The Hawera Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1928. “A TRIUMPH FOR COMMONSENSE.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 1 August 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1928. “A TRIUMPH FOR COMMONSENSE.”

Delivered every evening by 6 o'oloob In Hcwera Manair.. Kormanby, OkaiaM*a Eltham. Mangatoki. Kapontra. Alton, Hurleyville Patea. Waverlev. Mo. oie Whakamara. Meremere. Erase/ Boat!, and Ararats 1

The amiounieemient cabled from. England that the employees of the principal raiL way companies' have accepted a reduction in wages in order to a*sisi!st tho ’direeltoira iu placing the railway transport business on a 1 better footing,, is of the utmost importance, inidica*ting as it does that the* mmtoh-talked-of be*tltcr feeling between, capital and laboiur at Home bias borne fruit. Though an improvement in the relations between employers and 'employed has been anticipated with some confidence in many well-informed quarters during the last year, the general public would not have dared "two years ago, to halve hoped thalt the time would come s!o soon Win on the employers could put forward a proposal involving the shouldering by the nfiieu, thiemiS'Olves *of Isomo* of the burden carried by the industry. In 1926 Britain was in the throes of an industrial upheaval, which has isiwco been known as itl)e General .Strike; in slomo countries ait would have been known, first and last, as* a revolution. That it did not. asinine a character which would have justified! the employment of 'such a term was due to; <the innate good isense of the British people. When that strike partially paralysed the industrial and commercial life of the Old Gauntry other nations looked on with the deepest interest; it must have been impossible for’ even the most friendly alien® to escape wondering whether that upheaval was not it he (beginning of the end of ithe Empire, but their wonder openly increased when they found how the situation wute. met by the ■nation. There was no paoni'c and no wild talk *to justify tho public in taking serious alarm!. The agitators!, of •course, made full use of Ithe opportuni-

1 ties which they f Quad to their hands, 1 but the advantage w-as only temporary joimd for isomic of them it ultimately j .proved ruinous l of their own reputu|it ions. Tho fanatical A.'J. Coolt for a I time talked as though he were already | dictator of England, but alt twalsi not I long afterward that he had to go. to Moscow to find eonsoiSitilon. Since those dark clays bath sides of industry have been engaged in the task, of facing facts and endeavouring to arrive at a-1 true valuation of the other's difficulties. There ww room in many quarters for a mure sympathetic attitude on the part of the .employers toward the men., amid it wats also neces-sary to bring the latter to a realisation that industry could not afford to pay more than it was earning. After nearly two years of (negotiating it seems that one important section, of the .unionists have grasped tho latter point. The subject has mot been dealt with very fully in tho cables, but it cam be -assumed that the employees, in accepting a two and a half per cent, reduction in wages, involving in the aggregate £2,000,000, have been actuated 1 to a great extent by the (necessity for reorganisation forced upon the companies by the competition. offered by road (transport.' Two years ago v it would have boon merely foolish indulgence in dreams to expect that the railways- group of nnionists>eouM have been moved by tho recountingl of the employers’ difficulties, but in the meantime it has been found that there is mo -royal road to the solution of the unemployment problem and the men have recognised, as twill any -reasonable man when, taken into the confidence- of the other side, that if the -indiuistry -which provides them with employment is to continue- to do so, it must bo relieved of some of the more ■immediate burdens of running expenses. The brief cable messages inform rus that 1 -the directors of the companies have offered to 'participate in the- reduction. Taken at its face value, -that is not a very informative nor surprising is-hate-mont, but it probably is not meant to indicate- so little -nts might appear on the surface. It is not to- be imagined for a- moment that the directors have offered to 'sacrilicie theif own -returns in any spirit of cond-escc-nsio.n omd only after -beating the men down to' acceptance of tho directors’ terms. The agreement could not have been reached ! without a 'clear-cut admission from -tho employers that they looked upon them-' selves ass partners in distress with the men. It is -saddening to think that the thousands employed in the railway services in England have had to bo content with loss tlian -the whole of -the -loaf they have rightly earned, but on the other hand -their action provides fresh ’grounds' for confidence in, the revival of British industry and the approach of better times.