MEN VERSUS MONEY.
THE ARBITRATION ACT. SIB JOSEPH WARD'S VIEWS. [BY TELEGRAPH.— CORBBSFON'DEKT.} Paeeoa, Wednesday. Lv the course of his speech at Karangahake this afternoon Sir Joseph Ward referred in an interesting manner to the Arbitration Act. It could, he said, be improved, but none the less it" had done away with the old system of the strength of men against the strength of money. Under that system only one class suffered—the workers and their wives and children. ■ A similar state of things would he our lot here if in the future we repealed from our Statute Books that important piece of work which enabled disputes to be settled by a process of law, and provided in the meantime against any loss of production in the particular industry affected. Only within the last few days, he said, this country had been asked to help the men who had struck work in the shipping trade at Sunderland. Thirty thousand of them were now out of work, and nearly starving. Those men and their wives could have been saved if they had in the Old Country such a law as our Arbitration Act. The "old system was barbarous, cruel, and cowardly, and in every country where it existed the men always got the worst of it. It was impossible to compare conditions in the Old Land with those in New Zealand. On the Continent of Europe— indeed, in all the Continental countries— they had to resort to anarchy to impress upon the people their desire to obtain amelioration of laws. This was a very improper method for anyone to resort to.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13672, 13 February 1908, Page 5
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269MEN VERSUS MONEY. New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13672, 13 February 1908, Page 5
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