Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1908. COMBINES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8955, 4 January 1908, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1908. COMBINES.

It was nearly five years ago wheu tha Trade and Labour Council of New Zealand, in conference assembled, unanimously passed a resolution, on the motiou of the famous McCullough, iv the following terms: "That the Government be urged to take immediate action to restrict combinations, or trusts, from inflating the price of bread or other commodities, either by making such combinations illegal, or by nationalising the milling, baking and other industries." Five years have elapsed, and yet the Government has not seen its way to comply with this urgent demand; and it may be said that the process of inflation has boen continuous, and is likely to remain so. The prices of all commodities depend upon the cost of labour, and the Trade and Labour Council, by inflating the cost of labour, brings about the very condition which it deplores. High wages, all the world over, mean a high cost of living, and low wages mean a low cost of living. This is a natural law which all the Trade and Labour Councils in the universe cannot abrogate. In this particular instance the Trade and Labour Council butted, as it were, against a brick wall.

A Trade and Labour Council is a Combine pure" and simple, and its policy should be to promote all Combines. The law, as well as equity, recognises the right of employers, as well as employees, to combine; and the Trade and Labour Council ought to have congratulated the millers and the bakers if these traders effected a successful combination. The nationalisation of industries may come some day; but when this time arrives, the nations will also fix the cost of all commodities, and the rate paid for wages, and it is a little doubtful as to whether the workers will be as well off then as they are now. Perhaps no country in the world is so full of Oombiues as is New Zealand at the present time—Combines of Workers and Combiner of Employers. Anything that can be said against such Combines applies quite as much to the one as to the other. If the workers be greedy, the employers are doubtless greedy also. They have to be in order to hold their own during a period of general inflation. It is six of one to half-a-dozen of the other. "The devil take the hindmost" is as much a maxim for a combination era as it is for a competitive era.

Combines are no new things, for do not doctors, lawyers, commission agents, architects, and dozens of other trades and professions all have fixed tariffs of charges upon which they base all their business? Do these fixed tariffs, these minimum rates, bring about any equality of condition, any standard of income? Not at all; for we see one man making two thousand pounds a year, and another, on the same basis, making but two hundred a year. The factor which counts is not the tariff rate, but the ability of the professional man or of the trader. Combinations will not save a weak man, because it is usually the strong man who scores off them. The weaker man, in the long run, suffers from lack of employment. What is the use to him of a high fee, or fat wages, or a good commission, unless he can secure regular employment? Each individual stands or falls, in the long run, on his own merits; and no combination is likely to either make or mar his success. A Combine of any kind is a good and praiseworthy procedure. A Corabine is simply a brotherhood, and can be applied to any undertaking with a

worthy spirit. If a Combine be intended to do good, it is good; it is only when it is designed to work evil that it becomes evil. If our Legislature, in its wisdom, promoted Combines to bring about a good understanding, a sentiment of brotherhood, between employers and employees, such Combines would bo righteous. If, as unfortunately is the case, it calls into existence Combines which create enmity aud distrust between masters and men, then such Combines bocomo evil. It is an act of virtue for any body of men to work together for the good of humanity as a Combine; but it is no act of virtue for men to work together as a Combine in a spirit of greed or of avarice, or with the iutontion of injuring their fellow men. All unjust gains on the part of either employees or employers, whether taken individually or collectively, must bo at the expense of other employers or employees; and, as such, are unrighteous, even though they be based on Acts of Parliament. Our Arbitration Act is founded on no moral law; indeed, it is absolutely hostile to the moral code which tends to make men brothers. It assumes that men are incompetent to deal fairly with one another, and that they must be disciplined like children. It makes for unrighteousness rather than for righteousness.

We happened to see a correspondence the other day between a settler in one of our bush districts and his baker. The price of flour wont down and the price of bread kept up, and the settler said: "This is a Combine; take your bread away!" The baker replied: "I must admit that the price of bread is high, but you know that flour is a big price; not only that, but the cost of labour is too high at preseut. In fact, everything is expensive. I assure you that as soou as flour goes down I shall reduce the price of bread." Poor baker' Auxious to reduce the price of bread, but afraid to do so, while he sees custom drifting away from him. It is not all beer and skittles even with bakers. Sometimes, in a sparsely populated round, it will cost a baker from a penny to twopence per loaf to deliver bread. Combines may be all very well in a populous city; but in up-couutry districts they are, in their operation, almost cruel. The unfortunate baker caunot even, by a Combine in his own favour, put himself on even terms with the labour Combines that work against him. The employer is often in a cleft stick His meu are guaranteed a profit on their labour, but he himself cannot pass this profit, which is drawn from him, on to the public. However, we are learning trade lessons in New Zealand, and in time even the City Uniouiscs will attain wisdom and understanding. The State, so far, has grown a crop of Combines which are not for the benefit of the people. The City Unions are somewhat in the position of Ajax, aud defy the lightning. In dealing with an individual, there is the safeguard which his conscience gives, for every man either possesses or affects to possess a conscience; but in dealing with a Combine, whether it be one of workers or employers, the collective conscience is a little uncertain. It was said of a British railway company, some fifty years ago, that it had neither "a soul to be saved nor a body to be kicked," aud some of our New Zealand Combines are in a similar position.