LABOUR DEMANDS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16829, 26 May 1919, Page 3

LABOUR DEMANDS.

AN OPTIMISTIC EMPLOYER. Sir Robert Hadfield, chairman of the great Sheffield firm of steel makers, which employs 15,000 men, says, in the "Weekly Despatch," of "Labour's Demands" : "My own opinion is that there is nothing very extreme in the demands of Labour, as some.employers seem to think. Natianclisation of all vital industries is, of course, a vast proposition, and I cannot agree about this,, nor do- I think Labour asks for it-. Nationalisation of railways seems to'be, a oommon-sense way of settling some' of the difficulties. *I do not want to quote or represent my own works as aparagon for others to copy. But facts speak for themselves. "Twenty-three years ago we introduced in Sheffield a 48-hours week, and T tried to persuade other employers to do th e same. Very few would listen to such a scheme. We have made other concessions. The result of our policy lias been harmony and pleasant relations all the time between employer and employee. "The employer must take risks and make exneriments that are likely to condace to beneficial results all round. "I am no prophet, but I believe that before the end of the year we shall see our way through this great crisis in human affairs."