EDITORIAL COMMENT.

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 11, 1 September 1911, Page 785

EDITORIAL COMMENT.

We have in the Dominion an Act for compelling arbitration of disputes between Labour and Capital. It was once said to have proved a complete success. This was premature. It was also pronounced a failure. This was wrong. The truth was that it did not do everything expected because of the undue frictions of the system adopted. Many of these have been removed and the improvement is manifest. When they are all removedand no one can tell when that will, be, so vast is the field of experience still unexhaustedAve shall have perfection. Capital is, we believe, persuaded that the way of the Act is the only way to prevent Labour unrest. Labour, on the other hand, is divided on the point. To a section more or less large the right of the strike is still dear. Ramsay MacDonald and Keir Ilardie both told them, when they passed through the Dominion, that, deprived of that right, men were both slaves and cowards. That ■ i , ■ ...j. i._i „,....„ Ti ia riglll JS IIOL UlJ\tM.i ttVVaJ* iii.iv, XI ..*> limited to unorganised Labour unconditionally, and in the case of organised Labour is subjected to certain conditions, the chief of which is that organised Labour must cancel its registration, and all

labour must give a certain notice of its intention. In Britain they have the right, without restrictions. Are they satisfied? On the contrary, they want to add the right of compelling other people to side with them. Not only did the railway and other men go out on strike, but they engaged in a deadly struggle to prevent other people doing any part of the work they had thrown up. Tom Mann was even giving "permits" for the doing of certain work. Tom Mann then was the chief of the state It follows that Tom Mann was at the head of a rebellion, for the simple reason that neither he nor any one else has the rigid of stopping the service of the public. Men can cease work, but the public has the right to insist on a continuous supply of food and commercial transport and the permanence of light, water, and drainage. It is the business of the Government of the country to see that these things arc not interrupted, for it is the business of the Government to sec that i-vvry man's rights are exercised without legislation. Tom Mann giving permits usurps the function of the Government. Tom Mann was, therefore, a rebel. The State has to put down rebellion. Hence we had the police, the special constables, and the soldiery. Every Government of the earth obeys this principle. Even the Socialist Government of M. Brian obeyed, and did so by the extraordinary and highly original and most effective method of calling out the reserves, which means making the strikers do their work as soldiers under military discipline. Were this principle forgotten society would crumble to pieces. Society is, when fortunate, founded on freedom, but it is freedom all round and proportioned accordingly. Under a proper system of freedom it is not possible for 200,000 men representing at the outside a million souls—giving each 200,000 a. wife and three children—to dominate a nation of over forty millions of people. Strikes, when carried to their extreme —and they never stop short of it, for if they did they would bo uselessare up against that solid fact which will not "ding." Now which is best? — subjection to a compulsory Arbitration system.?- or subjection to military and police forces:"Undemocratic," some one raps out before he has time to think. But Democracy is the rule of majorities. Strikes, then, are up against majority rule, and they claim to be raised in its

name. This is absurd. The absurdity follows from the supposition that it is wrong to compel arbitration. Strikes are absurd, therefore. Moreover, they are generally futile, and they invariably cost the strikers far more than they are worth. Such is the .justification now afforded by the big strike in Britain to the principle of compulsory arbitration adopted in the Dominion of New Zealand. £ * * Before industry was paralysed there arose a crisis between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. That crisis was staved off but not removed. A period of uncertainty ensued. One felt that there might be war at any moment. During the period British industry and transport were paralysed. The crisis becomes acute once more. If the strike lasts the power of Britain to assert her strength in a certain event is paralysed. What is going to happen'' Politicians who are statesmen and patriots send word to the Prime Minister from all sides of the House that they are ready to stand by him and ask no questions. But the strikers are deaf to the call of the public interest and the dictates of patriotism. It is a situation! * * * What is credit? It is the knowledge of the ability of production to give value. Were it coin, there would be no credit, for the coin in the world is worth only a fraction of the value of the production. •Credit depends on permanence of exchange. Paralyse transport and you stop exchange. Credit totters. Keep it up long enough and there is disaster. Keep it up still longer and the disaster becomes national. Make the transport blockade universal and disaster becomes cosmopolitan. We do not allow children to play with fire. We ought not to allow either Labour or Capital to play with strikes and lock-outs. * * * Happily there is another danger. When compulsory arbitration was proposed here the scoffer said you can't put 10,000 men in gaol. When a universal strike by solidarity of Labour is urged (as it is urged every day by certain organs) one can safely* say "Impossible." Without transport there can be no food after a short period, in the largest centres of population. That period over, the strikers will have no food for their strike pay to buy. It does not matter whether they are paid in diamonds or lumps of

clay. The more successful the strike, the sooner the collapse from starvation of strikers. The consideration of this logical fact ought to dominate the position. That’s why we said “Happily.”

It is clear to one who thinks straight that in these matters there must be compulsion, for as a matter of fact there is compulsion everywhere. It is the condition of the freedom guaranteed to every citizen by the ideal State. The first thing to do, therefore, is to accept Compulsory Arbitration. The next is to so manage that compulsion is always reasonable. As you can neither, on the one hand, imprison thousands nor on the other confiscate millions obvious reasons, chief of which is that capital must be conserved as one of the factors of production, which, indeed, is the very reason why you ought not to imprison thousands who are another factor—you must impose conditions that shall reduce obstinacy and unreasonableness to the minimum. That done, you can easily deal with the minimum. Human nature (which is reasonable) is a guarantee for that. That is the path on which the Legislature of the Dominion is launched. Success gets nearer year by year. We go on amending and we rejoice that we can see our way to amend. Thoughtless persons call it “tinkering.” But who pays attention to the thoughtless? Thev have begun that course in England with the Railway Conciliation Boards. Tin; grievance of the men is that these Boards have been misused by the masters. That is proper subject for inquiry. If inquiry shows need there will be redress by legislation, and another step on the amendment road. The Government has offered that course. The men have refused—against the advice of their leaders. They must bow to the law of the strike. One thing is certain. Until there is compulsory arbitration on this line of amendment when needed, there will be industrial unrest all over the world.

