The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1927. INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 221, 19 September 1927, Page 6

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

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1927. INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

For the cause that lack» assistant*, For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the ~ And the food that we oan da.

One of the most significant signs of the times in the British industrial world is the letter addressed by Mr. J. H. Thomas to the National Union of Railwaymen, urging them to work hand in hand with their employers for the establishment of an efficient and prosperous railway service. Mr. Thomas is well known as the secretary of the N.U.R., and during a long public career he has firmly established his reputation not only as a courageous champion of the rights of Labour, but as a capable politician and an efficient administrator. Gifted with a singularly well-balanced mind, Mr. Thomas has always opposed the extremist elements in his party, and it was largely owing to his influence that the recent Trades Union Congress so emphatically repudiated the Communists.

Mr. Thomas, in his communication to the members of the N.U.R., takes as his text a circular recently addressed by a well-known economic and statistical expert, Sir Josiah Stamp, to the staff of one of the principal British railways. Elaborating Sir J. Stamp's suggestion for hearty co-operation between all grades in the railway service, Mr. Thomas points out that it is to the interest of the workers to do their duty efficiently and thus to promote the prosperity of the industry on which they all depend for the means of subsistence. Obviously such advice as this is wholly inconsistent with the Communist doctrine of the "class War," which in its modern form forbids the peaceful co-operation of the wage-earner with thfe hated capitalist and aggravates in every conceivable way the natural antagonism between workers and employers. But Mr. Thomas, like Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald and Mr. Snowden, has thrown over the Marxist implications of the "class war" doctrine, and he now urges the wageearners to recognise that their own prospects of security and comfort depend upon the prosperity and the success of the industries in which they are engaged.

A special feature of Sir J. Stamp's circular was its reference to a proposal for conferences in the L.M. and S. Railway Company between the management and representative employees for the purpose of considering some of the more important problems of railway administration. A few years ago such a development might have seemed impossible, and so recently as 1909 Mr. Asquith was compelled to inform the railway companies that if they persisted in their refusal to recognise the representatives of the unions for the purpose of discussing questions at issue Parliament would compel them to modify their attitude. Since then the recognition of the official representatives of the unions has gained ground rapidly, so much so that Mr. Thomas is now in a position to say that "there is scarcely a single question arising in the course, of railway employment which may not be" freely discussed between the management and representatives of the men." This practice, which has grown naturally out of the system of collective bargaining, is, as Mr. Thomas maintains, entirely consistent with trade union principles and traditions, and he urges upon the workers the advisability of accepting such opportunities for discussion whenever they arise..

But there must always be two sides to a bargain, and at least as much depends upon the attitude of the employers as upon the temper of the wage-earners. Looking at the problem from this point of view, it seems that Mr. Thomas has made his appeal at a fortunate juncture. Tor the recent Trades Union Congress at Edinburgh not only rejected the principles and practice of Communism, but pronounced emphatically in favour of the conviction that trade unionism is a constructive force in industry, with a special part to play in "the establishment of a new system of economic relations dominated by the peace spirit." The employers will be wise to encourage this frame of mind by all means in their power.