PASSING IT ON.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 46, 7 February 1912, Page 4

PASSING IT ON.

In its leader columns last Tuesday, the “Sydney Morning Herald,” : n an article headed “Employers and Industrialism," places before its readers its views of the recently developed practice now commonly foL lowed l.iy employers, of yielding to pressure and passing the burden on to the public. It says that among employers there are two distinct, schools of thought which are bound to exercise an exceedingly potent influence cn our industrial development. The one school believes in a policy of resisting every encroachment cf labour. .Right or wrong, it must oppose all demands'. If the battalions, on the other side, are too strong, it yields, but with its arm< in its hands. The other school, and it is growing in strength at the expense of its rival, adopts <a policy of yielding to reasonable pressure, and ;.hen passing the burden on to the public. The employees of a particular industry organise, they demand more wages, shorter hours, improv-iipc-n the qcst of production to the employer, but as all other employed conditions. -All three fall heavily ers in the same line are in an exactly similar position the public at large can easily be made to foot the bill. The employers’ profits are in no way diminished--they may be aerially increased —and as mere capital is now required to carry on the mdustry the likelihood of competition i.s lessened. The net result is that the employees have secured what they wanted, and their employers are no worse off. Were they the inly two classes to be considered all would be well ,aml the precess could .vith advantage be repeated ad infinitum, or. at all events, right up to (he importing point. But it is imlossible to exactly classify the whole •onununity into the employing ami •mployed classes. First of all, nor. all employees are organised. Net* do all employers carry on industries in .vhich they arc able to make collecive bargains with their hands. Besides, there is the great army of civil servants who can scarcely, as a body it all events, be classed as employees. w'hile some among them, as among other employees, are alsi employers, as, for instance, those who hold shares in public companies. It may be that a large number _>f organised workmen would rather have their increased wages, shorter hours, and improved labour conditions, even if they knew that in their capacity as consumers they had to iav more for the necessities of lifers the direct result—though there ■an be no doubt that many of them arc not conscious of this, being on” jf the inevitable results c-f their demands. But, as far as the great mass who lie outside the pale of organised labour, as well as outside .hat section of the employing class who are in a position to “pass it on," ire concerned, they .are being severely hit. and they represent the weak link in the present industrial scheme. There can be no doubt that ‘he more thoughtful of the employr-: who have adopted the creed of -pa-s it on” realise clearly enough

that there must be a limit to this sort of thing. They know that the consuming public cannot go beyond a certain indefinite point, and that had times generally been less prosperous than they .arc the outcry ■ would already have been clamant. Tin v are no so foolish as to believe with some of their employees, that industries can go on and thrive under conditions such as these. They know that each demand of their organised employees which thiy concede will merely be the forerunner of another demand. They realise that many of our important industries are dependent upon oversea markets for the disposal of their products, and that these markets are in. no way connected by the conditions of our labour, whether we work six or sixteen hours per day, as long as we can successfully compete with other supplying peoples. Here, too, is another weakness in the link of artificial industrialism. Employers should carefully consider which policy is more calculated to serve their own interests, as well as those of the community—that cf laissez faire. or the policy of joining the ranks of the “last ditchers.” They have also to consider how long they are going to rest content with industrial legislation, well meaning, perhaps, but which in its practical application comes to this, that it merely affords a legalised means of forcing employers to do its bidding, while it leaves the employees free to obey the law or to defy it at will. Awards of the Industrial Court have to be obejed by the masters on pain of having their property confiscated ; awards need only be obeyed by the men as long as they suit them. These and other problems may well be taken up and discussed.