THE REIGN OF UNREASON.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 56, 7 March 1914, Page 10

THE REIGN OF UNREASON.

"There is no such thing as a final settlement of a wage* question. I'he standard of living and conditions of work must change. Conference is the obvious \yay of making allowance for this from timfe to time." This passage in the manifesto issued by tho three professors of economics in Leeds University concerning the recent strike in that city goes to the root of the wages problem, says the Daily Citizen. "If the plain reason hero stated were accepted and acted upon by employers of labour, the present regime of strikes and lockouts would come- to an end. Strikes and lockouts aviso and industry goes creaking ahd groaning along in confusion and stress because the whole problem of wages is ravaged by unreason. Every demand' for revision of wages is looked upon as unjustified aiid a tyrannical attack on the right of profittaking. t Every settlement of a wages dispute is considered final, and the refusal to consider it anal is held up as a reproach. If employers would look upon a wages question purely as a business proposition, to be dealt with like aiiy other business proposition, there would at once amo a confidence in their treatment of these matters which does not now exist, and few disputes ov readjustments would come to open rupture."