INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20337, 20 February 1928, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL PEACE.

MR BRUCE’S PLAN. LABOUR CRITICAL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 0. The proposal made by the Prime Minister (Mr S. M. Bruce) for an industrial peace conference coincided with the definite decision in New Zealand to convene such a gathering. While in New Zealand progress has been made with the idea, in Australia it lias not O one beyond tin; controversial stage, and the Labour Party is already adopting an uncompromising attitude that does not auger well for future negotiations. However, it is too early yet to say that the conference will not eventuate, and that, even if it did, no good was likely to come out of it. The efforts made by Mr W. M. Hughes when he was Prime Minister in 1822 arc being recalled. Early in that year he invited the representatives of the employers and employees in each State to attend an economic conference in Sydney. In three SCates the invitation was ignored, but the employees’ delegates who attended represented 200,000 workers. After several days’ discussion the proceedings broke down, the employers declaring that the workers’ proposals were based on the socialisation of industry, and its effective control by them. When the invitations to that conference were issued Mr Hughes was met in some quarters with a measure of abuse, and Labour was suspicious. The atmosphere thus created was not conducive to success. Now Mr Bruce is meeting with much' the same difficulty, with the addition that Labour leaders arc inclined to ridicule his efforts. They openly doubt his sincerity. Unbiased people who know Mr Bruce know that he is sincere, and that he genuinely expressed his views on the matter when he said. “If I am wrong it. my views I am prepared to abandon the conference. I will step out of the ring if my services are not needed; or I will stay in the ring—and help._ I recognise that nothing can be achieved unless the conference is held in au atmosphere of cordial goodwill, and has the support of the great majority of the people of Australia, If that support is withheld by the great body of organised Labour the object of the conference would be defeated. It, however, the representatives of industry believ that it is more desirable that the conference should bo one between representatives of organised employers and employees I will readily acquiesce. If organised industry is prepared to bring about a conference I will make way and take no further action.” This last statement pad reference to Labour's protest against the suggestion . that Mr Bruce should himself nominate the delegates in order to exclude extremists, who, he insisted, would be useless at such a conference is he had proposed. Still he is prepared to give way on this point if only the conference can bo arranged. He is even prepared to postpone consideration of the amendments to tiro Arbitration Act which have antagonised Labour to such an extent. Mr Bruce has great hopes that a conference may he able to arrive at a practical method of bringing the two great forces of our economic life into closer co-operation. The great essentials towards the creation of a better spirit in industry, he says, are to remove the mistrust and suspicion in the minds of the workers. That mistrust and suspicion, he claims, is due to a belief that capital is getting too great a return for its investment in industry, that the management in many cases is inefficient, and that the worker is not getting a fair share of the produce of his labour, “ One criticism of the speech 1 made in suggesting the conference I deplore,” said Mr Bruce, “ because it is calculated to destroy the atmosphere which is so essential to success. One prominent Labour politician accused me of having in a speech attributed to Labour all the blame for our present industrial-difficulties. This is quite untrue. I stated in unambiguous terms that the foes to industrial peace were tho extremists on both sides. Nobody knows better than I do how impossible it is to deal with the reactionary employer. Where the worker is swayed by bitterness and mistrust, these other extremists are blinded by prejudice and ignorance. I can sympathise if I do not agree with the workers’ attitude. I can find no excuse for the reactionary employer who is not only an enemy of the class he professes to represent, but a menace to the country. I do not place all the blame on Labour. Labour in Australia in certain instances does not give a fair day’s work for a fair day’s wages. The extremists of Labour openly advocate a policy of sabotage and go-slow. On the other hand, there are employers, cloaking their own inefficiency and the inefficiency of their plants with sycophantic phrases in regard to patriotic protection, who are depriving the workers by decreased production, of the opportunity of increased wages. An idle or inefficient machine is a much_ greater national menace than an idle or inefficient worker. It is because I have realised that there are faults on both sides that I have suggested the conference.” Mr W. J. Duggan, president of the Australian Council of Trades Unions, said that ho had searched in vain through Mr Bruce’s statements for one constructive proposal along the lin© of securing industrial peace. The presumption was that the conference would find a way. Mr Bruce’s responsibility apparently ended with the suggestion for a Mr Duggan claims that no great difficulty' would be experienced in obtaining representatives of Labour to take part in the conference, but it was quite evident that the idea was to have men directly engaged in industry, and dependent upon their job, to meet the employers in conference. This method of “ weaning the individual from the protection of his union ” was to be practiced at the time tho Ministry passed the Arbitration Act amendments, thus effectively _ crippling the organisations in their legitimate functions. Mr Duggan suggested that.the conference should ho held in public and that the following subjects should b e set down for discussion:- —Protection, and whom it protects in its present form ; arbitration, with a view to its remodelling ; banking, nationally and privately controlled; social legislation, pertaining to women in industry, child endowment, •national insurance, and workers’ compensation. ■ , , It is officially stated that the Employers Federation of New South Wales is wholeheartedly in favour of the conference, and that it will give the Prime Minister every assistance to bring it to a successful issue. The Federal Cabinet is expected to reach a definite decision next Tuesday.