LABOUR IN CONFERENCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 256, 22 July 1908, Page 6

LABOUR IN CONFERENCE.

Already tho Oonforonco of Trades and Labour Councils has discussed a great many questions ■ of varying importance and interest. There is really but one question that tho general public desires to hear thoroughly discussed by the Conference, arid it is to be feared that tho public will bo disappointed. We refer, of course, to the attitudo of organised Labour towards the Arbitration Act. The timo has come when organised Labour should say definitely whether it intonds honestly to abide by the law, or openly to defy it—whether it will submit, like everyone else, to tho spirit of any existing legislation, or whether it insists upon preserving- " the right to strike," regardless -of what the law may say. On this point the Conference will probably say nothing. It will pass resolution after resolution, some good and some bad, but, unless we are greatly mistaken, it will end with tho public still in doubt as to whethor or not organised Labour will turn over a now leaf, and, while still striving for the subjection of New Zealand to trades-union rule, obey the law of the day. To ordinary people, tho Arbitration Act—founded in error though it is—is as sacred as other laws. A largo section of Labour, on the other hand, hardly seems to realise that it is a law at all. : Trades unions and tradesunionists flout it quite gaily. They havo never reflected, and they would laugh at the suggestion, that tho Act is as binding upon conscience as any other Act. The annual report presented to tho Conference is profuso' in its applause of the Act, which is called " a veritable sheet anchor to the trades unions of tho Dominion." The workers, tho report says, " will adhere strictly to its provisions " provided that it is so amended as to become an Act to encourago trades unions, by making " prcforcnco to unionists " a statutory condition of industry, by avoiding delays," and by. providing for a minimum wage.. In other words, tho workers will obey tho Act if it is altored with an eyo only to tho bonefit of trades unionism. But it went sorely against the grain of one dclegato that tho Act should receive even this conditional blessing, and he moved that a block of street-cornor rhotoric condemnatory of order and common-sense should be added to tho report.; His proposed addendum referred to the rocont epidemic of strikes, and ho sought tho approval of tho Conference for what he ingeniously callod the " after efforts" of tho bodies which " found it ncccssary to supplement their appoals to the Court by a further rclianco on their industrial combination to securo more equitable industrial conditions." He proposed that tho rojiort should Bay;—"Wo are ploasod to

noto that all these after efforts havo been, or are likely to prove, successful. The after efforts have all had the backing of public opinion, and were all rendered necessary by the vicious policy of victimisation followed by some of the cmplpyers, or by the palpably unjust terms of the awards, or by the substitution of Arbitration. Court law for statute law." Wc do not know which most to marvel . at in this precious utterance—the glaring absurdity of the suggestion that public opinion supported the strikes, the absence of any sense of the indecency of applauding what were' dishonourable breaches of faith, or the laughable mental confusion that finds some kind of difference between " Arbitration Court law" and " statute law." The debate upon the motion to incorporate this pugnacious absurdity in the report has been adjourned. It is satisfactory to" note that the motion met with a good deal of opposition. One delegate rightly . condemned it as " an incentive to striking," .and another objected to such " a distinct blow " at the Act. For reasons which we have frequently set out, wo are firmly opposed to the principle of permanent compulsion following upon industrial arbitration, but we appreciate the wholesome spirit of those delegates who object to the incendiary folly of the labour extremist. There is in " the labour movement " a considerable body- of fair and moderate opinion, and there is a hopenot & large hope, it is true—that this opinion may prevail over the violent and extreme elements in the Conference. The workers' worst enemies are the Pistols of the Trades Halls. The moderate men at the Conference have made a beginning with their moderation. They could not do themselves, or their constituents, a better service than by asking the Con r " ference to state, clearly and definitely, whether organised Labour maintains its "right to strike," or whether it will abandon it for the privilege of arbitration. :