AN OBSOLESCENT WEAPON

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19363, 17 September 1934, Page 6

AN OBSOLESCENT WEAPON

“ It has been claimed by American publicists that the New Deal is something new in social and economic experiments. It is true that nothing so elaborate, so comprehensive or so costly has ever been attempted in any country, but some of its components are not new,” comments an Australian journal. “ Its industrial codes are but a belated attempt to adopt a form of compulsoi-y arbitration without securing the respect for abitration that is shared in 'other other countries, notably Australia. With all its organisation, American industry is not yet sufficiently enlightened in the sphere of industrial relations to receive the machinery or the security that industrial arbitration gives to both sides of industry. Perhaps one reason is that there is a certain amount of arbitrary power in the administration of industrial codes instead of a judicial approach to each case by a tribunal independent of the administration and hacked by the fullest authority of the law and public opinion. “In the face of the retarded development of conceptions of industrial relationship in American industry, it is not surprising to find obsolescent methods and weapons in common use. There is no respect by big- business for the rights of collective bargaining of the workers. There is conversely, little respect by the unions for the law which should stand to avert industrial lawlessness. There is nowhere a tribunal with the power or authority to represent the public in its regulation or correction of the acts of cither the employers or employees. There is everywhere a lust for fight as the method of determining right or wrong in cases of industrial conflict. “ The picture of industrial America to-day is reminiscent of the bad old days in Australia, when man and master would harbour fight in their hearts and make the community the battleground on which at length the smouldering resentment would break out in full blast. There have been industrial upheavals in Australia up to within tli£ last ton years, hut there has come of these a recognition that the strike has failed as a weapon once it attacks public convenience. Hence, the strike is now only an isolated success where the tight is carried on beyond the reach of the law and without interfering sufficiently seriously with public convenience. Moreover, the provision in Australian laws against the intervention of the, militia ia industrial disputes has made industrial justice the product of reason rather than of force. “ The present textile strike in America is an example of the brute force stage in industrial relations. The spirit of arbitration has not yet been breathed under the New Deal. Hero is a dispute’in which there has been no last-minute rashness. The fight is the result, of long-standing differences, for the bridging of which there is apparently neither authority nor sanction in the United States. The strike smouldered since last American winter. In June last, there was a last-minute armistice in the hope that the N.R.A. administrator would he able to evolve agreement. Neither side has given way, and neither side looks like giving way.”