WAGES OF WORKERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13779, 18 June 1908, Page 6

WAGES OF WORKERS.

THE ARBITRATION . COURT. SPEECH BY DR. EINDLAY. [»y TI•; r.l•;<-;n al> it. —Ml ESS ASSOCIATION. W'flr.-UN'f.TO.v, Wednesday. The Hon. Dr. Findlay delivered a speech in Wellington to-night, supplementing hi:< recent Wanganui utterances, arid replying to criticism thereon. To the assertion tlwt sweating had been Abolished by the Factories Act, and not the Arbitration Act, lie pointed out that the wages of tailorense*. oik! factory hands- were raised by the Arbitration Court years before the passing of the Factories Act. of 1901. During 13 yearn there,had been 18 strikes, ail really small and short-lived, and only 12 of these had been illegal. In theso strikes less than one per cent, of the total wage-earners' had been involved, while the days of idleness- due to them were few. In Britain during a given decade 20 per cent, of (lie workers were at sonic lime or other directly involved in labour conflicts, and the average days- of idleness wore 49 per man. Dr. Findlay re-, ]>eated and amplified his argument at Wanganui that the increase ill the cost of living was due only in a very small degree to the Arbitration Act, but to enhanced price* of foods-lull's in foreign markets, and the great increase, in the unimproved value of land, and the cost of material, The speaker admitted that the Conciliation Boards had entirely failed to achieve tho results anticipated by Mr. Reeves. Homo effective method of enforcing fines' short of imprisonment was urgently required, He thought the provision in the Act preventing victimising needed amendment. He quoted statistics compiled from the income tax figures showing that the various trading and industrial concerns ' are assessed on £7,775,579, but allowances for interest and rent would considerably reduce these profits, inasmuch as at least £'10,000,000 was invested to produce these profits. He did not y.T.si-rt that the great bodx of workers were receiving wages which justified no increase, but unless more wealth wa.s produced by increased effort and co-operation on the part of both employers and employed there was not much prospect of any marked rise in the general level of the workers' wages, Dr. Findlay then asked what was to guide the Arbitration Court in fixing wages. On dismissed the profit-sharing principle as impossible. In hi.-Abelief if compulsory arbitration was to continue it. must continue to be a wage-regulator, and the best standard for its guidance was a double, ot, rather, a primary and a supplementary, standard. The primary standard should be the needs of the worker, and th« wage based on it should be not a bare subsistence wage, butone which would allow for all conventional decencies essential to a- worker's self-respect. The needs wage should tie supplemented by an exertion wage, providing for extra payment for extra work. The practice of paying a premium wage to one or two operatives in order to force the pace had been rightly condemned by trad'- unions,'but i! had never been tried under a compulsory Arbitration Act, with powei to prevent abuses. Where a progressive wage for individual workers was impracticable, a collective progressive wage could be paid. T'» give all workers, last or slow, skilful-or careless, the same payment, tended to degrade laboui. The- system he suggested could not injure •flic workers, And the employers could have no reason to complain. A resolution of confidence in the Government was- carried at the conclusion of the speech.