AUSTRALIA'S STATE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 19

AUSTRALIA'S STATE

"COURT TO BLAME"

ECONOMIST'S CRITICISM

WAGES MD PRODUCTION

T.ho Australians are still on strike— not so much against the employers as against the unrelenting laws of supply | nud demand .that are beginning undcraine the elaborate system of econo : mic control erected -in that country, writes T. E. Adam, au- economist -associated with Australian governmental work, .in;a recent "Christian Science Monitor" issue. The coal-miners of tho richest field in the southern'continent for the last eighteen months have held the country's business to ransom. Though coal-mining costs have soared to heights that make it possible for. s English imported coal to compete sue-' ccssfully with the localproduct, and every industry in tho country has suf-' fered through increased power costs, the coal-minors remain adamant. The owners may agree to halve their pro;, fits, and the Government promise subsidies in order to reduce the, price of. coal, but the miners will not permit their wages to bo reduced from exaggerated war-time levels by as much'as ;one proud cent. v ...'■■■, Union rules' limiting the amount; of coal a man may produce a day, and f or,'bidding the employers to dismiss unsatisfactory workmen, must remain unchanged. The industry itself may bo 'reduced to a condition of bankruptcy through extortionate prices limiting demand, and half the miners on the field face permanent unemployment, yet'the ■leaders of the workmen cannot" bring : themselves to alter their theories otso--1 cialistic Utopias. , Before the miners it was the timber Workers, and before the timber workers the wharf' labourers and the seamen Anyone who has.read. -.the cable news from Australia during the last few years knows the whole sad tale., WORKMEN NOT RADICAL. Yet, contradictory as it may appear, I the Australian workmen are among tho. least radical people, on earth. _J.ney •ire stern individualists, the .majority of them owning their own homes, devoted to sport, and keenly interested iii politics/ The chronic industnal unrest that has always hindered the exploitation of the continent's vast natural resources is due to no inherent fault in the character of tho The peculiar relations between Government and industry have resulted an a social structure that has made industrial strife almost inevitable. Australia intended to ban economic war. between classes. To that end she delivered industry into the hands o± her legislators and Judges. The immutable laws of suuply and demand were held to be inapplicable to human labour. The humanitarian spirit of the com:munity, acting through courts of arbitration and industrial conciliation, was to-fix wage rates and working conditions throughout the field of industry. : The first result of deposing the individual employer from control pf^bisj pay roll and labour organisation in f av-. our of a (iourt of law, was to increase beyond all measure the power of the : labour unions. The legal viewpoint ot the Court demanded two distinct and corporate parties to every case. Awards fixing wages and conditions of labour were made in favour of the union organising the particular trade concerned. "The lion-union worker bad no legal ' claim to these rates and conditions. For all practical purposes unionism became compulsory throughout every trade and • industry in the country. The enormous ■ power thus thrust'into the hands,; of; . the labour leaders carried with it.no commensurate load of responsibility. , ; DEMANDS GREW. It is to the credit of theso men that industry was not wrecked alto-' ' "ether. Naturally the demands of the "all-powerful bodies grew steadily more exorbitant and insistent. The Courts adjudicating on the claims took ■ as their guiding- rule the maxima that every wage-earner was entitled to a "minimum x living wage," sufficient to • support himself,.a-wife, and an average family in accordance with the ■ reason- , able standards prevailing in the com- ; munity.' This wage they termed; the "basic wage," arid it was the minimum , reward that could be given to the most unskilled labour. • Higher rates for special skill, responsibility, or unpleasant working conditions were determined after formal.evt denee had been submitted and both parties had argued their case. In this humanitarian Utopia, the Judges forgot only one factor —the capacity of industry to pay the rates awarded and to survive the conditions of: employment determined for its labour staff. The chief Judge of the Arbitration Court ruled that this factor was not within his power of cognisance, and that in any case au industry that could not subscribe to the "national1 standard of living" was unworthy of.-a place within the Nation's boundaries. Brave words and fine sentiments, but they have helped to~ bring the shadow of unemployment on 6 per. cent, of- • Australia's working population. _ Tho employers are powerless lii the face of an award of the Arbitration Courts. Public opinion and the sanction of heavy fines forces obedience on them, though.it may mean the ruin iof their industry. The law, however, is supremo only in one direction. The unions regard legal penalties aimod at their organisations with contempt. On tho few occasions when their demands have not beeu met they have gone on strike as though no Court existed..

