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 National Association of Manufacturers 
 
 Report 
 
 OF THE 
 
 American Trade Commission 
 
 ON 
 
 Industrial Conditions 
 in Australasia 
 
 1914 
 
 Issued from the 
 
 SECRETARY'S OFFICE 
 
 30 Church Street 
 New York 
 

National Association of Manufacturers 
 
 Report 
 
 OF THE 
 
 American Trade Commission 
 
 
 ON 
 
 Industrial Conditions 
 in Australasia 
 
 1914 
 
 Issued from tke 
 
 SECRETARY'S OFFICE 
 
 30 ChurcK Street 
 New York 
 
The report of the Commission on trie promotion 
 of trade in Australasia, the Philippines, and the 
 Orient, is contained in a separate volume, on file 
 in the office of the Association. Members desiring 
 a copy of such part thereof as relates to their 
 particular industry can obtain the same on request. 
 Copies of this report, in its entirety, will be sent 
 to any address, free of charge, on application to The 
 National Association of Manufacturers, 30 Church 
 St., New York 
 
Report of trie American Trade Commission of tKe 
 
 National Association of Manufacturers on 
 
 Industrial Conditions in Australasia* 
 
 To the President and Board of Directors of the National Asso- 
 ciation of Manufacturers. 
 
 Gentlemen : In pursuance of your action in* appointing us 
 a Commission to visit New Zealand and Australia for the pur- 
 pose of investigating at first hand the so-called "ideal" industrial 
 conditions which have so commonly been alleged to prevail in 
 those countries through the instrumentality of legislation, with 
 a view to the National Association of Manufacturers advocat- 
 ing in this country the adoption of such of their measures as 
 would tend to improve our own industrial conditions, and with 
 the further view to a full presentation of the actual facts as they 
 obtain with respect to industrial matters and things germane 
 thereto in New Zealand and Australia, we beg herewith to sub- 
 mit our report. 
 
 Accompanied by Mr. Albert A. Snowden, of the Educa- 
 tional Staff of our Association, we sailed February loth, of the 
 current year, from San Francisco, for Sydney, New South 
 Wales, arriving at Sydney March 2d, from whence, after a ten 
 days' stay, we sailed for Auckland, New Zealand, and leaving 
 there March 2oth, we visited the following cities in the order 
 named: Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargel, 
 in New Zealand; Hobart, Tasmania; Melbourne, Victoria; 
 Adelaide, South Australia; returning from Adelaide to 
 Sydney, thence to Brisbane and Townsville in Queensland, 
 Australia, whence we sailed, June I2th, on our return voyage, 
 stopping at Thursday Island, Manila, Hongkong, Shanghai, 
 Hankow, Mukden, Manchuria; Fusan, Korea; Shimonoseki, 
 Tokio and Yokohama, Japan, and at Honolulu. 
 
 It may be stated here, that at a conference with our Gen- 
 eral Manager, Mr. Bird, relative to what additional subjects we 
 might investigate with profit to the National Association of 
 Manufacturers, it was decided that the subject of foreign trade 
 promotion should be included in the activities of your Commis- 
 sion, which, upon our arrival at Sydney, was announced by the 
 press as "The American Trade Commission/' and by which title 
 
 *Wherever the term "Australasia" is used in this report, the reference 
 includes Australia and New Zealand. 
 
 M34I828 
 
we were thereafter recognized throughout our trip. As both 
 of these subjects were exhaustively prosecuted, they furnish 
 material for a somewhat lengthy report. Being separate and 
 distinct subjects, they will be treated as such, and the results of 
 our investigations with respect to trade relations will be sub- 
 mitted to you in another and separate report from this one. 
 
 Commonwealth of Australia. 
 
 "A White Man's Government" in Australia dates back to 
 1786, about 18 years after the discovery 6f Botany Bay by Capt. 
 Cook, and in which year Port Jackson was founded as a place 
 to which criminals from England were exiled and which after- 
 ward was called Sydney, the capital of New South Wales. 
 Then came Tasmania in 1825; Western Australia in 1829; 
 South Australia in 1834; Victoria in 1851; Queensland in 1859, 
 and Northern Territory in 1863. 
 
 January I, 1901, these several independent States and their 
 included territories were federated under the name "Common- 
 wealth of Australia," and adopted a Constitution modeled after 
 that of the United States of America, but modified in some par- 
 ticulars. The following statements and figures are based on 
 statistics published by the Commonwealth Statistician. 
 
 The area of Australia is 2,974,581 square miles approxi- 
 mately the same as that of the United States, exclusive of 
 Alaska. Its total population, exclusive of full-blooded aborigines 
 who formerly exclusively peopled the country, in 1901 was 
 3,825,000, and in 1912, 4,733,000, being an increase of 908,000 in 
 12 years, a yearly average of 75,666. Over one-half the popu- 
 lation live in cities. Its most northerly border is at Thursday 
 Island, in Torres Straight, a town of a few hundred people, 
 mostly Japanese, a five days' ride from Brisbane, by water. 
 
 The principal cities of Australia are Brisbane, Sydney, 
 Melbourne, Perth and Hobart. 
 
 Principal Cities of Australia. 
 
 Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, is a city of 147,000 
 people. It is situated on both sides of the Brisbane River, about 
 seven miles from its mouth, where at present the larger ocean 
 steamers dock at Pinkenba, the river being navigable only for 
 ocean steamers of medium draught. Additional shipping facilities 
 will soon be provided, as extensive dredging operations are going 
 on with a view to deepening the channel so as to pass the largest 
 ocean vessels up to the city docks, and thus make ready for the 
 increase in shipping which, it is believed, the opening of the 
 
 4 
 
Panama Canal will bring to the city, and which, from a geo- 
 graphical viewpoint, will naturally become the first Australian 
 port at which vessels from the United States, through the canal, 
 to Australia will stop. The city has no sewerage system and a 
 big problem faces its people in this regard, as they fully appre- 
 ciate the necessity for the same. 
 
 Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, lies 700 miles to 
 the south of Brisbane, and together with its immediately ad- 
 joining suburbs has a population of 675,000. Sydney harbor 
 is claimed to be the finest harbor in the world, with the possible 
 exception of Buenos Aires. It is said to have from 600 to 900 
 miles of shore frontage, skirting its many small islands, coves 
 and bays. On entering the harbor the stranger is amazed at the 
 vast number of vessels, from all parts of the world, which he 
 sees being loaded and unloaded. It is then that he realizes the 
 fact that Sydney is the fifth city in the world in shipping im- 
 portance, and that it is the principal distributing port for a 
 vast portion of trade in the far South East. The city itself 
 has the appearance of age and substantiality. Many of its busi- 
 ness and public buildings are massive and of fairly good archi- 
 tectural construction. Its streets, though rather narrow, are 
 well paved, as is true of all the principal Australian cities, and 
 are kept clean and in excellent sanitary condition. 
 
 Melbourne, the capital of Victoria and also of the Com- 
 monwealth, lying, as it does, 550 miles to the south of Sydney, 
 at the head of Hobson Bay (Port Phillip), is justly entitled 
 to be called the gem city of Australia. It has a population of 
 approximately 600,000. Its streets are broad and laid out prin- 
 cipally at right angles, with the roadways and the sidewalks 
 level with each other at the street intersections, catch basins 
 being arranged at each crossing to receive and carry the surface 
 water into the sewers. This system of street construction at- 
 tracted our attention as being a marked improvement over the 
 custom of extending the curb around the street corners, which 
 forms a step from the sidewalk to the street, as we do in our 
 American cities. 
 
 The business and public buildings of Melborune will com- 
 pare favorably with those of any American city of its size. Its 
 Botanical Gardens are beautiful and attractive, and its museum 
 is a place of interest of which Melbourne citizens may well 
 feel proud. Its hospital would do credit to any city in the 
 world. 
 
 There are many fine residences in Melbourne, but they are 
 nearly all surrounded by hideous corrugated iron or other type 
 of close fences, six to eight feet in height, which hide from 
 
 5 
 
view the beautiful grounds which surround most of them and 
 which, if removed, would add greatly to the beauty of the city, 
 whose general appearance resembles the city of Washington, 
 D. C. 
 
 Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, is a city of ap- 
 proximately 170,000 population, situated 500 miles from Mel- 
 bourne in the southeast corner of the State. The city has a 
 good harbor and is splendidly laid out, with well-paved, broad 
 streets, and its sanitary conditions appear to be excellent. It 
 has many fine business and public buildings, and wears the air 
 of a well-to-do community. 
 
 Perhaps the most noticeable feature about Adelaide, at least 
 the one that attracted our admiration most, is its large number 
 of artistically appearing small dwellings built of red pressed 
 brick with sandstone trimmings and red tile roofs. Although 
 these houses are all similar in style and design, they present a 
 very pleasing effect and give to the city the appearance of pros- 
 perity and a comfortably cared-for community. A city ordi- 
 nance, we were informed, prohibits the erection of frame build- 
 ings within the city limits. Of all the cities we visited, none 
 presented to us a more attractive appearance than Adelaide, 
 and nowhere did we meet more congenial people. 
 
 Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is a city of 36,000 
 population, situated on the west coast of Australia, 1350 miles 
 from Melbourne, by water route. As we did not visit Perth we 
 are unable to speak of it from the viewpoint of personal obser- 
 vation, but we were informed that it is a city of large commer- 
 cial and shipping interests and possesses most of the advantages 
 incident to the average modern city of its size. 
 
 Hobart is the capital of Tasmania (once known as Van 
 Dieman's Land), and has a population of about 40,000. It is 
 situated on the southeast coast of Tasmania, 284 miles south- 
 east of Melbourne, close to the southern extremity of the Island 
 of Tasmania, which is separated from the mainland by Bass 
 Straight, about 175 miles across. Hobart has all the appear- 
 ances of a prosperous community, and being the principal ship- 
 ping point for the products of the State, it has one of the largest 
 and best equipped shipping wharfs that we saw anywhere in our 
 travels. Hobart also boasts of having the largest single jam- 
 making establishment in the world. 
 
 Pensions-Public Debt. 
 
 It has been said that "people are best governed that are 
 least governed," but Australia has not acted on that theory, for 
 
 6 
 
with a population less than that of the State of Ohio, its State 
 and Federal Governments are sufficiently extensive and compli- 
 cated for a population of 50,000,000 people, and their cost of 
 maintenance, when borne by less than 5,000,000, makes it a heavy 
 tax burden upon those who are called upon to pay the bills. 
 We were informed that the employees of the State and Federal 
 Governments number one in every eight of the total population. 
 
 The sum paid annually to 85,346 old age and 14,410 invalid 
 pensioners is approximately 2,526,765 (f 12,280,000), and from 
 October 10, 1912 (commencement), to October 25, 1913, there 
 was paid on account of 127,011 maternity claims, 635,055 
 ($3,086,367). 
 
 The total debt of the Commonwealth itself June 30, 1913, 
 was 7,430,949 ($36,114,412), and the Commonwealth and 
 States combined 301,913,113 ($1,467,297,729), or, to be more 
 specific, $310.70 per head. 
 
 Railways of Australia. 
 
 In 1913 there were 17,777 miles of Government owned and 
 operated railroads open for traffic, as follows: Commonwealth 
 145; Queensland 4,524; New South Wales 3,930; Victoria 
 3,647; South Australia 2,168; West Australia 2,854; Tasmania 
 509; the combined gross earnings of which were, for the fiscal 
 year 1912-13 19,955,000 ($96,981,300) ; the operating ex- 
 penses, 13,597,000 ($66,081,420) ; the percentage of operating 
 expenses on gross earnings, 68.14; the net earnings, 6,358,000 
 ($30,899,880), and the percentage of net earnings on the capital 
 cost 3.66. These figures, however, which are those given out 
 by the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, are not 
 generally accepted as showing the actual result of the railway 
 operations, as all depends on the system of bookkeeping and how 
 the figures are arrived at. We discussed this subject with a 
 number of business men, all of whom declared that the railways 
 were a heavy drain on the public purse. 
 
 A serious drawback to the country is experienced in the 
 lack of railway facilities in the interior, and also by reason of 
 the variation in gauges necessitating the transfer of freight and 
 passengers at the State border lines. For example, the Queens- 
 land lines are 3 feet 6 inches gauge; New South Wales 4 feet 
 Sy2 inches ; Victoria 5 feet 3 inches ; South Australia 4 feet 8j4 
 inches, etc. 
 
 The Commonwealth Government now has under construc- 
 tion a line 4 feet 8^ inches gauge, 1000 miles in length, from Kal- 
 goolie, in West Australia, to Port Augusta, in South Australia, 
 
 7 
 
which when completed will connect with a line from Perth to 
 Kalgoolie, and another from Port Augusta to Adelaide, thence 
 via South Australia and Victoria lines to Melbourne, thus form- 
 ing through rail communication from the west to the east coasts 
 and from Melbourne northwardly to Sydney and Brisbane. 
 
 There are no privately owned railways in Australasia, and 
 no franchises are obtainable except conditioned on their being 
 turned over to the Government at a given time. 
 
 We cannot subscribe to much of the adverse criticisms of 
 the railways of Australasia, which have been based on compari- 
 son with the railways of older and much more extensively popu- 
 lated countries. Whether they are self-supporting or not, when 
 considered in the light of the large area of country and its small 
 population, together with the fact that they are a part of the 
 political system of the country, we think that they are in the 
 hands of honest and capable men and that they are well managed 
 and render fair service to the public. And, while their tariff 
 rates are much higher than those in the United States, it is 
 quite apparent that they are deficient in many ways, lacking in 
 conveniences and improvements which result from individual 
 experiments, and which, through personal interests and diver- 
 sity of inventive genius, private corporations are always keen 
 to recognize and adopt. 
 
 Other Government Owned Industries. 
 
 We could obtain no official statistics with respect to Gov- 
 ernment owned industries other than railways, and are therefore 
 unable to give a complete report as to all of its functions, but 
 we gathered some information relative thereto from the news- 
 papers and business men with whom we discussed the subject, 
 to the effect that in addition to the railways and the telegraph 
 and telephone systems the Government owns and operates all 
 the lighting and water plants, some of the mines and banks, all 
 the sleeping cars and railway eating houses, engages in the life 
 insurance business, and regulates the amount of wages that shall 
 be received and paid for labor. The proposition to put a pre- 
 mium on idleness by paying wages to unemployed is being con- 
 sidered. The law requires that, in addition to Sunday, you 
 must close your place of business one half day each week, either 
 on Wednesday or Saturday afternoon, and that you must 
 register with the Government which day you elect to observe as 
 the half holiday most merchants close both afternoons, as busi- 
 ness is so dead that it does not pay them to keep open. You are 
 liable to arrest and fine if you keep open after the time fixed by 
 
 8 
 
law to close up your business establishment. One merchant 
 said that he was "So annoyed by Governmental restrictions of 
 personal liberty in doing business that he felt very much inclined 
 to pack up and get out of the country. The law keeps making 
 it harder and harder to carry on business." Another dealer said, 
 "This used to be a good country to make money in, but the 
 lawmakers and the labor unions have killed it." 
 
