INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17097, 21 February 1916, Page 6

INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM.

POWER OF TRADE UNIONS. SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTIVE INSTRUMENTS. ( By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON, February 18. Sir Thomas Mackenzie! presided at a lecture at the School of Economics by the Hon B. R. Wise, of New South Wales, on the subject of industrial organisation.. The lecturer said that although the workmen's right to combine for trade; purposes was recognised, anomalies, existed. Traders and companies were permitted to do things which the law forbade unions to do, yet the latter were empowered to take collective action, for example to strike, without including collective liability. Power without authority was likely to increase the danger to the State and also the weakness of the workers themselves. The most pressing industrial problem to-day was to turn trade unions from mere weapons of attack into constructive instruments with a view to rebuilding our industrial society. Australia had given a lead by boldly declaring that an industry which was unable to pay a living wage ought not to be permitted to continue. Tariff revision was urgent after the war, the lecturer said. Nothing would unite the Empire more firmly.