THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1913. THE BRITISH INDUSTRIAL OUT-LOOK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15736, 12 April 1913, Page 8

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1913. THE BRITISH INDUSTRIAL OUTLOOK.

■The year 1912 will doubtless Be long remembered in the Old Country as one of grave industrial trouble. In its earlier months a great general strike marked the climax of prolonged discontent, on the part of the coal miners, ana later in the year occurred a serious strike among the transport workers in. London. While these troubles were preceded by almost continuous industrial strife in 1911, as manifested in the railway strike and the Welsh disputes and riots, they have been succeeded by severals months of comparative industrial calm. Tho wave of unrest would almost appear for the time to have exhausted itself. But it might be a mistake to suppose that this is actually the case: no such conclusion would be certainly justified on the evidence that is available. It is to be borne in mind that the British coal strike played havoc with the resources of the large trade unions, and the failure of the transport strike had also an unmistakable significance for the workers. The period of comparative tranquillity which British industries seem outwardly to be enjoying at the present time is doubtless explained partly by the goodstate- of trade that js prevalent and by the fact that reaction is always likely to follow a series of industrial conflicts on a .large scale. Desirous of ascertaining the present and 'prospective state of things with regard to trade and employment, labour movements, and the relation of employers to employed, The Times has been utilising the services of a special correspondent who lias been engaged on a tour of investigation in the chief industrial centres and mining districts. The fact that industrial antagonism has been less intense of late, and the desire to cany matters to an extremity less marked than was observable last year, do not necessarily imply that a condition, of stable peace and harmony has been reached in any quarter or that the area of strife has been lessened. On the contrary, wo are told that the number of questions that are being raised between employers and employed almost from day to day all over the country has probably rather increased than diminished of late. But there has been a fairly general disposition to settle differences without coming to blows or ceasing work, to out strikes short where they occur and confino them to the place of origin. Obviously, however, some pacific influences must have been at work. The chief factor that is emphasised among these is the continued activity of trade Buoyancy of trade, as will readily be perceived, eases all sorts of burdens, allays friction, and covers up weaknesses, and so is liable to produce a deceptively smooth surface. It has enabled employers

to give advances in wages and made them disposed to adopt any tolerable arrangement in order to avoid a stoppage of work. On the other hand it has rendered the employed sufficiently satisfied with improved earnings to prefer work under present conditions to the idleness and privation that are involved in strikes. Such a state of affairs is not inconsistent, it is pointed out, with the fact that a marked and general improvement in trade is usually signalised by the occurrence of extensive strikes, because the employed demand a share in the improvement which the employers are at first disinclined to grant, since such strikes do not usually last long and a state of reasonable equilibrium is reached and maintained for a time except where the demands made on the .employers are excessive. When a wave of general prosperity sets in the effect has been an alternation of industrial war and industrial peace—of. strikes and agreements. "We seem to have Teached the second stage more quickly than usual in the present case," the special correspondent of The Times writes, and in his opinion this may be ascribed purely to the unprecedented severity of the initial shock, due to tho improved organisation of labour, and partly to familiarity with methods of conciliation and the development of machinery for effecting it. He continues: "The unprecedented shock of the coal strike last year both shortened its duration, by compelling the Government to intervene, and exhausted the general appetite for fighting. This was shown by the frigid isolation- in which the last London dock strike was kept by organised labour at large in spite of urgent and repeated appeals. It is natural that the duration of war should vary inversely with the scale on which it is conducted: tho greater the effort the greater the strain and the sooner it is over." Sinco the London dock trouble no .strike' piv a great scale has been attempted in the Old Country, though many opportunities have presented themselves which would have probably been seized a year ago; but disputes have been going on in a fairly steady stream at tho rate of about sixty a month, only, as already mentioned, there has been a general disposition on both sides to come to terms. But while Great Britain is enjoying comparative industrial tranquillity at the present time, The Times is not disposed to be very optimistic. about the permanence of this state of affairs. Apparently it is more inclined to view it as the calm that too often precedes the storm. "Apart from isolated cases," it observes, " the horizon is already beginning to wear a more stormy .look again. Several questions of the greatest magnitude are pending. The cotton trade, the railways, shipbuilding and coal mining—to say nothing of. local matters—are all threatened with trouble. We have no wish to paint the prospect darker than it is—but to ignore plain facts is always foolish."