WAR OR PEACE?

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 57, 4 September 1920, Page 9

WAR OR PEACE?

THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL ISSUE

(Contributed by the N.Z. Welfare League's

Parliament is in session. It is dealing with many material factors affecting our social state. One problem it cannot settle, and'that is the greatest and gravest of all —the problem of how to establish peaceful relations between Capital and Labour. That" great issue remains for the- wisest of all legislators, the thinkers and seers of our time, to break their souls upon. It is for the men and women who legislate a.nd administer in thn field of ideas to deal with this great work. Wages are raised, hours shortened, conditions improved, yet ever stalks the death's head of animal hatred and the bitterness of unending dissension. It is foll_y to cry "Peace, peace," where there is no real concord but brief spells of truce. Why this constant antagonism ? Why the bitterness and everpresent unrest? These am questions all thinking people are asking. We think to settle matters by allowing material concessions, but find little result. Prices overtop wage increases; rent outstrips remuneration, and even when the most material advantage is secured, the jealous hatred of those who have profited more breeds internecine strife. How shall we grapple with such a problem? How can we, as a social organism, break through the viscous circle of wants following on wants, with the shadow of constant fear ever.before us?

The first fact we have to realise in considering this, the gravest 'problem that confronts the nation, is that it is, in essence, a psychological one. It has to do with a certain, mental attitude; a spiritual disposition that will not, and cannot, be dealt with by mere material concessions. This is the all-important first lesson that all who wish to understand what is called "the Labour question" must learn. Business people, employers, administrators, and legislator* will all find their efforts futile until they have first grasped the fundamental fact of the importance of our mass psychology, or general mental attitude. In regard to the standing relations of Labour and Capital, let us each ask ourselves what do we mentally vote for— peace or war? A careful examination will show that there are three definite decisions on this issue, talcing the thought of the people in general. There are those who mentally vote for war and all they can s get out of it; there are those who are" equally militant for peace, and there are, we regret to say, great, numbers who are mentally neutrals, everready to become mercenaries. This last class is for war or peace, according to the circumstances and the. advantages to be gained.

Industrial peace, in our opinion, is most desirable, and we vote for it without reservation. The lives of men, women, and children depend upon the activities of production; the stability of the State and well-being of its citizens depend upon the satisfaction of our human wants, which cannot be effected without industry. As all industrial waTfare retards industry, we oppose it, and stand for peace. To arrive at a general acceptance of the fundamental value of constant peaceful relations between Capital and Labour, it is necessary to recognise that in the case of both we are dealing no*, with material factors that can be estimated wholly in terme of quantity, quality, and values, but with human beings, the most variable factor in creation. Labour! to the average employer is something he uses and pays for. Capital! to the average worker is the power he serves and is paid by. Both concepts want revision and expansion. Sociologically and in industry, both Labour and Capital are just sets of human beings. If we get that firmly fixed in our minds, and approach the industrial problems with an ever-present consciousness that it is minds we are dealing with, then w.e may have a hope of establishing n real working partnership. There can be no real peace without partnership, since both Capital and Labour are engaged in the same enterprise. To those who look for settlement by warfare rather than reasoning, we say : "Let it be remembered that the victories of warfare' seldom out-, balance the losses of the victors, and in most instances both conquerors, and conquered find that their only gam is the burden of a fresh task of recreating what they have destroyed. Reason, partnership, and peace! These things are what the league is seeking. If the minds of our people are concentrated upon these aims, we have taken the first step towards the higher standard of industrial welfare. How to secure that concentration of will for the right is what we propose to consider in another article.