LABOUR CONDITIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 6

LABOUR CONDITIONS

NEW ZEALAND AND AMERICA. INTERESTING COMPARISONS. [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWX CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Friday. Goodnow, who occupies the law chair at the famous Columbia Univer- ! sity, New York, left here for Auckland I to-day. In the - course of an interview he said "that one of his objects in visiting Australasia was to obtain a first-hand know'ledge of the working of its system of industrial arbitration. Tins particular Australasian experiment has been watched by Americans with great interest. 44 1 do . not think compulsory arbitration is coming in America," lie observed, " though we have already a partial system of conciliation. There are in several of the States Boards of Conciliation, appointed by the State Governments. Their duty is, whenever a strike occurs, or is threatened, to call the employers and the leaders of the union together and try to bring them to a friendly understanding. The Boards do not command much public confidence, and vet they have often done a great deal of good, just by bringing the parties together. That and giving advice are all they have power to do " Perhaps one reason why the workers among us are not demanding compulsory arbitration," continued the professor, "is that they are - able to achieve so much through their unions. In many industries they have settled for themselves such questions as that which caused the recent waterside strike at Sydney.- hey simply do not let the masters employ non-union-ists. As an instance, stonemasons will refuse to set stone that has been quarried by free labourers. There was a time when the employers refused to negotiate through the trades union officials, but that is almost past. It is now the established practice in some of the most important industries for the employer and the union to hold a conference once a year and fix the wages and other conditions for the following 12 months. The agreements made in that way are pretty generally adhered to. - • "In part of the British Empire it seems to me that labour is the controlling factor in every political situation. That is, of course, why immigration is so little encouraged. You are developing slowly, and whatever may have been the case years ago, your increase, of population is , but slight. I have been very seriously wondering how long Australasia will be able, with its handful of whites, to preserve itself from being overrun by Asiatics, and you are doing very little for your own defence. Your military forces don't amount to much, and you have no navy of your own. Your contribution to the Imperial navy is . extremely small—£24o,ooo from the 6,000.000 people in Australasia, while the English taxpayers have to find £1 a head. ".■I ' admit,'-' continued the professor, going back to the immigration question, "that by keeping out almost everybody not , of your own race you. avoid great difficulties. America lias always been the Mecca of the oppressed, and it was no uncommon thing within recent years for 30,000 immigrants from all parts of Europe to land in New York in a single day. Many of these people cannot speak a. word of English, but when they have been five years in the country they /are American citizens.' A good many of them vqte illegally before the period of naturalisation is ended. I There are people 'who are very anxious to I get their votes, and that is one of the ' i causes of our political corruption, of which, I I. think, you hear a good deal in this country.", "