The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 5, 1909. THE RIGHT TO WORK.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 551, 5 July 1909, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, JULY 5, 1909. THE RIGHT TO WORK.

It waa inovifcabla that the doctrine of "tho right to work" would be openly put forward sooner or later in ' connection with the present crisis of unemployment. When the labour unions insisted that full award .rates should be paid to rnon en-, gaged on work manufactured to save them •from distress thoy affirmed, amongst other things, "the right to work," but tho affirmation was so indirect that to'uncover it would necessitate an argument so long aod el&boraio aa not to ba practically uae.

ful., But Mr. M'Larkn—the author of tho astonishing suggestion that thb output of industries should bo "regulated" regardless of; demand—has affirmed "the right to work" without any disguise. - In a letter to tho Town Clerk, written in apology for his non-attendance at Friday night's meeting in the City Council Chamber, he said that he could have no sympathy whatever with the following suggestions:— "(1) That the relief of those who are out of employment should be dealt with on the basis of charitable aid; and "(2) that men should be paid on what is their assumed value and the balance made up to award or standard rates by the Charitable Aid Board." Mn, .that is to say, declines to entertain the suggestion that; it. bo considered an act of charity to find moans of relieving tho destitution of those whoso labour is not for the momont wanted by tho industries of the country.' His aire meaningless unless ho mean? that those out of employment must ,bo supplied with work, or supplied with wages, as a matter of right. We have discussed the doctrine of "the fight-to work" before now, but it is worth discussing again, since the present crisis is fraught, with most serious danger to , sound principles. . The question was thoroughly debated in the House of Commons on April 30 last, on a motion for the second reading of a Right to Work Bill, and we cannot'give any better advico to those sincerely desirous of arriving at a sound view than that they should' study the speeches th|n delivered. No attempt is ever made by .the advocates, of ."the'right to work , ' to supplyjan oconomio defence of their doctrine. They invariably dilate.upon the evils of unemployment—upon which all men are, agreed and which fall ijien deplore—and then sit down, expecting that their description of thodisease leaves no option save to adopt ; their remedy. When asked to consider tho question ;from the economic point of view they merely say, a?; the gentleman, who seconded the motion for the second reading, of the Bill referred to above actually, said; "To throw the law of supply and demand—or any other antiquated principle of a dying political economy—in the face of a worker out of a job is much crueller thai) to shove him into a lethal chamber." ; The proposal of the Bill was simply that the State, or the local authority, should proyide work of some kind ;for every man out of employment—an unemployed person being defined as ono who: had during six weeks been employed for less than one-third of the normal time. The evil of suoh .a scheme would be enormous, and would como very spocdily. It would;bb'impossible always to find work that, should be done, and thai it would.be a benefit to have dono. Such work as that would got itself done in the; ordinary course ,at the proper time. But even if such work could.for a time be proyided, it would be done at a heavy coat in waste and, extra valance. . The opinion of' tho Rt. Hon. Johx Bcrns is worth quoting on this point

■; They could not,ipstituto any form of publie works fpr the relief of, distress or destitution supplemented byy maintenance without their degenerating into, relief wurkg: of tho old dopendent; r pauperising . kind, 1 For three and a half years ho ihad hod. intimate experK cnco of relief works, and he could' not ex-ig-goratp tho 'degradation of ..the workman, tho demoralisation 1 of the- laboufo^i tent to; which, money had;hem.wasted arid .bharaoter jmpabed byrtbeireliof, works.whicli: :ha . had- had ..in. the ..name ; '.of,',Parliament , to administer. ,« Any .member had only to take up the roport or >tho distress (wmjnittees/to • what..the minorityreport.;[ofr,the: Poor fcaw . Commission] .said' had happened would increasingly happan,so long.as t-teso means of meeting iincmploymentwora resorted ;to. The amount of. work: would' be disproportionate.!*? the wageß paid,' tho iyrong men would get the work, aid the .best men would, he excluded, .because modesty was-a, characteristic of good workmanship and craftsmanship, and tho worst men iwero always in tho front line when relief works were set on foot. '

Mr. Burns also pointed out'that the effect of-existing relief works has been that the percentage, of men who-live on them has steadily 37 to-40 por cent, of the men- engaged upon relief and public works are what are called "repeators." • ,i

1 ; What has to bo borne in mind in this country just-now. is that whatever money is spent by the State or the municipalities in providing work for the yvorkless must como. from, somewhere. , ;: It lessons by so much'the amount in the public purse. Tho best, that oan' be Isaid for even, the most' judiciously selected relief ' works is that they aro; drafts upon the; future. But more has to bo said here. That money, which would at least [have, a chance of bringing in a good, return in the shape of labour done, if exponded at the - normal time arid in; a normal way, is partially "wasted when spent out of time on relief works. There will bo an actual loss of j 5 ea lth. Mr. M'pASEU would send all our industries bankrupt in; the shortest'pos-,-sible time with .his scheme of ,a fixed, regular output at high wages ; for short hours. _ If on top of that the doctrine of "the right to work".' were'established,^tho .country, would gradually starve. The central truth, an English journal reminds us, which should never be forgotten when labour questions are being, dis-. ousged, is that "work is; notr an end in itself, but only a means of producing wealth, and the more wealth there is produced in a community the more there is to go round." Despite, however, the aggressive attitude, ■ and. orroneous ideas of some of the ■ professing ; friends of . the workless, we trust that the 'effort being made hsro to meet the prevailing' distress through unemployment will secure the liberal support of citizens. Those who cannot shut their eyes to the inevitable working of economic, laws, deploro as much as anyone else the fact that no satisfactory solution of the problem of unemployment has yet been propounded, and , we have no doubt will bo quite as' ready as the rest of their fellow citizens to assist, even by such expedients as those now proposed, the unfortunates;<Jut of work. '