THE WORLD OF LABOUR

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1164, 3 November 1917, Page 9 (Supplement)

THE WORLD OF LABOUR

movement and would prefer a thousand times rather to convert them than to fight them. Let all who are interested in this matter discuss it in a friendly spirit with a single eye to the advancement of the workers' cause and the welfare of our country. If we cannot agree on the question at issue let us agree to differ, each side respecting the honesty and integrity of the other. I believe wholeheartedly in the idea I am,putting forward, and wish to make as many converts as possible, but have not one bit of feeling against those who honestly differ from me. For all who think with me I ask a similar consideration, and if my request is granted the solidarity of our Labour movement will not be impaired by the emergence of this question. While not sacrificing principles honestly held, let tolerance and

Conducted by D. G. SULLIVAN

be. Plato, in his great political treatise, the "Republic," literally the Commonwealth, shows us he wanted to reorganise the then existing State and substitute his Commonwealth. The permanent lesson that can be drawn from the communistic teaching in the "Republic" is the prime need of an altruistic spirit permeating society. There is just one passage that I wish to quote, and it ought to be read and re-read, viz.: "The first and highest form of the State and of the Government and of the law is that in which there prevails most widely the ancient saying, that 'Friends have all things in common,' whether there is anywhere now, or will ever be, this communnion ... of property, in which the private and individual is altogether banished from life, and things which are by nature

dramatically, acknowledged and hailed by all right-minded people, and what shall we do then lest we begin once more to heap up fresh corruption for the woeful labour of ages once again? I say, as we turn away from the flagstaff where the new banner has been just run up, as we depart, our ears yet ringing with the blare of the heralds and trumpets that have proclaimed the new order of things, what shall we turn to then, what must we turn to then? To what else save to our work, our daily labour." Gleams of Light. These are gleams that light up the darkness, and may we be ready to let their truths sink into us. The present age may aptly be termed the worship of the Golden Calf. As a State we have no high ideal. It is true we call ourselves Christians, but how far do we emulate the principles of the Founder? They practically do not affect our daily lives. The principle of capitalists is to make profit. If in the process, they as a class, run counter to the ethics of Christianity and the welfare of the individual, well, from their standpoint it cannot be avoided. On the other hand, Labour has to fight for its existence and it has had varying fortunes since the industrial age started. Labour as a force or body is a part of the community and they can no more extricate themselves from the community than they could betake themselves to the planet Mars. Labour as a body has been forced to use its most powerful weapon, the strike, albeit a double-edged weapon. But what could it do, if you have a lighted match and a canister of gunpowder handy? Most people would look out for an explosion. And unless the conditions are altered that make for explosions, then we must look out for explosions. I am not an advocate of the strike method, any more than I am an advocate of our present social system, but given certain conditions you can only look for certain effects. The capitalist blames the workers and the workers the capitalist and the system. An Endorsement. I heartily endorse your views that Labour as an organisation ought to be prepared to meet the new position that is evidently looming up. We in New Zealand are far removed from the burly burly and strife and present altered conditions of Britain, and it is impossible for us to see and feel as they do there. But there is no reason why we should not get ready and take a greater interest in our own affairs and in the affairs of the community generally. The Labour force at Home lias always been keener in spirit than ever it has been in New Zealand, and from what we can gather from the daily press and periodicals, Labour as a force at Home is not going to be content with the pre-war conditions. This great war is going to change the complexion of many things. That our present chaotic system needs altering is beyond cavil. Why should not the State be a happy family? Nature has provided us with everything, but the greed for gold, power, and monopoly has been 100 powerful, as the sages of old have always pointed out the lack of a true education is the greatest fault. Well, then, if this new ideal does nothing else than cause