 There are a number of State and municipal owned meat 
 killing -and freezing plants doing business in competition with 
 private concerns. New South Wales operates a brick-making 
 plant, a bakery and several other industries in addition to the 
 tramway lines in Sydney, which are a part of the steam rail- 
 ways system. In Victoria the State owns and operates a coal 
 mine, a killing and freezing plant and a sugar beet plant. The 
 coal mine is said to be "sick," and the beet plant closed as a 
 failure after an expenditure of approximately $2,000,000 of the 
 public funds. These Government owned industries are subject 
 to the same labor conditions as are private concerns, as will be 
 shown later on. But when strikes occur in any of the industries 
 a demand is set up by the labor unions for the "nationalization" 
 of the industry, which sometimes is done. 
 
 Although we could get no definite or reliable statement or 
 figures with respect to the financial operations of these Govern- 
 ment owned industries, yet we were convinced from the infor- 
 mation we did obtain that none of them were returning to the 
 people "value received" and that from a financial standpoint the 
 results obtained from their operation would soon cause the 
 "finish" of privately-owned institutions. 
 
 Barring New Zealand, Australia leads the world in State 
 paternalism and in effort of the State to work out the destinies 
 of its individual citizens by placing on a par with the energetic, 
 thoughtful and frugal individual, the profligate, idle and shiftless 
 class who are always ready and willing to accept the benefits of 
 those whose superior efforts produce results which make for 
 advancement, and which when achieved belong to those who earn 
 them and not to the "common herd." The result of such a 
 policy is to make business ventures more hazardous and un- 
 certain, to penalize industry and thrift and give the reward to 
 the lazy and improvident. It is visible everywhere in Australia. 
 
 As to the Sydney tramways system, it appears to be well man- 
 aged and to give excellent service to the public. Its fares are 
 divided into sections, a penny (2 cents in United States money) 
 for each section. A ride of four miles costs 4d. (8 cents), 
 which, while being a more equitable system of fares, is in the 
 higher than is charged in the United States, where, in 
 
some cities, one can ride a distance of 12 miles or more for a 
 nickel. The operation of the system for its last fiscal year 
 showed a deficit of 61,038, which is hereinafter referred to 
 in a newspaper account. 
 
 In Brisbane and Melbourne the tramways are owned and 
 operated by private corporations under options of the munici- 
 palities to take them over at certain specified times. In Ade- 
 laide the city owns and operates the system. 
 
 As before stated, the telegraph and telephone systems are 
 Government owned and operated. If you want a local tele- 
 phone communication you drop a penny in the slot. In some 
 places the service was fairly good, in others not. Our experi- 
 ence in Sydney was not flattering to the telephone system. We 
 soon abandoned its use and resorted to the methods employed 
 before the telephone was introduced. 
 
 Taxes. 
 
 We were asked to investigate the system of taxation in 
 Australia, but we found it a difficult matter to obtain definite 
 or statistical information covering the subject in detail. We 
 learned, however, through various sources that pretty much 
 every available means is employed to raise revenue sufficient 
 to meet the liberal expenditures of the Government. There is 
 the ever increasing land tax ; an income tax on incomes above 
 200; an import tax; a license tax on every form of business 
 from a boarding house to a hotel ; a stamp tax which requires 
 that in business transactions practically every piece of paper 
 that bears a signature must also bear a tax stamp, and for the 
 privilege of passing through the gates of a railway station to see 
 your friends off on the train you are taxed two-pence. 
 
 Workmen's Compensation. 
 
 Laws providing for compensation of workers injured in the 
 course of their employment have been in force throughout Aus- 
 tralasia for some years. And, as our Association has devoted a 
 great deal of time and money in promoting sane and equitable 
 legislation of this character, in the various States, it is especially 
 fitting that space in this report be given to this branch of indus- 
 trial legislation. Owing to the absence of statistical data we 
 are unable to give figures showing the sums paid annually 
 to injured workers and their dependents, in accordance with the 
 provisions of these laws. But the following extracts from the 
 Schedule and Code of Regulations under which the Queensland 
 Workers' Compensation Act of 1905 is administered, are 
 
 10 
 
quoted as covering the general character of such legislation 
 throughout Australia and New Zealand, and which, suffice to 
 say, have been freely copied, from in the United States, viz. : 
 
 (1) If, in any employment to which this Act applies, personal injury by 
 accident arising out of and in the course of the employment is caused 
 to a worker, his employer shall, subject as hereinafter mentioned, be 
 liable to pay compensation in accordance with the Schedule to this Act. 
 
 (2) The employer shall not be liable under this Act in respect of any 
 injury which 
 
 (i) Does not disable the worker for a period of at least three days 
 from earning full wages at the work at which he was em- 
 ployed ; or 
 
 (n) Is directly attributable to the serious and wilful misconduct of 
 the worker injured; or 
 
 (in) Occurs to a worker whilst proceeding to or frpm his place of 
 work. 
 
 * * * 
 
 (1) If the Governor in Council, after taking steps to ascertain the views 
 of the employer and workmen, certifies that any scheme of compen- 
 sation, benefit, or insurance for the workmen of an employer in any 
 employment, whether or not such scheme includes other employers 
 and their workmen, is on the whole not less favorable to the general 
 body of workmen and their dependants than the provisions of this 
 Act, the employer may, until the certificate is revoked, contract with 
 any of those workmen that the provisions of the scheme shall be 
 substituted for the provisions of this Act, and thereupon the employer 
 shall be liable only in accordance with the scheme. 
 
 But, save as aforesaid, this Act shall apply, notwithstanding any 
 contract to the contrary made after the commencement of this Act. 
 
 (2) The Governor in Council may give a certificate to expire at the end 
 of a limited period not less than five years. 
 
 (3) No scheme shall be so certified which contains an obligation upon 
 the workmen to join the scheme as a condition of their hiring. 
 
 (4) If complaint is made to the Governor in Council by or on behalf of 
 the workmen of any employer that 
 
 (i) The provisions of any scheme are no longer on the whole so 
 favorable to the general body of workmen of such employer and 
 their dependants as the provisions of this Act; or 
 (n) The provisions of such scheme are being violated; or 
 (in) The scheme is not being fairly administered; or 
 (iv) Satisfactory reasons exist for revoking the certificate; 
 the Governor in Council, if satisfied that good cause exists for such 
 complaint, shall, unless the cause of complaint is removed, revoke the 
 certificate. 
 
 (5) When a certificate is revoked or expires, any moneys or securities 
 held for the purpose of the scheme shall be distributed as may be 
 arranged between the employer and workmen, or as may be deter- 
 mined by the Governor in Council in the event of a difference of 
 opinion. 
 
 (6) Whenever a scheme has been certified as aforesaid, it shall be the 
 duty of the employer to answer all such inquiries and to furnish all 
 such accounts in regard to the scheme as may be made or required by 
 the Governor in Council. 
 
 * * * 
 
 From and after the commencement of this Act, it shall not be lawful for 
 any employer or any person on his behalf, or for any insurance com- 
 
 ii 
 
pany or any person on its behalf, to directly or indirectly take or 
 receive any money from any worker, whether by way of deduction 
 from wages or otherwise howsoever, in respect of any liability of an 
 employer to pay compensation under this Act or damages indepen- 
 dently of this Act. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Where death results from the injury. If the worker leaves any depen- 
 dants wholly dependent upon his earnings at the time of his death, 
 a sum equal to his earnings in the employment of the same employer 
 during the three years next preceding the injury, or the sum of 200 
 pounds, whichever of those sums is the larger, but not exceeding in 
 any case 400 pounds. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Where total or partial incapacity for work results from the injury, a 
 weekly payment during the incapacity not exceeding 50 per centum 
 of his average weekly earnings during the previous twelve months, 
 if he has been so long employed, but if not, then for any less period 
 during which he has been in the employment of the same employer, 
 but such weekly payment shall not exceed one pound, and the total 
 liability of the employer in respect thereof shall not exceed 400 pounds: 
 
 Provided that 
 
 (a) In the case of a worker whom his employer has reasonable cause 
 to believe to be over sixty years of age, and who has entered 
 into an agreetnent in writing with his employer as to the maxi- 
 mum amount of compensation to be payable to him under this 
 Act in respect of accidents happening after the date of the agree- 
 ment, the compensation shall not exceed that maximum, but the 
 maximum shall not be less 
 (i) Where death results from the injury, and the worker leaves 
 
 . any dependants, than 50 pounds ; 
 
 (n) Where total or partial incapacity for work results from the 
 injury, than a weekly payment during the incapacity of five 
 shillings, and a total liability of 50 pounds; 
 
 (fc) In the case of a workman who has, in accordance with the regu- 
 lations, obtained from a medical referee a certificate to the effect 
 that his age or any physical infirmity or incapacity from which he 
 is suffering is such as to render him specially liable to accident, 
 or to render the result of an accident to him specially serious, 
 and who has entered into an agreement in writing with his em- 
 ployer as to the maximum amount of compensation to be pay- 
 able to him under this Act in respect of accidents happening 
 after the date of the agreement, the compensation shall not exceed 
 that maximum, but the maximum shall not be less 
 (i) Where death results from the injury, and the worker leaves 
 any dependants, than 25 pounds or a sum equivalent to 39 
 times his average weekly earnings, whichever is the larger; 
 (n) Where total or partial incapacity for work results from the 
 injury, than a weekly payment during the incapacity of five 
 shillings or one-quarter of his average weekly earnings, 
 whichever is the larger, and a total liability of 50 pounds ; 
 (c) As respects the weekly payment during total incapacity to a 
 worker who is under 21 years of age at the date of the injury, 
 and whose average weekly earnings are less than 20 shillings, 
 100 per centum shall be substituted for 50 per centum of his 
 average weekly earnings, but the weekly payment shall in no 
 case exceed ten shillings. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Where a worker has given notice of an accident he shall, if so required 
 by the employer, submit himself for examination by a duly qualified 
 
 12 
 
medical practitioner provided and paid by the employer ; and if he 
 refuses to submit himself to such examination, or in any way ob- 
 structs the same, his right to compensation, and any proceeding 
 under this Act in relation to compensation, shall be suspended until 
 such examination takes place. 
 
 The payment shall, in case of death, be made to the legal personal repre- 
 sentative of the worker, or, if he has no legal personal representative, 
 to or for the benefit of his dependants, or, if he leaves no dependants, 
 to the person to whom the expenses are due; and, if made to the 
 legal personal representative, shall be paid by him to or for the 
 benefit of the dependants or other persons entitled thereto under 
 this Act. 
 
 Any question as to who is a dependant or as to the amount payable to 
 each dependant shall, in default of agreement, be settled by a police 
 magistrate under this Act. 
 
 The sum allotted as compensation to a dependant may be invested or 
 otherwise applied for the benefit of the person entitled thereto as 
 agreed, or, in default of agreement, as ordered by the police magis- 
 trate. 
 
 Where it appears to a police magistrate, on any information which the 
 police magistrate considers sufficient, that a widow to whom any sum 
 is payable under this Act, whether by way of an annuity or as instal- 
 ments or otherwise, ought on account of her remarriage, or on 
 account of drunkenness, neglect of children, or other sufficient mis- 
 conduct on her part, to be deprived of the whole or any part of any 
 such sums, or that the terms on which, or the manner in which, any 
 such sums are payable to the widow ought to be varied, the police 
 magistrate may order such deprivation or variation, and may, on 
 application being made in accordance with the regulations, make such 
 further order, for the payment of the sums of which the widow has 
 been deprived to or for the benefit of other dependants or of the 
 employer, as in the circumstances of the case the police magistrate 
 may think just. 
 
 Any worker receiving weekly payments under this Act shall, if so re- 
 quired by the employer, from time to time submit himself for 
 examination by a duly qualified medical practitioner provided and 
 paid by the employer. If the worker refuses to submit himself to 
 such examination or in any way obstructs the same, his right to such 
 weekly payments shall be suspended until such examination has taken 
 place. 
 
 A worker shall not be required to submit himself for examination by a 
 medical practitioner under paragraph four or paragraph nine of this 
 Schedule, otherwise than in accordance with the regulations; and 
 where he has so submitted himself for examination, he shall not,, 
 without the leave of the police magistrate, be again required to so 
 submit himself until after the expiration of one month after the 
 previous examination. 
 
 Where a worker has so submitted himself for examination by a medical 
 practitioner, and the employer has, within six days after such exami- 
 nation, furnished the worker with a copy of the report of that prac- 
 titioner as to his condition, then, in the event of no agreement being 
 come to between the employer and the worker as to the worker's 
 condition or fitness for employment, the police magistrate 
 (0) In the case of a submission for examination under paragraph 
 four of this Schedule, on application being made to the police- 
 magistrate by the employer, and on payment by him of such fee 
 as may be fixed, not exceeding the limit prescribed by the regu- 
 lations, may; and 
 
 13 
 
(b) In the case of a submission for examination under paragraph 
 nine of this Schedule, on application being made to the police 
 magistrate by either party, and on payment by such party of 
 such fee as may be fixed, not exceeding the limit prescribed by 
 the regulations, shall 
 refer the matter to a medical referee. 
 
 The medical referee to whom the matter is so referred shall, in accord- 
 ance with the regulations, give a certificate as to the condition of the 
 worker and his fitness for employment, specifying, where necessary, 
 the kind of employment for which he is fit; and that certificate shall 
 be conclusive evidence as to the matter so certified. 
 
 If a worker, on being required to do so, refuses to submit himself for 
 examination by a medical referee to whom the matter has been so 
 referred as aforesaid, or in any way obstructs the same, his right 
 to compensation and any proceeding under this Act in relation to 
 compensation, or in the case of a worker in receipt of a weekly pay- 
 ment his right to that weekly payment, shall be suspended until such 
 examination has taken place. 
 
 The regulations may prescribe the manner in which documents are to be 
 furnished or served and applications made under this paragraph, 
 and the forms to be used for those purposes, and as to the fee to be 
 paid under this paragraph. 
 
 Any weekly payment may be reviewed by a police magistrate at the 
 request either of the employer or of the worker, and on such review 
 may be ended, diminished, or increased, subject to the maximum 
 above provided : 
 
 Provided that where the worker was at the date of the accident under 
 21 years of age, and the review takes place more than twelve months 
 after the accident, the amount of the weekly payment may be in- 
 creased to any amount not exceeding 50 per centum of the weekly 
 sum which the worker would probably have been earning at the 
 date of the review if he had remained uninjured, but not in any 
 case exceeding one pound. 
 
