THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20330, 11 February 1928, Page 18

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES Bj J. T. Paul. WAGES AND PROSPERITY. Mr J. J. Davis, United States Secretary for Labour, in his recent annual report to the United States Senate, made the following pronouncement on the wages question : “ The employer who pays low wages is a parasite, wno throws on the community the expense of the unpaid, grocery and clothing bills that should be met by the wages he should pay. To be very frank, he steals from the public. . “ Experience proves that of the fallacies and bad economic thinking the low wage fallacy is th. 6 worst. Even dullards niust see the folly of killing the purchasing power of the greatest buyer, the worker, in the homo market. Wage reductions are bad business and worse economics, whether applied in the broadest sense or in a given industry. “No low-wage country is prosperous, no low-wage industry is prosperous. The time is past when the low-wage employer or industry was considered clever. He is a parasite whom public opinion must force to pay a decent wage or to get out ot business.” LABOUR MEMBERS AND THEIR PAY. The members of the Victorian Parliament recently passed a resolution in favour of increased salaries. At present they receive £lO a week. The movement is meeting with opposition, it being pointed out that the State is suffering from financial and industrial depresson. One of the resolutions of protest is couched in the following terms: — . . . “ That this branch of the Australian Labour Party emphatically protests against the naked and unashamed greed of some Labour members attempting to increase their salaries at this period of financial and industrial depression, and at a time, too, whon an alleged Labour Government) is further increasing the ranks of the unemployed by the dismissal of workers from the railway department, and we request the executive to restrain these men in this supreme act of political indecency. LABOUR IN AUSTRALIA. It has been authr 'tatively stated in Melbourne (says the Australian Worker) that when the Federal Labour Executive meets this month a proposal will be brought forward suggesting the holding of a special interstate conference prior to the Federal 'elections for the purpose of dealing with important matters of policy relating to the Labour movement. There are many important matters that call for drastic action, either by the Federal Labour Executive or an Interstate Labour Conference. And it is vitally essential that these matters should be dealt with prior to the forthcoming Federal elections. There is, first and foremost, the unscrupulous defiance by the faction controlling the N.S.W. Labour Executive of the unity principles laid down by the Federal Labour Conference at Canberra last year, including the i-xpulsion of tried and trusted Labourites for no other reason than that they faithfully honoured the Canberra decisions. The Federal Labour Executive has admitted that the factional executive in New South Wales did not honourably observe the Canberra decisions. _ Yet, strange to say, it has taken no action to assert its authority as the supreme controlling body of the Australian Labour Party. If the Federal Executive wants peace and harmony in the Labour movement it has got to see that the rebellious faction in New South Wales is brought to book and the vindictive expulsions removed. Some definite action has got to be taken regarding the Red Rules forced on the Labour movement in New South Wales by an unscrupulous gang of political crooks. Under these rules Communists are being allowed to penetrate the ranks of the A.L.P., despite the fact that their declared ' objective is the destruction of the Labour movement, as it is at present constituted. The Federal Labour Executive should realise that it cannot afford to shadow spar with the Red Rules and the Communists without seriously prejudicing Labour’s chances at the forthcoming Federal elections. It cannot make a pious declaration of anti-communism, and at the same time allow its most important State branch to openly intrigue with the Red element. On this question the Federal Executive must make a pronouncement —definite and conclusive —and see that it is honoured to the last letter. There are other matters that demand attention when the Federal Labour Executive meets. But the matters mentioned above are so outstandingly urgent and important that they command special attention. For on the decision of the Federal body regarding these matters Labour’s chances of success at the forthcoming Federal elections will largely depend. LABOUR AND ARBITRATION. Replying to the criticism of the system of compulsory arbitration, made by Professor A. H. Tocker, of New Zealand, Mr E. Grayndler, general secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, said that he was quite unable to agree with Professor Tocker’s declaration that there was “ no really necessary service performed by the court that could not be discharged equally well by other organisations.” “The first question,” said Mr Grayndler, “ that occurs is: ■ What are these ‘ other organisations ’ that offer a better solution of the settlement of industual problems? After nearly 30 years of compulsory arbitration our collective wisdom has completely failed to devise any better system. “ It is true that the Federal arbitration laws are in need of amendment, and that many valuable suggestions, based on actual experience of the working of the Act. have been mishandled or ignored by successive Federal Governments. But it must be remembered that compulsory arbitration was first introduced in New South Wales by Mr B. R. Wise’ in 1901, following a long and bitter experience of the failure of attempts at ‘ collective bargaining.’ “For many years prior to the introduc tion of that Act the annual convention of the A.W.U. requested conferences witn the pastoralists on the question of rates anrj conditions. But, as the employers were more than satisfied with the then existing rates, these conferences coulo rarely be secured. There was no wav to compel a conference, except by the brutal methods of direct action. But as soon as Mr Wise’s Bill was introduced the pas toralists petitioned the Government against it, and that season voluntarily increased the rates of pay in the shearing industry. “ It was the same in many other industries, where a strike or a ‘ lockout,’ as the case might be, was the only means of com polling one party or the other to meet in conference on issues in dispute. Out of this position arose the power conferred by Parliament, under which the president of the Arbitration Court may, when a dispute exists or is threatened, summon any person to attend a compulsory conference. And now employers themselves frequently request the president to intervene, and to summon a conference in order to prevent a stoppage of work. " As has been well stated by Mr Justice Higgins, ‘ the ideal of the court is a collective agreement gettlecl, not by the measurement of economic resource, but on the lines of fair play. The stionger economic position is usually held, of course, by the party which has the nghi to give or withhold work and wages, the means of livelihood. This is the reason why the awards necessarily operate more frequently as a restraint upon employer than as a restraint upon employees. “ Before compulsory arbitration, members of the A.W U. were engaged in an almost continuous battle with the pastoralisls. There was no certainty in any sea son that the sheep would be shorn, and yet wool is the principal export of Australia. Since arbitration was introduced our organisation has given loyal support to its principles, and th n re have been iong periods of industrial peace. “ During my visit to America with the Industrial Mission, I found a growing idea in favour of compulsory arbitration, and the Railway Labour Act carried by the United States Legislature in 1926 goes a long way in the direction of our own system.”