INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15892, 11 October 1913, Page 7

INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES. Bx thj Hon. J. T. Paul, M.L.C. Itemi of Information and brief comments on questions coming under this heading, ate always welooaie. Books, pamphlets, etc., sent to the tnthor ol this column will also bo nctiocd. MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. Ho following Labour organisations will meet at the Trades Hall during the week To-night (Saturday). Baiors Monday.—Painters; Butchers; Farriers; Rangeworkers; Housewives. Tuesday.—Woollen Mills Employees; Soft Goods; Plumbers' Federation. Wednesday—Tramways. Thursday.—Trades and Labour? Council; Social Democratic party. Friday.—Carpenters; Drivers; Moulders; Printers' Machinists. Saturday.—Typographical (Board); Millers. TO CORRESPONDENTS. F. M., ' Dunedin.—Many thanks. Such favours are always -welcome. Am using the facte next week. G. M,, Dunedin—Yes, you have correctly stated the position. A NEGLECTED JOURNAL , A parliamentary, return was recently prepared showing the cost of producing oertain Government journals and the receipts from sale of. same. One of these was the Journal of the Department of Labour. One thousand one hundred and fifty copies of the Labour Journal are printed monthly, and 1050 circulated, of which 902 are free copies. The cost of preparing this publication is £1M per annum, and of printing £396. In addition 2000 extracts of the report are sent monthly to the High Commissioner for free distribution to intending emigrants. Considering the value of the 'Labour Journal to all who are interested in the Labour question, the comparatively small circulation is somewhat surprising. For 2s 6d per annum the subscriber to the journal gets a large amount of interesting .reading. The Journal contains reports as to the state of the labour market, a digest 'of the cases under the Workers' Compensation for Accidents Act, recent legal decisions affecting labour, a la.rge amount of statistical information, and—perhaps the most important feature—reprints of the most important articles appearing in _ the reviews on labouT and social questions. Taking into consideration the excellent features of the Journal and its low price, it is surprising that the paid circulation is not considerably larger.

THE MEN WHO WILL NOT BELIEVE, j, Much confusion of thought and all wrong conclusions arise from evading facts. If we seek the facts as to the influence of compulsory arbitration we mu6t conclude that the Act has very considerably minimised strikes on the one hand and improved labour conditions on the other. But we 'still have strikes, says the objector., Therefore the Act has been a failure. Judged .by such a, test, all Acts of Parliament fail, because all law 3 are broken. No sane man urges that the law against robbery should be repealed simply because a thief has been .caught red-handed. Yet that is the logio of many -writers on tho Conciliation ind Arbitration Act. For instance, I road the following in an editorial in one of tho Christchurch evening dailies tho other day:—.

There is something quite pathetic in the Hon. W. P. Reeves's belief in the power of compulsory arbitration to prevent labour disputes. If the principlo had been employed as he meant it to be, there might have been a chance of his hopes being realised, but, as we all know, it has often been shamefully abused. And now Mr Reeves, with ail his knowledge of what is going on in the Commonwealth and tho Dominion, has been suggesting at Home that " the real remedy for strikes is to educate considerable bodies of employers and men into giving a trial in certain trades to the Australian and New Zealand method

■ of compulsory arbitration." As if that had proved a real remedy for strikes! Quito pathetic 1 Yet wo have had in New Zealand a very much lower percentage of strikes over a period of 20 years than has occurred in any other country with which a fair analogy can be .made, And undoubtedly compulsory arbitration has had mucil to do with it.

