AUSTRALIAN LABOUR.

Waipa Post, Volume XVII, Issue 963, 3 July 1920, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN LABOUR.

THE POSITION ANALYSED.

« SELF-SEEKING AUTOCRACY.” A singularly able and penetrating diagnosis of the labour situation is given in a series of articles published in the‘Melbourne Age. The primary blunder of Labour leadership, says the writer, is that it does not adjust itself to facts. We have been swept during the last five years through a century of economic change, and are standing breathless and confused in a new world, with new forces and new principles all about us. The labour agitator, however, has brought into this new world his old labels; his phrases are rhetorically effective, but do not fit the facts. The public sees the “ poor worker ” spending money lavishly, dictating his own terms, granting the favour of his services to employers or withholding it as he pleases.

Lessening Production. The whole policy of labour, the writer argues, is a form of class suicide; it consists in deliberately using its power to lessen the products of labour! On it lies guilt of that state of industrial instability which is the grievous sickness from which the world is suffering so acutely. The world, as never before, now needs the products of industry. There is a world-wide demand for practically all kinds of material, for the construction of buildings, for the re-equipping of railways, for the making of clothing. for the manufacture of boots and shoes, and for the production of foodstuffs. Capital and business enterprise are not holding back., But one essential factor of production—labour —refuses to work amicably with the others for a common end. The result of the refusal of labour to play its part is shortage of production, high prices, and world-wide want and distress. From these labour suffers more acutely than the rest of the community, and, although the fault lies upon its own shoulders, the suffering fans its discontent and adds to its bitterness. Do Less: Earn More. At the present moment, in brief, under its present leaders, labour has set up for itself wrong ideals, and seeks to obtain them* by wrong methods. “ That is shown by its. bitter opposition to the adoption of any. systems by which the actual worth of a man’s work will be taken as the measure of the wages he should earn. Labour does not want payment by results, bonuses, or any form of rewards that hold out an inducement ■for special effort. ” It seeks, im brief, higher wages, but proposes to do less to earn them. “It does not want higher wages and shorter hours in order to enable it to produce better work, or to work more quickly. It does not want to work at all. It wants to be paid more, and to loaf .more. Public sympathy, in its great good sense, turns against a doctrine so pernicious.” The Strike Weapon.

Under the present leadership labour turns its back on Arbitration Courts, and proposes to attain its ideals by an organised campaign of strikes. Now, history shows that “ strikes were the most effective factor in bringing ruin and beggary to the last generation, and they can bring the same misfortunes again over a far wider field. Whatever concessions workmen may claim, a strike at this particular juncture is the worst means of obtaining them. The strike destroys the very means by which the granting of the men’s demands is made possible. It reduces the wealth on which all the people must live, and in which al the people must share. It creates shortage, and makes living dearer.” Self-Seeking- Autocracy.

That indictment —not so much of Labour as its present leadership—is severe, but it would be difficult to find a flaw in it. The writer in the Age sums up his article in words that are strong, but cannot be described as unjustified, “ Labour has become a self-seking- autocracy, and with utter irresponsibility is attempting to dictate to the commiinity. It has perfected the strike to a weapon of deadly efficiency, and is using it as a means of establishing an autocracy to serve its own selfish interests. It is against the general community, against the greatest good of all, that Labour has now arrayed. It has declared open war on the general community, therefore it stands to reason that it con no longer expect to have public sympathy on its side.”