Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1911. FAILURE OF ANTI-STRIKE LAWS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 23 October 1911, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1911. FAILURE OF ANTI-STRIKE LAWS.

TOE WEAK LINKS IN THE CHAIN.

THAT the industrial millennium when there, shall be no more' strikes has not yet arrived in New Zealand notwithstanding the Arbitration and) Conciliation. Aic.t am a the Jaw making .strikes illegal has been frequently proved since the Act with its numerous modifications and amendments came into force. And the futility of the measure 'may ibe dc-monstrat-td caioo more and l very disastrously should the shipping dispute spread to the Union Company. In devising a,law declaring a strike illegal, Parliament omitted to take into account the weak link in the chain, the element of inidividiual human volition. Only under the most drastic laws of an ideal sooiailisni could ail! men be- compelled l to do their quota of work against their will, iind even then certain callings more arduous or unpleasant than others "would l -have to ibe carried on as punishment for offences against the- state a.iTcl the indjlvidiuri)!. It might ibe theoretically possible, after almost insuperable difficulties had been j overcome,- to prevent a body of workers from striking collectively. Bui even then, if there be collective action, taken individually, it is impossible t'o see how a labour union co'uldi 'be dealt with without direct evidence of incitement. Further, even with proof of sucli incitement, - many or most of those 'who were among the actual strikers could mot foe reached',

and others could plead siTecess'fully that no existing law could competi a man to work if after due notice he chose to remain. idle. "Tiiis circumstance,- added to the notorious irnvriliing-iiesij of' Ministries or political p-artie.g dependent on the labour vote to make effective. the law declaring striked illegal, is mainly it»ponsi'blt; for the rpraatieal failure of the arbitration and conciliation) system, not only in New Zealand, 'but also in Australia.

Tih.e measures cojn/peljjixiig employers and uniona 'to go to arbitration over industrial disputes instead of resorting to locks-out or strikes may have 'been conceived in a spirit of fairness to both sides. But in actual practice the side has demonstrated! that in most instances it will accept an award only when all or nearly ali its claims are ccaiceded, or when al.l, or nearly all, the claims? of the employers are\ rejected. The 'employers, on the other hand, are so situated that they must abide by an arbitration award, or isiufßer penalties wihich labour either eludes or escapes. Thus, it will Ibe remembered that a year or two ago there was a slaughtermen's strike at various places an AW Zealand, andi the strikers were brought (betfore thy counts and fined. It is safe to .say that only a sinald proportion of the fines has ever been collected. The , individuals fined have either left the jurisdiction' of the 'courts before the law asserted itself, or they are still in the Dominion, immune because the la.w has not been, put in action against them. In New South Wales in September several strik'ors at Lithgow were fined or imprisoned, not onlly for a breach cif the strike .prohibition Law, hut becaiuso of offences against the common law. In this instance, also, the Labour Government (has postponed the enforcement of the fines, arid it has gone further, and actually released a union official convicted and ordered .to bo imprisoned for :breacheis of 'both industrial and common laws. Throughout Australasia to-day there are many men, politicians, lafbour leaders, and strikers, who wbiic- under sentence of fine cr imprisonment for defying the liaws of their own devising, have paid only a'small pant of the .penality, or none at-all. Obviously, these conditions, in conjunction wiifch the difficulty if not impossibility of coercing individual volition, are responsible for the abject failure of the Arbitration and Conciliation Acts to achieve therir raison d'etre, the prevention of .strikes. '

There is not likely to "be an adjustment Cf conditions enabling the natural laws of supply and demand to co-operate with the artificial laws attempting to -control the volition of the individual) till Australasia has equalised to some extent her population to her vast unpeopled areas, and l relieved t'he congestionof lier uriban and coastal centres 'By a more even settlement of tlie interior. While Great Britain has 370 people to tli« square mile. New Zealand and Australia reckon their people at albout .person® to the .square mile. At the last 'lmperial Conference Mr. Burns. President of (the Local Government Board, told l the delegates that the exodus from over-populated Britain is 60 per cent, of her increase, arid 300,000 per annum 1 could be spared without "emptying the tank." Of the total emigration from the British Isles live year® ago 54 per cent, 'were retained by British Dominions, and this percentage has increased since then to 80 per cent. But Australasia sitii'l gets only a small proportion of the 80 per cent, ~£et, disguise it as they may, colonial Governinfluenced 'by local (labour parties, are opposed to immigration) on a large scale, and aire only half-hearted iru their desire to attract an increased industrial population. The consequence i.s that the available labour (ministering to tlie services off a vast area with a population of only about per cent, to the. square mile, of \vihieh. proportion it forms a part) is not conf ronited with the competition of numbers that more densely populated countries controls, and' fo some extent checks, industrial upheavals. 'But Australasian" labour should mot take much comfort from' this facit, for the converse of the proposition is that, while the more close!y~ populated countries recover more or less quickly from tihe tosses and dislocation a great strike causes, the aftereffects of a great strike in a thinly-popu-lated country last for. years. In no single instance in Australasia have the workers yet regained in full the money loss represented (by the typical industrial struggles of the (past, although adimittedly the outcome of those struggles has been; the amelioration of thifr general) coridlitions of lalbour. It .if, in fact, a fair estimate that a great and prolonged strike in .these countries ending successfully for the workers invariably entails so much loss to the whole community that the .gain cannot I>e appreciable for a jreneratriion.. That is to say 7 the strikers might be investing in an insurance for their igrandchiMran, but at a cost to themselves for premiums which they cannot afford.