THE EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14359, 31 October 1908, Page 9

THE EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION.

The report which was submitted at the annual meeting cf the Otago Employers' .Association yesterday contained no features of special interest save perhaps a comment on the industrial legislation of last session. Within limitations the late«t development of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act secures approval as being greatly in advance of anything that lias preceded it, and the executive of the Association expressed the hope that employers would give the new conditions a fair trial and that these would prove more beneficial than their pmleeessors. Mr .1. 0. Thomson, in an incisive presidential address endorsed this view, bill, although lie is evidently prepared to withhold furl-hoi- criticism of the Act pending; developments, lie did not bv any means disappoint the expectation Hiat. lie would have something pungent to say with reference to the legislative regulation of labour. Of the points of interest to which Mr Thomson adverted with his characteristic plainness of speech, perhaps that affording roo,sti food for reflection was his reference to -".the general loirgring of the moral 1

• tone of the community that i 9 going on and has been going on for a very long time," this, it is to ho inferred, heing a. result—in part, at. least—of tho methods' and actions of organised labour. Mr Thomson proceeded to this .uncompromising assertion: "I venture to say that there is more perjury indulged in in tho Arbitration Court in a. month than in the Supreme Court in a vcar. Von may think this a very strong statehut it can ho proved, and the woist feature, of it is that it is not individual perjury, but combined perjury, carefully prepared beforehand." AYc are assured by him, in short, that members of labour unions are frequently quite willing to sacrifice truth in the witness box if by so doing they can advance their own interests. That tho suggestion will be repudiated with agood deal of virtuous indignation from the quarter most concerned mnv he taken for granted. If wo look at the matter dispassionately, however, while , the examples quoted by Mr Thomson i may have some value as presumptive ' evidence of tho correctness of his coni tention, they are, of course, very far i from conclusive as a justification of the - general implication. If, a,s wo are . invited to 1 believe, the system under ' which tho Arbitration Court- regulates ■ wages is really serving as an instru- >. incnt for the perversion of industrial i morality, a distinct menace to the eomi liinnity, and perhaps the most powerful i impeachment of the system, yet ad- • duced, is disclosed. There is no • special reason to scout the likelihood ; of the existence of a tendency on the : pnrb of organised labour, where oppor- , trinity offers, to go even so far as to i misrepresent matters to the Arbitration . Court. On tho other hand, there is no , dear warrant for the belief that- there : is any widespread overstepping of the . margin between making the best of a [ easo and misrepresenting it. We. trust L that Mr Thomson quite overrates the I danger in which the Arbitration t system involves the morality of the \. community, but- inasmuch as the p'os- , sibility of tho sort of thing he more . than hints' at is not- to be ignored, > it is certainly desirable that wherever [ conclusive proof of misrepresentation is 5 available- steps should he taken to f unmask the offenders in such a manner 3 as would have a useful efTect in the t future. Most observers would probably ; be disposed to regard the deliberate j practice of a limitation of output which ; 11 us alleged by speakers at t-'ne meeting , of the Association as a contingency 5 attended with more unfortunate possi--5 bilities from both the moral and the t economic standpoint, since, though the two aspccts of the industrial position i may he intimately connected, it is . more, difficult to check than that upon . which Mr Thomson laid special stress, i. The view taken by Mr Thomson of the [ important question of the cost of liviii" . is hardly likely ( we are afraid, to satisfy > tho workers as a class. If it cannot be > accorded unqualified endorsement, how- : ever, it- would be unwise to assert olf- . hand that there is no justification for - it. The raising of the standard of living . may really be accountable in some ; degree for the extent to which the ■ cost- of living lias become an increased burden, and it is possible that there is a solid substratum of reason in the complaint- that "we are lowering labour from its place of honour and are unduly elevating pleasure and leisure." It. is to be hoped that the very instructive i lemaiks of Mr M'Gregor concerning the ; e.'tect which the increased cost of° pro- ) (lucho " is having upon important indus- - tries in the Dominion will receive the > attention thc-y merit from the leaders :• of organised labour. Nothing could be r moro undesirablo or more opposed to - the real interests of the workers tliem- ■ selves than that what could well be i manufactured in New Zealand should ; bo largely imported from the Old • Country and elsewhere, as is now the ; ease, and yet, as Mr M'Gregor lamented, - we have a plethora- cf political candil dates in the field at- the present time - seeking the Labour vote by a- promised advocacy of further concessions of a i description that would prejudice the ; success of local industry. Mr M'G'ivgcr's b appeal to Labour leaden; to give a^ita- ' tion for industry-hampering legislation a ; lost, to allow the latest development of • the industrial law a. chance to show l what its effects will be, and to give the • employer a- chance for existence, must : impress all who give it. dispassionate l consideration a.s a fitting conclusion to ! a sound and thoroughly justified expres- , won of opinion from one possessed'of a j iciy practical knowledge of the indus- ■ trial situation.