 Where any weekly payment has been continued for not less than three 
 months, the liability therefor may, on the application by or on behalf 
 of the employer, be redeemed by the payment of a lump sum to be 
 agreed on by the parties, or, in default of agreement, to be deter- 
 mined by a police magistrate under this Act; and such lump sum 
 may be ordered by the police magistrate to be invested or otherwise 
 applied for the benefit of the person entitled thereto. 
 
 If a worker receiving weekly payment ceases to reside in the Common- 
 wealth he shall thereupon cease to be entitled to receive any weekly 
 payment, but if he proves that the incapacity resulting from the 
 injury is of a permanent nature he shall be entitled to a lump sum 
 not exceeding 156 times the amount of weekly payment less all pay- 
 ments theretofore paid. Any questions arising under this paragraph 
 shall, in default of agreement, be determined by a police magistrate. 
 
 No money paid or payable in respect of compensation under this Act 
 shall be capable of being assigned, charged, taken in execution, or 
 attached, nor shall the same pass to any other person by operation 
 of law, nor shall any claim be set off against the same. 
 
 When payment of any moneys under this Act is made to any person 
 under 21 years of age, whether such person claims as a worker, 
 dependant, or legal personal representative, the receipt of such person 
 therefor shall be a good and valid discharge in law ; and such person 
 (notwithstanding minority) may, with the approval of a police 
 magistrate, elect to claim compensation under this Act, and may 
 agree upon the amount of compensation payable. 
 
 14 
 
Homes for Workingmen. 
 
 The Australian and New Zealand Governments both have 
 in operation a scheme for building homes for the working classes, 
 which is not unlike the plan upon which hundreds of Building 
 and Loan Associations operate in the United States, as well as 
 in Australasia. Upon a deposit of 10 ($48.60) they will sell 
 a man a lot and build him a house upon it, charging rental at 
 7j per cent of the cost of the lot and improvements, 2^2 per 
 cent being credited on the principal toward liquidating the loan. 
 At Wellington, N. Z., the Secretary of the Department of Labor 
 very kindly invited us to join him and the Government Architect 
 on a tour of examination of some of these homes, which invita- 
 tion we gladly and appreciatively accepted. We were driven 
 three or four miles into the suburbs and there given the privilege 
 of examining several newly built and occupied, four- and five- 
 room cottage's, costing from ^350 ($1,701) to 500 (12,430). 
 The cost of the same houses in Dayton, Ohio, for example, would 
 not exceed from $1,350 to $2,000, and the terms offered by the 
 Building and Loan Associations of Dayton, the difference in cost 
 of the houses being considered, are fully as favorable to the 
 workman as are those above mentioned; the workman's equity 
 in the property being as secure in one case as in the other. We 
 could see no reason why the Government should embark in 
 such business when there are Building and Loan Associations 
 organized expressly for the same purpose and which are under 
 Governmental supervision and regulation, except a desire to en- 
 gage in business pursuits with which, in our judgment, it should 
 not meddle. 
 
 Anti-Trust Legislation. 
 
 The Trust problem is a live issue in Australia. We were 
 informed by a prominent business man that it has placed upon 
 its statute books an Anti-Trust Act in which at least some con- 
 sideration has been shown for the possible and probable effect 
 of such legislation on the business development and interests of 
 the country. The law is designed not to destroy big business, nor 
 to cut it up into a million small units, such, for example, as 
 prevail among the coolie classes in China and which furnish em- 
 ployment to nobody, but prohibit business combinations whose 
 purpose is to restrain trade at the expense of the public, or, in 
 other words, create monopolies which work hardship on the 
 community. 
 
 The law as explained to us is clear and explicit, so that any 
 one who can read can understand that combinations which tend 
 
 15 
 
lo expand rather than restrain trade, and which do not monopo- 
 lize or attempt to monopolize, are not infractions of the law. 
 
 We heard several severe criticisms of the chaotic condition 
 into which the Sherman Act has thrown the business interests 
 of the United States and there is a strong feeling extant through- 
 out Australia against anti-trust legislation so drastic in character. 
 
 Crownlands. 
 
 It is the avowed purpose of the Commonwealth and several 
 State Governments eventually to own all the land. All that they 
 do not now own is subject to the exercise of the right of eminent 
 domain at any time the Government wants it for dividing into 
 smaller tracts. The price to be paid for it will be fixed by the 
 Government's own appraisers. Land so acquired by the State 
 will not be resold, but will be parcelled out under perpetual 
 leaseholds, "with a string tied to the lease." The terms and con- 
 ditions upon which settlers can obtain these leaseholds vary more 
 or less in the different States. In New South Wales, for ex- 
 ample, we were informed by a high State official, the land is 
 classified into three grades ; first, second and third class, and is 
 leased to settlers in blocks of 40 to 60 acres first class, 460 acres 
 second class, and 1350 acres third class. The terms of the lease 
 provide how the land shall be utilized, and otherwise restrict the 
 privileges of the lessee so that in reality he is but little else than 
 a servant of the State, and he quite naturally has no heart to 
 improve land which he never can own and from which, if he 
 fails to live up to the strict requirements of the lease to the satis- 
 faction of the State land inspector, he may be ousted at any 
 time. Two per cent of the appraised value of the land is 
 charged for rent, subject to a new valuation at the end of the 
 first five years and every 20 or 25 years thereafter, a deposit of 
 100 ($486) being required when the lease is executed. 
 
 During the first year the Government will loan the lessee 
 200 in installments as improvements are made, such as build- 
 ing a house and fences. Then at the end of the first year, and 
 thereafter for a period of five years, further loans will be made 
 to the extent of three-fourths the cost of all the improvements 
 put upon the land. The Government reserves the right to, at the 
 end of the fifth year and at any time thereafter, resume owner- 
 ship of the land at its then appraised value, including improve- 
 ments. Title to the land never passes from the State. In 
 Queensland, we were told, large tracts of land are available to 
 leasehold on similar conditions at a rental of three cents per acre, 
 per annum, and are allotted by ballot. 
 
 16 
 
Large fortunes have been made in Australia and New Zea- 
 land at stock raising, and as there are millions of acres of land 
 in the interior not accessible by railroads, there are still 
 numerous occupiers of large tracts on which the business is car- 
 ried on extensively and on which there are 100,000 to 200,000 
 sheep on a single tract. But these will, in time, as railroads 
 penetrate them and they can be utilized for closer se^tlem^nt 
 purposes, be resumed by the State and divided into smaller 
 sections. This, however, will be a slow process at the present 
 ratio of increase in population, which is principally settling in 
 the cities. 
 
 Refrigeration System Its Effect. 
 
 Australia is one of the richest countries in the world. Its 
 soil and its mountains contain treasures which should attract 
 people from all parts of the globe. Its climate, varying from 
 110 to 30 admits of outdoor work all the year round, and 
 the wonder is, how is it that, during a century and a quarter of 
 existence, it has acquired a population of less than five million 
 souls. True it is, that prior to the introduction of. the refrigera- 
 tion system of transporting meats and other perishable products 
 the growth of this fertile country was necessarily slow, because, 
 being many thousands of miles from its nearest Anglo-Saxon 
 neighbor and a thousand miles or more from any neighbor, it 
 had only its home market for its perishable products, consist- 
 ing chiefly of mutton, beef and farm produce, consequently, 
 carcasses of beef and mutton were boiled down for their tallow. 
 Meat supply being greatly in excess of demand, profits from 
 sheep and cattle raising were confined principally to wool, pelts 
 and hides. 
 
 The same conditions prevailed in New Zealand. A stock 
 raiser who settled* there in 1873 informed us that, prior to the 
 introduction of the process for shipping frozen meats when local 
 consumption was satisfied, everything had to be boiled down for 
 tallow ; that before the freezing companies could take sheep or 
 cattle he got $1.02 a head for a very nice lot of ewes, while 
 cattle were as low as $10.60 for cow and calf : that now ordinary 
 ewes are worth $3.70 to $5. and special as high as $7.50 a head, 
 while "forward" bullocks are worth as much as $40 to $60 a 
 head, and lambs $4.50 to $5 each. Another large stock raiser 
 in Australia informed us that, before the opening up of foreign 
 markets for Australian meats through the frozen meat system 
 of transportation, he had himself peddled from door to door 
 hind quarters of mutton which he sold at 12 to 18 cents each. 
 
 The first shipment of frozen meat was dispatched from 
 
Dunedin, N. Z., February 15, 1883, and that incident marked 
 the beginning of a phenomenal period of prosperity throughout 
 all Australasia and the making of large fortunes by many men 
 who were alert in taking advantage of the opportunities which 
 lay in their way. What, then, is wrong with Australasia ? 
 
 Banking Institutions. 
 
 In traveling through Australasia, one thing that impressed 
 us greatly was the large number of banking institutions and the 
 magnitude of many of them. In the principal business sections 
 of the city there are banks, banks, everywhere banks, each with 
 its branches in different sections of the city. Then when you go 
 into the country districts you will find in every little hamlet 
 branch banks and you are filled with wonder as to how they all 
 exist and what supports them, but upon inquiry you will be in- 
 formed that they are backed principally by London and local 
 capital. That so many banking institutions not only exist but 
 thrive is evidence of the great wealth producing countries these 
 are and, when measured by population, of the vast amount of 
 business which is transacted through these banks. 
 
 Statistics for 1913 show the total liabilities of check paying 
 banks to be 138,583,000, and assets 164,555,000. They also 
 show that in the savings banks including the Commonwealth 
 bank there were 1,961,000 depositors, with total deposits 
 amounting to 75,463,000, per depositor 38 95. 7d., and per 
 head of population 15 143. 4d. Of these the Commonwealth 
 bank had 84,000 depositors with 2,694,000 deposits, the average 
 per depositor being 32 45. iod., and us. 3d. per head of popu- 
 lation. 
 
 One handicap to American business in Australasia is the 
 lack of American banking facilities. As an' example of the 
 appreciation of American money, we handed a banker, in one of 
 the large Australian banks, a United States twenty-dollar gold 
 certificate and asked him what he would give us for it in current 
 money. His reply was that the only use he could make of it 
 would be to consign it to the waste basket or keep it as a 
 souvenir. Show a piece of United States money to a business 
 man in Australasia and he will look at it curiously and, in nine 
 cases out of ten, ask what it is. And this in face of the fact that 
 trade with the United States runs up into many millions of 
 dollars annually. With respect to this phase of business inter- 
 course between these countries, we were led to the conclusion 
 that if United States banking institutions were established in 
 the principal cities of Australasia, United States money could 
 
 18 
 
be made a medium of exchange at practically its home value. 
 There appeared to us to be good room for such banks in both 
 Australia and New Zealand notwithstanding all that may be 
 said about their Socialistic tendencies and unfavorable industrial 
 conditions. 
 
 A Loose Screw. 
 
 The mineral wealth of Australia alone is enormous. In 
 1912 the value of its mineral products was 25,629,000 sterling, 
 or, approximately, $124,556,940, covering the items of gold, 
 silver, lead, zinc, tin, copper, pig iron, coal and precious stones. 
 Its coal fields are practically inexhaustible and we were told by 
 good authority that veins from 20 to 30 feet thick are not un- 
 common. No finer fruits and vegetables can be raised any- 
 where than are grown in Australasia, although they are both 
 very high in price. 
 
 In a country where nature has been so generous one would 
 naturally expect to find everybody happy and contented and 
 aglow with enthusiasm for the land in which such opportunities 
 abound, but not so. Instead of a land full of life and energy 
 resting in the very bosom of hope and advancement, and ex- 
 panding by leaps and bounds in individual wealth and freedom, 
 on every side one hears the wail of discontent. The "closer 
 settlement" victim is disgruntled because he is disappointed and 
 feels that he has been deceived. From rich and poor alike, 
 except office holders, a tale of woe and faultfinding flows freely. 
 Men having vested interests at stake are alarmed over their 
 apparent and threatened insecurity. The attitude of the office 
 holder is apologetic, and the mind of the investigator soon 
 becomes impressed with the air of decadence which he observes 
 all about him; that there is a screw or perhaps a number of 
 screws loose somewhere, and he is forced to agree with an Eng- 
 lish lady, the wife of the manager of a commercial corporation, 
 who had lived eleven years in Sydney, and who, when asked 
 what she thought of Australia, replied, "I think it an ideal coun- 
 try going wrong." 
 
 The nation, like many individuals, can't stand prosperity. 
 Its policy is very largely dictated by an influence that is bent on 
 the horizontal levelling of wealth and caste. Its progress is in 
 the direction of stagnation, and each year sees it nearer a purely 
 Socialistic country. 
 
 The People of Australasia. 
 
 Some writers in commenting on the people of Australasia 
 and their customs and manners have, we think, been very unfair 
 
 19 
 
in their criticisms. The unkind manner in which they have 
 spoken of them would lead their readers, who have not come 
 in personal contact with these people, to think that they are a 
 coarse, ill-bred and uneducated class of humanity in need of 
 missionaries to carry to them the lamp of civilization, and the 
 cup of Christianity. They have ridiculed their dialect, their 
 food and the manner in which they cook and eat it. It has 
 been said that in hot weather, meat hanging in front of butcher 
 shops has been so covered with flies that one could not tell 
 whether it was beef or mutton, and other equally misleading 
 and apparently prejudicial statements have been put into print. 
 Our experience having been along opposite lines we feel that 
 we should speak of these things as we found them and by so 
 doing counteract, in part at least, the unfavorable impressions, 
 which such unfair statements have created. 
 
 The population of these countries is made up principally 
 of English, Scotch and native-borns, with a small percentage 
 of Americans, Germans and others. During our stay of one 
 month in New Zealand and two and a half months in Australia 
 we mingled freely with these people at the hotels, the clubs, 
 their places of business, in the churches, in Government offices 
 and in their homes, and not in a single instance would we be 
 warranted in subscribing to the criticisms above referred to. 
 On the other hand, we have only praise and commendation to 
 offer in exchange for the hospitable and courteous manner in 
 which we were everywhere received and treated. We found 
 that, after all, there is not very much difference between these 
 people and those of the United States, and for whom they enter- 
 tain the most friendly feeling and high esteem. True, many of 
 them, while writing their words correctly, speak a dialect which 
 to one not accustomed to it is a little difficult to under- 
 stand. For example, in addition to dropping the letter "h" 
 from words in which it belongs and adding it where it does not 
 belong, if they want to know if you are going to the railway 
 station they will ask you if you are going to the rile-wie stition ;: 
 a thing sold has been sowl'd. If they want to scold they scowld. 
 If a newsboy wants to sell you a paper, he cries out "piper, 
 Mister." A maid is a mide, ale is ile, and sale, sile. A girl 
 clerk clark in a bookstore, when asked "Where is the mana- 
 ger?" replied, " 'E's hoff on 'is 'alf 'olidie." The Standard Oil 
 Company is called the Standard Ile Company, etc., etc. But 
 all this does not indicate that these people are what they have- 
 been, painted as being, nor that they are below the standard of 
 other English-speaking nations in culture and refinement. 
 
