WORKERS' PENSIONS.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17109, 2 April 1921, Page 5

WORKERS' PENSIONS.

SUGGESTIONS FROM GISBORNE,

In advocating a pension scheme for workers. Mr James Morrison, president of the Gisborne Master Painters' Guild, in a pap"er read at the Master Painters' and Decorators' Conference yesterday, made some interesting suggestions. "A pension scheme based on ihe worker's undotibted and accepted value to the State," Mr Morrison wrote, "would bo but a matter of simple justice, and would very considerably ease the strain i:nd worry of his lite, to which can be attributed his desperate measures, and -would also relieve him, in a great measure, of that distemper upon which the unthrifty, the extremist, and the agitator operate. The State might compute its losses to date (i.e., through strikes and go-slow tactics), and set aside an amount to insure itself against a repetition. Every commercial undertaking should grasp /to significance and assist in elms stabilising its own industry. . .". Every labourer should have responsibility and a stake at issue: every Government should have a weapon' of mutual interest with which to'fight the insidious agitator. Methods of relief have been suggested and tried; the percentage policy, for one, is an abomination, and encourages the goslow policy. . . . When times are elaeit capital invested must be a first charge on tho undertaking, and paid for out of revenue or out of the assets created, by labour which can only participate in new, tor fresh, profits, .ind would be called upon to make good a deficiency by giving longer houi's, or taking.less in wages. The balance cannot bo ad-, justed" fairly, its capital if not used must still be paid for. Under a system of co-operation, to compete labour must take less than, the award rate, based on present or good time values. In times of stress they aro comparatively worse off, as" they "must Biipport the burden of administration in which they l.ave become a part, or committed to. Universally, at tho present time, labour is told they must produce. Capital. for production is denied them by banks everywhere, therefore to satisfy- the demand they must produce- tboir savings and options on their holdings, and they are told it is necessary, as trade or exchange is against them their exports do not balance their iSiports. Yet, out of consolidated revenue the Government has paid one section of the community to hold their goods, thus safo- . guarding one section at the expense of "the other. No 'doubt in tho best interest under our present system; but why allow Mo' owner of goods to hold in reserve, whilst labour—the asset of'the worker —is thrown on a depressed market, or at least an open <;no?.«t Produce is the staple of credit, but produce in reserve is virtually capital in reserve* to be 1 paid for hy all, and distributed to the few. Why not advance to labour and demand "from labour direct, and not resort to tho hideous and insidious methods of extortion that inveigle the masses, and employ tflieir ignorance in their own destruction, which is exactly the practice of the dark ages, and distinctly not thj promise made when they were asked to jeopardise their interests for the national welfare? And after creating a credit which, of means a liability they agree to bear, they are Torced by so-called economic factors to pay in depression, and at a time of trade stress. They are in precisely the position that the moratorium was framed to relieve or protect. Why not a universal moratorium,* and a further credit to enable thent to trade and ease their liability by production? During tho war it. was agreed that the output of.lahour more than balanced the • extraordinary payments they' received- They -worked at fever heat, and under high pressure, and their output was cnormotfsi Properly paid and well regulated, they would again work at fever heat, and'pile up an. .asset that would more than relieve thoir. huge losses caused by war. destruction, and thus enable them to pay or. redeem their, credit. ■ At ,■ the. present- time they -«re the prey of ravening beasts who prowl about the country and Use labour in order to satisfy .'a brutal instinct for power and forcej and, if given-power, immediately begin to destroy and debase. At the present time' labour admits that it.is not led by the intelligent, but by the most forceful. Labour must,, naturally, in the absence of relief, follow those who promise it to theni, and they are being misled into a spirit of destruction. The paper was hot. discussed, but the writer was accorded a vote.of thanks.