IRELAND’S INDUSTRIES

Feilding Star, Volume 4, Issue 676, 7 January 1926, Page 6

IRELAND’S INDUSTRIES

DISPUTES OVER WAGES

A NEW ZEALANDER ADVOCATES

ARBITRATION

Mr M. J. Reardon, of Wellington, has been advocating industrial arbitration. for Ireland in the columns of the Irish Statesman. During the Horse Show Week, lie writes, lie was a, visitor to Dublin.

“Li front of a restaurant in one of the principal streets, some young women were parading back and forth, seeking the sympathy- 01. the general public because oi a dispute over the question of wages. To me, this seemed a tragic thing—tragic in the impotence of the appeal to- an indifferent public My companion,, a native of Dublin, ‘had no sympathy with such people.,’ and in that sentence probably expressed the- opinion of tlie vast majority of those who passed by. ’ ’ Mr Reardon- goes on to compare the position of these girls with that ol the miners who were able to appeal with effect to- tlie Government. “1 submit that it is the duty of the State to provide such machinery as will enable the humblest citizen to state his case. Industrial arbitration is no longer an experiment in social legislation, but a law that' is standing the test of time. I offer this measure to the Government of Ireland as a .solution of the problem of labour disputes.” Mr Reardon them describes in some detail the working of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act in New Zealand.