WHO RULES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2168, 26 August 1920, Page 2

WHO RULES.

IN an article bearing upon the recent waterside (rouble in Wellington, and the necessity for some action being taken to ensure that the industrial life of the Dominion will be safeguarded against a fuel shortage as Hie result of industrial upheavals, the Post says: —-“The quest ion, of course, is a much bigger one Hum superphosphates; it is even much bigger than (he question of the working of the port of Wellington; it covers the whole operation of mines ami ports and transport services. If the present system, or present met hods,- 1 cannot provide essential industry, and fuelusers generally, with a belter working margin of coal —that is to say, if a bigger output of industrial coal canilot be obtained —some radical

steps will have to be taken to increase product ion by replacing all non-efficient factors with efficients. If necessary, liu* Stale itself will have to take this work in hand: or perhaps will have to participate in some co-operative effort along the lines of—though not necessarily identical with —the recommendation of: the Coal Mines Commission. “Non-efficient factor’’ means any worker who unjustifiably underworks-; any person who aids and abets limitation-of-output; any mineowner whose methods arc inefficient; any coal-carrying or other system of transport or distribution not reasonably equal to requirements. Not for long can a stale of affairs be tolerated under which key Indus-’ tries starve dependent industries of fuel or material, so that the industrial population of a whole city may be thrown out of work on twentytour hours’ notice. People who depend solely on gas for cooking must either break away permanently from such dependence —which is difficult and perhaps in some cases impossible —or must see (but gas is not placed -at the'‘mercy of slow-goers on the wharves or in the mines. And people who- live by bread produced in bakeries dependent on electric power must similarly safeguard their staff of life, also a lump of other things, including tram-travel, illumination, invalids and childrens means of existence, etc. Further, housing and public works cannot wait for ever for eoal-liuugry.ce-ment-production. The starving of the .community ■through. the industrial and household coal supply has already continued too long. Limitatiouisls must give place to workers.'''