LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 10

LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

There is a touch of pathos as well as of irony in the publication at this juncture of the report of the Commission set up to consider the economic conditions on the Rand. If this report had been drawn up last year—and the work very well could havo boon undertaken months ago—it might have profoundly affected the courso of events in South Africa.. Of course it does not follow that the recommendations would have been ac cepted, and in point of fact the authorities would have had some difficulty in giving effect to them, hut tho publication would not have been without a salutary influence on public opinion. There is a temptation to rend into tho report a justification of the grave agitations of last year, but tho cabled summary is too brief to warrant any safe deductions. The report, however, confirms the impressions that have been formed in the past concerning the relations of capital and labour on tho Rand, that there is and has been virtually since the conclusion of the war, an utter lack of agreement between tho mine-owners and the workers, a constant failure to cooperate and a rooted objection on the part of the employers to the organisation of tho white workers. Years ago the mine-owners raised an objection to the extensive immigration of white labour on the ground that it would stimulate trades unionism, and their persistent policy has boon to discourage unionism and to refuse to recognise it. The Commission declares its opinion that this attitude is sheer folly. Instead of encouraging honest unionism and using it to promote industrial peace, tho employers have forced it to work underground, and havo left it to fall into the hands of the mere violent agitators, with the inevitable result that the conflict between capital and labour has taken tho most dangerous shape. The same policy has been pursued in certain parts of the United States, particularly in the anthracite districts, with precisely the same results, and it ; s safe to predict that so long as it is continued in South Africa so long will the country be subject to outbursts of violence. There is not the slightest chance of the vigorous action of the Government in suppressing the recent trouble giving South Africa industrial peace. Unionism, remembering and resenting tho unconstitutional deportation of its leaders, will simply resort to moro secret and still less desirable methods of conducting its agitations and until a more rational policy is adopted the country will continue to be a source of distress and anxiety to the rest of the Empire.