 As a matter of fact, in Sydney, Auckland, and Melbourne 
 
 20 
 
there are more and larger bookstores than in any cities of equal 
 size that we know of, and on every hand one is impressed with 
 the vast amount of substantial reading these people indulge in. 
 They are also a great people for outdoor exercise and manly 
 sports. On each of their many holidays and half holidays they 
 can be seen by the thousands making for the different resorts 
 and places of sport. We found them to be polite, courteous to 
 a fault, and whatever others may say about them or whatever 
 may be our opinions of their Governmental policies and the 
 trend toward State Socialism, we shall always remember them 
 as a kind-hearted, praiseworthy and Sabbath respecting people, we 
 shall ever carry pleasant recollections of the kind and generous 
 treatment we received at the hands of all those with whom we 
 came in contact, as well as the numerous pleasant acquaintances 
 we made and left in Australasia. 
 
 We did not observe them to be indifferent to flies or any 
 other pests, nor did we see any meat hanging in front of butcher 
 shops, so covered with flies that we couldn't tell what kind of 
 meat it was. But, on the other hand, we did see in 
 Wellington, Melbourne and Sydney a number of the finest and 
 neatest kept meat markets that we have ever seen. Let the 
 things which belong to Csesar be rendered unto Caesar. The 
 people in the cities of Australasia are provided with more and 
 better public parks and conveniences than will be found in our 
 American cities. The matter of "convenience stations" for both 
 men and women has been looked after in a creditable manner, 
 and the officials of our municipalities would do well to pattern 
 after the example set by these people, in whom some critics are 
 so prone to see no good. These convenience stations are located 
 a few squares apart, constructed under ground with tile floors 
 and walls, have an attendant in charge and are kept as clean 
 and sanitary as are the lavatories in many of our leading hotels. 
 There is no charge for the use of urinals, but the use of closets 
 is subject to a charge of one penny. 
 
 Of course, there is in Australasia, as in all other countries, 
 a large element of natural born discontents and ne'er-do-wells 
 who, in the present instance, constitute the largest portion of the 
 organized group and in whose particular interest the Govern- 
 ment appears to be administered, but, in measuring up the people, 
 it would not be fair to single out this class as a basis of standardi- 
 zation of the whole. If this should be done in our country a 
 sorry picture could be painted of our standard of civilization. 
 
 The tea drinking habit has a firm grip on the people of 
 Australasia. With them it is tea before breakfast, tea at break- 
 fast, tea before and after luncheon and tea before bedtime. 
 
 21 
 
Everybody drinks tea. and drops business and pleasure at regular 
 intervals for tea strong tea. The wonder of it is that they hold 
 up, physically, under the influence of so much strong tea. 
 
 Industrial Conditions. 
 
 Australia and New Zealand are sister countries, some 1,200 
 or 1,300 miles distant from each other, and, together, are known 
 as Australasia. They are noted the world over for their experi- 
 mental tendencies in legislation. New Zealand, having blazed 
 the way and set the pace for Australia to follow, apparently has 
 tired of some, at least, of its legislative experiments, a reaction 
 already having set in, but Australia appears to be plodding along 
 the lines of socialistic labor legislation in face of the fact that its 
 strenuous fight with the economic principle of the law of supply 
 and demand has proved a dismal failure and the industrial con- 
 ditions of the country are in a state of chaos. 
 
 Many flowery pictures have been painted in magazines and 
 newspapers throughout the United States, by writers having 
 theoretical but no practical knowledge of the industrial question, 
 either in their own or other countries, in which Australasia has 
 been credited with having solved the labor problem through con- 
 ciliation, arbitration and Wages Boards legislation, whereby 
 it has been transformed into "The Land of No Strikes," 
 "Labor's Utopia," and "The Workingman's Paradise," where 
 industrial peace was complete, everybody contented and happy, 
 and the millennium at hand. But in striking contrast to 
 these beautiful and misleading pictures the fact remains that 
 Australasia is a hotbed of strikes, socialistic agitation, syndicalism 
 and discontent, all of which is, at the present time, more acute 
 than ever before. 
 
 A complete detailed account of our investigations into 
 labor legislation and conditions in Australasia, and upon which 
 our conclusions are based, would make a volume unnecessarily 
 large for the practical purposes of our report. We shall not, 
 therefore, attempt to detail all that came to our notice with 
 reference to strikes and their accompanying annoyances, open 
 antagonism to and ignoring of laws placed upon the statute 
 books by labor's own representatives, and the deplorable indus- 
 trial conditions which prevail throughout the Dominion of New 
 Zealand and the Commonwealth of Australia. 
 
 Moreover, that we may not be charged with bias or that 
 we have judged the situation from a prejudiced viewpoint, we 
 shall use* the people themselves as our authority and quote some- 
 what liberally from newspapers and periodicals, and the utter- 
 
 22 
 
ances of public men as well as men in various walks of life with 
 whom we conversed. From a newspaper standpoint, some idea 
 can be formed of industrial conditions prevailing in Australasia. 
 In three months' time we cut from 19 different daily papers refer- 
 ences to labor disputes, Wages Boards awards, strikes, etc., 
 represented by editorials and news items, covering 147 pages of 
 letter size paper, three columns in width, and this, it should be re- 
 membered, refers solely to communities aggregating a total 
 population of 5,785,000 souls. The record could hardly be 
 matched in the whole United States with its 100,000,000 people, 
 and where no pretense is made of having solved the labor prob- 
 lem by legislation. 
 
 The following full quotations and excerpts from the daily 
 press of the several cities visited will serve as an example of 
 many others. Our reason for quoting as extensively as we have 
 done, being for the purpose of conveying to your minds, through 
 this means, the gravity of industrial conditions in Australasia. 
 
 FROM THE SIDNEY MORNING HERALD 1914. 
 UNION PICKETS. 
 
 AN EARLY MORNING MARCH. INCIDENT OF A FARM. 
 
 Coolamon, Saturday. 
 
 March 2. The rural workers on strike at Coolamon varied the 
 monotony of camp life on Thursday morning by a march of ten miles 
 before dawn to Kittegora, where on the farm of Mr. Archibald Robert- 
 son, a chaffcutter, owned by Mr. P. Maloney, was at work on some stacks 
 of hay. The enginedriver was getting up steam; the other men had not 
 got out of their beds. Mr. Maloney had not arrived. The enginedriver, 
 who had no spanner handy, was jostled off the engine. The others were 
 rushed out of bed, and ordered to cease work and join the camp, where 
 they were told they would be provided for. 
 
 "But what about our wives?" one asked. 
 
 "Send them out to work," was the reply. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Robertson was informed of the raid he galloped 
 down, and the strikers, 40 in number, made off, but took the indispensable 
 workers of the team with them. 
 
 The men were all back on Friday, but insisted, as a condition of 
 their return, that they should have police protection. 
 
 A constable is now in constant attendance. Most of the townspeople 
 think it will be a lucky day when the strike camp is dispersed 
 
 In the following editorial the writer has touched a sentiment 
 which finds expression with the entire business interests, not 
 only of New South Wales but of all of Australasia : 
 
 RECURRING STRIKES. 
 
 DISGUSTED MINEOWNER. THREATENS TO CLOSE DOWN. 
 
 Kurri Kurri, Sunday. 
 
 March 2. Mr. D. Watson's visit to Pelaw Main miners' meeting 
 resulted in the men returning to work, and the colliery has been working 
 since. 
 
 Mr. Watson told the men they were very foolish in stopping the pit 
 
 23 
 
so frequently for trivial matters; he had almost effected a settlement of 
 the dispute with Messrs. Brown when the men stopped work. 
 
 Mr. John Brown spoke forcibly, and said if the men did not alter 
 their tactics he would close Pelaw Main Colliery down. 
 
 The men carried a motion to the effect that they would not stop the 
 pit again before allowing the Federation's executive an opportunity of 
 remedying the grievances. The matter in dispute and the paying of the 
 costs of the recent prosecution of the machine men will be discussed by 
 Afr. Watson and Mr. John Brown on Tuesday. 
 
 IRON TRADES. 
 NINE THOUSAND MEN OUT. AWAITING THE COURT. 
 
 March 2. There are now over 9,000 men involved in the iron trades' 
 dispute. There were no developments of any kind on Saturday. Both 
 employers and employees are anxiously waiting. Mr. Justice Heydon's 
 decision with regard to the reopening of the wages board award judg- 
 ment is expected to be delivered today. 
 
 Certain shops have been granted exemptions by the defence com- 
 mittee, and work at them is proceeding smoothly. Other employers are 
 ready to pay the rates asked by the men, but so far the committee ap- 
 pointed to deal with them have not submitted their reports to the defence 
 committee. A meeting of this committee is to be held this afternoon at 
 3.30, when it is expected the decision of the court will be known. The 
 future policy of the committee will then be discussed. 
 
 "LAZY STRIKE" OFF. 
 
 WHARFMEN TO RESUME. RESULT OF THE BALLOT. 
 
 March 2. The result of the ballot taken amongst Sydney wharf- 
 labourers on the question of whether overtime should be worked, pending 
 the settlement of all the conditions of the industry by the Federal Arbi- 
 tration Court was announced last night by Mr. J. Woods, the local 
 secretary. Very great interest was manifested in the matter by the 
 wharf-labourers themselves, and this is demonstrated by the fact that 
 2 >33! votes were recorded, out of which the decision to work overtime 
 as usual, pending the constitutional settlement of the grievances, secured 
 a majority of 1,023. 
 
 MEAT WAR. 
 
 A GLOOMY OUTLOOK. NO SETTLEMENT. MEN WANT TO COMPROMISE. 
 EMPLOYERS' REPLY. AWARD MUST BE OBEYED. 
 
 March 2. Proposals by the Government for a settlement of the 
 meat strike have been placed before employers and employees. 
 
 The employees are prepared to come to terms, but the employers 
 are unyielding. 
 
 Representatives of the employers are to meet the Attorney-General, 
 Mr. D. R. Hall, at 11 A. M. today. 
 
 The suggested terms of settlement are an advance of 5 s - P er week 
 and 49H hours. 
 
 These terms were to be embodied in a wages board award, "by 
 consent." Friday night's meeting of the employers was against accept- 
 ance of the compromise. 
 
 The Premier, however, was hopeful last night that the parties might 
 come to an understanding. 
 
 He had not any direct intimation that the proposed basis of settle- 
 ment had been turned down. 
 
 It was reported last night that the employers would today ask the 
 Government for assistance in having cold-storage meat removed. Killing 
 was continued at Glebe Island on Saturday. 
 
 24 
 
The meat was rushed for at the depots and the union shops, which 
 were unable to meet the demand. 
 
 Attention is especially directed to the following editorial: 
 
 LABOUR AND CAPITAL. 
 
 March 2. The partnership of capital and labour is indissoluble. 
 Hence if the warring elements, which are now engaged not only in 
 Australia but all over the world, do not arrive at a peaceful means of 
 settling the way in which the profits of the partnership are to be divided 
 then the road to industrial bankruptcy will be entered. To within the 
 last quarter of a century the power of capital was so great, or, rather, 
 it would be more correct to say that the forces of labour were so weak, 
 that capital assumed the fiction that there was no partnership in the 
 industrial life, and that capital was the overlord, giving labour just the 
 reward it pleased. Since then the strength of organized labour has in- 
 creased so greatly, while capital has gained little from its own organiza- 
 tion, that labour has forced a more equitable division of the profits. 
 In Australia, following New Zealand's lead, in order to do away with 
 strikes, which can never be but a rough-and-ready method of settling 
 quarrels, we have established legal tribunals to assess the division of the 
 profits. Going all through the different judgments, the main idea seems 
 to run that the division shall be such as will in comparison with capital's 
 profits, give the utmost return to labour possible, the skill of the worker 
 and the arduousness of the labour having due weight given to them. 
 And there is the provision that in any case, whether capital gets a fair 
 proportion or not, the profit of labour must be such as will keep a man 
 and his wife and family in ordinary comfort. When capital cannot give 
 such a profit to labour, then it withdraws from the particular class of 
 business. An example was the closing down of the local china works 
 some months ago. Labour is not yet disciplined to the law. The clangour 
 and confusion of war still appeal to it because the excitement impresses, 
 while the calmness of legal proceedings leaves unruffled the mind of the 
 worker, and a victory so won leaves no abiding impression. The law 
 will never appeal with sufficient force to labour until labour learns that 
 its losses by strike, now that the law is empowered to settle disputes with 
 capital, although not felt, perhaps, for months afterwards, far outweigh 
 any gains made. A strike means a loss to the whole community. Labour loses 
 its wages, capital loses its interest. By just so much as the wages and the 
 interest amount to will the capital available for starting new enterprises 
 or extending established works be diminished. Labour believes that the 
 production is merely postponed, and that leeway will be caught up. 
 That is not so. The production of the days of strike is lost forever ; 
 it can never be regained. Not alone is the amount of new capital lower 
 than it would otherwise be for the extension of industry, but capital takes 
 less risks, it makes more provision for contingencies, which means that 
 the amount of idle capital is increased beyond what would normally be 
 the case. Hence the supply of capital for new enterprises is further 
 diminished. It is by the establishment of new enterprises and the exten- 
 sion of present productive works that labour can hope to keep up em- 
 ployment. If production stands still the man who works for wages or 
 salary is the first to suffer, because the supply of labour is ever increas- 
 ing. The amount of work offering may be the same, but there are more 
 hands to do it. Consequently the number of days worked by each 
 individual is fewer. Hence, every worker has a direct interest in the 
 amount of capital produced. When he understands that fact he will not 
 be so ready to engage in a strike as he is now. To strike was necessary 
 in past days. It was the only way in many cases that justice could be 
 obtained. In Australia today the law can give more justice than ever 
 war wrought. 
 
 25 
 
CRISIS IN THE IRON TRADE. 
 EMPLOYERS REJECT PROPOSALS. MEN MUST RESUME. 
 
 March 4. A meeting of the Iron Trade Employers' Association was 
 held yesterday afternoon in the Challis House. 
 
 Subsequently Mr. J. P. Franki, general manager of Mort's Dock 
 and Engineering Company, Limited, made the following statement on 
 behalf of the employers: 
 
 "We had nothing before us from the men, but we had a verbal 
 communication from the Minister. The Under-Secretary, on behalf of 
 the Minister, desired to know whether the Iron Trade Employers' Asso- 
 ciation would meet the men in conference. 
 
 "Our reply to the request from the department," continued Mr. 
 Franki, "was to the effect that, after the men return to work, this asso- 
 ciation will consider the suggestion. It is an olive branch we are holding 
 out." 
 
