CAPITAL AND LABOUR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 34, 3 November 1917, Page 8

CAPITAL AND LABOUR

PRESIDENT OF EMPLOYEES' CIATION'S VIEWS. (To tho Editor.) Sir,—Mr. T. S. Weston in his address to the Employers' Association made a statement of the above relationship that merits more than ordinary consideration., 1 It is well known whenever disagreements between employer and employee is bruited fight, force, and ferocity at once circulate in tho minds of the parties,', and in a largo section of the public] The mental attitude is wrong. Mr, Weston rightly suggests that all should, be more judicial. A man is, and any body of workers or employers should be, viewed as innocent or,right till proved, guilty or otherwise. Tho frank way in' which the president acknowledged the' beam in the eye of his own 6ide was! refreshing. An equally frank acknow-; ledgment of tho mote in the eye of La->j bour might lead us to hope for the ap-' pearance of some fair and reasonabta basis on which the never-ending disputes' between the two interests might be set- : tied.

As one who has worked for good and' bad bosses, and- who has also employed' ; largo numbers of men; familiar also, 1 with the inner workings of unions as' 1 well as that of employers' associations, I' ' can say promptly and without reservation that Mr. 'Weston's sentiments will not 1 hud favour either with the paid advocates of til© workers or the paid advocates' of the employers. The majority of these are, of course, only retained,probably unconsciously, in the interests ' of strife and disintegration. Where the carcass is there are tho crows, and the carcass is comprised of honest labour and' honourable employers, the unscrupulous do the killing. , . Tho Arbitration Court is not infallible, and the instance mentioned by Mr. Weston, where its decision was practically ignored by the majority of the 6ide in whose interest it was, illustrates my, meaning when it is remembered the outcry that followed: "Don't go back on the Court; it will be fatal to the whole system." As if, forsooth, unjust or ill-considered decisions had never been* heard of in British Courts. Mr. Weston was outspokenly fair when he iwerred that there are employers who do not play the came. This is notoriously *>, and equally so are their alleged workers who avoid "cricket"- any time and all) the time. , ; ."_,_, I was associated once with, some enn nloyers who never paid a decent wage, until a union was formed, and-there-after they paid the minimum.- lhey mado no provision, nor had any consideration for, workers who grevold m the sen-ice, replacing them as became ineffective without consideration by youths at less wages. And in ono instance they "fired" a man after twenty years* service when he ''"eloped phthisis, and never even gave him a paid holiday ana left him with responsibilities to ebt» his life' away, dependent on the sympathy of the world at large. The same nwn W helped them by faithful, capable s i'vice to make many thousands of pounds, as their income tax returns, Vhich I perused, proved. -But this was long ago. and doubtless, the same Ss. Such employers infect and taint the life of a whole community, and crt* Ite more discontent, bad faith, and ya, rest, than a score of Labour Wj*to*-_ To sum up, in tho ranks of each yotf will find good old 'human nature rn the average proportion, and a similar prop tion o P f the »P«f,lCi milous. After years of observation 1 f e ll h st down at fair decent employers to one stntoit, and four honest workers MM. I.W.W. If my esbroare is correct, and I have no doubt o it could not the Arbitration Court be improved by the assistance of a jury drawn equally from employers and eraS. Tlo Paid advocate on either side s a dangerous quantity. In the drivers dispute mentioned by Mr. Weston the majority of employers were paying mora than the award. Yet by some peculiar circumstance tho employers' advocate nreed ft case in the iuterest of a minority and it resulted ultimately in. placing the country on the verge, of industrial strife, and but for the intervention of the Government it would hare so resulted. How many times has the heady, testv 25 per cent, of Labour Sone" similar work? There is an insistent voice, now expressed by Mr. Weston, to call a halt on the present methods. Tho honest majority from both parties must be forced to consider their own differences in coram populo. Tho paid advocate, like most of his legal cousins..thrives upon disiwmment, dissolution, disintegration, and . deatt. and the appetite grows by *«/ B cf ™ on. Tho nniymen who j=an deoule on the conditions and rewards of industry are those engaged directly mit IM hired outsiders are more dansei tnan !hcya?o worth,, and «><. question, are ton "rave to be handled by them. . Mr »n has taken an admirable fn eT.imine his remarks and silt tne cowi that t in them and transform it to practice.-! am, etc., AI{ISTIDES .