AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 64, 13 September 1926, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRY

MISSION TO UNITED STATES

MAY BE ABANDONED AS M.SULT

OF REFERENDUM.

(From Our Own Correspond.Bnt.)

SYDNEY, 9th Scptamber.

The proposal by the Federal Government to send an industrial mission, representing both employers and employees, to the United States, to- investigate conditions there that migsht improve the standard of industry (generally in Australia if adopted here, will probably be abandoned, owing *to several reasons. Not least of these' is the emphatic "No" given by tho people of Australia to tho Bruce-Page. Ministry's referendum proposals, th,e chief aim of which was to extend tho authority of the Federal arbitration tribunals and their influence over industry and power.

The industrial mission proposals were introduced with a great fanfare cif publicity, but they did not meet with whole-hearted approval. Sydney manufacturers,' for instance, threw a cold doucho by suggesting that their methods at least wero just as efficient ,_b any tho mission might find in the United States. Other employers and mannfacturors gave qualified approval, but the Labour organisations were almost solidly opposed to the idea. They displayed that opposition by refusing to restpond to tho Federal Government's invitation to nominate representatives on. the mission. While employors' organisations have made their nominations, -the Labour bodies havo so far refused", to submit tho names of threo deleg.-etes from each State, from which tho Ifederal Government would choose four.

Qualified Labour spokesmen now declare that tho defeat of the referendum proposals will spell tho doom of tho industrial mission plan. When "the Prime Minister (Mr. Bruce) made Jiis announcement concerning tho mission to the United States, ho indicated _aat it was part and parcel of the extensiion of the Commonwealth powers policy. Ho then declared that workers here hiad shown distrust of methods that aimed at increasing production and developing efficiency. Tho mission's main work would be to secure information that would overcome that distrust. With tho defeat of the referendum proposals the position, is now entirefly altered as far as the Federal Government is concerned. Tho recommendations brought back by the mission would. bo valueless, as the States have retained control over industrial matters, and thus any plans that tho Federal Government might mako concerning industry could not bo put into effect through its Arbitration Court. Henco it is-, possible that the mission, costing, it is estimated, £20,000, will be dropped.