the people to think it will do good, but I am optimist enough to believe that something definite will be accomplished. Burns, Scotland's grandest poet, says in some of his prose writings, "that to him the most humiliating sight he could look upo.i was to see a man go cap in hand and ask another man permission to work." The same author says:— "It's coming yet, and come it may, It's coming "yet, for a' that, When man to 'man the world ower, Shall brithers be, an' a' that." I am, etc., JNO. BARLOW. A Clergyman's View. A well-respected clergyman in this city sends me the following communication : Sir, —I have not been well of late or should have written before now to express my intense delight in the admiration of your recent articles appearing in The Sun. You have seen a vision and have held it before men with the power of a prophet and true leader of men. It is a great conception, and you are ably expounding it. You are on absolutely the right lines. I feel as though I would like to support you in some way, but I recognise that ministers are, as yet, suspect. One appreciates the high idealism of your movement; therein lies its strength and its inspiration. One also realises the immense task before you if that ideal is to be rightly embraced and honestly followed. It means a long, tough struggle. But if such an idea! be adopted and advocated by Labour —broad, sane, and essentially Christian as it is—l would identify myself with tlie Labour Party to-morrow. I agree with you that Labour's great hour of opportunity lias arrived. If she will turn her face toward the goal you define, and act in the spirit you declare to be essential, then sooner or later the future of the country will be moulded by her hands. I shall watch with keen interest further developments, and when I see opportunity shall eagerly co-operate. Wishing you strength and success in your great task, and praying that you may not faint in it.

Joint Standing Councils

HE following item of news dated London, October 25, appeared in the cable mes"The War Cabinet, in furtssSßK&i3l therance of its plans for reconstruction after the war, has adopted proposals contained in the Whitley report, issued in March, as part of the Government's policy. It will establish Joint Standing Industrial Councils in connection with every well-organised industry. There will be no compulsory arbitration." "The 'Central News' states that employers are banding together to protest in the interests of capital, and to adjust the relations between employers and employed, and will especially seek to make the further spread of State intervention unnecessary. The larger employers' associations have reached an agreement to form a permanent organisation, which will lay the foundations of a common national policy. This arises out of the reorganisation of the Labour Party, though not hostile to it. This is probably the most important industrial development that has taken place in Great Britain since the war. It means thai the Imperial Government is meeting the Labour demand for co-operative management of industry. It is rather disappointing to learn that the employers are going to offer organised opposition to the scheme. In this connection, however, it is well to remember that the opposition of employers will not be unanimous. Many of the larger firms and manufacturers have not only expressed their adherence to the idea but have even demanded it in the national interests. Some of them even helped to frame the Whitley report, and they have been backed in their advocacy by the most influential elements in national life. Those employers who are opposing new movement are surely putting themselves offside with the nation in thus displaying a disposition to maintain their own

privileges and their own autocratic control over industry in face of the urgent national need for a concentration of all the forces of Labour and Capital to rebuild the Empire trade. Is not the decision of the Imperial Government a clarion call to all the Governments of the Empire to follow the path so boldly pioneered? In order that the new development shall secure to Labour the hopedfor advantages, it will be necessary for the unions to keep an eagle eye fixed on the Workshop Committees and Joint Standing Councils that will be brought into existence. Many Difficulties. Many difficulties will crop up, involving the respective rights and powers of committees and councils, the employers and the unions. Will the committees and councils be merely advisory bodies or will they be vested with actual power? Trade unions on the one hand and employers on the other will be jealous of their rights and will not be disposed to surrender them. Yet it would surely be a pessimistic mind indeed that wouid believe these difficulties insuperable. The first great question to be settled therefore would be the definition of powers. So far as the National Councils and Local Councils are concerned, these would present no difficulties as they would consist of representatives of the unions of both employers and workers. The difficulty would be with the Workshop Committees. What would be the power of these committees? Would their powers be advisory or would they be legislative? The only apparent plan would be to run them something on the lines of our Conciliation Councils. Give the management and the men equal representation. Before a decision could take effect it must have the unanimous approval of all the members of the committee. When such unanimous decision was arrived at it should be binding. The committee's order of reference would have certain definite limitations. It would have no power to reduce the minimum conditions embodied in the agreement or award between the union and the employers. Neither should any large departures involving new principles emanate from these committees without the approval of either the local joint Standing Council or the National Joint Standing Council, on both of which bodies the unions of workers and employers would be represented and which would be competent to sneak with authority on mailers of principle. I shall say more about the practical side of this question directly. Just now. however, I wish to strike another note. The idea that I am putting forward is appealing with strength to many of the most thoughtful working men in the community. My Labour Colleagues. There are others, however, with whom I have worked for years, who regard it with disfavour, believing that it will operate ultimately to the detriment of the workers' movement. I wish to make it plain that I have no wish to quarrel with my old colleagues. I am anxious to prevent anything like a split in the Labour

