THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1927 INDUSTRIAL PEACE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 210, 19 August 1927, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1927 INDUSTRIAL PEACE

rpnis week’s London mail brings us the report of a notable lecture which had just been delivered by Mr Philip Snowden, the well known political Labour leader, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mr. Ramsay MacDonald’s Government. His theme was ‘‘The Way to Industrial Peace,” and in dealing with it he touched on more than one vital factor in the discovery of the right path to take. With regard to the “living wage,” to which every worker should be entitled, he emphasized the difficulty there was in giving the phrase any really comprehensive interpretation. “It has been defined,” he said, “as ‘the right of evenfamily in the country to an income sufficient to enable it to maintain its members in decency and comfort.’ But this definition raises other questions. What is ‘decency’ and what is ‘comfort’? What may satisfy the ideas of decency and comfort of one person or class might be regarded as misery and starvation by others. . The idea is that every workman shall have a wage which will maintain him in the highest state of industrial efficiency, which will enable him to provide his family with all the material things which are needed for their health and physical well-being, enough to enable him to discharge his duties as a citizen.”

The Labour leader, however, readily recognises that the claim to a living wage rests upon other considerations also, and these would have to be taken into account by any tribunal which had to determine what constituted a living wage. This question would have to be decided not only from the point of view of the welfare of the individual, but as part of a

sound policy for the State. “It is sometimes said,” he went on, “that payment by output is opposed to the doctrine of ‘to each according to his needs.’ But there is a condition which has to be fulfilled before a person is entitled to receive ‘according to his needs,’ That condition is ‘from each according to his ability.’ This latter condition needs to be very strongly impressed. The fulfilment of duty comes before the enjoyment of rights. One of the most distressing features of the present time is :» widespread disposition to get without giving.” Furthermore, the social implications and social results of any wages policy should be constantly borne in mind. No industry can be regarded as self-contained. All wages settlements must take into consideration the reactions upon industry generally and upon the consumers, things that are often forgotten, especially by those who are engaged in “sheltered” industries that have no outside Competition to meet. That consideration brings into prominence the fact that a trade dispute is not the concern of only the parties directly interested. Every stoppage affects the interests of the whole community, and the community therefore has a right to have a voice in determining the matter. This is the conclusive argument against strikes and lock-outs, and for the substitution of some effective system of arbitration. Each industry lives out of the community, and the community has a right to protect itself against unfair exploitation, while at the same time it has a duty to see that all-round justice is done. Questions of wages and conditions of labour should, Mr. Snowden claims, be determined on a new basis and by new methods. The capacity of the industry must be taken into account; the possibilities of increasing the effiiciency of the industry should be exploited by the co-operative efforts of management and labour; the interdependence of al] industry should be borne in mind; the reactions of any settlement on trade as a whole must be considered. To these ends tribunals foy the settlement of disputes mu be set up, but they must be tribunals which would be so constituted as to command the confidence of both parties, and at the same time would look to the wider interests which are involved. “If such tribunals can be set up,” the lecturer concluded, “the right to strike or the right to lockout will be as indefensible as the right of a nation to go to war because it has refused to accept the decision of an impartial Court ot Arbitration. The greatest of. all the evils of industrial conflict is that it keeps politics and industry in a state of turmoil. Social reforms can be secured only in conditions of peace. Industrial unrest and industrial dis location lessen the financial means which otherwise would be available for social schemes. They almost criminally waste our national resources.’’