THE PREVAILING DISCONTENT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1252, 7 October 1911, Page 4

THE PREVAILING DISCONTENT.

We are told to-day there is a big strike coming, and coming soon. One leader of labour states that it will come about the end of the year. And the blame is placed on the Arbitration Court. There is a lot of talk of this sort going on just now, We have ' had strikes and threatened strikes for some time past and we quite recognise that a very serious state of unrest exists in the ranks of organised labour. It is plain to everyone who has noted the signs of the times that there is trouble ahead. But were wo, not told—has it not been dinned into our ears year_ in and year out—that that masterpiece of statesmanship; that panacea for all industrial ills, tho_ compulsory Arbitration Act, would in time of industrial unrest smooth away these troubles'! Could there bo any stronger proof of our frequent contention for years past that the Act could never survive a poriod of real industrial disturbance—is it necessary to advance further arguments to show the utter hopelessness of any scheme of compulsory arbitration '? The Act has broken down again and again—the Government refused to enforce the law in the case of the West Coast miners' strike, and it has paltered with it on othor occasions. And is the worker_ any better off under if! Have industries flourished under its beneficent influence 1 Ask the working man's wife. Study the industrial statistics of the Dominion and the answers will be forthcoming. And the conditions which exist in New Zealand to-day are the outcome of practically _ 20 years of abounding prosperity. Could any stronger indictment of the 20 years of "Liberal" rule be presented? Good seasons, abounding harvests, enormous growth _ of our primary products, and the stimulus of millions upon millions of borrowed raonoy, and what b tho position of the worker and tlio

working man's wife and their family? How have they benefited from tho Arbitration Act and- "Liberal" rule'/__ The answer is given in the prevailing discontent. And what is the position of the employers of labour? With rare exceptions they are in much tho same position as the workers, with this difference: they go in constant fear of further restrictions and further impositions cramping the natural development of their businesses and discouraging embarkation on fresli enterprise. Truly it was time that the people awoke to a realisation of the great sham the present Administration has developed into. The Reform party and the Labour Unions have at least some common , ground upon which they can meet in accord: they are both alive to the insincerity, the utter lack of principle, the Eelfishness, and the incapacity of the Ward Government. They both realise the menace its administration and it* legislative recklessness are to the whole country. The greatest benefit that could be conferred on New )sealand to-day would bo the dismissal of this Government from office and at the ballots later in the year we hope to see every elector who has any regard for his own future and the future of tho country castinp his or her vole for -pledged opponents of the Ward Government, whether the candidates be members of the Se form party or the nominees of Labour. ,