INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18465, 28 January 1922, Page 18

INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

NEWS AND NOTES. Br J. T. Patti. PRODUCTION IN NEW SOUTH WALES. Preliminary statistics relating to manufactories and works in New South Wales as at the end of the year 1920-21 have been compiled by the Government Statistician of that State. The cutout last year was valued at £136,992,218, or £15,778,738 more than that for 1919-20; while the value added to raw materials (which is-taken as the “production” of the factories and works of the State) is shown as £42,352 ; 320, -,»n increase of £3,038,003. Wages paid (exclusive of amounts drawn by working partners) totalled £25,756,384, as against £21,681,196 in the previous year, being at the average rate of £205 11s 8d a year for males and £B7 6s Id for females, or for both sexes £177 6s Bd. WORKERS’ COMPENSATION. Society cannot pay its debt to an injured Workman by merely awarding him a small compensation, says the Public Health Committee of tho New York Academy of Medicine, in a criticism of the New York Workmen’s Compensation Law. “For some time,” says the report, “the feeling has been growing that society has not discharged its debt to the injured workman when it pays ‘compensation,’ and leaves him maimed or ill, or mentally unfit. He becomes a liability to the community in-pro-portion to his incapacity for productive labour, and it is, therefore, to the interest of the community to restore him as completely as possible to his normal condition of living. Ihe war has shown the possibilities of vocational re-education and the value of occupational therapy for men still in hospitals.” THE ARBITRATION BILL. _ Many vigorous protests by way of resolution hay© been lodged against the Bill to amend the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and some of these apparently seek to make up in sound what they lack in sense. It is useless in the circumstances to merely pass a condemnatory resolution in more or less lurid language, leaving tbs public and even a large section of the workers befogged as to the real merits or demerits of the proposed legislation. The better Way would surely be to state Labour’s objections to the Bill in plain language and ijithin a compass which the workers will read: - Instead /of which too many organisations have chosen the easy and ineffective way of passing a strong resolution which conveys little or nothing to those who were not at the meeting where the resolution was passed. Properly directed, there appears to be no reason why Labour should not' succeed in some of its objections— for_ instance, the exemption of all local bodies "from the operation of' awards is impolitic and unnecessary,—but highsounding resolutions convince no one. A GOVERNOR. ON SHEARING. Some impressions gathered by the State Governor of Queensland on shearers and their occupation during a recent tour are interesting. “Shearing,” he said, ir. an interview with the Graziers’ Review, “teemed to me hard work, and the experts who did their 200 in the day had need to be healthy men. _ There was some complaint of the readiness to declare sheep “wet” after even the slightest shower of rain, and so throw on owners the coat of paying rouseabouts and others- for days on which they did no Work;' but' it is probably the case, as I - was told; that the sheep were much more readily declared wet when there had boon a* long spell of shearing, with its resultant fatigue. The shearers seemed to me to take a pleasure from good wool, and several I spoke to at Burenda were loud in their praise of the sheep there. Certainly, from the few talks I had with union representative?, they were not a discontented lot, and did n'ot want discontent generated in the sheds. As far as I oould make out, they lived well—bettor than I have been able to live at various times in my life —but I readily admit that they were doing work which took ifaore out of them. I was impressed not only by the skill of the shearers, which varied a good deal, as one could see from the shorn sheep, but also by that which is neecssary for classing tho wool, sometimes, indeed, into as many as eight classes for the fleece alone, not ’ taking into account looks, stained pieces, and bellies.” - THE UNHAPPY FAMILY. "The Labour Party in New South Wales has got itself into a fearful tangle these last few days,” writes the editor of the Australian Worker in the latest issue to hand. “Labour Ministers have openly attacked each other in the capitalist press. Charges and counter-charges, throats snd_ counterthreats, have so laden the political atmosphere with poisonous fumes that it turns you sick to get the merest mouthful Of it. ; “Honest Labour men and women are asking one another what tho party is coming to, what this squabbling and scandalising means, and what is going to be the outcome of tho confusion that prevails. “Bewildered, they stare at one _ another, and know not what to do-or think. “Mr M‘Girr, who said ,6n' Saturday that Mr Dooley was the ‘trusted leader’ of ’ ‘the rank and file.’ and that he had ‘the fullest confidence of tho whole party,’ declared ’on Tuesday morning that ‘Dodloyism’ was an evil thing that had to bo fought. “Mr M‘Girr, who said on Saturday again that ‘whatever tbe party’s final decision (as to the date of the elections) might be, ©very member would loyally abide by' it,’ on Tuesday morning announced that if tho party defeated his motftm to postpone the elections be and; those who agreed with him would ‘appeal to the people’ to rally behind them,- and- would run their own candidates for selection. “That would mean a split in the movement, and this paper will have none of it.” Speaking of the appointment of Mr J, H. Cafcta, Labour M.11.R. in the Federal Parliament, as campaign , director, the editor continued: “It is essential that the man who holds that important position should be able to consolidate the movement. Me Catts antagonises and affronts. He .is deeply and deservedly distrusted by tens of thousands of Labour people; and so obno_xious is the vulgar vanity of the politician who S”icly boasts that he wrote the late Storey’s policy speeches and interviews, and that all John Storey did was to put his ‘rubber-stamp signature’ to them—so repellent is tho bad tatrte of this egotist that the executive will bo guilty of a serious blunder if it persists in keeping him in a places where his unholy passion for advertisement can do irreparable harm. . , “The Worker will have nothing to do with ‘Nationalist’ renegades or Labour self-seekers—neither rats nor Catte. ‘What tbe political situation will bring forth this paner does not know. . . .” If tho present disruptive spirit continues to prevail it should not be difficult to hazard a fairly safe guess. LABOUR LEADERSHIP. Discussing the extent to which Labour loaders represent the general feeling of the British workers. Engineering observes that when an important issue arises between the employers and the workpeople, the matter is discussed between tho former and tho executive councils of the latter. The executive councils, generally speaking, are composed of men who have been sufficientiy long in a position of responsibility to develop a faculty for looking at both sides of a question. If they wore, in fact, real leaders with sufficient courage and authority to give effect to their own opinions it is doubtful whether the record of industrial disputes would have been so calamitous as has been experienced. But it is usually found that_ they do not feel sufficiently sure of their ground to act on their own initiative, and the matter is referred to a delegate _ meeting. The delegate meetings are constituted by individuals drawn from the various centres, sent with a mandate from their respective branches. The majority of district delegates belong to the younger school of trades unionist—keen, earnest, imbued with the idea that . the organisation of the society is wrong and that they know the remedy; but the majority do not possess that temperate mind and balanced judgment that are necessary in those controlling gigantii forces. And what can be said of the mandate? It is well kj(own_thnt only a small proportion of trade unionists attend_ the meetings of their lodges.. The work is ; n the bands of the zealots, who formulate policy on the basis of their own political conceptions, and it is from these individuals that the rank and file take their lead.