AGAINST THE COURT. V The most bitter and destructive battles in Australian industrial history have been strikes against the Arbitration Court itself. Wharf labourers, seamen, railroad men, and timber work-! ers have all downed tools -within the last two years in defiance of the rulings of the Court. ' ■ ■Whon.it is realised that both the fFedcral and State Governments have power to set up Arbitration Courts, and that tho jurisdiction of these bodies overlap, so that a union defeated before the State Judge may have its claims granted by the Federal Court, the confusion reigning in industry may well be imagined. . ■■•...•■ Last fall tho Prime Minister, Stanley M. Bruce, made a gallant effort to cut tLe Gordian knot. Ho proposed to surrender the Federal Government's powers over industry to the States. The more conservatively constituted State Parliaments could have been expected to limit severely judicial interference in- industrial affairs. . Jiic resulted' in the crushing fior'eat of the Bruco Administration. .'The. wage earners were concerned, 'lest they lose their artificial privileges. The new Labour Government iby its very-constitution can make no/ move toward the slackening of Government control. . ; lV"'. .: The worst effects of the system lio not so much in the fixation of wage rates as in the regulation of working conditions, Australia is naturally a <high-wage country, and the employers ,do not need to be bullied by Arbitration Courts into ■ paying their men a •decent wage. Working conditions, however, aro a different matter. Tho delicate .'mechanism- of-industry-is •■■^easily

disturbed. The minute- regulation of the •working time- of his labour staff by an1 outside authority'robs the employer of the true control of his business. Union officials-havo greater authority in Ms .factory .than' his : own foremen-and managers.: L ; ( , . . Arbitration : Court awards, stand as. an insurmountable ■■barrier'between tho | Australian manufacturer and. the true economies .of mjiss . production. Con tinuous production in any largo seal" plant is almost impossible owing to th» web of compulsory' holidays and penal overtime rates. ■ WAGES AND PRODUCTIVITY. Tho evils'of compulsory unionism bit the individual -wage-earner as hardly as they do, the employer. A. man who seeks to'rise, above the production level of the slowest, andi laziest member of his group, is dubbed a. traitor-to bis class and threatened with union discipline. In this paradise of tho working class, the way of the individual who wishes to work, hard and get ahead i» indeed a thorny, one. Almost the only hope of advancement is to become a union official and., enter; politics. Thr> dead level of slow .:incompetence to which the perverted union policy forces the average worker,, breaks the heart of the honest craftsman.,. All holidays and petty privileges, won for him by his zealous leaders can;never bring thp content that pride in his/work was wont to give. '.'• . f Australia lias attempted to divorce wages from the productivity of labour. She has reversed the plan, and declared for a-statutory prosperity. Her awakening may prove, bitter. At the:present moment, out of a total of 2,500,000, breadwinners, 120,000 are, unemployed.' In. this "rich barely developed continent, industrial progress has been arrested..and the scanty population of 6,500,000 souls provide hungry queues... to .crowd the -employment exchanges. ■ . Until free play: is again allowed, to private enterprise in the development and control of the industry it originates, the cause of Australian». progress is. seriously retarded. Politics will not necessarily bring, this gift, of .freedom. The wage earners, however, are likely to discover for themselves that their artificial prosperity has disappeared, and to save themselves from the ranks of the unemployed they may be expected to seek freedom from.the unions .and the Arbitration Courts. Already some see the writing on the wall. The last three great strikes, engineered by the militant unions, have been crushed by the weight of public opinion among .the great body of the breadwinners. . Since the above'was written, the reBistance;of the: New South Wales Northcm miners to wage-reduction has-weak-ened to.breaking point, and it has-been cabled that the men are returning to work at lower rates of pay.