FARMERS' UNION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXVII, Issue LXXVII, 29 May 1919, Page 5

FARMERS' UNION

TARANAKI PROVINCIAL CON-

FERENCE

The following is a continuation of report of proceedings in connection with the annual conference held at New Plymouth on Friday and Saturday:— EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. Executive—Provided a suitable farm can be acquired near New Plymouth the Agricultural Department be asked to establish an experimental farm on the lines of the Stratford Farm. Mr Washer moved this, and said that it would be a great benefit • to nave a farm of this sort in New Plymouth. Farmers at that end could not go to Moumahaki at a moment's notice, but a farm similar to the one at buatfoid, where they could grow turnips aad root crops with the best, was what they wanted at New Plymouth. This was not because Stratlord farm had a better soil or climate tnan New Plymouth, but simply because of tne know-edge of the proper manures and how to apply them. lhe chairman suggested that a demonstration farm would be better than an experimental farm, but he did not tmnk the Government would move in the matter unless the farmers had a reserve available or could secure the lease of some suitable place. He explained to them that a demonstration farm was being prepared at Manaia, and the aim of this would be to show farmers what should be done under ' everday working conditions. Mr On- .added that the Stratford farm was on the poorest piece of land in the county, but it showed farmers what could be done if they went the right way about things. "^ After some further discussion it was resolved, on the motion of Mr Vick^rs, that a committee, consisting of the vice-president of the Union, the chairman of the Taranaki County Council, and the chairman of the A. and P. Association, ascertain if a reserve can be secured suitable for the purposes of a demonstration farm. AMENDMENT TO RULES. Eltham Branch—That Rule 3 be amended by inserting in clause "D" after the word admission the following: Or persons engaged in pursuits which are essential to the primary production of the Dominion. Mr Buckeridge, Provincial Secretary, who moved this, said that it was something like a hardy annual. This was the third time he had moved it, but he was quite prepared to keep on with it, because he believed it was absolutely necessary that something should be done along the lines of this remit. He felt that he really must repeat a quotation from a speech made by Mr Lloyd George three years ago. The Premier of England then said: "The,whole of society is in a molten state. You can stamp upon it almost anything you like, provided you act firmly and determinedly. There is no time to lose. The country will be prepared for better things immediately after the war than when the normal clash of selfish interest is resumed. Unless the opportunity is seized it may pass. I believe the after-war settlement will succeed in proportion to its audacity. If every class insists on not returning to pre-war methods you will get really a new world." It was this statement that partly inducedhim (Mr Buckeridge) to bring forward this remit. - He did not think there ever was a time when it was so necessary to have a better understanding between "labor," as he calls himself, and what we call "capital." - Labor was looking for a sane lead; they have had, what they admit themselves, an' insane lead for a long time, and they had been groping in the dark in a vain endeavor to find a solution of their difficulties. He did not believe that there was any section Of the com- . niunity so well situated as the farmers to give that sane lead to labor that it was looking for. Farmers had experienced the difficulties of labor, because they must not think that a farmer was a farmer alone; he was a laborer as well. He knew the difficulties of labor and the responsibilities of capital, -because as a landowner he was considered to be .a capitalist. He knew the difficulties of one and the responsibilities of the other in a way that no other, class of the community could know it, because he was the one and the other bound up in himself. They had taken upon themselves to discriminate between the man who worked on the farm and another section of the community that worked in the interests of primary production. By some means they had discovered that a ratio existed between the man who owned the land and the cattle and the man who milked on the farm —a ratio as to what each should receive from the factory. The sharemilker and the farm employee were eligible to become members of the Farmers' Union, but another section of labor, quite as essential to the industry, and perhaps more so than the milkers, they would have nothing to do with. They thus barred any possibility of a satisfactory arrangement of the diih- ! culties that arose between one and the other Difficulties may be met in three ways. Of these the best was by conference .and conciliation; the next was by litigation, unsatisfactory te both parties, and the third was by force The only method they ceuld consider was the conciliatory way by means of a conference, and if the 1 armers' Union did not admit these men to membership—men whose interests Were absolutely. bound up m ours—to sit in conference with farmers he did not know how they would ever arrive at a settlement of their difficulties. On the other hand, if they were admitted as essential—and he claimed they were just as essential as tne milkers on the farms—there should be a ratio as to what should come to them on the increased prices received iust in the same way as they had admitted the ratio between the milker on the farm and the farmer. If this co-operation or co-partnership principle were established a great deal ot the difficulty existing with labor today would be overcome. If they admitted that those who manufactured their products into marketable commodities were as essential as the man who extracted the milk from the cow it was going to produce a different state of affairs, and would largely eliminate labor troubles, because it would place labor on a co-partnership basis. The prosperity of the dairy farmer would then be just as important to the man who handled the product at the factory and to the^ man who put it on the ocean boats in its best shape as to the farmer himself. To discriminate between the labor on the farm / and that which helped to manufacture arid market it as a marketable commodity was unfair, illogical and un-British. Mr Hodge seconded. Two years ago he was opposed to the suggestion, but he had somewhat changed his views since then. The chairman: Does this mean admitting only factory workers into the Union ? Mr Buckeridge: No. It includes all those who handle the produce right up to the ti_e it is placed on board ship. The one is just as essential as the other. Mr Astbury considered that the resolution, in point of fact, included every