 RURAL STRIKERS. 
 
 ATTACK A FARM. DRIVE NON-UNIONISTS BEFORE THEM. 
 
 Wagora, Tuesday. 
 
 March 4. At the end of last week about 40 members of the Rural 
 Workers' Union organised a raid on Corney's chaffcutter at Marrar. 
 
 According to reports to hand they arrived in a body at the camp, 
 about three miles out of Marrar, just before daylight on Friday, when 
 the men working on the plant were still asleep. It is alleged that with 
 hostile demonstrations, coarse and abusive language, they ordered the 
 non-union workers to get out of bed and leave. The latter were some- 
 what slow to respond, being only partly awake. 
 
 They were told that if they did not get out they would be burnt 
 out. As the men were outnumbered by three to one by the strikers they 
 yielded to intimidation, and were marched into town by the strikers. 
 
 On the Monday, however, the farmers took a hand in the matter, 
 and it was agreed that the whistle should be blown at the camp for the 
 men to resume work. On Monday morning this was done. But although 
 the men were quite satisfied with their positions and even eager to return 
 to work they were afraid to do so owing to threats of the strikers. 
 At this stage of the proceedings a party of about a score of stalwart 
 farmers was organised, and they arrived on the scene, determined, if 
 necessary, to give the strikers a lesson. Although there were about 40 of 
 the strikers present the sight of" 20 resolute farmers determined to pro- 
 tect the non-unionists overawed the strikers, their courage having evi- 
 dently evaporated. 
 
 The strikers having been driven off the non-unionists were escorted 
 back to work, and cutting was again resumed. Yesterday all sorts of 
 threats were hurled at them. 
 
 A leading farmer, referring to the situation, expressed the opinion, 
 that there will be bloodshed if the strikers do not change their tactics. 
 
 THE CRISIS. 
 
 March 4. The master butchers have decided that every butcher's 
 shop in Sydney shall be open on Thursday afternoon next. There is 
 no gainsaying the serious nature of this decision. If it involves a fight, 
 it means a fight to the finish, but we do not believe that the public in 
 general will regret that decision. When a handful of Sydney workers 
 decide to flout the legal means of redress which the present Government 
 has given them, and seek their own ends by holding the whole pastoral 
 industry of the State its chief and greatest industry by the throat, it is 
 time to settle once and for all whether the country will tolerate this 
 procedure. And if there is to be a fight the next point of interest is, 
 What attitude will the Government take? The statement made by 
 
 26 
 
Mr. Hplman in Parliament last night was too vague to give any certain 
 indication of the Government's intentions. But if one consideration 
 more than any other drove the employers to their decision it was the 
 hint which, in spite of all denials, they say was obviously contained in the 
 Premier's language to them, that if they did not give way their industry 
 would be nationalised. When employers, who are carrying on their 
 business in accordance with the conditions specially laid down by the 
 authority of the State, are confronted by their employees with demands 
 for different conditions; when an offer first of improved conditions, and 
 afterwards of a settlement by the body specially established by a law of 
 the present Government to settle these differences has been uncondition- 
 ally refused; and when the Government, whose own law is being defied 
 by the employees, turns round, not up the employees, but upon the em- 
 ployers, and tries to compel them by hints of nationalisation to give way, 
 there is only one meaning that can be placed upon this action: That it is 
 a declaration of war by the present Government upon the principle of 
 private employment altogether. 
 
 It cannot be a method enforced upon the Government in order to 
 see justice done, because the Government has itself established a tribunal 
 which will see justice done. If the industrial tribunal cannot see justice 
 done, then the Government should never have established it, and should 
 abolish it now. But the Government has never proclaimed any such inten- 
 tion. Its statements have always been precisely in the opposite direction. 
 It has again and again asserted its belief in its arbitration system. 
 Neither can the Government action mean that, although it believes in 
 arbitration, it is unfortunately driven to realise that arbitration cannot 
 be applied in this case because the men will not have it; and that it must 
 settle the present deadlock by compelling the masters because it cannot 
 compel the men. That would mean that although the masters may be 
 right, and the men may be wrong, the Government would have to sup- 
 port the men, wherever the right lay, because that was the easiest means 
 of settling the deadlock and providing the public with its meat supplies. 
 The Government cannot openly admit to a motive like that. If it intends 
 to take the side of the men in the struggle which today appears imminent, 
 it can only justify its action on one ground, that it is opposed to the 
 principle of private enterprise altogether; that if the worst comes to the 
 worst, and the employees in any industry care to flout the law with 
 sufficient persistence, there is no room for the private employer in New 
 South Wales. It is difficult to give any other meaning than this to the 
 Premiers' references in Parliament to the steps which the Government 
 was intending to take in the direction of safeguarding the food supply 
 by national action. If that is not the Government's intention, then it 
 remains for it to maintain the law which itself has made, and, if the 
 unionists flout that law or oppose it, to give the butchers full protection 
 in carrying on their business. We should be surprised if that action is 
 what Mr. Hoiman foreshadowed in his vague statement in Parliament 
 last night. But if it is, then his administration will gain a most unex- 
 pected approval from the people of this State. 
 
 MEAT WAR. 
 SUPPLIES TODAY. SOME MEN RESUME. COUNTRY LABOUR OFFERED. 
 
 March 5. Though still unsettled, the meat strike shows signs of 
 becoming less serious to the public. 
 
 There will be 600 shops open at 2 p. M. today in the metropolitan 
 area. 
 
 The slaughtering will be done by the master butchers for the present. 
 But should the unionists remain out, there are indications that other 
 labour will be available. 
 
 It was stated at the employers' meeting last night, that 5,ooo volun- 
 teers would come, if required, from the country. 
 
 27 
 
No GwjrnMr 
 
 : rtfM, 
 
 Utbsow, Wed*fdy, 
 
 - ' : r -: .' . ' ' : . f.-i rn <" ; ; '{.< .--.;. ,:.::.:.',. ' . ,' .' . : : .: 
 
 Sydttcy w 
 
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 ' ,"- " .:- 
 
 " 
 
 the city, m* to rdaii vft Md 
 
 Mftr M*< M CWTICIflW T8S 
 
 !' m m*tadd ; -/ Mr 
 
 fe gftfofcfag ifct law tfad frfgffgfrt ft fftto tb^ cofrtfrftpt 9! worlfgfff^ who 
 
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 HM gffftti4daiK thaiWi M0toovarM rfo % tooMat ftt tad Ural 
 
 !,,> H,r :,.., ,:..; f;> , f . r- -, , - , r , , , , |, ., ;. : ,.; . ;., , r ,.......;/ 
 
 ' 
 
 Mr ',: ,- rr, L) !.,:r,r,j ,; ' ,r ;,.. . r r- ,,| f| : . r,,, , r- r tl (n r- tl | ',, : , .f r}, r ,,, fl4 [ 
 
 .... fhr 
 
 : : M, , . ! r;., .,-; .-:.,. .., .:..,, :/,,, ., , ., . , . ,f 
 -u ^'lufy' 
 
 tlw iSt PwttMniM,* Mr, ;MM wid, "I fointcd out what 
 wtf p to fct tfct fiiff 0f tfct Gwemf?irt'i pouqr wrtli re* * r 4 to iff 
 
 ,i f;., ,,:..<:.: ..,,, ,-;. :.,,.- y - ,.M ^,, .^ ,: -, 
 
 ' 
 
 :..:. , .i, .,,.,;, i ^. -/-,. : '!.- M. -. .,!,.., -, - ; - 
 
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 get wfwtever tlMT wMttd, Dvrfavf aft the fndoftrial Hvmoil ih*t had 
 
 ... ,.,-' ,, U ' -.,' I:.,'-.- : - : .;.,. , y r!,r .,, >U '. .. ..- ; .' 
 
 ( 
 
 dM nwM M tota dN proftt eovm -.^i p.if fi.r L-* bto 
 
 flir 
 
 f nfy 
 
 to 
 
 19 m 
 
 WH 'li.f' 
 
 t,,.'.r I 
 _- 
 
 ffow tVdifiif had Mt forward tfc* very weak pica that rtwy ejwM iwl 
 
 ff -~'<rr t: ' -- I-- - .- ' : ' .'! f - ' 'I- -'"!'. ..... l.:-i-. : .--f. 
 
 wa iaAr protfratU If f h* Gorfrimiiol efcoit 19 do fu duty, 
 
The member for Goulbor -.:! of the Minister for Labour 
 
 \Mr. EstellV w ho in :hat the : , oui" the men. 
 
 nes said : .ont by the Minister was nonseusval and 
 
 d the spirit in which he w as administering his office. If ever there 
 
 w r as a case in which the :ed it was this; 
 
 and, if ever tlu in which the Minister for Labour and the 
 
 .1! had failed in their duty it was on the present oc, 
 in not instituting :-.e Minister for La: 
 
 and tried to obtain c US from the masters in order to induce the 
 
 If there was 
 an Arbitration Act it must be made fa I 
 
 It showed the present industr 'are and 
 
 it eith, 
 
 both sides." 
 
 NEWSPAPER STRIK 
 
 \ TED. 
 
 March 5. The trouble between members of the Tyvv. 
 
 id the emp!o\ers reached a when men at both 
 
 .iper ofruv- ..: Martin an-! .. primer.- 
 work at i o'clock. The men | ks' holiday each year on 
 
 full pay. :rier Tru: LK F. last 
 
 night, bat the "Harrier Miner" held out till m.. '.ock. when the 
 
 management of that paper also gave way. Mart 1 . , ntley, however, 
 refused to agree to the demands, and the men kc 
 
 howe\er. are now running as usual The only inconvenience was the 
 delay in issuing one edition of the "Miner." 
 
 NON-UNIONIST CAN \ 
 
 ,en Hill, Thursday. 
 
 March 0. The A. M. A. at last nu :he follow 
 
 lution : 
 
 "That thi> -:eps with other unions on the 1*.. 
 
 in approaching ihe Government to ha\e incliuled in the proposed new 
 industrial legislation the power for any recognised uv. .ils to 
 
 examine- pence cards OM the mip.es. or am \\here men arc 
 
 empl. 
 
 A rew luti ' carried that rule S^. which reads. "Any mem- 
 
 Aviation knowingly working \\iih a non-member, and 
 failing to report same, together \\ith such non-member's name, within 
 i-t da\s to Ihe Steward, check inspector, or .1 be liaK 
 
 tine o - per rule .). cl/.use H." be strictly enforced during the 
 
 present non-unionist campaign. 
 
 1 MMNSIVK TRIBUN 
 
 iiursday. 
 
 March 0. During the hearing of the evidence for the eiuplo\ ees in 
 connection with the plaint of the Australian Pelegraph phone 
 
 nance Union, before Mi I. -:ins in the 
 
 .d Arbitration Court, Mr. Ske\\ - 
 
 connectjon with \arious departments, and if boards had been held m 
 regard to all charges where the fines were over it there would have 
 been iSS Kurd* held throughout the l\Mumon\\ . to the 
 
 people of the Commonwealth since the establishment of the Act was 
 nearK 
 
 Sruikis ,\M> inr CO! N 
 
 Marcli o. It is a -erious thing for N that three- 
 
 Mirths of the losses laM year through strikes in the Commonwealth lu\e 
 
 29 
 
to be borne by her, and that for weeks she has been advertised as torn 
 with industrial dissension. The unionist who has obtained substantial 
 concessions by trade dislocation does not, perhaps, see the point. His 
 trouble is that he did not demand more than he now enjoys, and he is 
 thinking of bringing further pressure to bear upon his employers by way 
 of solace. But it will be well if even the successful striker of the past 
 begins to study the situation as it is developing out of the meat and iron 
 trade strikes. We do not propose to open afresh the argument as to the 
 folly of bringing the law into contempt, though to our mind this is the 
 crucial thing in the State's experience today. No community can hold 
 together long unless the will of the people, as expressed through Parlia- 
 ment, is honored by all classes alike; and when any considerable number 
 of men show themselves incapable of understanding the duties and re- 
 sponsibilities of citizenship, it is time that the rest stood together. This is, 
 however, the stage at which our present argument may develop. We do 
 not appeal to the unionists of New South Wales now from the side of 
 law, but from the side of self-interest. They are steadily stirring up the 
 best elements in the population against them. With, in many respects, 
 a good case for consideration with genuine grievances to be heard and 
 reasonable claims to be adjusted they are by wrong tactics welding every 
 other class together in opposition, simply because industrial unrest in 
 this State is seen to be leading to disaster. 
 
 After gaining so much, are the massed unions of New South 
 Wales willing to risk the sacrifice of magnificent achievement? 
 
 It is not difficult to understand the force of the temptation to strike 
 when there is a setback, or to hammer down ruthlessly those who stand 
 up for rights assured under the law. The sense of political power in 
 possessi/on, of the whole machinery of administration securely in hand, 
 and the wealth in view waiting to be seized, is hard to control; and the 
 Liberals under the same conditions would be subject to like aberrations. 
 But party government in the past has been kept sound by the knowledge 
 that Parliament cannot be dissociated from the people, and that respon- 
 sibility to the community must be the explanation and assurance of the 
 right use of power. 
 
 Unfortunately, class consciousness in the Labour party has made 
 the unions think of themselves as the people; and strike has followed 
 strike because it has been assumed by so many men, restless to secure 
 what they consider is due to them, that political and administrative power 
 is to be exercised on their behalf without reference to anybody else. 
 
 What have we got at the present moment? Allowing for those 
 butchers' employees who have hurried back, there must still be 12,000 
 or 13,000 men out of work, and if we allow an average of four depen- 
 dants to one worker there are 50,000 souls now in trouble in Sydney 
 alone. This is like the position created by a serious depression or finan- 
 cial crisis. The State might just as well be in the condition of privation 
 caused by continued drought, except that the classes now being stirred 
 up against labour are conscious of reserves of strength never felt in 
 times like those which culminated in 1893 and 1903. 
 
 It is because so much is at stake that united action is being taken 
 by the employers in two great industries, and that everywhere there is 
 apprehension and restriction. This condition is reacting upon employ- 
 ment throughout the State. The man on the land has already been hard 
 hit by strikes during last year, and is feeling the pressure of a double 
 deadlock in the metropolis. He is only waiting for the word to swarm 
 down upon Sydney to help the master butchers, and he is discussing every 
 move with his fellows in the new light of intolerable demands and tyran- 
 nical unionism. 
 
 Surely the wage-earner must see that the end of it all is bound to 
 be loss upon loss. He will carry the burden of ultimate disaster, how- 
 ever he may scheme to dodge it, and the result for the State as a whole 
 will be stagnation and widespread unemployment. 
 
 30 
 
THE PAINTERS. 
 
 DISSATISFACTION IN TRADE. DIRECT ACTION PROPOSED. 
 
