INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17700, 8 February 1921, Page 4

INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

I The new President of the Arbitration Court succeeded in a few wordß , yesterday in creating the impression , that the high traditions of the office ; he now assumes will be safe in his [ hands. He very aptly remarked I that class warfare served no possible purpose, and, with a touch of I idealism which should serve him well 3 in the controversial tasks which lie - ahead, expressed the opinion that I the causes of labour unrest are not » wholly economic. Mr. Justice b Frazer is not the first to reach these r conclusions, but it is good to know r that the President, standing at the r threshold of his career as an indusl trial Judge, realises that the Court i is more than an arbitration machine, j that Labour and employers are some- > thing more than links in an economic s chain and that work and wages must - sometimes be judged by moral, as . well, as-material, standards. The . day when the antagonisms Of Labour i and Capital will be stilled may apr pear distant, but those who believe that mutual confidence will be the : solvent of most economic unrest and | social evils will rejoice that Mr. j Justice. Frazer takes his mission so s seriously and places his ideals so I high. It is particularly desirable I that the President should have the , frank co-operation of employers and I employed during the period of unE stable prices. The outlook is, as > Mr. Rosser remarked, for a period i of falling prices. Most working men i will welcome this prospect, but it is r well they should realise the probable 1 movement of wages during such a - period. There have already been 1 reductions in wages in the United . Kingdom and the United States, and $ more are inevitable. The competij tion of foreign manufacturers is one r of the factors tending to depress 3 wages in the United Kingdom, but t in a period of falling prices the 3 lowering of wages is, within limits, i a natural and inevitable process, - which may leave the real standard I of living appreciably higher than at j the time of freak prices. The almost fc uniform effect of considerable wars j has been an abnormal increase in 1 wages and prices, followed by a r greater decline in the second than in 1 the first. There is every reason to 1 suppose that the net result of the i present fluctuations will be no less i favourable to wage earners. The f truth isy though it is often concealed 3 by Labour leaders, that the whole s history of industrialism has been i marked by a progressive betterment <■ of the conditions ( of the worker. It - is a far cry from the long hours of e grinding toil and the miserable s poverty which were the lot of wagee earners during the reigns of George r the Fourth and William the Fourth, s and even the early years of Victoria' 1 but there is no reason to apprehend o that social and economic evolution ,- has yet run its course. There wiH.

be readjustments, and wages will find their level, but even in the Old World the level will, represent a higher standard of comfort than ever before, provided production, the source of all wealth and comfort, is not artificially restricted. In a country like New Zealand, with its vast natural resources, we may hope for still greater advances in the general level of prosperity if the national will to work is not weakened and industry is not crippled sby destructive quarrels between Capital and Labour.