I Labour Will Fight to | the Death I

Notwithstanding the fact that K workers feel far from happy, that their G restlessness increases; that redress or K grievances call for instant attention; Ln let no one suppoEe that workers feel hj inclined to throw up the sponge! No Briton worker will allow Germany to win* Every man realises that this war jQ represents democracy fighting auto- k] freedom against militarism. 3 Each man fights to the death. And I H am satisfied that the Sr.al issue of ulti- rQ mate victory will not be lost for want rO ctf support from the working classes. KJ i ~ —National Secretary of Eailwaymen. q| 2Sm J SZraSISZSES2S2SESZSHS2SESESESHSZSi

"Cannon-Fodder of Industry"

good-fellowship be the guiding principles of our attitude one to another. We are all Labour men. Mr J. Barlow, ex-president of the Furniture Trades Union, an old colleague of my own, who has read widely, travelled widely, and thought deeply, sends me the following communication:— Sir,—Your recent articles on the New Ideal, i.e., the industrial and social reorganisation of Labour and Capital, deserve to be widely read and studied by every individual in the community who truly desires the real welfare of the State in every righteous activity. In your series of articles on the subject you have shown the trend of thought in Britain to-day on this vast question. Old ideals are in the crucible, and no man knows what is coining forth, but the trend of thought shows that Labour as an organised body of the community is not going to be content with the pre-war conditions. And let me say here before I go further, that I personally heartily endorse your sentiments and ideals on this cpiestion of re-organisation. There is no doubt the new ideal will be assailed by what you may call the conservative thought on the Capitalist side, and the same from the Labour side. Great reforms and new ideals have always been assailed. Socrates had to drink the hemlock. Another was crucified, and history gives innumerable similar instances, hut the ego of the movement is never killed. The ideal, as sketched by you in your series of articles, is not new, although the present movement is. Famous writers of the past and present age have given us gleams as to what the ideal Slate should

The social system produced by the Industrial Eevolution reflected a spirit that we may describe as a spirit of complacent pessimism, and this spirit has done more than any event in English history to create the "two nations" of which Disraeli used to speak. Unity is only possible in a society which pursues a common aim, in which all men and women have a recognised and equal share. Such an aim must have some relation to human qualities and human needs. This age had taken for its aim the accumulation of economic power, and its guiding philosophy was a dividing force, because it regarded men and women not as citizens, but as servants of that power. If the needs of that power seemed to conflict with the needs of r.uman nature, human nature had to suffer. In its extreme form this theory made the mass of the nation the cannon-fodder of industry. "The Town Labourer."

private, such as eyes and ears and hands, have become common, and all men express praise and blame and feel joy and sorrow on the same occasions, and whatever laws there are unite the city to the utmost, whether all this is possible or not, 1 say that no man, acting upon any other principle, will ever constitute a State which will be truer or more exalted in virtue. Whether such a State is governed by gods, or sons of gods, one, or more than one, happy are the men, who living after this manner, dwell there; and therefore to this we are to look for the pattern of the State and to cling to this, and to seek with all our might for one which is like this." Plato in effect teaches that "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," and "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven." These are the principles that Plato seeks to foster by enforcing the claim of the community upon the individual and setting at naught the importance of material weal lb. William Morris. In our age, the late William Morris, in a different form, practically enunciated the same principles. At the risk of being tedious let me quote this passage from Morris:"When all is gained that we so long for, what shall we do then? That great change that we are working for, each in his own way, will come like other changes, as a thief in the night, and will be with us before w-e know it. But let us imagine that it has come suddenly and

Railway men Play the Game

The railwaymen's record during this unhappy war is one of which I am proud. It is one that the great British public appreciate. It is one that must stand them in good stead when the time comes to consider the changed conditions which must inevitably follow the war. I have never hesitated to say that both with regard to hours of labour and conditions of service the railwaymen will never go back to the pre-war standard.. But, at the same time, to attempt to force the position because the nation is in difficulties, and because the moment, through a crisis, is apparently advantageous, is neither fair fighting nor common honesty. —J. H. Thomas, M.P.