A very large proportion of strikes are caused by the refusal of employers to meet representatives of the trade union. Some employers prefer to deal with individual workers, knowing that the individual worker is weaker than a combination. The Conciliation and Arbitration Act gives the union a legal status and makes it the basis of collective bargaining. Times out of number during the'past 20 years Borne New Zealand employers would have refused to meet workers, professing to believe that the workers had no grievances. Compulsory arbitration alters all that. Tho real remedy for strikes is, of course, to instal industrial justice. Pending the installation of that ideal, we must have machinery which will help us along the] road to the ideal. That machinery, administered in a spirit of justice, should exist in compulsory arbitration. ' What happens without the element of compulsion is excellently illustrated by this (Wednesday) morning's cable, which reads: London; 6th October. Sir George Askwith, Board of Trade Industrial Commissioner, in his report on the Dublin industrial dispute, recommends the appointment of a conciliation committee, consisting of representatives of tho masters aiid men. The report

condemns sympathetic strikes, and de-

Clares that documents the workers had been asked to sign, binding them not to join the Transport Workers' Union, had interfered with individual liberty. The masters decline to accept the report, but the workers are prepared to accept it as.a basis of negotiations.

That admirably emphasises the ineffectiveness of voluntary arbitration. The masters will not accept a conciliation committee composed of representatives of masters and men. There can be no inquiry while the masters decline, and so the dispute must continue. All of which seems much more " pathetic " than Mr Reeves's suggestion.

THE PASSING OF'THE "RED NAPOLEON." All who are interested in social movements, and moro especially the political side of them, aro discussing the possible iffect of the removal of August Bcbel on the German Social Democratic party. There is a type of mind which professes to see disaster to any movement which elects or follows a leader. And yet there has been no great movement without a great leader. Some • great movements have collapsed when the leader has been removed. Will it be so with the German Social Democracy? It has been said of Babel that he wa6 " not only the leader of the Social Democratic party. He is the party. No other living member of the organisation •was born with it, as lie was, or lived through all its Vicissitudes and shared in all its triumphs." And Bebel had gone. Ho saw it grow in voting strength from 124,655 in 1871 to 4,250,329 votes in 1912.

Writing just before the death of Bebol, Frederick William Wile, in "Men Around tlio Kaiser: tho Makers of Modern Germany," says that "Not so long ago the sudden removal of Bcbel would have threatened tho solidarity, if not the existence, of German Social Democracy." But now the party machine is too well built to bo destroyed. Tte6 writer of tho latest book on Germany says that the whole Socialist vote of 1912 docs not represent convinced Socialists. "Hundreds of thousands of Germans 'voted red,'" rays Mr Wile, "because Socialism is the one positive, effective organ of protost at tho disposal of German malcontents.' Bebol was returned to tho Reichstag with 109 men at his back—s3 more than he had before—because they are the only unterrified, tooth-and-nail foes of reaction, insensate militarism and class rule, the ono voice which cries out insistently, fearlessly, implacably, against the injustices which, "in the, opinion of may patriotic men, are retard ins; the moral progress and flapping tho vital forces of -the German nation." _ ' ' All the time a change is coming o'er trie party. Mr Wil? puts it in these illuminating terms: —"The Social Democracy which will give August Bebol a conqueror's escort to tho grave is not tho Social Democracy which he. Marx. Engels, Liebknecht, and Hopner founds] in the early sixties. Tt is twentieth-century Socialism which holds sway to-jny. Republican still at heart and in principle, few "traceiof old-time stojwartism nre any longer visible. Bebol himself has progressed. He and the other veterans continue to form the bulwark against, tho rising tide of Revisionism, as the moderate and modern wing of the purty is known, but they have been compelled to surrender position after position to younger men like Frank. Bernstein, Heine, ami Sudokum. who stand for opportune as onposed to unyielding doetrinaiiianisrii. Friink. a brilliant Jewish barrister nf Mannheim. is looked upon as the inheritor of FHvl'- mantle. His accession to the load<rfhi'i will rlonotc tho definite pnfsing of the oM eitard." And so it will be seeu that Bcbel's death

erc-atcs a moat interesting position. A wonderful man has passed away—one of the greatest Germans of the century. Tho party has its difficulties ahead, but its organisation and discipline is wonderfully complete. Yet it will miss Bebel. "At the annual Socialist congresses," savs this interesting writer, "where the fight between Stalwart-ism and Revisionism has raged with increasing fury from year to year, rebel's influence is always for moderation. More than once hi» conciliatory intervention has warded off impending schism in tho party's warring ranks. His power over his people is magnetic. They look upon his counsel as oracular."