 March 7. Painters, who at present have more work than they can 
 cope with, have a grievance which is to be discussed at a special meeting 
 on Monday night. 
 
 Under the award, which was made in December, 1911, the wages 
 were fixed at is. 4d. an hour for painters and is. 6d. an hour for sign- 
 writers. The men subsequently claimed to be entitled, owing to the 
 increased cost of living, to is. 6d. and is. 8d. respectively. 
 
 Requests were made for a conference, but owing to the new Paint- 
 ers' Union demanding recognition nothing was done. The Wages Board 
 was then asked to make a variation in the award, but the inquiry was 
 adjourned pending the decision of Mr. Justice Heydon in the iron trades 
 case. That judgment, being in effect that an award cannot be reopened, 
 the painters now want to know what they can do except take direct 
 action of some kind. This will be the subject for Monday night. 
 
 STRIKE RESULTS. 
 MEN NEARLY STARVING. 
 
 Auckland, Friday. 
 
 March 7. The man who assaulted the Secretary of the new Water- 
 side Workers' Union in his office has been sentenced to 14 days' im- 
 prisonment. 
 
 During the hearing of the case it was^ stated that much ifl- feeling 
 prevailed on the wharfs between the members of the old and the new 
 unions. 
 
 A deputation waited upon the Mayor stating that there were many 
 unemployed in the city as the result of the recent strike. It was stated 
 that some were on the verge of starvation. 
 
 The Mayor promised to endeavor to overcome the difficulty. 
 
 IRON TRADES. 
 
 MEN TO TAKE BALLOT. BRIGHTER OUTLOOK. 
 
 March 7. The ironworkers' strike was advanced a stage nearer 
 settlement yesterday. 
 
 A mass meeting of strikers was held in the Protestant Hall during 
 the afternoon, only those who produced pence-cards or badges being 
 admitted 
 
 ACT OF STRIKING. 
 NOT A MISDEMEANOR. MR. HALL EXPLAINS. PROSECUTIONS DIFFICULT. 
 
 March n. An interesting speech was made by the State Attorney- 
 General last night in the Legislative Assembly, when he explained why 
 the Government had not prosecuted the recent meat strikers. 
 
 Dealing with industrial administration, the Attorney-General said, 
 it had been suggested that the Government favored the employees during 
 the recent industrial disputes, and that, because of its wholesome fear of 
 the Trades Hall, it had not dared to administer the law as regarded the 
 employees. 
 
 Liberals said that the men wanted the right to aftjitrate with the 
 employers, and that if the results of the arbitration did not suit them 
 they also wanted the right to strike. But when Liberals put forward 
 such an allegation they did not speak of the rural worker. Him, they 
 would not allow even the right to arbitrate! The country will be 
 ruined, they said, if the rural worker were given the right of access to 
 the Arbitration Court. According to Liberal views the rural worker 
 should be glad to put in a day's arduous toil, and his night in great 
 
 31 
 
thankfulness, and at the same time be glad to have the privilege of 
 working on a farm. (Ministerial laughter.) 
 
 "We shall probably give the Liberals another opportunity of saying 
 whether the rural worker shall have right to strike or arbitrate," the 
 Attorney-General went on. 
 
 ADMINISTERING THE LAW. 
 
 The Government had fairly, and to the best of its ability, adminis- 
 tered the industrial law of the country during the past three years. 
 (Loud Opposition laughter.) 
 
 Mr. Wade : Did you not threaten to cancel the licenses of the ferry 
 companies last year unless the strike, then in progress, was settled? 
 
 The Attorney-General (after a long pause) : I don't think we did. 
 I was in the cabinet at the time, and should have known of it had it 
 occurred. 
 
 Mr. Thrower: We threatened to refuse the renewal of their leases, 
 and they should never have been renewed. 
 
 The Attorney-General, continuing, said that unless the employers 
 were either willing to enter upon prosecutions of men who struck or were 
 willing to support the Government, the present Act could not be properly 
 administered. (Ministerial cheers.) 
 
 "Striking as it is today is not, according to the existing law, what 
 it was in 1901," added Mr. Hall. "It was declared then to be a misde- 
 jneanou* to strike, and in 1908, according to the Act, a strike was punish- 
 able on information, and conviction was followed by fine, or imprison- 
 ment in default. It is not so today. The act of striking today is not a 
 misdemeanour it is a civil offence." 
 
 Colonel Onslow: It is an amusement. (Laughter.) 
 
 The Attorney-General: A strike gives the right to an employer to 
 bring a civil action against the strikers. 
 
 Colonel Onslow: That's right; it's recreation to the men. (Laughter.) 
 
 The Attorney-General: According to a recent judgment of Judge 
 Scholes, the action of striking today is not a criminal offence, but a civil 
 offence. 
 
 Mr. Wade: Strikers are liable to be fined and imprisoned, in de- 
 fault of paying the fine imposed. 
 
 The Attorney-General: No; that is not so. Fines may be secured 
 by garnishee, but imprisonment does not follow non-payment of fines 
 imposed for striking. Employers have it in their power to prosecute the 
 men who strike, or to willingly assist the Government to do so, but if 
 they do not aid the Government we cannot get information sufficient to 
 support a summons under existing conditions. If during a strike or 
 lock-out we applied to the case of the employers the provisions of the 
 Coercion Act, as Mr. Wade did in the case of the employees, we could 
 seize the employers' papers and perhaps secure convictions. 
 
 ANOTHER STRIKE ENDS. 
 
 THE IRON TRADES. DECLARED OFF. WAGES LOST, ;6o,OOO. 
 March II The strike of ironworkers' assistants, which began on 
 February 20th, and later on extended to nearly the whole of the iron 
 trades, affecting about 8,000 employees of all trades, has been declared off. 
 This decision was arrived at last night at a mass meeting of 
 "assistants," held in the basement of the Town Hall, under the presi- 
 dency of Mr. D. Black, the chairman of the Federated Ironworkers' 
 Assistants' Association, about 1,300 members being present. Representa- 
 tives of the employees' defence committee were present, including the 
 president and secretary of the Labour Council, Messrs. W. O'Brien and 
 
 E. J. Kavanaugh, M. L. C 
 
 32 
 
FROM THE SYDNEY SUN. 
 EXTENSION FEARED. 
 
 OTHER UNIONISTS RESTIVE. GAS EMPLOYEES' POSITION. 
 
 March 2. A big extension of the iron trades strike may be ex- 
 pected within the next few days if a settlement of the dispute is not 
 speedily effected. Already many men who have been rendered idle be- 
 cause of the action of other unionists are asking why they should be 
 debarred from earning their living when they are not actually concerned 
 in the matter. The scope of the dispute has even extended to the Store- 
 men and Packers' Union (some of whose members are engaged at Mort's 
 Dock), Trolly and Draymen's Union, and the Saw Mill and Timber 
 Yards Employees' Union. In each of these cases the number of men 
 concerned is small. 
 
 Where a serious extension is anticipated is in the ranks of the 
 Gas Employees' Union, and if the strike is not soon declared off upwards 
 of 700 of these men will be drawn into the strike whirlpool. Hoskins, 
 Ltd., have, of course, closed down the big pipe works, and it will not 
 take long for the supply of large gas mains on hand to run out. When it 
 does over 350 men will be thrown into idleness at this work alone. 
 Then there are the men whose duty it is to set special castings. Almost 
 every corner in Sydney streets requires a special pipe, and if the foun- 
 dries remained closed much longer these men will be unable to work for 
 the want of castings. There are other members of the Gas Employees' 
 Union likely to be involved as well. 
 
 FROM THE SYDNEY SUNDAY TIMES. 
 
 TRADES AND LABOR. 
 
 BAKERS AND DAY WORK. LOG FORWARDED TO EMPLOYERS. 
 WILL THE MEN WAIT FOR PARLIAMENTARY ACTION? 
 
 March 8. In accordance with the decision come to at a mass meet- 
 ing a week ago, the Secretary of the Operative Bakers' Association has 
 forwarded copies of the new union log to all employers. 
 
 The outstanding feature of the log is the demand for day work. 
 Various improvements in wages and conditions are also sought. 
 
 Although many members of the union are inclined to trust to Gov- 
 ernment action in the way of making day work compulsory by Act of 
 Parliament, others think that it may be many months, or more than 
 months, before such legislation is put through. 
 
 The question is whether the majority of the men will wait for 
 Parliamentary action or follow up their three weeks' notice to the em- 
 ployers in demand of day work. 
 
 FROM THE SYDNEY EVENING NEWS. 
 
 THE EMPLOYEES' TERMS. 
 LETTER TO ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 
 
 March 3. When the Stock, Meat, and Allied Industries Committee 
 waited on the Government on Monday night it handed to the Attorney- 
 General the following letter: 
 
 Stock, Meat, and Allied Industries Committee, 
 Royal Exchange, Sydney, 
 
 2nd March, 1914. 
 
 Sir: I wish to report that the suggestions made by you on Friday 
 last to this committee were placed before a general meeting of the Master 
 Retail Butchers' Association on Friday evening last, and they decided by 
 
 33 
 
a practically unanimous vote (there being only one dissentient) that they 
 could not accept same. Notwithstanding this, my committee gave the 
 matter most urgent consideration on Saturday, with the result that they 
 decided to inform you that they still adhere to the attitude they have 
 always taken, namely, that if the men return to work on the conditions 
 existing on February 1st, and subsequently apply for a variation of the 
 present existing award, the Master Retail Butchers' Association will not 
 oppose the reopening of the matter, and will expedite the hearing, so as 
 to get a decision as soon as possible. But it must be distinctly under- 
 stood that if all such labor cannot immediately be absorbed this must not 
 be considered as a breach of faith on the part of the employers. Further, 
 that the union must pledge itself to the Ministry to refer all future dis- 
 putes without cessation of work to the board for the industry. 
 
 So that you may not be under any misapprehension, and to show 
 how fairly the employers are dealing with the situation, my committee are 
 informed by the Master Retail Butchers' Association that the rates pre- 
 vailing on February ist last were in most instances very considerably 
 higher than those provided by the award, and a lot of the men had also 
 in many cases the concession of as much meat as they required. 
 
 SLAUGHTERMEN AND MASTERS KILLING. 
 UNION DELEGATE ORDERED OFF. 
 
 March 3. The employers engaged in killing operations had another 
 busy day at the Glebe Island Abattoirs yesterday. They worked the full 
 day, and accounted for 1,351 sheep, 130 cattle, 45 pigs and 12 calves. 
 
 The stock yarded at the abattoirs since yesterday comprise about 
 i, 600 sheep and 200 head of cattle; of these 500 sheep and between 30 
 and 40 head of cattle were available for the unionists, who resumed work 
 about 7.30 this morning in the No. 12 beef house, and in the two calf 
 houses, which were made available for them to kill sheep in. Close on a 
 dozen men were engaged in preparing the meat for the three union 
 depots, which include the one opened in Bridge street, Drummoyne. 
 The usual number of carcass butchers were at work in the other sections. 
 
 Since the commencement of the trouble a good force of uniformed 
 and plain clothes policemen have been stationed at the abattoirs but so 
 far they have not been called upon to take any action. This morning, 
 however, one carcass butcher threatened to call the police to remove a 
 union delegate from a certain part of the abattoirs. The delegate was 
 on the mutton side of the island when his presence in a house was 
 objected to. He at first refused to obey the butcher's request to leave 
 the premises, believing that he was entitled to remain until told to go 
 by the person to whom the place belonged. A few minutes later, how- 
 ever, he left the place, and walked across to the southern side of the 
 abattoirs, and conferred with Mr. T. W. Furse, the union secretary. 
 
 MR. JUSTICE HEYDON'S JUDGMENT. 
 
 March 3. The judgment delivered yesterday by Mr. Justice Heydon 
 in the iron trade case, defines most lucidly and forcibly the position of 
 industrial law as against industrial force. It ran along the ancient right 
 of all men to have contracts respected and vindicated, which is the 
 basis of all law, of all freedom. In only one point does the theory of 
 industrial law vary from that of contract ; an award may be reopened 
 to permit of the application of the minimum wage principle. "But," says 
 Mr. Justice Heydon, "the employees who are getting a living wage or 
 more, have not the same claim to break their award." It may be ob- 
 served, moreover, that any risk of an award being legally broken, as 
 indicated, may, and indeed must, be insured against by employers, it 
 must, that is to say, appear in the cost of the goods. 
 
 His Honor laid down the principle that it is not the function of the 
 law to endorse or act as mediator between parties still in arms. "Alto- 
 
 34 
 
gether apart, however," said his Honor, "from the fact that lock-outs 
 and strikes are breaches of the law, the Court cannot apply its remedies 
 while the parties are applying their own remedies. It must be one thing 
 or the other. The Court and Boards were not intended as additional 
 weapons to assist in a war, but as tribunals to which both parties must 
 submit. Neither the Boards nor the Courts, therefore, should deal with 
 applications from employers who are locking-out, or employees who are 
 on strike." 
 
 It should be obvious to all reasonable men that the Government 
 should take up a similar stand, but that, we recognize, under our present 
 system of Government, is a counsel of perfection. In this respect we 
 blame both Liberal and Labor Governments; they both interfere, and 
 they both interfere too early, and too often. Naturally, the politician 
 wants to see peace restored; everybody does that; his personal interests, 
 also, demand peace, for industrial war raises too many awkward economic 
 questions; it is only the highly exceptional politician who hungers for 
 exceptionally difficult problems, the average one wants to solve the easy 
 questions ; his constant prayer, therefore, is "Give peace in our time 
 O Lord." 
 
 When trouble arises, therefore, the politician is anxious to inter- 
 vene, and his whole idea of making peace is to effect some sort of a 
 compromise. Of course a compromise may be anything between a close 
 approximation to justice and a base betrayal of essential principles. But 
 nobody is apt to be too critical when peace is restored; industry and 
 commerce swing along again, nearly everybody is contented, for the 
 moment, and the sage politician acquires kudos, which means a continu- 
 ance of his job, and more votes at the next election. Nor is the politi- 
 cian solely to blame, for there are usually not lacking plenty of people 
 to spur him on to intervene. He is assured that the community is in 
 deadly peril (which usually it is not), he is told that the people are 
 starving, as in the case of this meat strike (which they are not), and he 
 is informed that "something must be done," or that "the Government 
 must act." When he gets advice, like that from both sides, advice which 
 chimes in so neatly with his personal inclination and interests, inter- 
 vention results, a compromise is effected, peace is restored and, almost 
 before -the parties concerned have .ceased congratulating themselves, war 
 breaks out again. 
 
 And quite logically. If a strike either wins, or results in a half 
 win, the men would be foolish (looking at the matter from their point 
 of view solely) if they did not seek to repeat the exploit. All men seek 
 their own interest, and when they find by experience, that their interest 
 can be best served by breaking awards, of course they break them. It is 
 useless to expect that masses of men will be influenced by broad-minded 
 views regarding the common good; all men are not philosophers. 
 
