PARTNERSHIP

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 15 April 1944, Page 4

PARTNERSHIP

EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE AX ESSENTIAL FOR THE NEW j ORDER? Mi’ H. Valder, of Hamilton, is very conscious of the need for getting aj more harmonious and therefore bet- ; ter working arrangement between j capital and labour. He it was who i made possible the establishment of i the Valder Fellowship for Research into social relations in industry in New Zealand. Dr. A. E. C. Hare, who is the holder of that Fellowship, was in Nelson recently in the course of his official investigations. If the new order of which we commonly speak is to succeed, Mr Valder thinks business men and industrialists generally will have to take a large share in making it work. Here are two excerpts from a booklet called "Implementing the Atlantic Charter in Industry,” published in the “Towards Economic Citizenship” series by the Employee-Partnership Institute. Hamilton, of which Mr Valder is the moving spirit: Industrial circles appear very largely to have ignored the business implications contained in the Atlantic Charter. . . . The first obstacle in the organisation of industry is that business men, as a class, have not yet come to a definite decision, either for or against the Charter. ... Do business men desire to continue the present custom in industry of working to a standard of business ethics which does not extend beyond their own interests —a philosophy directly opposed to the provisions of the Charter? No sane thinker wishes to jettison the experience gained in the organisation of industry since the period known as the Industrial Revolution, but industrialists should at least strive to bring the standard of business morality in industry into line with that of other phases of our social order. As may have been guessed, Mr Valder, after mature experience in industry, is strongly in favour of its organisation on a co-operative basis. The Maori worked on that principle. “There is,” says Mr Valder, “a vast latent potential factor in production which the present industrial system fails to develop—that is the enthusiasm, interest and zeal of the employee. Labour is convinced that the owners of capital are gettingmore than their fair share of the profits of industry. The owners of capital arc convinced that Labour is not contributing its fair measure of service to industry, and neither party is satisfied.” Mr Valder has been persistent in the advocacy of his system and in explaining what it would involve. He shows that provision already exists in the New Zealand Companies Act .for the issue of “Labour Shares” which is an integral part of the plan. A specimen balance sheet, which he sets out, is also illuminating. This booklet does not give a fulllength description of the plan. Several pages are taken up with quotations from authorities—some of them eminent—to show how some such change must'come in the future structure of industry if it is to get rid of the root causes of present friction. Rotary International has displayed a keen interest in getting more humanity into industrial relations and, as such, Mr Valder’s plan has come under the notice of its discussion groups. Some such method of industrial organisation, now practised in a restricted field, has in it the germ of greater accomplishments. It may be one of those improbabilities which become standard practice in course of time when the edge is worn off obstinate and foolish prejudices.