The Dominion THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1923. THE WAY TO INDUSTRIAL PROSPERTY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 55, 29 November 1923, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1923. THE WAY TO INDUSTRIAL PROSPERTY

As President of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation—a position he consented yesterday to fill for another term Mb. 1. iShailur Weston has taken invariably a broad-minded view of industrial problems. His periodical .speeches are always of interest and value, not only because they are based on an intensive study of these problems, but for the reason that he is evidently in whole-hearted sympathy with the aspirations of industrial wage-earners for an improved standard of living. As on past occasions, Mr. Weston, in his presidential address yesterday, laid full emphasis on the Let that the realisation of these aspirations can only be made possible by mutual effort on the part of employers and employed. “First,” he said, “employers will have to give full attention to the adoption of the most improved processes of manufacture and methods of production and distribution practicable in the circumstances of this country; and, secondly, labour will have to furnish steady, honest, and loyal effort, free from strikes and ’go-slow.’ Given these two factors, progress can be made, and will be made—small at first, but increasing as it goes on.”

.One great obstacle to the progress that otherwise might easily be made on these lines is the apparent inability of sections or organised Labour to recognise, as Mr. Weston observed, that you cannot eat your fruit before you grow it. Nothing in his speech was more to the point than a passage in which ho dealt with' the common tendency of organised Labour, in existing circumstances, to follow a vicious circle of its own tracing.

With Labour leaders, however (Mr. Weston observed) the difficulty is to induce their followers to discard old prejudices and passions fostered often by leaders as a means 1.0 their own advancement. Even if the Labour leader has the knowledge, pluck, and honesty required to ask his followers not to smash their heads against a brick wall, or to advise them that their employers’ tails have been already screwed to the danger point—that a further turn must inevitably mean a kick back--what is so often the result? The men turn their backs upon their adviser and listen greedily to a new hot-headed extremist-, who has not yet learnt sufficient to keen himself and his followers out of trouble.

-This is a true and telling picture of conditions which work out in great loss to organised wage-earners, as well as to employers and the community generally. It is a familiar fact that in many Labour organisations a leader becomes suspect, or is completely discredited, as soon as he ventures to urge counsels of moderation. Vapouring agitation rather than intelligent spade-work is an accepted standard of Labour leadership.

This state of affairs is not due wholly to mistaken prejudice on the part of wage-earners. It is due very largely to the fact that many of them leave the affairs of their unions to be conducted by a minority of hotheads. The extent to which apathy enters into the matter does not, however, make the total problem easier of solution. To expect any sudden or sweeping improvement in the state of affairs Mr. Weston pictured is quite hopeless. This does not mean, however, that time and effort spent in giving prominence to the realities of the industrial situation are wasted. There is promising' scope in this country for the detail development in industries, or, at all events, in industrial establishments, of a sound relationship between the parties in industry. As sections of employers and workers make good use of opportunities in this direction progress will be made towards a solution of the total problem involved in the adjustment of industrial relationships. The unduly common conditions in which workers and employers regard each other from a standpoint of more or less pronounced hostility obviously work out badly for all parties. Dissatisfaction with these cqnditions will deepen - progressively as it is demonstrated, if only in a proportion of industries, that co-operation between the parties in industry based on mutual loyalty offers vastly better results.