The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1909. AN EMPLOYERS' DEFENCE FUND.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 3 February 1909, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1909. AN EMPLOYERS' DEFENCE FUND.

The resolution adopted by the Auckland branch of the* New Zealand Employers'" Federation, pledging itself to assist in the establishment of a defence fund for the benefit of employers, is meeting with widespread approval. It is suggested that payment shall be made through the Federation in order to partially meet the losses arising out of decreased profit, damage to property, costs of defending or sustaining actions in Court, recognition of men's loyalty, or any other kindred purposes. The idea is certainly a good one. Differences of opinion may exist as to the specific purposes to which the fund should be devoted, and the administration of the fund would require to be carefully safeguarded, but as to the wisdom of the main proposal there can be no two opinions. The establishment of a defence fund would be perfectly in accord with the primary object for which the Federation exists, and would add materially to the practical value of the organisation. As a southern contemporary points out, union is rightly associated with strength, and Avhile it is scarcely to be supposed that such a fund will prompt any employer to involve himself hastily and unreasonably in a dispute which can be avoided, it should have the effeqt of giving the employer that confidence in the fairness, of the position he takes up, and that more emphatic determination to make a firm stand where coercion is resorted to by employees, which is likely to be inspired by a knowledge that he has at his back, over and above his own resources, not only the moral but also the practical support of his fellow employers throughout the Dominion. The trades unions could not object to what would be merely an act of prudence on the part of employers. Owing we believe in mott cases to the pernicious influence of agitators, the funds of the labour unions aro being used continually to embroil employers in disputes. We do not think it h an exaggeration to say that r. Aery large proportion of the money contributed by the workers to their re.spective unions is dissipated in the costs of aggressive litigaton, much of wheh is of a petty, irritating and unjustifiable character. This perpetual warfare takes the form, for the most part, of attacks in force upon individual employers and isolated industries. The existence of .1 defence fund would in all probability exorcise a restrictive influence upon thb sort of thing, and make the trades unions less inclined to sanction the continual pin-picking of the men who have to find the wages. In that event the workers would have reason to be truly thankful to the- promctors of the employerf,' fighting fund. The existing financial stringency is undoubtedly exercising a depressing effect upon all branches of industry, and the outlook for the approaching winter is not of the brightest. A good deal of money has already been withdrawn from the

Dominion, and there is talk of employers who threaten to "close down" and to tako their capital, and the work which it represents, elsewhere. The existence of a defence fund would give employers greater confidence in their ability to successfully withstand the petty, persecutions to which they are subjected, if indeed it did not actually have th^ effect of greatly reducing the volume of unnecessary litigation. If employers are alivo to their own interests . they will give the Auckland proposal their earnest consideration, and we are confident that if they will only take the trouble to do that they Avill quickly realise that the establishment of a defence fund would substantially enhance the working value of the Federation and prove a by no means unimportant factor in the promotion of industrial peace.