There are men who insist that it is useless to talk of any improvement of anything until the world has ceased to be out of joint. The success of that talk would be the eternal block of all things useful. That the world is not an ideal place is beyond doubt to those who know how many things might be better. These are a vast army-anarchists, socialists, singletaxers, free-traders, protectionists, dreamers of many kinds of millennium. It is possible to respect their motives all round. It is impossible to wait for the reconcilement of all their differences. The work of order must never cease, even if good men wrangle about the good things to be done. Therefore, the work of prelenting strikes by appeals to reason must go on.

As these lines go forward to the printer, the strike collapses. In a situation whore somebody had to give way in one way or another, as we have shown abundantly, me masters have yielded. They have recognised that they must accept the principle aof meeting the leaders of the men. It is a just principle, and the only one that can possibly lead to satisfactory conclusion. They have promised also to let bygones be bygones, and never to repeat

the practice of black-marking a man who stands up for his cloth. Upon this open confession and firm promise of amendment there is built a great structure of reformatory work and progressive procedure which promise well. It may be groping in the dark? What of that—the groping is sure to reach the light eventually. Keep the spirit good and common-sense on the alert for rational amendment shown by patient experience to be needed. Then all will be well. Such is the lesson of this big strike.

The cry in some quarters is “Nationalisation of Railways.” The strike has unquestionably shown that the companies for the most part have found the work of management too much for them. It is one of the reasons given for their fall into a state of things so bad for Labour, and for their inability to spend money enough to establish the right conditions for securing the right of Labour to better things. On the other hand some companies like the Midland have shown the best management. It is like the good employer who pleads that he cannot help it if the bad employer forces him to compete with sweating methods. The result of that plea is that the State has forced the sweater out; at all events it is so in this country. Shall the State be forced to do something to make a level among the railway companies? It is no business of ours. The Dominion has national railways, and offers not advice but the records of its experience for all who choose to read. No competition and payment of all charges with a small profit over, together with good wages (best in Australasia), short hours and low freights with many concessions to the railway users, and last, but not least, the lowest accident average in the world. How about accidents on the national railways of Australia? There they arc under Commissioners, whereas we here arc under the Minister. More than that it is impossible to say, and it covers the whole case for argument. Let those who argue do the covering. What is certain is that no political party in this country will ever propose to place the railways under the bushel of private ownership.

Last year was a good year for them. It is complained by politicians that the cost of the system has increased in the last five years by an inordinate sum. The increased expenditure of the period is £675,000, Is this an exorbitant increase? It is certain that in 1006 the railways were not paying the interest on their cost. Now they are. The concessions so freely granted in former years were left intact except the concessions on long distance passenger rates, and these were raised, but not up to level elsewhere prevailing. Moreover, some nonpaying and unnecessary trains were cut out. Frima facie, then, the case looks for good not a bad management. Beyond that it is impossible for the critic to go wit no ut going into every item of the busiVVItIIULIU HJLtU CVCiJ UJL UUJ OllSl** ness. One knows, too, that the average of accidents is the lowest in the world: as that uncompromising opponent of the Government, Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, declared to the railway men the other day. The politicians having failed to establish

a yrima facie ease against the management the case may be dismissed.

In another column—several other columns — publish to-day a general review of the railway system, its history and probable future A pen of much reputation and knowledge has been engaged upon it, and his picturesque treatment will repay perusal. The best f of his prophecies is that the Otago Central will become, thanks to irrigation, one of the best paying in the Dominion. We add that the first irrigation system has just been installed in the Ida Valley and the water is about to be offered to farmers.

The short battle of the gauges is given effectively; there is a good description of the Main Trunk Northern Express, together with the labours of the letter sorters in the mail van; there is a fine realistic touch of the engines, and the various parts of (he journey. Whether his prophecy that the ferry system will be diverted by Picton will come true it is early to discuss. For the present the official face is firmly fixed against such a thing, on the ground that the speed of the east coast line must always fall short of the speed of the steamer on the shorter distance—Wellington to Lyttelton. Hut this is for the future.

Few men now know how the tunnel on this line came to be made. It represents, of course, the biggest project ever entertained by a British population—or any other—in proportion to its numbers. There wore but 8000 people, including the babies, in the Canterbury Province at the time, and they faced with courage an expenditure running into millions. Had they failed it would have been no wonder. That they nearly failed is matter of history. That they were saved by a new arrival in the country who happened to be a young and brilliant geologist is known to but few, and their number grows daily smaller. 'When the engineer of the London Company, which had undertaken the contract subject to his examination of the data arrived, he set to work to explore the line through the Port Hills with a borer. After a time he came on porphyry. Thereupon he reported that the hill, being solid porphyry, the tunnel was beyond the means of the firm and out of the reach of economic profit. Moorhouse, then superintendent (William Sefton) had heard that a clever young German of the name of von Haast, had just written a grand report on an exploration of the Nelson Province. lie sent for him in this crisis and commissioned him to survey the said hills. This he did, reporting duly that there was porphyry there, hut that there were many other things there, less Lard and less difficult for the work of tunnelling. The hill, he announced, was the side of a volcanic crater, an easy thing indeed to put a tunnel through. The circumstance is unique in railway history. Oil that report the tunnel was taken up by Messrs. Holmes and Richardson, and completed within the contract time. Haast, it is related, spent many week ends in the tunnel during its construction making drawings of the strata on either side of the working. These are now in the Christchurch Museum.