HARBOR BOARD ETHICS.

Evening Star, Issue 14316, 15 March 1910, Page 7

HARBOR BOARD ETHICS.

to the editor. Sir,—The writer is so frequently ruled out of order or otherwise blocked from expressing his opinions at Harbor Board meetings, that I ask your indulgence to speak to a somewhat larger constituency than that comprising the Board. My trouble just now is to try to understand the moral principles actuating the Harbor Board and other public bodies in their dealings with the proposals submitted to them for improved industrial conditions by the General Laborers' Union. It is not my intention to discuss those proposals. That will probably be done before the Conciliation Commissioner. My desire it to criticise tho attitude of public bodies towards one of the most necessary and useful cla€S of men in the community—the general laborer. For reasons best known to themselves, the City Council, through the town clerk, approached other local bodies with the view of holding a combined conference to discuss, and resist, the proposals of tho Laborers' Union. The Harbor Board, true to their Employers' Association instincts, sent along representatives to down the worker and keep him down. It is on record in the public Press that this famous meeting was held in tho Town Hall, but it was hermetically sealed to the Press and public. They* went into committee. Good old committee! Why? Simply because "committee" means silence and secrecy, and the persons present were afraid to let their constituents know their opinions towards the workers. Elections will shortly be coming along, and it is an astute move not to let the electors know how public men feel towards the fellow who scratches a precarious existence by the 6weat of his brow. Which fact reminds me that ono of tho members of the Harbor Board strenuously insisted that he owed a duty to his constituents—which is the Employers' Association—in this matter. But the same person usually votes that the Board go into committee when something important concerning his constituents is at stake, and when he doesn't want the public to know how he spoke or voted. I venture to say, sir, that had this Town Hall meeting been one where a public reception was concerned, where lots of public money was to be splashed around, when the limelight would beat on the countentnees of our local celebrities, when they wear clothes that are unusual to them—those occasions, sir, aro where tho representatives of the people 6hine, and where there is no pretence about going into the Goclusion of "committee." But when the unfortunate laborer comes along to ask a few concessions, which only means tho matter of a few ponce per day in their wages, tho local bodies are all agog to squelch anything in that direction. Both the Harbor Board and- the City Council have spent large sums of public money on legal costs to frustrate the workers and tho awards of tho Court, in which cases they have been badly beaten. It is astonishing to note how tamely tho people and their representatives take the squandering of money on sleepers, Lee Stream experiments, and other expensive jobs. But when it comes to pay the workers a decent wage for their toil, opposition of a virulent kind and good old "committee" are used to their utmost capacity to block the worker from getting a square deal. It is the boast of the Harbor Board that they pay more than award rates. If that is so, why bother about the matter? To hear some of tho members talking one would imagine that the laborers aro asking for something extortionate, which 6nly shows the inconsistency and lack of knowledge of the members of tho Board. If the Board are paying more than award rates, or aro willing to pay tho rates agreed upon by the parties, or by award made by the Court, why trouble any further? But I'm afraid the Employers' Association elements on the Board don't want such a simple and common sense solution of the case. It can bs taken for granted that the private employers will tenaciously fight the case to the bitter end, and tho public bodies can afford to fall iii with any decision arrived at.—l am, etc., William Belche'h. March 14. '