THE MENTAL APPROACH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23918, 20 September 1939, Page 6

THE MENTAL APPROACH

The Hillside branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants has resolved to request the Government to ignore the representations of “ reactionary individuals and organisations ” to' abolish the fortyhour week, and to inform it also that the members of the branch have “ only contempt for those who would use the War situation' as a means of filching from the workers those conditions which they now enjoy.” It will not be surprising if most of those who read the resolution are left with the impression that it would have been much better confined to the first part, for, after all, it represents the affirmation of a principle in which organised labour has a right to be interested, even in the abnormal circumstances of to-day. For the addendum, the least that can be said is that it seems to contain little enough of right thinking, at a time when the grave problems confronting this Dominion and the Empire as a whole imperatively demand clarity of thought and the pledging of all the people to a common purpose. There is a suggestion of class prejudice in the opinion expressed in the resolution which is patently out of tune with the idea of industrial

and political harmony so zealously fostered by : the country’s leaders since the development of crisis in Europe. - If this war against the tyranny of Nazism is to be successfully waged—as it must be —by the free peoples of the British Empire, it would be well if public opinion were first of all focussed sharply on the means to be employed to that end. And the first demand to be made on the people of New Zealand —a demand, indeed, that has already been made by the Government, with the fullest and most admirable sense of responsibility—is for absolute unanimity of thought and unity of effort. It will be part of the Government’s task, in directing the war effort of the Dominion, both military and economic, to ensure that the principle of equality of sacrifice is respected to the limits of practicability. We anticipate that the suggestion embodied in the latter part of the resolution quoted above will be as distasteful to the Government as it will be to the majority of those whose conditions of employment are governed by awards or other industrial agreements. The Government has itself impressed the need for the preservation of a studied balance in outlook at this critical time —for a rational stock-taking of the country’s resources and for equally rational planning so that the best possible use may be made of them. It has already made itself responsible, to a very large extent, for the distribution of all of the products of New Zealand labour in the larger interests of an Imperial war economy; and, where it has insisted that all effort must be concentrated on the speeding up and expansion of production, it has also recognised unhesitatingly that such effort must be facilitated, as circumstances require, by the lowering of production costs. Not the wishes of individuals but the urgent demands of the war situation, as they appear to the War Cabinet' itself, will decide whether the arbitrary standards of a peacetime economy will suffice in the exceptional conditions of to-day or to-morrow. And there need be no hesitation in assuming what response will be made should it become necessary for the Government to submit to the country a case for increased effort plus some sacrifice of present privileges. What folly it is to talk of the war situation being used to “ filch ” from the workers conditions which they now- enjoy! The prosecution of war does not come in second place to preservation of the rights or privileges of any section of the community. The survival of every cherished possession, of right and of liberty, must depend on this war’s outcome. With that thought fixed in his mind the ordinary citizen must know what is expected of him, and he can be trusted not only to see his duty clearly, btit to discharge it.