WHY IS THERE SOCIAL UNREST? Tile Dean of Melbourne at the recent Anglican Conference m Brisbane opened a discussion on this question so prominent at tae present day. lire Dean said tho working man saw that there was an unequal distribution of wealth and being shadowed by the uncertainty of unemployment, he uiereiore bccame restive. Moreover, the workers no longer owned the means of production and _ wero constantly handicapped in their life struggle in every direction .with diseaso and doath stalking round, 'ihe educational advantages might bo opened to them, but there was the gulf of poverty to bridge before they oould avail themselves of tfte opportunity of the benefits of education, 'ihe workers considered the present eoonom'c system unsound be-, cause of present day developments, and' Socialism was thoretore put forward as a remedy by some. Every pago of history flowed that social unrest was no new phenomenon. For one thing the working man saw an excessive inequality in tho distribution of wealth, and this inequality was not proportioned to tho service rendered to the community. Tho speaker -went on to eaj that the curse of unemployment was a continual menace. Under tho present capitalistic system there must always be a margin of unemployed labour to be drawn upon in case of sudden expansion or demand; and tho fear of unemployed casts its shadow over th whole of the working class. This was a symptom of the change in the workers' position duo to the industrial revolution. He no longer owned the ineana of production. Tho labouring class was heavily handicapped in life's struggle. It was deprived not only of luxuries, which might be hurtful, but comforts, which were desirable. In theory, every v inan had a chance to occupy any position in the State, but in practice there viae, a great gulf fixed between the life of tho labouring class and of property-owners, and yet ui native ability, and in soundness of character, the la.bouring class was not inferior to any other. xho Dean declared that amongst thoughtful' men it was impossible to find a wholehearted defender 01 the present capitalistic system Xho economist said it was wasteful. The moralist complained that it regarded man as a mere machino lor producing. wealth. The Christian ' affirmed that settish competition for material things -was of the devil. But the property-owner for his part, while naturally wishing to retain all the advantages he had gained was anxious about the future, and teared tho programme of the Labour party, and was still more fearful when ho saw that the law: was being disregarded, awards disobeyed, contracts repudiated, and a low standard- of honesty and fair dealing adopted.

JOTTINGS. The Railway Officers' Advooate for October acknowledged with thanks.

Tho eight-hours day is becoming more general among the steel smelteis in Great Britain, v/hosc organisation iitcrcascd by 9860 last year, tho present number being 27,009.

"The work of the union throughout its history has been for human betterment," says a Labour exchange. '"It has fought for a decent wage, decent hours, and decent working conditions. It has been a struggle for an increasing higher standard of living. In some measure it has achieved its object and secured theso things, not only for its own members, but for all workers, outside as well as inside the union."

Mr G. A. Elmslie, who succeeds Mr G. M. Prendergast as leader of the Victorian State' Labour party, is 52 years of age, and has been connected with the parliamentary labour movement in Victoria sinco 1892, when he was returned for Albert Park, a constituency ho has represented ever siuce. In 1904 he was appointed secretary of tho party, and during Mr Prendergast's recent absence in Europe ahd America filled tho post of acting-leader. The result of the ballot taken by the Wellington General Labourers' Union on the question of remaining in affiliation with the United Labour party or joining the United-Federation of Labour is announced as follows:—In favour of remaining in tho United Labour party, 293 votes; in favour of joining the United Federation of Labour, 100. Tho secretary of the union, Mr M. J. Reardon, states that the question of affiliation -with tho United Labour party has now been before members of the union twice within the past 12 months. The vote just recorded) shows a three to ono majority for affiliation.