“STRATFORD EVENING POST” FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1928. A BETTER TONE.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 79, 29 June 1928, Page 4

“STRATFORD EVENING POST” FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 1928. A BETTER TONE.

JUDGING by what is happening in Australia and New Zealand, and also in Britain, it appears that the old idea of the employers being the sworn enemies of the workers is giving

way to a more rational viewpoint. The ranks of labour are being purged of extremists, and strike weapon is gradually losing its appeal. Recently th e Miners Convention in Sydney decided—no doubt as the result of bitter experience—to abandon strike methods in their endeavours to gain concessions from employers. The decision though belated is promising, and may have the effect of restoring the coal industry of New South Wales to a healthier position. As a result of pin pricking by the miners, New South Wales has lost a good proportion of its export coal trade, and to some extent local trade has also suffered. This is a serious position for the State as a whole, but is worse for the miners themselves, as many of them have been deprived of their livelihood, unfortunately in many instances through no fault of their own. It must be admitted that workers’ conditions' are not all they should be, but improvements are being effected every year, as the great bulk of employers now subscribe to the sensible notion that to get the best out of a staff, the staff must be a happy and contented one. However, when industries suffer a setback and are dislocated, any improvement in conditions for the workers must necessarily suffer a setback, and as each dislocation means a severe loss everyone concerned must suffer, but the wage-earner suffers most. The average worker, when left to himself, is a-very reasonable man, and is not slow to see the other fellow’s point of view, but the trouble is, as we have said before, trades unions are too often controlled by extremists. Trades

unionism has filled a very useful function in the labour world, and it is /through it that workers have been enabled to better their conditions. But when the movement is guided by extremists and strike promoters, it loses the confidence of the public —hence the cry for the repeal of preference to unionists. Trades unionism should aim at cooperation between employer and employee, and not at] aggression. Then it would have the wholebaerted backing of the public without which no movement can succeed.