UNBIASSED OPINION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7965, 8 September 1887, Page 3

UNBIASSED OPINION.

fWs .loom it right to state Hint wo in no way idontifj ouraolTOS with tho opiaions oxpreasod in articiei appearing tinder this head,]

THE WAGES QUESTION. [CONTEIBUTED.j

Sm Julius Vogei., in a speech, delivered last week in Christchuroh, said, "At a meeting I lately held at Ashburton I laid down the prinoiple that high wages meant prosperity." Such a statement is altogether so anomalous that we are surprised at a logician like the Colonial Treasurer making it. Had he reversed the words, and said " prosperity meant high wages," it would have been nearer the mark, but we never heard of wages being high when no works were being proceeded with and things were dull. Prosperity might exist without wages being high, but the reverse is never the case. The relations between labour and capital, and between employer and employed, involve some of the most difficult problems of our time. In young countries, where immigration is an uppermost question, the labour controversy must assume phases which give but little trouble in old countries ; but in both young and old oountries the business of reconciling capitalists | and labourers bids fair to be one of no small difficulty for years to come. As a rule the best masters are the masters who are best served ; and the best men are the men who are best treated. What is lost by giving liberal wages is generally more than made up for by better work and more of it; and although an honest and liberal interpretation of a master's claims on the workmen may cost more at the moment, it is by far the easiest and best polioy in the long run. It is impossible to read the literature which represents the views of the wagesgetting class without seeing how much stress is laid by them on having a uniform supply of .work provided, and there is no difficulty whatever in understanding how much it adds to the comfort of a working man when he knows exactly, not only that his work will be confined within limited hours, but that within those hours tnere will be full work and iull pay. On the other hand, it is impossible to study the system of modern commerce without seeing how impossible it is to realise this aspiration, and it is idle, therefore, for any man to ask for an impossibility. It is the business of all, whether employers or employed, to look the facts of then: existence fairly in the face ; to. make the best of surrounding circumstances; to turn everything to the utmost advantage, but to accept the inevitable without unnecessary grumbling. To a certain extent many employers have met the difficulty of slack times by keeping their men working at reduced wages on stock ; but there is a limit to which it is safe even to do this, and in some employments it obviously cannot be done at all, It is therefore ridiculous to- expect high wages when a depression exists, and, even if prosperity again prevails, and there is more than sufficient to do the work required, it is not likely that wages will rise. The rate of wages should be ruled by the law of supply and demand ; and the Trade Onions and such combinations which prevent this are answerable for much of the depression that exists, and for the labour market being over stocked. English readers of colonial papers must tie a good deal puzzled when they read of strikes in the part of the world where the population of the whole colony is not equal to that of a small town, and especially so when they read in one oolumn of these papers that there is great depression and want of employment, and that men are entreating the Government to put on relief works, and in another that men are striking or threatening to strike. It may be asked, has then the law of supply and demand ceased to operate. Certainly not; the law of nature never ceases to operate; but they have been modified, and largely neutralised by an artificial arrangement. The law of supply and demand should be defined by unnrestrained freedom of movement, and the natural play cf competition. Under existing circumstances, this competition amongst the workmen is checked, ii not entirely destroyed, by the widespread Trade Unions. The fundamental prinoiple of Trade Unions is to discourage competition within their own class. They deny that competition is a good thing, and look upon it as having been the principal cause of lowering the status of the working man. They admit that it has produced cheapness of commodities, but they assert that it has done so at the cost of the working man, forgetting that the, working man benefits likewise by that cheapness. They therefore refuse to recognise that bad times or superfluity of labour constitutes any reason whatever for i the reduction of wages, and that relief must be sought in that direction. The result of this stste of things is that the capitalist buttons up his pocket, for he is not going to expend his money unless he can see a profit in prospect ; and the working man cannot, or rather is not, allowed to sell hie . labour at a rate whioh might perhaps produce that profit ; and therefore both capital and labour are injured thereby. Theae Trade Unions destroy trade, and whilst they last, , or have power, the depression will to a great extent prevail. We have, to recognise that we are now living in a state of society in which the competition, though not destroyed, is disparaged, and held in check. It is an artificial state of things, and sometimes is very embarrassing, but all our modern trade arrangements will have to adapt themselves to the new order. High wages being demanded will only prevent enterprise. Those who have to deal with investors and advise them know how extremely reluctant they are to puttheir money into any venture which is at the moroy of a Trade Union, and ibat is one explanation of the reason why tl c money on fixed deposit in tho oolony Ik so large. Cautious people orefer i<> nail fixed investment to the chanca of large profits subject to, the alternate chance of having their' profits destroyed and capital lost through a demand for higher wages by workmen, All Pro*

teotion oan do will not alter this. There are many industries which would be feasible in this country at the present time if it were not for the uncertainty about our labour arrangements. The rate of wages oan never be low in a young country, but to be excessively high means stagnation to trade. Sir Julius Yogel will never create prosperity, in the way he suggests, for high wages and Protection means ruin to any country.