The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1908.

Evening Star, Issue 13099, 4 November 1908, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1908.

The Minister of Labor Is to be complimented on the splendid vinAr« the dication he made in his Worker* Monday night's speech of rngrnlofu): his work as. a representative of Labor. The most captious critic must concede that he has done more for the best interests of Labor than any other man in the Dominion. From 1890 till the present hour he has consistently fought the battles of the workers, and has given his energies to promote their welfare. In his address at the Garrison Hall special attention was given to the Workers’ Compensation for Accidents Act, the new Arbitration Act. and to the provision made for erecting workers’ homes at the various centres. With regard to the Workers’ Compensation for Accidents Act, it is only necessary to say that there is not at present legislation to be found on the Statute Book of any other country in the world that provides for injured workmen as liberally as does the New Zealand Act. The rules of the common law in regard to actions for compensation for accidents have been brought into accord with common sense and the ordinary dictates of justice, and the Employers’ Jdability Acts have been repealed, while

many of the defects and anomalies brought' toj light by the administration of the previous Workers’ Compensation for Accidents Act and its various amendments have been removed. Simplification of procedure could hardly go further than in the new Act. ' In regard to the Arbitration Act itself, the Minister showed conclusively that the workers, of all people, had the least cause to complain. By the clearest and most : convincing facts Mr Millar demonstrated that the workers in every industry that had ‘ come under the Act had benefited by its operation; while, as to the statement' that workers were not in favor of the Act, he brought forward statistics which proved j beyond the shadow of a doubt that this ! statement was quite contrary to ascer- ! tained fact, since all over the Dominion industrial agreements were being entered into tinder the Act, by the mutual consent of employers and employees. The extent to which workers, up to the present time, have availed themselves of the provisions of the Act should be sufficient evidence to convince any but the hopelessly biased 1 partisans that the mass of the workers have found it to their advantage to work under the Act. If we were to look for a similar sign of approval from employers we should look in vain, for they were apparently quite satisfied to go on without the Act. The workers have used the Act, and used it, moreover, to the full. It is idle to say that the Act has been of no benefit to them. If that be so, why are they so eager to have the Court make an award in every case brought before the Court ? Why, too, have they been so anxious in the past to bring their disputes before the Court ? Why are they now so strongly against anything that would block them in the slightest degree from registering under the Act and in obtaining an award of the Court? There is no other conclusion to be arrived at but that they consider the Act beneficial to them. The Minister's remarks on strikes were apposite, forcible, and to the point. Only those who have gone through a strike, and who have seen and suffered the misery that a fight to the bitter end entails, can realise what was gained when a peaceful mode of settling industrial disputes was adopted in New Zealand thirteen years ago. Ihe Conciliation Boards, as constituted under the original Act, had to go. When over £3,000 was spent in three years, and only eight disputes brought to a settlement in that time by Conciliation Boards, it was time to consider whether the game was worth the cost. The misuse of Conciliation Boards by agitators and would-be politicians is largely responsible for the discredit into which these tribunals have fallen in recent years. Their day has passed. The Conciliation Commissioner is now to have his turn, and if he fails—well, it looks as though our Arbitration system will have to be declared a failure, and as if future industrial disputes will have to be left to the parties themselves to settle as they best may. Much will depend on the character and temperament of the men who may be appointed ns the Conciliation Commissioners, who will require to have plenty of tact, to be skilled in dealing with men, who from the outset have succeeded in winning the respect and confidence of the workers, and who must possess a fair knowledge of industrial problems. Much more will depend on the parties themselves. If they go before the Commissioner with a determination to be conciliatory, and with a genuine desire to reach a fair and just settlement, there need be no fear of the result. But if the parties approach the Commissioner with minds made up not to accept anything but what they ask for, then the case is hopeless from the start. If the workers will not be reasonable, if they decline to recognise the benefits that have been already gained for them, and insist on obtaining the unattainable, they may yet find it difficult to keep even their present benefits. As Mr Millar truly said, the problems that have to be solved do not affect this Dominion alone; they affect industrialism all over the world. As vet all industrial legislation is necessarily of an experimental nature, and the only way in which it can be hoped for a successful issue to our latest experiment in this direction is that all concerned shall be actuated by a sincere determination to give loyal adherence to the guiding principles of the Act of last session. The present industrial outlook was correctly stated by the Minister. So far disloyalty has come from a section of the workers only—from those uho affect to see no value whatever to them in the Arbitration Court and no good whatever in the Arbitration system, unless gives them everything they ask for. Me have no hesitation in declaring our belief that this unsympathetic section do not voice the views of the great body of the workers in the Dominion. And we are equally firm in onr opinion that on polling day the -Minister of Labor will have the satisfaction of knowing that his strenuous labors on behalf of the workers as a whole have received not only the endorsement but the grateful recognition of those who best know what Mr Millar has done for them, and are quite prepared to commit their fortunes to his keeping in tho new Parliament.