WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1904. LABOUR DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 89, 12 October 1904, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1904. LABOUR DAY.

Though the weather be cold, cheerless, and stormy, disappointing many thousands who have been looking forward, to a joyous holiday, Labour may well keep to-day its annual commemoration in a spirit of thankfulness for the triumphs it has already achieved and' of hopefulness for the future, but with no sense of bitterness or class antagonism. When the holiday was originally instituted, it was regarded with coldness and suspicion by many, who saw no reason why the success of the eight hours movement or any other of the achievements of organised labour should be commemorated by a display of special rejoicing on the part of the public at large. Yet, the eight hours day is a boon which all might have agreed to celebrate without any partisan f>nip, for it is an institution which has a more or less direct concern for us all, and it was won without the crash of conflict which must always leave afc least a temporary soreness in the breasts of the defeated party. In this case the victory of Labour has not meant the defeat of capital, but the memory of other victories not of so peaceful a character which were necessarily associated with the annual demonstration naturally made the capitalist inclined to look askance at a celebration which' he felt to be to &ome extent aimed at himself. We are glad to think that with tho lapse of time this feeling has to a large extent abated, and that year by year the occasion has assumed less and less of a polemical air, and has grown to resemble more and more a day of general holiday and general rejoicing. This is as it should bej the welfare of Labour is absolutely essential to the welfare of the State, and once a/ year all classes may reasonably agree to join in celebrating the happy position which it has won in this country, and which, if it can be maintained as our wealth and population inorease, will do much to distinguish our civilisation from that of less highly privileged lands. The present year deserves a special mark in the calendar of labour, as being the tenth since the enactment of the essential parts of our labour legislation. No year before or sincx can compare in this respect with 1894, which saw the foundation, of the system of compulsory arbitration by the Industrial Conciliation, and* Ajbitrntioa Act, and .the eetab.

lishment of the compulsory half-holiday by the Shops and Shop-assistants Act. Few indeed could now be found to dispute the beneficence of the half-holiday legislation, and the prophets of evil, who ten years ago were anticipating all sorts of untoward consequences from such a drastic "interference with the liberty of the subject," could hardly now refuse to admit that it has added to the sum of human liberty, instead of detracting from it, and that if it has imposed come restrictions on the freedom of the few, it has compensated for this deduction a hundredfold by its enlargement of the freedom and the happiness of the many. The main principles of that measure have been but slightly improved upon during the past ten years, and the treatment which the. House of Representatives accorded on Monday last to the amending Bill . introduced by the Government makes it very doubtful whether the attempt to push those principles a step further will succeed even now. Shouldi the Act of J. 894 prove even after the expiry of the present session to reE resent the high-water mark of our halfoliday legislation, there will be the more occasion for thankfulness to the Parliament of that year and to the Minister of Labour, the Hon. W. V. Reeves, who piloted the Bill through the House. The o,ther great legislative achievement of that year, the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, has also beer but slightly improved in tho ten years of its operation, but it is impossible to speak with equal confidence of its effects. The most sanguine view of the operation of this Act is that implied in the following paragraph from tho report of the Department of Labour : — "No better illustration of tho value of legislation compulsorily regulating industry could be brought forward than that of the Outtrim (Victoria) strike, which has just been declared 'off.' For sixteen months tae coal mines at Outtrim (who had asked for an increase of pay) have had to endure the privations, the irritation, and rum of a lost living. Their places have been filled by others, and the miners have had to wander away to other places in search of employment. They have lost £176,000 in wages ; they have spent £100,000 subscribed by friendly unionists from their own hard earnings; and the owners have lost fully £200,000 in profits. So that in this one instance alone the colony of Victoria has thrown away at least half a million of money, which would have been saved by an Industrial Arbitration Act." The logic is hardly conclusive; for what has happened in Victoria illustrates very clearly the terrible calamities involved in a strike on a large scale, but does not prove that any particular legislation would haye 1 prevented it. Would our own system at and the strain of such an industrial cataclysm as a great strike, or attempted strike? We cannot say with certainty, we can only hope ; but in the meantime it is premature to assume with the Secretary of Labour that we have found a panacea for strikes in the arbitration system simply because no strike has taken place since it was initiated. Should the system prove equal to the emergency when it arises, the reason will be that it has educated both labour and capital to recognise a higher authority than themselves in the settlement of their differences, and that custom and public opinion, which are far more potent forces than the decrees of any Court, have acquired such force by their exercise in small matters as to be equal to the larger task also. A few years ago the Premier issued a timely warning that the Act was being "ridden to death by the unions."- Since then affairs have taken a decided turn for the better, and neither the Labour Party nor the Legislature seems disposed to push matters to extremes. It is in this wise moderation that we see the best hope for the permanence of the triumphs which labour celebrates to-day.