TRADES COUNCIL DICTATORSHIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19405, 13 August 1926, Page 8

TRADES COUNCIL DICTATORSHIP.

Sir, —Tho resolution just passed by the Wellington Trades and Labour Council suggesting a boycott of the conciliation council in the event of the Minister of La'bour making an appointment which it objects to is far from conciliatory in tone and is not calculated to persuade the Minister that tho council i 3 right. It is . the big stick method of argument. The spirit behind it is that of dictator. Surely the council .members will reflect that the people got very tired of that sort of fulmination. We have a good deal of sympathy with tha idea that tho conciliation commissioners should not be drawn exclusively from the officers; of the Labour Department. There are instances where an individual outside tho department has a wider and fuller knowledge of industrial matters than probably anybody available in the department, and it is a good reason why the Minister on occasions should avail himself of tho wider field of selection. At the samo time the Trades Council will got nowhere by mere threatening. Then, we have tho demand of the council that the Government shall remove Mr. Justice Fraser from the position of president of tho Arbitration Court. This is because tho .council holds that the, decisions of tha ■ Court have been "in favour of tho employing class and against the weight of evidence." Of course, a partisan can always assert of a decision with which he is displeased that it is "against tho weight of evidence" or that it is one-sided. Wo * have known employers take up tho same attitude toward the. Court's decisions when they have gone in favour of the emTo call for removal of tho Judge every time one side is dissatisfied woftld be supremely absurd. Whether the bast 3 on which Arbitration Court decisions are arrived at are sound we have very grave doubt. The cost of living rule does not appeal to us as doing justice to the workers from any increased production. Fur- . ther, we cannot think of it as serving as a stimulus to increased effort or added intelligence in workmanship. These matters cannot, however, be altered by merely calling for the head of the Court on a platt£»r. What is wanted is a review of industry in the light of American experience, whore good wages and large output go hand in hand to the benefit of all concerned. N.Z. Welfare League.