LABOUR NOTES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 55, 6 March 1915, Page 4

LABOUR NOTES

(By " Optimist.") POLITICAL POINTS. In last week's note I •commented on the fact that the non-Buccess of Mr. Munro in the Dunedin contest was caused by statements emanating in the official organ of the Social Democratic Party and the Maori strike. The Hon. J. T. Paul takes up the cudgels in the Otago Daily Times, and the bulk of his remarks are thoroughly endorsed by Labour wellwishers in the Empire City. The time will have to come, and that shortly, when a strong line of demarcation will have to be set up between the ideals preached in the Social Democrats' official organ and the utterances of some of its members. IThere will be no unity in the ranks of Labour so long as the tail wants to waggle the dog, and the Social Democrats in the Labour movement consist mostly of the tail. Professor Mills is now State Organiser for the Socialist Party in California. Mr. Robert Semple, the late organiser, also leaves the Dominion shortly, and there is only a remnant of the tail now left. WORKERS' EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. Mr. J. P. Grossman, M-A., lecturer at the Auckland University on economics, history, and mental science, will conduct the new Auckland tutorial classes which meet in the Trades Hall on a Saturday evening. AN" AUSTRALIAN 'CRITIC. The Australian Worker says: — "Labour in New Zealand, chiefly because of its internecine strife, and also because of its long alliance with Liberalism as led by Richard Seddon, has never of itself managed either to control the Administration or to seize the reins of power. To-day, to get' rid of the incubus of Massey and his Tories, it is fain to stand again behind Joseph Ward, who never was, and probably never will be, a man with any real Labour proclivities. It is a humiliating position, but not worse than might have been anticipated from a party that never was really a party, and never knew how to sink local differences and sit on unjustifiable individual ambitions." The "unjustifiable individual ambitions" just about fills the bill, and the irony of the extract is that the "ambitions" are mostly importations and misfits in the Labour movement from the Commonwealth, United States, and elsewhere, and get dumped here, not for the "common good," but for their "own good." ORGANISATION ACROSS THE TASMAN. Thp president of the Sydney Labour Council says that* there are too many unions in existence, with top little power, and the one salvation of the woikers is the .closing up of the ranks. When present proposajs for amalgamation are incorporated in ( the A. W.U. constitution, as they are likely to be at the Sydney Convention, ' the 1,000,000 membership will b<< witfyjn sight. MR. JUSTICE EDMONDS AND HALF-PAY. Mr. Justice Edmonds, speaking at Sydney with regard to half-jpay in rela-' tion to industrial awards, said :: — • "Taking a wide view of the situation, it is evident that we all work for the public, and, in the last Tesort, we are all paid by the public. The profits of the manufacturer aie his payment' by fne public for supplying it with what it ■wants; the Bam© is the case -with the shipowner, the retailer, the carter, the professional man, the actor. We are all one another's servants. If it is the duty of 'the-- Government- to ,use .'its I powers, both as a Government and an employer, to spread woTk over ac "wide an area as possible, is it not the duty of the community to do the same, both by public - and private action? There aTe cases, no doubt, in which the half-time principle is the best in the interests of both employer and employee. If a boot factory, for instance, with a plentiful demand for its products, should be, through some crisis, delayed in getting a full supply of leather, that would be H a fair case for half-time, but if the demand iteelf should fall off through outside competition or a sudden destruction of credit working half-time is no good to anybody. The competition has to be met, and the demand to be recreated) by better and less wasteful methods of production. Sitting in sullen idleness for half the time, pulling at an empty pipe, will not increase production, or give a man's children more food. Whenever demand for labour falls off there is some solid reason for it. When the people who buy labour can no longer put it to profitable account, they can no more be expected to go on buying it than a man can be expected to buy four loaves of bread when his family only wants two. This is the whole problem : How is the present failure of demand for labour to be best met? The undeniable fact is that wage-earners are earning less. Set the cards how you will, that is the hand that has to be played. ' What is the best thing to minimise the trouble? The natural cure for bad times is to produce wealth more abundantly. How can half-time do that? If 100 men have been earning between them £300 a week and a time comes when the amount of production only enables £250 to be paid them, the, stern fact is that some must go, qr all must be reduced, or the industry must stop. Will half-time, which keeps up production to its full former level, help matters? How can it? A NEW LABOUR DAILY. The Sydney Labour daily, The World, is to be published in September next. The cost of erection of the building to house the paper cost £78,000. The land cost £28,000. Sub-rentals bring in at present £3000 a year. The managing director gets at present £500 per annum. If in the opinion of the directors the outlook in September is not good, publication may be further delayed. MISCELLANEOUS. The Labour Federation of Perth (W.A.) is circularising members of beffl Houses asking them to meet the Labour Council in conference to consider its propqsal that the Government should impose a general graduated tax on incomes to provide work for unemployed. Brisbane painters have decided to cease work in Federal employ if unionists of foreign extraction are refused employment.