NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19404, 12 August 1926, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE SQUIRE'S EXAMPLE. Speaking at the#annual dinner of the Land Union, Lord Salisbury expressed regret that no impression had been made on the coal strike. Unfortunately, he said, they were "up against" that most formidable of all things—a perverted good motive. The miners prided themselves on their loyalty—and had a right to do so—to their class and friends, but they seemed to forget that there was a higher loyalty—to their country and King. The miners thought that, notwithstanding the enormous losses and waste of resources which the country had undergone as a result of the war, they ought to have as good wages and conditions as before the war. He wished they were landowners, many of whom had been ruined by high prices and taxation. It had been said that landowners were unable to do their duty by the land. If that was so it was due to the war and to legislation promoted by the very people who made the charge. However, they could give a lesson not merely to the miners, but to all employers, because they had always been able to get on with their workmen. He felt certain that the lack of confidence between owners and miners was as much due to failings on the side of the owners as on that of tho miners. Let them learn of the humble squire. Let them see how he got on with the agricultural labourer, and he was sure that these industrial difficulties would show much less than they did at the present time. THE RETURN OF THE HORSE. "The return of the horse to our 6treets is patent and visible. It began to happen steadily, even slowly, within the past two years; it is continuing steadily and slowly, but that it should happen at all in the face of what the motor vehicle can do is surely remarkable," writes " R.C." in the Manchester Guardian. "Yet, there it is. Without counting numbers we are de.lnitely awaro that there are more horses in service in the streets than three years ago; the makers of harness and saddlery and other furnituro that goes with the use of the horse have been aware of the movement for some time. The return to horse haulage is due in no small measure to the growing congestion of traffic in our streets. It has origins, too, in the fact that the horse cannot be beaten, in the matter of cost of haulage, for short hauls where many stops have to be made. The motor vehicle, as a broad proposition, cuts down time between two given points as does no other transport system, and its door-to-door service is a strong feature in its favour. But what time is thus gained is often more than lost because of the waiting it has to do at one end or the other, or perhaps both, of its trip. There is need for drastic internal reform of transport facilities in order that the machine may be kept more on the road. The horse is at the moment more economical in certain spheres of transport because of the indirect result of certain operations, and only because of that." BOTH SIDES OF THE TRUTH. A striking explanation of the apparent "muddling" in British methods was given by Sir Michael Sadler, Master of University College, Oxford, in a speech day address at Bishop's Stortford College. "When it comes to be your turn to take a hand in the government of England, you will perhaps be disposed to think that the men of your fathers' generation must have been rather muddle-headed," he said. "You will ask yourselves why we were not more thorough-going in making up our minds between alternative policies; why we were so prone to compromise; why we left.so many tares in the wheat. If you feel impatient .with the way we have handled difficult questions in national affairs, may I ask you sometimes to try to put yourselves into our place and to 'link of us as having cared for the unity of the English people as something worth keeping at a time when it was threatened by changes which none of us could fully understand ? We have tried to keep our minds open to the truth which lies in each of apparently opposite opinions. We found good men and women divided in opinion, but conscious of a deeper unity which underlies opinion. . . Administratively, perhaps, the outcome of our labours looks confused. But in truth it has been a practical achievement in peacemaking. We have been tolerant of opinions not our own. We have tried to keep alive under the new conditions the rich and ancient variety of English life. We have endeavoured to be true to both sides of the truth." CO-OPERATION IN INDUSTRY. An appeal for the abandonment of "inherited hostilities" between employers and workers was made by Mr. Philip Snowden in a speech before the American Chamber of Commerce in London. He said the methods which had been successful for the last hundred years had exhausted themselves. and it was necessary therefore that not merely employers of labour, but workmen and all who were interested in industry should get together and examine existing conditions and try to arrive at some means by which, through hearty cooperation, a new era of industrial prosperity might be secured. He did not think any useful purpose could be served by trving to apportion the blame between employers and workmen for the deplorable ! conditions which existed to-day. Both j sides undoubtedly had responsibility and j a certain blame in the matter. It should i be understood- that employers and work- j men and trade unions were largely under , the influence of inherited ideas, traditions, and history. They could find in the industrial history of the earlier part of last century, when antagonism between employers and workpeople was most intense, an explanation of the resumption of that antagonism to-day. In those years tho workman was looked upon not as a human being, but merely-as a machine. Trade union methods, Mr. Snowden continued, many of them quite indefensible either on economic or moral grounds, could be explained by the experience of workmen in the past, when they knew that the larger their output snd the more energy they put forth, instead of bringing advantage to themselves, simply went to increase the profits of the employer. All this had to be changed. He held certain ideas with regard to the future reorganisation of industry, but he saw" no contradiction between those ideas and trying to secure at the present time the heartiest co-operation between the partners in industry. There never could be more taken out. of an industry than was produced by that industry. For this reason be would like to see trade union policy changed so that the unions would not be merely concerned, regardless of the condition of industry, to get the highest possible wage they could screw out of the industry, but would help to make industry thoroughly efficient, so that the means would be there out of which the highest wages could be paid.