NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19453, 8 October 1926, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION. No democratic State which carries its democratic principles to their proper conclusion would allow either lock-outs or strikes in any of the great industries which are essential to the life and welfare of the nation as a whole, says Lord Darnley in a letter to the Times. " 1 agree that the policy of compulsory arbitration could not be enforced upon an unwilling people, or upon unwilling employers and workmen," he remarks,

" but I feel sure that, before many years have passed, opposition to the arbitration idea will pass away and public opinion will veer round to the conclusion that it is infinitely better, from the point of view both of the State and of aU engaged in industries, whether as employers or employed, that these ruinous conflicts should cease, and that the disagreeing parties should submit to arbitration by Parliament, through the means of whatever judicial or semi-judicial body Parliament may appoint. To put the matter on the lowest grounds—self-in-terest —which alternative is lik,ely to cause the greater loss of money and time to both employers and employed, to fight out these quarrels or to submit them to the arbitration of some impartial body appointed by Parliament? Would either side in these disputes run any serions risk in submitting to arbitration of this sort, or, at all events, any risk remotely comparable to the risk that they now run by the stoppage and dislocation of their industry ? Surely* thero can be only one answer to such a question. Fight or arbitrate. These are the alternatives which confront the nations of the world in their international dealings, and tho peoples of the nations in their internal affairs. It is difficult to imagine that the comparatively minor difficulties of arbitration can for long continue to impede the extinction of the ghastly horrors of modern warfare between nations, or the illfeeling, distress and econpmic waste incurred by fighting out theso industrial disputes within our own borders." FOLLY OF GENERAL STRIKE. An emphatic condemnation of the general strike was uttered by Mr. C. T. Cramp, industrial secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen. lecturing at the I.L.P. Summer School, Easton Lodge, Dunmow. He said that, as one who had given the theoretical side of the general strike long consideration and also was in action during the whole of its continuance, he believed the chief lesson which emerged from their experience was that a general strike was quite inadequate to deal \vith any issue which was complicated or involved. Indeed, it would appear that they must henceforth regard the general strike as a weapon to negative something rather than one, which could achieve results on the positive side. In order that the general strike might be successful it was necessary to enforce tho resignation of the Government., for no Government could take the attitude of forcing a matter to a national crisis, and afterwards surrender without resigning. In spite, therefore, of the denials of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, the issue was a constitutional one. If successful it did involve a revolutionary change in their methods and it was well to face the fact. The issue of the conflict had conclusively proved that in the circumstances prevailing during the general strike there, was no half-way house between the ballot-box and tho machine-gun. "It has-been asserted by various speakers and writers that the Government was preparing to surrender when the end of the general strike came about," Mr. Cramp added. "I do not know what evidence these people havo for their assertions. I have seen nono produced. Certainly to those engaged in the battle there seemed no weakening on tho part of the Government at all." The general strike, if carried to its logical conclusion, would deprive the workers themselves not merely of food, but of the means of communication for tho continuance of the struggle. The general strike, as such, had been proved a failure and could never be employed successfully in a positive way against a Government. AMERICA'S FRIENDSHIP. A monument, to Commodore MacDonough, IJ.S.N., who in 1814 beat off a British attack in an engagement which proved to be the last naval encounter between the two English-speaking nations, was recently unveiled at Plattsburgh, by Mr. F. B. Kollogg, the United States Secretary of State. "This battle ended hostilo action between Great Britain and the United States," he said. "It did more. It initiated that friendship between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race which has endured for over 100 years. It is a friendship which has enabled us to maintain a common frontier with Canada for thousands of miles without armed defences on cither side, a condition made possible only by tho mutual faith which the one people has for the other. Here let me add that tho last relic of an armed frontier is about to disappear. The old United States vessel, the side wheeler Wolverine, is about to pass into the possession of the City of Erie. This friendship has on many occasions extended far beyond tho passive friendship of an unguarded frontier until it culminated when our men stood shoulder to shoulder in France. The British Government and the Government of the United States have frequently found themselves in accord in representing and voicing the aspirations of our two peoples toward right and justice. ... It is inconceivable that anything can bring these nations again into the conflict of war. Differences will arise as they havo in the past, but they can and will be settled without tho arbitrament of arms. Two peoples which have to a great extent the same historical background, tho same respect for law and love of justice, tho same ideals of government and of international conduct, cannot again imperil the world by going to war with each other. I should despair of the future of our civilisation it this were not so and here in tho presence of tho heroic dead of both nations let us again pledge ourselves to tho maintenance of that peace."