CAPTAIN RUSHWORTH’S SPEECH

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17803, 30 August 1929, Page 9

CAPTAIN RUSHWORTH’S SPEECH

(To the Editor.) Sir, —Your corrspondent “Counter" has grossly misrepresented Captain Ilushworth’s argument. In his Morrinsville speech (as “Counter” ought to have seen from your report) Captain Rushworth said that many people unjustly accused labour of being the cause of high costs. Wages were high, he said, only because of the high cost of living. The cost of living w'ent

A front and wages lagged behind. That is true, and the Captain might have added that when costs and prices are tending downward the wageearners are the first to suffer —through unemployment. In any case, he . made quite clear his reason for refusing to advocate wage reductions. He pointed out more than once that the rise in wages lagged behind the rise in prices, and that the workers therefore suffered, though perhaps less than the farmers, who could not pass on their added burden of costs arising from Customs taxation and so forth. Your correspondent's sneering at the captain as one ready to “surrender to the industrial highwayman” is therefore quite beside the mark. Certainly the Captain prefers our peaceful way of settling industrial disputes to the violence practised in Australia. The gallant “Counter” may prefer lockouts and bomb-throwing—which we would have soon enough if we regarded our decent wage-earners as a lot of “highwaymen,” who don’t know how to “fight like gentlemen.” But, of course, that’s where we laugh.—l am, etc., J.A.B. Hamilton, Aug. 29.