The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1934. STRIKES IN U.S.A.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20260, 21 March 1934, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1934. STRIKES IN U.S.A.

TWO REASONS for the recent outbreak of labour troubles in the United States have been noted by observers on the spot. The first is the simple fact that the demand for labour has been picking up, with a corresponding demand for better pay. The second, which is the subject of an interesting cablegram this evening, arises from the fact that the American Federation regards the N.R.A. codes as clearing decks for a great union renaissance in the United States. A clause in the National Recovery Act permits employees “to organise and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing ” and assures employees and job-seekers that they shall not be forced to join a company union or be kept from “ joining, organising or assisting ” a Labour organisation of their own choosing. This clause undoubtedly tends to promote the interests of the Federation, with which the employers in the automobile industry flatly refuse to negotiate. How the two latest disputes in the automobile and railway will be settled is problematical, but it is likely that the National Arbitration Board, set up by Mr Roosevelt, will avert further trouble. It has been claimed that by the creation of this Arbitration Board the President, by one stroke of the pen. averted a threatened nation-wide war between capital and labour. Certainly' its performances in the settlement of past disputes give promise for the future, and incidentally emphasise the folly' of New Zealand in abandoning arbitration. KNOWING IN PART. TF LILLTPUT had been two islands, Gulliver might have been as entertained as G. B. Shaw will be when he learns that his oversight of the South Island may develop into a Government Departmental inquiry. But the fact is that the South Island is not sorrowing much over Shaw’s omission, except as a symptom of a bias in the Tourist Department. It is, of course, just possible that Shaw may have expressed a preference for the North Island, but he will not be justified, when he returns to England, in speaking as if he had a general knowledge of New Zealand any more than a man would be who went to Sweden and said he had seen Norway, or to Switzerland and claimed an acquaintance with Italy. For the physical characteristics of the Alps, plains and fiord lands of the South Island are as distinct from the attractions of Rotorua and the route to Wellington as the history and qualities of Dunedin people are distinct from those that have marked Auckland’s development. And some experience of the solidity of the South should be offered to visitors to counteract the impression of quakes and qualms they may' have had in the North. GOOD NEWS FOR MICAWBERS. "P'OR THOSE who are always hoping that something will turn up, the eleventh-hour decision of the Government to waive the 10 per cent penalty' on unpaid rates until the end of the month will be good news. For those who order their lives more regularly, it will simply' be an annoyance. On the very last day on which the rates were due without penalty this belated decision is announced. It may' be reasonable and humane in these hard times that some extension should be sought for the sake of those who are financially' embarrassed, but it is undignified that public business should be conducted in a hand-to-mouth method that grants a last-minute reprieve to persons who, strictly speaking, should not have been encouraged to expect it. In fact, this extension, which by' the way involves the rate collector’s staff in a very' busy day’s work on Easter Saturday when they' ought to be enjoying a continuous break, is just another manifestation of the State and municipal paternalism that undermines national self-reliance.