The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1922. A Labor Fallacy.

Evening Star, Issue 17955, 28 April 1922, Page 4

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1922.

A Labor Fallacy.

A comic song which used to I>g popular told of a resourceful sailor who. when Ins ship was taking iu water anil sinking fast, hit on a. brilliant plan. Ho “made a hole in the boilum of tins boat to let the water out, ’ Soviclliing like the same idea must have beau in the minds of the Newcastle (New Smith Wales) steel workers when the time which marks a crisis in their industry has been chceen by them as a. time to demand a .reduction of their working hours. The. claim to a forty-four hours week would be reasonable enough in ordinary conditions, but a strange moment is chosen tor preferring it wh.cn the works of (ho Broken Hill IVoprictary at Newcastle are threatened with a complete suspension, suck as lias happened to other factories in. Australia, because the high cost of the manufacture of their product means that it cannot bo sold except at a loss. Iu the circumstances Mr Justice. I’c-eby, (ho president of the court by which the men’s claim wars heard, gave his decision in their iuiovcsla when be stated that it was not expedient, to make any industrial change which would increase the cost of production, of which labor expenses formed the ■principal element. How far tiro cost of lubcr at the steel works has been a factor in their present position is a question which has prompted different judgments. .Mr Justice Higgins, referring a few days ago to (ho cessation of activities,, was ((noted ns saying (hat it was not tho high cast of labor in this industry which was responsible for its difficulties. Tho trouble was caused by- the collapse of tho market, the dumping of steel from abroad, and the excessive erst of coal. But tho cost of labor in relation to -the output of tho steel works obviously would bo increased by paying the .same wages for a shorter week, and the cost of coal io only the cost of labor at another stage. Not long ago it was reported from Sydney that coal -could Ire landed from Great Bril ain more cheaply than from Newcastle, and it was symptomatic of tho same notions prevailing among the coal miners, as those which tho .steel workers have revealed, that at llre time when that absurdity was being experienced the claim was, being made by them that their working fortnight should be reduced to nine days. That application pointed to a main fallacy which persists, not everywhere, ■but too generally in Labor circles. Workers desire high wages; the desire is natural; and a sound standard of living for its workers is a need of every community, which all classes must wish to sco preserved. But high wages can only coma from the proceed:; of production ; it is tho worker who diminishes his labor, at the same time that lie demands higher rates of payment for it, or sustained rates in a time of general depression, who fixes his desire, on the impossible and does tho worst disservice to his kind. Yet that k; a present tendency of too many worker;., ponietimrs from distaste of work, sometimes because they conceive of wages as being paid from some inexhaustible fund, independent of Ilia return which makes them passible, and again, in the case of come extremists, Because they deairo to undermine and- make impracticable the ivhole existing; scheme of business and industry, though to build up a better scheme which might take its place would ho beyond their powers. 'I no tendency is revealed in the emit of tho Newcastle con-l which sells so dear in Sydney. It is revealed again in tiro figures, published a few days ago, of New Zealand’s coal production, which showed that last year there were many more miners working than tho year before, and their total output was appreciably less. It is not high wages which make the labor cost which becomes uneconomic, and in time prohibitive as much as high wages for too little work. Tho labor cost of building a house in New Zealand may come close to half tho total cost of its construction. More houses would lac built if it was lower, and the propoition would be lower, without reduction of wages, if more work was clone for a day’s pay. Courts arc engaged now in mure countries than one in fixing economic rates of wages, but those rates are. fixed first by the, workers themselves. Tho desire fur the highest wages, joined with shorter working weeks or less work iu a. week of whatever duration, makes a desire which can never bo fulfilled, its two objects are destructive of each other; its opposes economic laws which are unalterable. Labor’s longings might as well bo fixed on the moon.