Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1911. ANOTHER BLUNDER

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 27, 31 January 1917, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1911. ANOTHER BLUNDER

OiKf-of the features-of the war-period and the war-prices has -been, public syra. pathy with wage-demands, in cases where the ground of the increased wage was-' ■■increaso in the -cost of iliving..' Bent as-it. us upouo.vinningi.he war, the public .lias 'teen, equally bent upon doing justice, so far as it can, io sections of itself that are .proved -to be specially hit <by th» war's burdens ;-aad this spirit As entirely -.right and. proper, and is in fact ona o.f the msin bonds of national unity. Whert, 'liowever. a- section of workers take* aJ highshand and elects to be the judga of ■its own case, refusing compromise and spuTiung arbitration; the whole position pis reversed, and- the claim oii 'popular-1 .sympathy is .at once, by the-policy oi the claimants -fliemselv^s, rendered: buH and ■"■/oid. A public-that inclines to be liberal .fm,a-proved case--is justified, in with!iiolding its tolerance where, an appeal is

mediation, but to despotic force. It doee not matter whether the force takes the form, of a. strike-with-violence, or a plain strike, or a thwarting-of work by 'means, of various expedients. In any, ■oi these cases tho aggressive party is ■seeking, by coercive measures, to impose its own biased judgment upon the other party and upon the public; and the public (which always pays) has the right ■to object, and does object. Moreover, ■the public, as-the great third party, has a claim to be heard, and we know.- of nosystem of industrial settlement that gives even the colour of recognition to this claim unless it be the statutory arbitration system. While the public •holds no brief on the floor of the Court — an omission the justice of whicluis at least doubtful—it doss posses*, in the-. Arbitration Court, a tribunal which.has an eye-to the-community interest as well as to that of the industrial litigants. • Consequently the public can feel some -confidence in wharf-law sanctioned by the Arbitration Court, but none in that imposed by the waterside workers; and it is easy to deduct that, in brushing the Arbitration Court aside, the watersiders are alienating themselves from the allimportant popular sympathy. And this conclusion, sound in any circumstances, has doable force in a time of war. Last year the waterside workers were ■given an increase, of wages. "That face ■ does not in any way indicate that they are disentitled to- some increase now, but their claim is one that can only be> ' investigated in an impartial and openair- manner by a competent body- . If -the competence of the Arbitration Court -to deal with wharf conditions is questioned, that objection—whatever it may ■be worth—is already met by the employers' offer to utilise the power in the Act to appoint special assessors who will be vers«d ?n technicalities. An investiga-, 'tion carried ou*ii in those circumstances would be about the best, that human ingenuity can de-rise, and the waterside workers will accept it it they are minded to appeal to the sympathy of their fellow men; bin if their plan Is to ignore 'that sympathy, and to ignore the tribunal t-hat constitutes tho public's -only protection against employes dictation ov against employer-employes collusion— well, the sooner the face is made clear the better. A people thai! ife sincerely bent upon winning the war will then know who-it so that has. his foot on the brake;; and the heavily-burdened consumer may be able to identify one of the agencies that, by slowing-down practices •or other means, are helping to increase the cost of living. ' , If the idea of the waterside workers is to evade censnro by substituting for. -atstrike a new set of restrictive tactics— restrictive to the point of being obstructive—that pretence will sorely fail. The real motive .is sufficiently disclosed by the, fact that this new tactical development occurs suddenly, on the expiration •'of the term of the agreement. It may bo that the waterside workers are deceived in imagining the agreement to be really dead—weare-rafchei- inclined to think that its demise cannot be consummated before the substitution of a fresh agreement on tho cancellation of the union's registration— but that consideration (though very important in certain other respects) does not affect the point now at issue. The'point at ijsue is that tho men have, by a departure frc«ci practice, reduced output, without recourse to the Arbitration Court, in a manner not permissible in peace," snd in wartime intolerable. They have still time to .reverse this policy blunder, and to put themselves right with tho public and with common sense. Will they do it? If not, It is they who will suffer. The interests o£ all will not be allowed to be sacrificed for the sake of a section, and. tie work of the country will ■ cer--tainly;::gQ. on. :