EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13536, 12 October 1907, Page 5

EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION.

ARBITRATION ACT CONDEiINED. Per Press Association. ; DUNEDIN, October 11. {Tho annual meeting of the Otago Employers' Association was held this altcrnoon. Mr J. C. Thomson (president) in the chair. 1 i The annual report stated that the association could claim to represent practijcally the whole of the employers in ;Dunedin and suburbs'. Tho one enemy 'Wiiieh threatened the interests of the Dominion genorally, and employers in p irticular, was the growing socialism oi : tho Labour party. It was manifest ithat before long an independent socialistic Labour party, whose aim would be ;!to exploit Parliament^ in v the» interests of 'one class to the exclusion of all others, wfould have to be contended with. It therefore behoved employers to strengthen their, organisations and to maintain their finances so that they might be ready to meet all emergencies. , The chairman's address dealt mainly With "tho Arbitration Act. He contended that the Act could never fulfil the purposes for which it was created. It was afi Act that, was to be used for intervention when a strike was imminent. They knew too well to their cost that it liad never been used in that way, but in tptally different directions, to the demoralising of the working classes and the weakening of the friendly relations that shoxild exist between employers and qraployees. Ho held that the Act, which, cjould no be forced absolutely, should Hot long cumber oiir statute books. It liad been a very expensive experiment, and stood condemned as a failure. The position reached to-day was that persistent efforts were ma do to prevent young people from learning trades and to prevent elderly men and those unable to claim first-class rank from earning a livelihood, to seriously reduce the efficiency of labour, to lower effort, to destroy ambition, to repel capital, and to widen the breach between capital and labour. Instead of promoting their working in harmony, tho breach was being steadily increased, and was being accentuated by the tactics of ilhe Labour party and the .propaganda of the Political Labour League. Employers must see the necessity for ever-increasing vigilance. Mr J. C. Thomson was re-elected president, and Messrs R. Chisholm and J. W. Henton were re-appointed vice-pre-. sidents. Messrs R. Chisholm, J."W. Henton, C W. Rattray, and J. 0. , Thomson were elected to the federation ' executive. t •'