The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1908. THE INDUSTRIAL CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 238, 1 July 1908, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1908. THE INDUSTRIAL CRISIS.

As the discussion of tho industrial situation proceeds in tho tense atmosphere of a strike .of which everybody in the city is in somo degree feeling the effects,' there is a-general laying bare of suspicions and fears hitherto concealed and a stripping away of the vicious.pretences that have .darkened counsel in tho past. -Dr. Chapple—whose maiden speech, jby the way, was at any rate pleasantly readable, even if it made 110 impression on the hardened House—still believes that it is quite a' useful act to utter tho comfortable/platitudes that were very- well once, but that are alinost embarrassing now to a public that has seen the skeleton in the closet. .But there are fow people who think with the new member for Tuapeka. The Minister for Labour, at any! rate, has decided that realities must at last be faced. Me. Millar, is. to be congratulated upon the specch which he delivered at the function arrangod in honour of the Hon. J. Rigg. His vigorous utterance will create a painful shock in some quarters, but its effect cannot but be wholesome and bracing, and if it does not give pause to organised Labour, it will open tho eyes of the people to tho yawning precipice that. they have approached to the music of soothing words and an applauding chorus from the foreign journalists who gave such good value for the free passes issued to them. -Mr. Millar stated the position, we think, yith perfect accuracy so far as its essential features are concerned,'and the tone of his specch suggests very strongly that it is the political necessities of his colleagues that prevent his making an earnest attempt at a just solution of a problem that is in the last resort , insoluble. i

Mr. Millar, who has evidently been irritated'boyoncl endurance by his labour friends, has our sympathy, but our chief concern must bo for the community/ Wc spoke of the. clearing away of pretences, The first pretence that has disappeared .is that the Act has been a triumphant success. Industrial arbitration, has failed in its. cardinal purpose. The sccond pre-, tcnce that was exposed in all its hollowness by Mr. Millar's speech is that tho Act is founded in equity.' It is, and has been all along, simply a piece of class legislation for the betterment of the worker, and it has been nothing else. Even if he .had no intention of doing so, the Minister demonstrated this fact with tremendous emphasis. What else can bo. dcduced from his warning that it is tho Act that ha? nourished trades-unionism, and that will be sorely missed by the workers if it is repealed 1 These wero the facts that Mr. Millar emphasised in his appeal for help; How Labour will respond to his appeal remains to be seen: perhaps, the trades-union secretaries will persuade the union workers to disregard' the threat with which the Minister accompanied his appeal. Tho Government's abuse of tho law has bred an arroganco in the trades-unions .that may express ,itself in almost any degree of defiance. But it is doubtful whether even tho loudest agitator will be able to harden up the unions in the face of Mr. Millar's graves utterance. "I have got information enough," ho said,'."to say that tho members of the House of Representatives would repeal the Conciliation'and Arbitration Act if it came down to-morrow. I must havo the support'of-tho workers to hold it. If I do not get it, I can't hold it; and I want to hold it." If tho feeling amongst members in favour of repealing the Act is less strong and less general than tho Minister declares it to be, it will decidedly harden if the strikers follow the wild advice of such people as Messrs. Andrew Collins and Toji Mann, and if the outside unions continue to rally to tho support of tho rebels. Of Mr. Andrew Collins we do not caro to B£cakv .It-is apt, a hopeful siga whe^

sensible human ( beings will listen to the exhortations of a gentleman whose chief delight, as one of our contributors pointer out some months ago, is " stirring up conciliation," and whose muddlcheadedness expresses itself in denunciations of-" the brute force of arbitration " and in eulogies of tho " law-abiding " strikers! less significant than Mr. Millar's speech were the interjections that it provoked. " "What," asked one of the interjectors, " were the bakers to do 1 " Here was a perfectly sincere bewilderment at the idea that the men should not follow what seemed to thq speaker tho obvious and sensible plan of breaking the lav/. ' It appears that tho end of 1 compulsory arbitration a-i wo know it is at hand. Under it there can be no industrial peace, but only a constant injustice to employers Vnd a constant sapping of tho public reverence for law. Unfortunately; the Premier's reference in the House last night to the present intolerable position is a model of nebulous platitude. He exerted in evasion all the energy that his colleague expended in making a plain statement, and in the convolutions of his eloquent essay in the art of saying nothing at the greatest length the public can find nothing more statesmanlike or more reassuring than a firm declaration that " all sides-should come together to have legislation in this matter that would be in the best interests o! the country." There is little real promise of reform from a Prime Minister who cannot, even in so grave a crisis, re r frain from petulant defiance of those who would make " party capital " out. of the results of tho Government's administration of tho Act. Can one never plead tho cause of the public without being a partisan? A crisis has been reached in the history of Now Zealand industry, and tho public will not endure anything less than a manful policy that will make the restoration of justice the first concern. In the meantime the. Government .must use the law' against the strikers without •shrinking. Another surrender will spell ruin. '