ARBITRATION AMENDMENTS

Evening Star, Issue 19697, 26 October 1927, Page 2

ARBITRATION AMENDMENTS

THE HEED FOR CREATIVE THOUGHT “ The amendments to the Arbitration Act, introduced last Thursday, carried with them the traditional antagonistic arguments of two sets of men avowedly striving for the same end, but both really fighting like Tweedledum and Tweedledee,” said Mr Thomas Jenkins, in the course of an interview this morning. Mr Jenkins has just returned from an extended trip of Great Britain and the United States, and upon his arrival in Wellington was able to be present at the session of Parliament which dealt with this Act. The ideas which ’the speaker subsequently expressed have been verified, be says, by bis experiences abroad, for during his peregrinations ho has met many men who held important positions m the realm of trade and industry. “ Nobody has investigated the fact that in its early stages the Act was a success and also that it is a failure today,” continued Mr Jenkins. “ The Act was intended to regulate definite trades and industries, but has been extended to cover what may be termed ‘ overhead expense ’ sections, such as clerks, salesmen, and permanent employees. All agree that the prosperity of the dominion is dependent upon the national earnings, the _ exportsj yet overhead charges are increased and made permanent, while the base of tho nation’s prosperity is unstable and fluctuates with tho internal troubles of tho country. “ The early success of the Act proved tho possibility of estimating the value of creative labor in relation to tho value of exports by which it was directly elfectivc. If'export values fell, work decreased, one balancing the other; when there was no work there was no payment. People should realise that tho greater included tho less, and that national prosperity meant individual prosperity. The extensions to the Act bad made all secondary charges higher and practically permanent, and they were estimated on tho so-called ‘ cost of living ’ which had no bass. Tho net result of the court’s work was that creative labor was paid its fair value, and, through the creation of artificial values in tho purchasing power of wages, was then cheated. “ Labor’s enemy is the Civil Service, which is a dead weight of non-creativc and non-risking matter, tenaciously holding its assumed rights, arrogant and also patronising to the force winch makes its life possible. _ All through Urn session concerning this Act the idea struck me it was appalling to find no constructive thought whatever, ft not possible to estimate the extent of non-creative labor which, making everything rigid, increases tho cost of the article to the buying country. It is crea led on the artificial values of all labor in the cities. When we realise that all our new' money comes from onr exports it seems very had business to load the overhead charges. What is wanted to-day is constructive education, for in the matter of business money is made without actual crcatnc work, and many ol those not rightly instructed are robbed through the cutenc&s of the trained agents, and the inability of the people to defend t iemsolvos; employers are often blamed tor running up costs when they cannot help themselves. il Aincricn.ii capllnl iiinor not antagonistic as in this country; labor there needed no props, no assistance. The working man was very prosperous and was indeeu ontoiing into the realms of finance by bankiny his savings and indulging in speculation, a state of affairs quite unknown in 'Britain. The reason was that American thought was construct itwhereas the British thought, or rathe want of thought, was causing; a retrograding step as a result ot the British archaic idea of what education really was. Those old ideas brought about a faith in professional nion who conic express themselves, but who, in them selves, were not constructive _in thought and were merely reflective Education was more concerned wiLthe quality of teaching rather than actual results; manner meant mm-.-than matter. The whole system of Bn tv : education was a failure naturally. \\ by should the man who created tic wealth always have the dirty end o, the stick? “The Arbitration Court makes ir think of the trial' of Christ befow Pilate. The people, haying no. rigid of appeal, are in the position of Christ. Parliament has been in the habit oi shuffling its responsibilities on to the Arbitration Court, which has been called upon to deal with matters unfair for it to handle. All these interferences are killing apprenticeship.^ “Never in the history of the Empire has there been such a dearth of leaders. While 1 was abroad I collected from many sources the firm impression that in Britain anyone with a reputation was hailed as a leader of thought. Not one but fifty men told me they would give anything for a chance "to find a young and. able loader,.’ l