The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1921. AN APPEAL TO COMMON SENSE

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 12, 8 October 1921, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1921. AN APPEAL TO COMMON SENSE

J». The member for Rangitikei (Mr. W. S. Glenn) has performed a public service in assisting to focus the attention of Parliament and the country on the efforts that are being made by a few malcontents in the .Labour movement to obstruct .the enforcement and application of the new shearers’ award. Apart from its immediate purpose, the speech Mr. Glenn delivered on this subject in the. House of Representatives on Thursday evening was an effective exposure of the real nature and effect-of much that masquerades in thisf country as championship of working-class interests. With tho facts relating to the shearers’ award and the agitation based' upon it set plainly before them, tho people of the Dominion, and par’ticularly its wage-earn<rs,?are : of-. fered an exceptional opportunity of distinguishing clearly between the friends and enemies of the -worker. It is the. misfortune of those who are attempting to stir up trouble over th© shearers’ award that the facts and merits 'of the case, are plain to all observers. All rightthinking and reasonable people are agreed that workers ought to receive the. highest yage commensurate with labour given the industry in which they arc engaged can afford to pay, but it is sometimes almost impossible to determine whether a given.body of workers is or is not receiving Such a wage. .In the case of the shearers’ award, no difficulty of this kind is raised, it is a familiar and undisputed fact that in the present state of the wool market nearly all the wool-growers of the Dominion are producing at a loss, and that not a, few of them, are faced by the prospect of bankruptcy unless the market improves. The only doubt in with the, shearers’ award is whether the wages it specifies are not higher than the industry, can be expected to pay in view of tty; poor returns at present obtainable. The simple truth of the matter is that at best many farmers will strain their resources to the uttermost in paying shearers the rates awarded by the Arbitration Court It is with these facts known to the whole country that shearers are being invited by their official representatives to regard themselves as victims of an unfair attempt to force down wages, and that these official , representatives are endeavouring to induce the shearers to refuse employment.

While he fairly warned the shearers that farmers were ready and able to defeat an attempted hold-up by methods of mutual help and cooperation; -Mr. Glenn expressed a hope that reason would prevail. Any doubt on the point is due solely to the unwholesome influence established by union officials who quite obviously are making trouble for those who so blindly follow their lead. Shearers, like other workers, have a living to earn. Many of them have homes to maintain and wives and children to support. It (is evidently not in their own interests, or in the interests of their families, that they ar© being urged to refuse employment at wages if anything higher than the wiol-growing industry can afford to pay. If reason prevails, shearers will not only refuse to be dragooned into refusing employment, but will call thteir union officials to a strict account. The time has surely come for shearers and other workers to demand at least the elements of sound leadership from those whom they establish in positions of official responsibility. A great majority of the shearers, it may be hoped, will decide that the quibbling contentions of their union secretary are a poor and unsatisfying substitute for profitable employment at the highest rates the wopl-growing industry can possibly offer in the state to which it is meantime reduced. - ■