THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1907. THE ARBITRATION ACT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13854, 18 March 1907, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MARCH 18, 1907. THE ARBITRATION ACT.

A GRATIFYING OUtcOlllO of ' the slaughtermen's strike has been the proof which has been afforded that the machinery contained in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act is, as Mr Justice Cooper said on Saturday morning, effective for the purpose of enforcing due compliance with the provisions of the law. It would he affectation to assert that there had been no doubt on this point. As a matter of fact, a good deal of apprehension was felt on the part of many of those who attach considerable importance to the maintenance of the Act lest it should bo found to be defective in this vital particular. Most of the slaughtermen themselves, it is quite clear, entertained the belief that there was no power to enforce the payment of the penalties imposed upon them, and that consequently they could defy the Arbitration Court and bring the whole law into contempt. It is possible, too, that they all cherished a conviction that, even if the Crown might have in reserve the effective instrument which the power to imprison might place in, its hanc|s, the Government would hesitate to wield such a weapon. It is a fortunate circumstance that the Minister of Labour did not shrink from the duty, painful though it might be, of talcing extreme measures to enforce the law. Had it been otherwisehad any of the strikers been permitted 'to evade the payment of their fines on the worthless plea that they were out, of work and were therefore without means—it is perfectly evident that the value of the Act would have been d-estvoyed to such an extent that its preservation in its existing form would have been an impossibility. For the Act, instead of being a beneficent law, would have been converted into a measuro so partial in its operation as to be tyrannical and oppressive. Thus, it was not merely the vindication of the authority of the Arbitration Court that was involved in the proceedings of last week to enforce the payment of the fines that

had been inflicted on the strikers: tlio maintenance of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act itself was at stake. When this is realised the fact that not a- solitary union throughout tlio country saw fit to express its disapproval of the lawless conduct ;of the, slaughtermen will ho seen to have possessed a distinctly sinister significance. It cannot be seriously disputed for one moment that the unionists as a. class have derived substantial benefits from the operation of the arbitration law. We have seen in the past fortnight that a good >. deal of stress has bsen -laid on the disappointment some, unions have felt over the issue of the reference to the Arbitration Court of disputes in which they have been interested. The precise relevance of the decision of the Court in these few isolated cases to the controversy in respect of the questions in issue in tlio slaughtermen's strike was not very apparent, unless, indeed, the object was to justify the repeated declaration by the- ■■ slaughterers that they had no confidence in the Arbitration Court. But what of the scores of unions that have gone to the Court with their grievances and have obtained material relief for their members, whether in the form of increased wages, of reduced hours, or of improved conditions'? Would they be prepared to throw over the existing arbitration system, even though its usefulness may be impaired- through the delays that have been, but are not necessarily, incidental to the settlement of disputes, and to reverb to a system under which disputes between employers and employees are decided, in the long run, by the powers of endurance of the parties—a system under which . the advantage clearly lies with the combatant holding the longest purse, and under which the wives and families of the workmen are too frequently called upon, while tlio struggle lasts, to suffer severe privations? If not, it might reasonably have been expected of them that during the recent trouble in Canterbury they should express their disapproval of the tactics that were employed by the slaughtermen, entirely calculated as these, if successful, would have been to wreck the arbitration system under the protection of which the industries of the colony have been carried on during the past twelve prosperous years. We cannot suppose that the conference in Dunedin at Easter of delegates from the -various Trades and Labour Councils of the colony will be as silent on the matter as tli'3 Trades and Labour Councils have themselves been, and we hope that it will be recognised by the representatives who will be present that the omission on the part of the unionist organisations to disclaim sympathy with the spirit of lawlessness that was so flagrantly manifested in Christchurch within the last three weeks conduced to the impediment of the Industrial Conciliation and' Arbitration Act. It is a matter for sincere rejoicing that the system established by law has emerged scatheless from "the trying ordeal to which it has been subjected, even though it cannot be alleged that for this result the unionists in the colony are to be thanked in the slightest degree. It was left to the employers to adopt a position in defence of the arbitration system, which the slaughtermen and their union would have ruthlessly torn down, their unionist comrades ' throughout the colony not venturing to say them nay. The firmness which the Government displayed throughout tlio whole of the unfortunate occurrence happilyihad the effect of defeating the iconoclastic designs of the strikers, and the satisfaction which the friends alike of the arbitration system and of law and order will feel over this will not be diminished by the circumstance that, as Mr Justice Cooper was informed on Saturday, it will nob now be necessary for the Crown to execute any of the writs of attachment that would have involved the imprisonment of the men against whom they were directed. It would have been 1 deeply and widely regretted if any .misguided strikers had been required to undergo a term of imprisonment as a punishment for their effence.