industry engaged in assisiir);; ;;?:,!.!; production. Miners of coal an''sailors, ' for example, would also be inHiidi-d. Xf wharf laborers were to bo ii;> hnn ci. ' why not coal miners, who produced coal essential to the indusvrj, and railwaymen who carried it, etc. lift ! feeling, however, was that ' wi ir v,.;> remit were carried these men were t:■.■•. going to join the Farmers' Union, and ! that is where Mr Buckeridge wu -. somewhat wrong. Instead of endeavor- j ing to widen the membership of th« I Union the more practical way would j be to get into touch with the unions j that handled then- produce and Mig- j gest that periodical conferences iak, j | place between their leaders and rep;v- j sentatives of the farmers. A round- | the-table talk was more likely to bnn;: i about an understanding bet'v.eon the \ various organisations than merely ex- j tending the membership of tho * l.ftir- j mers' Union. I _> Mr Mills congratulated Mr Buckeridge on the remarkably fine way ti.as ; he had put his case, and sympathised '■ with his views. The way oi' attaiiiii.ji ; the object, however, was where Lhey \ differed. It would bd hard to dis- ' criminate between the unions wim>r ; interests were inimical to the farmers ! and those who were not. Wharf I laborers were mentioned as one s:c- i tion, but Mr Buckeridge, he under- | stood, would admit that section of the . ' wharf laborers who handled farmers' produce. He did not understand that ; any certain section of wharf laborers were engaged solely in handling our ; prsduce. Mr Buckeridge: You can make them ; do it. j Mr Mills, continuing, contended that j it would not be practical for one sec- j tion of wharf laborers handling pro- j duce to abandon thoir own union and | join the Farmers', because the mo- j ment they did so they would be stooped from working on the wharves. Mr Astbury's suggestion might do some good if it were possible to get into touch with these men and remove some of the false impressions that existed, unfortunately on both sides to some extent, and to make it clear j that both sections were essential to j each other and that there should be j no enmity between them. j Mr Lambie believed that the system j of paying" men so much per hour, whe- j ther they worked or not, would have to go, and some system of co-cpern-tion would have to take its place. He believed a round-the-table conference of the leaders might do some good. Mr Buckeridge: The trouble is we have the wrong leaders. t ' Mr Lambie: You can only try. You j cannot get those men who are not j leaders unless you get the leaders. j Mr Buckeridge: You have to get J outside the leaders. ]

Mr Lambie considered that the younger men were largely under the control of thoir leaders. Tho only solution he saw was in the direction of co-operation, and he believed a good deal could be accomplished in that direction. Labor must produce enough to pay and leave a little over for the capital employed, or it cannot be employed. Mr Washer was opposed to this remit last year, but he was beginning to realise that Mr Buckeridge was a saner man than he then thought he was. They now admitted the principle that the man who milked the cows earned a portion of the money that the milk earned, and he did not see any reason why they should not go further and admit that the man who made the milk into a marketable product should not have the same consideration, or go even further and admit that the man who loaded thencheese, butter, and wool on to the boats should not work on some cooperative basis. Mr Buckeridge had already been invited to address labor on these lines, and if he then spoke as he had spoken that night he would greatly impress them.

:._r Buckeridge, in reply to Mr Astbury's suggestion of a conference with labor's leaders, said the difficulty was that it was not possible to get a conference with the men who were looked upon as the - present-day leaders of labor. Three years ago an attempt was unsuccessfully made, and there was Rot one chance in a thousand of making any headway with men like Semple, Fraser and Holland. On the other hand, if the men selected by the Farmers' Union could go amongst the rank and file of the men themselves, and counteract the wrong impressions created by their leaders, that was their hest chance of success. There was only one section of the community that could give labor a sane lead, and were the farmers going to decline their responsibility? The motion was lost, on a show of hands, by 14 votes to 6. Mr Astbury remarked that if Mr Buckeridge would again bring this forward in another form it would be carried next time.

Mr Buckeridge: I cannot wait for that. I must now hand in my resignation as organiser for the Farmers' Union and go and tackle the other job. I cannot advocate anything that I believe to be going on wrong lines, and I am quite satisfied that unless we make some move in the direction I suggest that we are going on wrong lines.

The chairman: Everyone gives you credit for being thoroughly conscientious, but you cannot expect everybody to see eye to eye with you. At a later stage Mr Astbury moved: That with the view of placing our aims and objects as farmers before the labor unions, and with the desire on our part to get to a better understanding with them, we suggest that a conference be held between the members of the Farmers' Union and members of the labor unions, and that this remit be submitted to the Dominion Conference, with the hope that steps will be taken to bring this conference about at such time and place as can be best arranged. Mr Astbury thought this might help ! them along the road that Mr Buckeridge desired to lead the Farmers' Union. A good deal of misunderstand- j ing existed on both sides, which might be largely removed if they could meet ■ face to face. These men probably had | the same aims, directed by self-inter-ests, as farmers had, and if the latter could display some sympathy towards labor and place before them tho aims and objects of the Farmers' Union it j might go a long way towards arriving at a better understanding and removing that antagonism that certainly existed, and for which there was probably no cause. Mr Voullaire seconded the motion, which was carried. Mr Buckeridge thanked the conference for their sympathy towards th^ motion. He was in deadly earnest when he said that he would have to resign rather than that this thing should be neglected, because he believed that it was absolutely imperative in the interests of the Dominion and the whole world that there should be some better understanding between labor and employer. He was prepared to do all in his power to bring this about, even had it meant breaking away from the Farmers' Union to do so, and nobody knew what a break away from the Union —a body that was doing so much good and a body that he thought so much _—would have meant to him. He repeated that a conference with labor's leaders would not bring them into touch with the men they wanted. It was on all fours with the idea of sending a few children to school and expecting them, by •conveying a garbled version of what

they had heard, to educate the rest of the children in the country. Such a v/stem of education could never stand, and so with this movement. It was absolutely necessary to get right down amongst the rank and file of labor and 'ducate them first hand, and so enable them to put their leaders right. He would be quite willing to go as one of the emissaries from the farmers to _ese men. (To b e continued. >•