 That view prompted Mr. Justice Heydon to sympathise with the 
 iron workers. Owing to the fact that they had made their agreement 
 just before the year 1912, when wages began to go up in all directions, 
 "they have seen workers like themselves getting higher wages than 
 themselves ; and, worst of all, they have seen them getting them by means 
 of strikes. Every successful strike is the parent of other strikes and 
 every successful breach of the law brings the law into contempt. We 
 must take human nature as we find it. It is not the slightest use for- 
 bidding people to travel by a road which they find is the road to success." 
 
 The way to stop strikes, therefore, is simple, though the application 
 of the method may be difficult. It is that the community should make 
 it an absolute, hard and fast, double rivetted rule that where an award 
 exists, or where an award can be easily obtained, no strike shall be 
 allowed to succeed; no dispute shall be compromised; and that every 
 such trouble shall be fought out till absolute defeat is admitted by one 
 side to the other. The ability and willingness to fight is the one guar- 
 antee of permanent peace. 
 
 35 
 
THE MILLENNIUM. 
 
 March 9. One of the branches of Victoria Labor organization knows 
 of a short-cut to the millennium. It is quite easy. You simply national- 
 ise all "the means of production, distribution, and exchange," and pay 
 for them with "State bank deposit receipts," which are to be "payable in 
 gold on demand." That is the trouble with all those millenniums; there 
 is some little trifle about it which will not work. Why go to the trouble 
 to issue "State bank deposit receipts" when an ordinary cheque would 
 do as well? The reason, of course, is the illusion in the mind of the 
 theorists that the State is something immeasurably rich, and that by 
 calling a cheque a "State bank deposit receipt," it thereby becomes, in 
 some magical way, sure of payment. Whereas, of course, the opposite 
 is the case. The State is not rich, but poor. It is so poor that it has to 
 be continually borrowing money, and the only reason it can borrow 
 money is the theory that it is "reputable and responsible"; that is to say, 
 that it will pay its debts and will not engage in burglarly, piracy or 
 bushranging. If the State went suddenly mad and set out on a wholesale 
 "commandeering" campaign, it would doubtless feel enormously rich for 
 the first ten minutes, but after that it would begin to feel horribly poor, 
 and when it tried to effect the "payment in gold on demand," it would 
 find itself weeping into a bankrupted till. 
 
 THE MORAL OF THE MEAT STRIKE. 
 
 March 9. The loss in wages sustained by the meat trade employees, 
 and their allies, is said to be about 35,000, and this has been sustained 
 without any advantage on the other side of the ledger. It is understand- 
 able that the gain of a half-hour weekly is claimed as a gain, but the 
 employers pointed out that that concession would have been arrived at 
 without the strike. In any case it is not of great importance, and is not 
 likely to throw any loss upon the masters or to be the cause of higher 
 prices to the consumer. A man can do as much work in 49^ hours as 
 he does in 50, for in matters of industry there is an analogy to the 
 ancient Greek maxim as to art that "the half is greater than the whole." 
 Interpreted fairly and honestly, a reduction in hours need not in many 
 cases mean a reduction in efficiency; and this alteration in the meat trade 
 schedule seems to be an instance in point. 
 
 The broad feature of the strike is that the men have been beaten. 
 No amount of glossing can get over that fact. They did not lose because 
 their demands were reasonable or unreasonable; they lost because, pri- 
 marily the employers fought them to a finish and because, on the whole, 
 the vast majority of public opinion was against them. They lost in the 
 fight against the employers because they had no monopoly of the thing 
 they had to sell their labor. After all, the slaughtering of animals for 
 food is the most primitive of the trades. Man, at need, takes to it natu- 
 rally, and in a pastoral country such as this is a great percentage of men 
 have had some experience in it. Not having a monopoly, therefore, it is 
 obvious that in a desperate struggle the unionists were liable to be 
 swamped by a rush of free labor; the more so as it was known that the 
 slaughtermen were getting very high wages. To force matters to the 
 free labor point, therefore, would have been like breaking a dam and 
 letting in an overwhelming flood. The union dared not take the risk, and 
 wisely decided to haul down the "Jolly Roger," and get back to work. 
 
 They have been blamed for delaying four weeks, but it must be 
 remembered that it is the looker-on that is apt to see most of the fight. 
 To the dispassionate observer it was evident that the men were beaten 
 at the start, but the man in the thick of the fight is not dispassionate; 
 he would not be there if that were the case. He sets out with hopes; 
 he thinks he can win altogether; or at the worst, he believes that he can 
 force some sort of a compromise. He is thus buoyed up even in a 
 losing fight, and the battle goes on long after any chance of victory has 
 
 36 
 
departed. Moreover, it must be remembered that many apparently hope- 
 less strikes win either wholly or in part. 
 
 The meat trade employees have seen many instances of that kind, 
 and, naturally, they hoped that their effort would have a similar result. 
 The fact that many of the employers were willing to compromise, and 
 that fact must have been known to some extent even before the fight, 
 must have had no small effect in precipitating the strike. 
 
 The strikers, however, came in collision with something new, in 
 the shape of a new spirit among the employers. Most men are anxious 
 that their businesses should go on peaceably, for any interruption is apt 
 to mean loss. Rent and other charges have to be paid, and, besides, a 
 disturbance of conditions may mean a loss of trade. Some courage, 
 therefore, is required on 'the part of an employer who may not be very 
 "strong" financially, to resolve to see a fight through. But at a certain 
 point a man must fight, and the meat trade employers realised that that 
 point had been reached. They might have compromised on the wages, 
 but to have compromised on the principle of the sanctity of contract 
 would have been to make any compromise worthless. Therefore, they 
 fought, and they won. The moral is clear. When a strike is initiated by 
 a breach of contract no compromise should be made. If employers adopt 
 that as an invariable rule they will have the support of the whole com- 
 munity, and there will be fewer strikes. 
 
 SHOPMEN RESUME WORK. 
 TROUBLE AT A REDFERN FACTORY. 
 
 March 9. The meat trouble lasted exactly a month. It was four 
 weeks ago today that the three days' notice the butchers' shopmen gave 
 of the new conditions they demanded a 48 hours' week and los. a 
 week extra pay expired. This morning there was to have been a general 
 resumption of work; but, there are so many little details to be settled 
 after a strike, and the meat trouble has left a number of matters behind 
 that are somewhat disturbing. 
 
 Trouble was reported to have occurred at Silvester's smallgoods 
 factory, Redfern, over the starting and finishing hours. According to 
 the basis of settlement, the men are to begin at 6.30 A. M. and finish at 
 5.30 p. M. It is stated that a misunderstanding arose over this question, 
 and the men at the factory refused to go to work. The union officials 
 hope, however, that it will soon be adjusted. 
 
 There are still a number of shopmen unemployed. As was ex- 
 pected, it was found impossible for all the shopmen to resume this 
 morning, but there are indications that very soon most of the men will 
 be absorbed. There were continuous inquiries at the Trades Hall by 
 master butchers for men. 
 
 The special strike inquiry committee is still meeting to settle dis- 
 putes that may arise, and it is expected that several days must pass 
 before it can be disbanded. 
 
 FROM THE SYDNEY TELEGRAPH. 
 PARLIAMENT AND THE STRIKE. 
 
 March 4. The references to the present industrial trouble in Parlia- 
 ment last night were in striking and gratifying contrast to those heard 
 from the Labor Opposition during the coal strike and similar troubles 
 with which the Liberals when in office had to deal. Mr. Wade, while 
 criticising the action of the Government as it deserved, was careful to 
 refrain from any attempt to make political capital out of it, and instead 
 of embarrassing the administration of the law he offered the cordial 
 
 37 
 
co-operation of the Opposition in impartially carrying it out. In the 
 coal strike the caucus seized the occasion to move a vote of censure on 
 the Government for upholding the law, and demanded the seizure of the 
 mines, which was well known to be as impracticable as it was unjust. 
 Similarly, when the Common Law for the protection of life and property 
 was enforced in the Broken-hill strike, the Government was denounced 
 for brutally bludgeoning the workers, and its action challenged by a 
 direct motion. There is, fortunately, nothing of that kind now, and if 
 the laws which Parliament has passed to protect the public against the 
 effect of conspiracies to deprive them of the necessaries of life are 
 inoperative, it will certainly not be the fault of the Opposition. 
 
 Mr. Holman declared last night that if free labor is employed to 
 take the place of the strikers the Government will unflinchingly do what 
 it always condemned its predecessor for doing, and extend protection to 
 every citizen, unionist or non-unionist, who is obeying the law. In view 
 of this pronouncement, if the butchers cannot obtain union labor to con- 
 tinue the supply of meat to the public, it is their duty to engage such 
 other men as may be available. Of course, it is in the power of no law 
 or no Government to order men who are on strike to go back to work. 
 That is not its duty, even if it had the power. It is there to see that men 
 willing to work are not subjected to any unlawful intimidation, and if 
 it does that the law of supply and demand will do the rest. 
 
 SEVERE CASTIGATION. 
 
 WHAT DID MR. HOLMAN MEAN? THREATENING THE EMPLOYERS. 
 
 March 5. During the debate on the Address-in-Reply in the Legis- 
 lative assembly last night, Mr. Badgery, the member for Wollondilly, 
 stated that the attitude of the Premier and of the Minister of Labor 
 throughput the meat strike, had been to threaten the employers by 
 implication and every other way; saying that if the employers did not 
 give way, they would be prosecuted. "I believe there are some differ- 
 ences of opinion as to what took place at these interviews," said Mr. 
 Badgery, "but one of the committee told me it was a lesson to them that 
 they should not go there without a shorthand writer." The sympathy 
 and power of the Government, asserted Mr. Badgery, have been placed on 
 the side of the men, who had broken the law. The Premier would not 
 tell the House what he told the men. If he told them, "Stick to it, boys; 
 I have threatened these beggars, and we'll beat them !" he would not tell 
 that to the House. What did the Premier mean when he said that 
 unless the matter were settled, he would take steps to provide the people 
 with meat? Would he do it? 
 
 A Member: He can't do it without bloodshed. 
 
 Mr. Badgery: Then he had better not try it. (Laughter.) Mr. Hol- 
 man, he went on, might have promised these men increased wages as a 
 reward for their going back, but the Government was trying to compel 
 the employers to agree to the demands of the men. 
 
 The employers had for the first time made a strong stand, and had 
 had to fight the unions and the Government. 
 
 "We are going to have a very high market," said Mr. Badgery, 
 "and the prices of meat will go up. The strike is dead now, but nothing 
 has proved so conclusively that the Government is not fit for its trust." 
 
 The sentiments expressed in the following editorial repre- 
 sent the general feeling of the people of Australia, to the effect 
 that its "Industrial Peace" legislation with all of its complicated, 
 cumbersome and expensive machinery, has proved to be a most 
 dismal failure and a handicap rather than a boon to the progress 
 and development of the country: 
 
 38 
 
A BROKEN-DOWN LAW. 
 
 March 6. Whatever the ultimate upshot of the meat trouble, the 
 fact will remain that the strike was audaciously promoted and carried on 
 in the hope of compelling submission to the men's demands by the semi- 
 starvation of the people of the city and suburbs, who, in common with 
 the rest of the community, have paid out hundreds of thousands of 
 pounds in financing concessions to unionists under the Arbitration Act 
 as the supposed price of industrial peace. The tactics of the employees 
 are by no means new, unfortunately, but in this case they have involved 
 deprivation of an essential article of diet. Stopping the meat supplies 
 doubtless appeared to the strikers a sure way of bringing the public to 
 its knees, and it must be admitted that the suspension of the trade has 
 been very sorely felt, especially by that great number of people who have 
 been unable to obtain meat during the crisis. If the union could have 
 its Way there would be still more suffering. That is indicated by the 
 course taken at Lithgow, where the local branch of the union has com- 
 pelled the master butchers, under threat of a strike, to desist from send- 
 ing bulk consignments of meat to Sydney. An utterly callous and 
 impudent attempt is therefore being made to prevent Sydney having any 
 meat from the shops made locally by the strikers, and sympathetically 
 by union branches in other parts of the State. This is in line with what 
 happened during the Brisbane strike, when the leaders of the blockade de- 
 clared that not a loaf of bread should be sold without their consent. 
 In addition to paying good wages, the master butchers had up to yester- 
 day been keeping only a few depots open for the sale of meat. They 
 had not employed non-amionist labor or been aggressive towards the 
 strikers in any way. Their whole offence was that they were trying to 
 let the public have the benefit of whatever meat could be got into these 
 few shops in spite of the fact that workmen throughout the business 
 and industry were striking right and left. That was what the strikers 
 desired above all to prevent. Their success depended on their ability 
 to stand between the public and its food. It is a remarkable and gratify- 
 ing testimony to the public's keen appreciation of all this that there has 
 been no sign of yielding to unionism's resort to -what, if anything, is 
 worse than brute force. It has been recognized that once such tyrannical 
 tactics were permitted to succeed they would be repeated in other indus- 
 tries until the community would never be certain from day to day of 
 being supplied with the things it must have. Hence the quiet process of 
 the strike and the patience with which the public has withstood its 
 bullying pressure. 
 
 But it is one thing to resist a despotic and callous strike, and 
 another to go on giving legislative benefits to unionists who are always 
 ready to turn savagely upon those who bear the cost of practically every 
 concession they get. That wages would have gone up during the past 
 ten or twelve years if there had been no arbitration^ laws is true enough, 
 so far as may be judged. But the increments that have been made were 
 obtained more expeditiously and systematically because of arbitration, 
 which has also given unionism new and unexpected force by facilitating 
 organization. Actually, therefore, the very Act which was to be the 
 means of establishing peace has been used and is being used as a weapon 
 of war against the community which put it into labor's hands. As has 
 been said, it has cost the public an enormous amount of money, for 
 seldom, if ever, are wages raised, hours shortened, or any other considbra- 
 tions given to workers in an industry but the price of the commodity 
 produced or handled goes up in sympathy. This burden has been borne 
 cheerfully enough. What has made itself drearily evident, however, is 
 that the compact is utterly false. Too many employees will take all they 
 can get from the public and strike again whenever they think fit. They 
 have no compunction, no sense of industrial honesty, no consideration 
 for anyone but themselves. The law is nothing to them. They will 
 
 39 
 
ignore it or defy it as the whim takes them. And the Labor Govern- 
 ment, not daring to do its palpable duty where it might injure the good 
 unionists who put the party in power, declares that effect cannot be 
 given to the law or action be taken for its infringement because the 
 employers are withholding evidence. The employers are naturally dis- 
 inclined to take proceedings which would still further embitter their 
 relations with the men which after all is a better motive than that which 
 keeps the Government quiet when it is not frantically making "proposals" 
 and new "proposals" in the hope of enabling the strikers to claim some 
 meretricious victory as the result of lawbreaking. But that the Minis- 
 terial position is at once feeble and audacious is the more reason why 
 the public should protect itself firmly and promptly. This Arbitration 
 Act is a huge, expensive sham. However good the intention behind it, 
 in operation it has proved a bogus piece of political quackery. Workers 
 will not conform to it, and the Government dares not put it into opera- 
 tion as could so easily be done in the present instance by instituting 
 prosecutions and subpoenaing employers, which would be done quickly 
 enough if the offenders were not unionists. And even if strikers were 
 prosecuted and fined we do not know that anybody would be better off 
 or industrial continuity any nearer. Certainly there would still be strikes 
 if there was no Act, but the community could not be worse off than it is 
 now, and it would l)e properly relieved of substantial financial responsi- 
 bility if the Act were wiped out for the brazen delusion that it has 
 proved to be. 
 
