbivist methods. So far from social peace being obtained by this road, it might probably only lead bo new conflicts, burning upon the mastership of the central or local .administrative power, and arising between workmen and other members of the community, or between different classes of workmen. It may easily be inferred from the names of-the dissentient minority that they take a very different view of the functions of the State in relation to labour. With their contention that the demoralising condition in which great masses ot the population are compelled to live under the evil influence of the sweated trades ; the demoralising irregularity of employment; the insanitary condition of both the work places and the homes of large sections of the community ; the inadequate wages obtained in all the less skilled grades of workers ; the excessive hours of labour which prevail throughout so large a part of the industrial field ; are questions which no enlightened Government can justly ignore, we entirely agree. But we must dissent altogether from their proposition that " the whole lorce of democratic statesmanship must in our opinion henceforth be directed to the substitution as fast as possible oi public for capitalist enterprise." We are by no means enamoured of the scheme for reducing the Anglo-Saxon race to a dead level of State workmen supervised by a number of Government overseers, who in turn would be directed by the party "bosses." The reforms suggested in the minority repoit as a middle course are less objectionable: 1. The explicib and widely-advertieed adoption by the Government and all local authorities of direcb public employment whenever bhia is advantageous, the eightday, trade union conditions and a moral minimum wage. 2. The extension of bhe Facbory and similar Acts to all manual workers in all trades, and their drastic enforcement in such a way as to discourage home work and absolutely to prohibit industrial oppression. 3. The securing by appropriate law of an eight hour day tor evory manual worker. 4. The provision of adequate sanitary housing accommodation for the whole nation, as well as honourable maintenance for all its workers in their old age. Towards the attainment of these or some other ' similar ends the efforts of social reformers will doubtless be steadily directed. Care must be used to prevent the needless intrusion oi the State wherever an object can be secured otherwise ; but it is too late in the day for a purely laissez faire policy to satisfy the demands of the masses for a reasonable improvement in their condition.