The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1922. THE HOLIDAYS AND AFTER.

Evening Star, Issue 18157, 23 December 1922, Page 6

The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1922. THE HOLIDAYS AND AFTER.

In New Zealand there is a tribunal which was designed for the prevention of strikes. It was a fine ideal which gave birth to the Conciliation Councils and the Arbitration Court, and the experimental stages of this system gave great promise for the future. It cannot be said that this early promise has been altogether realised. There was for a time a greater measure of industrial peace than had previously been known, but latterly the best that can bo claimed for the system is that, whereas in other countries there have been outbreaks of industrial war, the attitude of the contending parties in some important industries hero has been generally one of armed neutrality. Arbitration has not abolished strikes. Its avowed object was to do so, and that was one of the grounds on which it was supported by Labor, Settlement of disputes by its intervention was regarded with satisfaction by the worker. A dispassionate ■ review of the court’s work from its inception down to the present day does not suggest that the court itself has in any way departed from its original ideals and methods. Although tha personnel of the court has undergone many changes, the principle actuating its work has remained the same. Has the attitude of the court to the worker changed? We do not think so. j To the other question that naturally follows : Has the attitude of the worker tp

the court changed? the answer is much more difficult. Wo bcliove there is a large body of workers, not vociferous, perhaps, but not to be under-estimated in numbers because of its relative silence on industrial nlatters, who would be extremely sorry to see the structure of arbitration brought tumbling to the ground. On the other hand, there is the attempt by the seamen to disorganise the coastal shipping of the country as a mark of their disapproval of the Arbitration Court’s recent award. The Wellington watersiders have chosen another method of expressing disapproval of the court by publicly burning a copy of their new award. At the present moment the business community and the public generally are awaiting with some anxiety the result of the ballot by tlie watersiders of the dominion as to whether they will recognise that award. Those who are just now seeking relaxation from the work of what has been to many an anxious and trying year will no doubt try to leave all business worries behind them. If they travel by sea, the fact that the vessels they are on are manned by non-union crews will be a reminder to them that conditions in the industrial world are not normal, though there has been a timely reassurance by the Minister of Labor, in answer to a pamphlet warning travellers of the relaxation of the shipping laws which has enabled sea transport to bo carried on. It would have made for more heartfelt appreciation of the Christmas sentiment— ■“ Peace on earth and good-will towards men ” —if there could have been an announcement of a satisfactory conclusion to the conference at Wellington between the shipowners’ and the seamen’s delegates which has been in progress this week. Its present dispersal is, however, only an adjournment to enable the seamen’s delegates to return to their homes for Christmas; so that it is reasonable for the great third party to the dispute, the public, to “keep believing.” Of tho merits of , this and other disputes the public necessarily knows less than the two principal parties. In New Zealand tho Arbitration Court provides some measure of publicity for those who follow carefully the reports of its proceedings; but as to the seamen’s objections to tho new award a studied silence on the part of the objectors lias left the average man unenlightened. In this connection it is interesting to note that Mr Davies, Secretary for Labor in the United States Cabinet, has recommended Congress to appropriate a million dollars to eel up a Federal Commission to give the public an-un-prejudiced presentation of the cases for both sides in industrial disputes. His idea is that, as public opinion is tho final determining factor in the issue of a strike, public opinion ought to bo fully informed as to the real underlying facts of the case, which at present are too often obscured and overlaid by the pure propaganda of which the statements of the contending sides consist. There are good points about this proposal, though in this country it should really be superfluous in view of the existence of tho Arbitration Court.