CAPITAL AND LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17269, 19 September 1919, Page 8

CAPITAL AND LABOUR.

HARMONISING RELATIONS. SUGGESTED CONFERENCE. VIEWS OF MR. BLOODWORTH. ."■ t •■■ ■•' "■•. ■ •;. >. The opinion that the Government should call a conference of" representatives of capital and labour, expressed by the president of the Auckland Employers' Association at ; the annual meeting on "Wednesday,, was referred to by the prudent of the United Federation of .labour, Mr. T. Bloodworth, yesterday. -■ He drew attention to the fact that last May -the federation asked the Government to call such a conference/ and, speaking personally, he was sure that if tie proposal had been given tffect to much of the present industrial uneasiiiess would have been avoided. r It appeared, however, continued Mr. I Bloodvrtn-tb,. thai the Few Zealand Employers' Association had been opposed to holding such a conference. Mr. Wi Pryor, secretary to' the Employers' Association, speaking at Christchnrch, said that pressure had been brought to bear on the association during the ■ past 18 months to be "a party to a Schema for a Dominion conference between capital i and labour, but the Advisory Board had felt, that . it should not agree to the scheme. Mr. Bloodworth said that at the last annual conference of the Auckland iSmployers' Associafciion views similar to the so of Mr. Spencer had been expressed* and at the instance of the" Federation of Labour he had written to the secretary stating that the federation would be glad if a conference could be arranged. The reply stated that the committee was of the opinion that the time was hardly rip© when a conference could attain any gtod or definite result. \ -

The Federation had issued its proposals in a manifesto published last November, continued Mr. Bloodworth. The "manifesto w.ts based largely on the Whitley and Gat-ton manifesto ytlued in Great Britain, and had been favourably, commented on by- many of the leading papers in the Dominion, and by tie Labour press of Great Britain. So far, he had seen no proposals from the employers, nothing except, repeated references to- the extremist leaders of Labour who wen; alleged to have aacnred- control of the Labour movement. Mr. Blood worth said such references ware very ill-advised ; they did little except advertise the very ideas they were designed to combat. The Federation of Labour had done all it possibly could to arrange a meeting with the employers, to have a. " round table" talk on industrial matters.

The attitude of the employers had been very different from that of the farmers. Some years ago there had been very bitter ieelmg between the Farmers' Union and the workers' unions, said Mr. Bloodwwtu, but men on both sides had realised hL m a -.£ tote of affairs w *B of no benefit to either side, and the farmers ' ad ( invited representatives of the workers to their conferences. Conferences between he executive of the F arm *' Union and the town workers had also been held and as a result these two bodies understood each other better and were in greater harmony than ever before.