Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1912. THE LABOUR UPHEAVAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 9, 11 January 1912, Page 6

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JANUARY 11, 1912. THE LABOUR UPHEAVAL.

Five year* ago New Zealandera had the surprising spectacle of slaughtermen, who decided to strike instead of taking the usual course of referring their grievances to the Conciliation Board and the Arbitration Court. Men marvelled at this strange conduct, but the wonderment did nos long endure. The word "strike," half-forgotten in this country after mpre than • decade of industrial peace, again became a common noun. Threats of strikes are now among th© ordinary things, in th« n©w columns of tho press. It is an unusual week that does not have, its chronicle of Labour trouble in some part of New Zealand. Th© people, no doubt, are- becoming case-hardened. Even Mr. Semple's. big talk about "paralysing the country, if ..." does not cause any noticeable consternation. The people have been struck so much with hints of larg« strikes that their feelings may now be dulled. The restlessness among masses of the workers is not confined to New Zealand. Indeed this country, so far, has not been so disturbed as Australia, Great Britain, United States, and other countries* where the conflict between Labour and Capital is giving intense uneasiness to the best minds. Daily the electric cable brings news of fresh disturbances ; the zone of unrest widens day by day. Great Britain, especially, is suffering a renewal of tfi« turmoil of last year. A well-known economist, Sir Arthur Clay, writing on "Public Opinion and the 'Industrial Unrest" in the December number of th© Nineteenth Century, has well described the changed order ol things in old England. "Until lately," he says, "tho news of industrial violence on th© Continent has affected th© British public much as the howling of the storm outeide affects a man comfortably 6©ated by his own fireside. Any tear that tha dangerous

might be imitated at Homo has been tranquillized by the belief that our trades-union system and the traditional commbn-cense of the nation would be a sufficient protection against industrial revolution. The- outbreak laet summer hae dispelled this confidence, and ha& chown that here, as elsewhere, the never-ending conflict between Labour *nd Capital has entered upon a new and alarming phase which menaces the prosperity of trade ana tn« social institutions of the country." Sir Arthur submits that a new "mental attitude" — a. dangerous one — hae been created among the workers by demagogic Revolutionary Socialist*. Ho does not admit that I crude and lurid doctrines of ultraSocialism have been accepted' by the working men as a body, - but remarks that th© trades unions have been capi tured by Labour Eocialists "by ekilful manipulation of the trades unions' electoral machinery." Th« older, wiser men. 'of the trades unions have been superseded by comparatively yonng, impetuous persons, eager to have the "social revolution" at one fell swoop. "The policy of the new movement," states Sir Arthur, "is to deprive the community as a whole of the meaius of subsistence and the amenities of life in order to exploit its necessities in breaking down the forces of capital." He blames the education system for much of the .growing spirit of lawlessness. He complains that the system turns out youths with | a smattering of more, or less useless knowledge, rather than reasoning beings, capable of taking thought, and perceiving the fallacies of the ultra-Social-ist demagogues. Many of Sir Arthur Clay's references to England can apply to New Zealand, whore the ultra-Socialist Federation o* Labour, a revolutionary organisation, is trying to usurp th© place of the statutory conciliation and arbitration tribunajs in the settlement of industrial disputes. Some initial Successes have swelled the federation's ambition and have increased • the membership. The roll number now includes the miner®, the shearers, the majority of waterside workers, a number of general labourers' union^, and the Auckland tramway men. The federation championed the cause of the Auckland general labourers against the Drainage Board on the, question of sub-con-tracting, and it is understood that th© federation was eager to get a victory as an aid in the next* dispute (largely over sub-contracting) with mine-owners next March. The federation is now also backing the crews of the Wellington ferry boats, and may be expecting to take a hand in the negotiations between the waterside workers and the shipowners. We doubt much whether '.the federation is as strong as its organiser, Mr. Semple, t/ries to persuade New Zealand it is. Circumstances have so far favoured the federation, and may have given workers generally, and possibly employers, an exaggerated idea of the power behind this aggressive body. One thing for the public to remember is that the more the federation gains by dictation the more it> will dictate. It is an organisation which professes to despise the milder-mannered Trades Hall leaders and their doctrine of evolution. The Labour men, who raised the status of "Labour in the past, did not seek to embitter the relations between employers and workers. The "Fedcrationists" purport to be wiser. They imagine that it is for a. country's benefit to' preach that Capital is necessarily the enemy of Labour, and that private profit must be abolished. Such doctrine, in New Zealand, does not commonly come from learned men, not from deep students of economics, not fi'om students of history.