The Timaru Herald MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1909. THE TRUE EMPLOYER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13812, 25 January 1909, Page 4

The Timaru Herald MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 1909. THE TRUE EMPLOYER.

A passage in the report of an interview with the Hon. J. Anstey, published on the 13th inst., states a principle of industrial- economics that . ought to be kept well to the front in every discussion of labour questions: "Mr Anstey said it was a fallacy to proceed on the assumption that the worker labours solely for the benefit of his employer. ... Generally speaking, the workers worked for the benefit of the whole community." The truth of this statement may not be apparent at a glance, but a little consideration of the objects of all employment outside of domestic matters will lead to conviction of its truth. The | farmer, for instance, does not grow grain, wool or mutton because he wants them; but because other people want them; colliers do not hew coal for' their immediate employers, but for distant consumers; slaughtermen do not kill sheep for the freezing companies, but for the eaters of the meat; tramway men are really servants of the public who use the cars. If this principle were thoroughly understood, a strike in an important industry would surely be felt by the strikers as a matter of far greater seriousness than it is now recognised to be. The strike which occurred last season in the freezing works of Canterbury did very little harm to the companies who had engaged the men and paid them wages out of funds obtained from either the growers or the consumers of the meat; but it did great harm to the graziers. The strike of the Auckland tramway men last summer was an injury to the whole of the city, and not merely to the tramway company. The miners Mho are now persisting in refusal to work in the Huntly coal mines canuot be taking into account the serious loss and inconvenience they are causing,to many other industries, to say nothing of inconvenience to thousands of individuals through disturbance of their arrangements for domestic coal supplies. Yet other workers,, through the

officials of their unions who are supposed to be selected for their possession of wisdom .above the average, encourage the strikers to hold out, on tho supposition that tho matter concerns only the miners and their immediate employers.. Surely if the workers generally recognised that they are working for the consumers of their product, and that those consumers know nothing of any cause of dissatisfaction the workers may have, some other means than ceasing work would' be found for removing such causes. The principle must of course be recognised on both sides. The employer ought to look upon himself as, in most cases, an employee of the public, his immediate or his final, customers, and in such cases as the freezing works, where the demand for services presses from both sides, as the employee of both the producer of raw material and the consumer of the manufactured article. ' Recognition of the principle implies iio change in the relations of master and man. The former must remain the manager, the captain of industry, paid according to his merit, and if proprietor as well as manager, assured of some profit besides, to become capital for the maintenance of old, or the foundation of new industries in the future. The workman, in his turn, is provided with a subsistence in return for the services he renders, not to the individual or the company from whom he actually receives his watjss, but to the community at large—and modern commerce has made this com • munity large indeed. But while the relation of employer and employee mu ;t remain the same, recognition of tno principle would change the attitude or each towards the other, and of both towards their occupation, and it should act powerfully as a conciliator in cases of dispute between employer and employee; Socialists contend that goods should be produced for use and not for profit. All worthy production of goods is now production for use. Tho production of goods " made to sell," all shoddy and slummed and careless work, and adulterations, are unworthy. Recognition of the principle which forms our,, text should help to give dignity to labour and perfection to prodiiction, it being seen that everything is mado ior some one to use or to consume.