 ORGANIZE TO FIGHT LABOR. 
 
 Quirindi, Tuesday. 
 
 March n. Speaking at a meeting of the Farmers and Settlers' 
 Association at Wallabadah, Mr. P. P. Abbott, M. H. R., said that there 
 was never greater occasion for those engaged in rural industries to or- 
 ganise and combat the one-sided legislation of the Labor Party. The 
 fight of the future would be the country versus the city. 
 
 Mr. Frank Chaffey, member for Tamworth, also spoke. He was 
 proud to consider himself one of the band of country representatives 
 who had decided to fight for the rights of the country people, and was 
 pleased to think that he already had been able to raise a squeal. If 
 trades-unionism, which was characterized as the greatest of all monopo- 
 lies, got control of affairs, the cost of production would be greater than 
 the value of the product. 
 
 If there were no other references than those contained in 
 the foregoing quotations from Sydney dailies, during a period 
 of ten days, it would doubtless be admitted that the industrial 
 millennium, if existing anywhere, did not prevail in that Com- 
 monwealth, notwithstanding the fact that it has been accredited 
 with being a "Land of No Strikes." But the above quotations 
 represent a very insignificant portion of strike and other labor 
 discord items. However, as we arrived in Sydney March 2d 
 and sailed for New Zealand March I2th it is fitting that we leave 
 further reference to Sydney newspapers until our return there 
 two months later, and that further reference to the daily press 
 be taken up in the order of our visits to the various cities in 
 Australasia. Therefore, our next stay being in Auckland, a 
 few quotations from the press of that city will be in order. 
 
 40 
 
FROM THE AUCKLAND HERALD. 
 
 NEW ZEALAND STRIKE. 
 
 MORAL TO BE DRAWN. 
 
 (From our own correspondent.) 
 
 London, February 6. 
 
 March 16. Commenting on the recent strike in New Zealand, the 
 Shipping Gazette says : 
 
 "The moral of the strike is sufficiently obvious. It is that coolness 
 and -courage, and above all thoroughness, in dealing with this form of 
 mania for it is hardly less are invaluable assets. The triumph of the 
 New Zealand Ministry was in no sense the result of the indiscriminate 
 use of force. It was the outcome of a quiet determination to give all 
 possible support to a community which was determined that its existence 
 should not be imperilled by the cutting off of its oversea communica- 
 tions. The defeat of syndicalism has been so complete that it will be 
 long before it tries conclusions again in the Dominion." 
 
 NEW ZEALAND DISPUTE. 
 
 Sydney, March 14. 
 
 March 16. The New Zealand strike-leader, Mr. Robert Semple, 
 was a passenger by the Maunganui. He said yesterday that the indus- 
 trial organizations in the Dominion received a severe blow during the 
 recent strike, but were not defeated 
 
 STRIKES UNDER LABOUR RULE. 
 
 March 17. The assertion that the success of Labour as a political 
 organisation brings industrial peace to a country is stigmatised by Mr. 
 Joseph Cook (Prime Minister of Australia) as a hollow mockery. 
 Mr. Cook says that labour rule in New South Wales has been signalised 
 by" the fratricidal policy of striking and the creation of class hatred. 
 Statistics bear out Mr. Cook's indictment in a manner in which they 
 seldom justify a party criticism. Detailed returns have been prepared 
 by the Commonwealth Statistician (an independent and reliable authority) 
 of the industrial disputes which took place in Australia during the past 
 year. These are certainly remarkable in that they represent New South 
 Wales, where a Labour Government has been continuously in office as a 
 sort of industrial cockpit for the disputes of the Commonwealth. The 
 estimated loss of wages over the whole of Australia was 288,101, and 
 of this sum no less than 208,468, or 72 per cent, was lost in disputes 
 in New South Wales. The two States most fairly comparable in point 
 of population and commercial importance are New South Wales and 
 Victoria, but in point of industrial disputes during 1913 there is no com- 
 parison. The number of disputes in New South Wales was 134, against 
 2Q in Victoria, the workers involved numbered 40,011 in New South 
 Wales, against 6,177 in Victoria, the days lost 447,979 against 77,587, and 
 the estimated loss of wages was 20^,468 in New South Wales against 
 3 2 ,596 in Victoria. These figures show that a concomitant of Labour 
 rule in New South Wales has been labour upheavals. The industrial 
 laws, including some passed by the Labour Government, have frequently 
 been flagrantly broken, and within the past few weeks a large body of 
 men have laid themselves open to prosecution for industrial lawlessness. 
 It might be supposed, and it is often suggested by theorists, that when a 
 Labour Government is in power workers will seek to improve their con- 
 dition and remedy their grievances by Parliamentary action, knowing 
 that the machinery of Government is in sympathetic hands. Experience 
 proves the opposite to be the case. The extreme section of the workers 
 usually tastes disillusionment when their party gains Parliamentary 
 ascendency. They find that the economic laws continue to operate and 
 
the millennium they expected has not come. Relying on a sympathetic 
 Government not to punish them they presume to violate the industrial 
 laws, if it suits their purpose, careless that the prestige of the Govern- 
 ment suffers by their action. The first thing that will bring more settled 
 conditions in New South Wales will be the enforcement of the industrial 
 law impartially as between employer and employee. So long as the 
 Labour Government winks at breaches by workers so long will unrest 
 continue. 
 
 PUNISHMENT SOUGHT. 
 
 FOR OFFENDING UNIONS. ECHO OF THE STRIKE. 
 (By Telegraph Press Association.) 
 
 Wellington, Tuesday. 
 
 March 18. A deputation representing the Citizens Committee which 
 acted during the strike awaited on the Minister for Justice yesterday 
 and drew attention to the fact that a number of unions which went on 
 strike recently in defiance of the Arbitration Act, in sympathy with 
 watersiders and others, had not been prosecuted. It was pointed out 
 that there were 18 such unions in New Zealand, and the deputation urged 
 that the law ought to be put in action against them. 
 
 The Minister said that the duty of instituting proceedings under 
 the Arbitration Act did not rest with his Department, but with the 
 Labour Department. He undertook to inform the Minister for Labour 
 of what the deputation had represented. 
 
 The following editorial which relates to Australian politics 
 will not appear as out of place here as it relates to matters of 
 Parliament, in which the labor question is the prime factor. It 
 is both interesting and instructive, and forecasts a result that 
 has since happened, namely, the double dissolution of Parlia- 
 ment; the bills upon which the dissolution was ordered being 
 a bill to repeal preference to unionism in Government work, 
 and a bill to establish the right to vote at elections by letter, or 
 mail, in cases of inability to attend the polls in person. 
 
 POLITICS IN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 March 20. The suggestion made by a Labour member of the Aus- 
 tralian House of Representatives that the Governor-General's resignation 
 was precipitated by the political situation is too absurd to be seriously 
 considered. The Australian Federal Parliament, unlike other British 
 Parliaments, is subject to a written constitution, and the even balance of 
 parties in the House of Representatives presents no difficult problems for 
 the Governor-General such as migjit arise in other countries. The posi- 
 tion has been further simplified in recent months by the Labour leaders 
 accepting as inevitable the dissolution of both branches of the Legisla- 
 ture, which the Government has been fighting for ever since it came into 
 office. The Federal elections held in June last year gave the Liberals a 
 bare majority in the House of Representatives, and Mr. Cook succeeded 
 Mr. Fisher as Prime Minister of Australia. The Labor Party, however, 
 continued to command a majority in the Senate, and the result was that 
 the first session of the new Parliament yielded no harvest of Liberal 
 legislation. The measures passed by the House of Representatives, after 
 a struggle, were rejected or mutilated by the Senate, and Mr. Cook has 
 been a Prime Minister with administrative power, but no legislative 
 authority. Such a position is clearly intolerable. The Constitution pro- 
 vides that if the Senate twice rejects, or amends in a manner to which 
 
 42 
 
the House of Representatives will not agree, any bill twice passed by 
 the House, the Governor-General may dissolve the two Chambers simul- 
 taneously. This is probably what will happen within the next few 
 months. The second session of Parliament opens shortly, and the meas- 
 ures, or some of the measures, rejected by the Senate last session will be 
 sent back to it. The Senate will almost certainly reject them, and 
 Mr, Cook's appeal for a double dissolution cannot then be denied. It 
 would suit the Labour Party very much better to have a dissolution of 
 the House of Representatives only, leaving them still in command of the 
 Senate. This would be the course of events if Labour could snatch a 
 majority in the House, but it is unlikely Mr. Fisher will be able to outwit 
 the vigilance of the slightly stronger Liberal Party. A double dissolution 
 will probably increase the Liberal majority in the House; but it is doubt- 
 ful whether the Senate will be captured from the Labour Party. The 
 deadlock would not in these circumstances be ended. The Constitution 
 contains an ingenious clause to permit of some progress being made with 
 legislation during the continuance of such a deadlock. If the Senate 
 again disagrees with the House on a particular measure, the Governor- 
 General may summon a joint sitting of the two Chambers, and the 
 decision of an absolute majority of the members present has the force 
 of law. It might happen that the Labour Party would command this 
 majority, despite its minority in the House of Representatives, and it 
 would then be able to give legislation a character approved by it, but 
 distasteful to the Prime Minister. Such a situation would be unprece- 
 dented. 
 
 FROM THE AUCKLAND STAR. 
 
 POLITICAL EFFRONTERY. 
 
 LABOUR'S CLAIM TO PEACE. 
 
 (Received 10.10 A. M.) 
 
 Sydney, this day. 
 
 March 16. Mr. Joseph Cook (Federal Premier) speaking at Sand- 
 ringham, considered Mr. Holman's figures concerning New South Wales' 
 light taxation a piece of sheer political effrontery. There never was a 
 more hollow mockery than to assert that the three years of Labour rule 
 had given industrial peace. Labour rule had been signalised by the 
 fratricidal policy of striking and the creation of class hatred, which 
 was increasing in New South Wales. This feeling had reduced the 
 effectiveness of the working man's wages." 
 
 The following will serve as a reminder of some of the in- 
 tricacies and annoyances created by the system of industrial 
 legislation in Australasia. It is next to impossible for the aver- 
 age citizen, employing a servant or two, to keep informed as to 
 the awards of the various Wages Boards and the changes that 
 are, from time to time, made in the same, or whether setting a 
 servant at washing plates, for example, will violate some rule by 
 which the servant should only be required to wash pans, but 
 the channel through which they frequently become informed in 
 the premises, is illustrated in the following example: 
 
 HOTEL WORKERS' DUTIES. 
 MISTRESS AND MAID FINED. 
 
 March 16. Mr. C. C. Kettle, S. M., gave judgment this afternoon in 
 the case in which the Inspector of Awards (Mr. E. W. F. Gohns) pro- 
 
 43 
 
ceeded against Miss Helen Cooper, a restaurant keeper (Mr. M. G. 
 McGregor), for employing a young woman as a second cook and paying 
 her 22s. a week instead of 305. The employee, Miss W. Senkup, was 
 also sued for failing to claim the award wage. The point in dispute was 
 whether the employees' duties in the kitchen were those of a kitchen 
 maid or a cook. 
 
 His Worship considered that the employee had undoubtedly done 
 work which the award stated that a cook should do. In her evidence 
 she had said that she did not know that the award provided a wage of 
 305. for such work, but she remarked that "she had a father to keep," 
 and this was perhaps an indication of the state of her mind. Each de- 
 fendant would be fined 305. In giving judgment his Worship again drew 
 attention to the necessity for preparing clearly printed schedules of 
 duties and placing them where they could be seen by all the employees in 
 an hotel or restaurant. 
 
 While the above example relates to hotels and restaurants 
 it clearly points out the necessity for all employers, large or 
 small, as well as* employees, to keep themselves informed as to 
 Wages Boards awards, and to be continually on the watch that 
 in every detail the same are strictly adhered to, otherwise, as 
 shown by the above reference, they are liable to be summoned 
 before a Court and fined. The system is particularly annoying 
 to employers who conduct a business made up of miscellaneous 
 parts and requiring the service of employees representing various 
 divisions of Wages Boards awards, as many do, and especially 
 in cases where employees are by the very nature of their em- 
 ployment required to shift from job to job or stand idly by while 
 certain work is performed by entirely unnecessary additional 
 help, or where the business is not of sufficient magnitude to 
 justify a specific distribution of service among its employees. 
 This constant fear of prosecution for violation of Wages Boards 
 awards, even though unwittingly, is not conducive to the peace 
 of mind of an employer of labor, who in most cases of prose- 
 cution is the victim, and, besides, the system encourages idleness 
 and augments economic waste. 
 
 FROM THE WELLINGTON TIMES. 
 
 THE SIX-DAY WEEK. 
 
 FOR AUCKLAND HOTEL WORKERS. 
 
 (Press Association.) 
 
 Auckland, March 31. 
 
 April I. An agreement on all but one of points at issue between 
 the Hotel and Restaurants Workers' Union (old union) and Licensed 
 Houses Workers' Union (new union) on the one hand and the Licensed 
 Victuallers' Association on the other has been arrived at. The new 
 union has been swamped by members of the old union, who recently 
 threw out the strike-breaking executive and installed officers who repudi- 
 ated on legal grounds the agreement made with the employers in Decem- 
 ber and co-operated with the old union in applying to the Arbitration 
 Court for an award. The employers accepted the position with a good 
 grace, and conferences were held with the result stated. 
 
 44 
 
The Arbitration Court was informed today that the only point now 
 in dispute related to the six-day week. 
 
 Mr. Justice Stringer said the Court intended taking the amendment 
 to the Shops and Offices Act as mandatory, and introducing the six-day 
 week into all future awards relating to hotel and restaurant workers. 
 
 This clears the way for the final settlement of the whole dispute. 
 
 SYDNEY STREETS. 
 
 COST OF CLEANING "A STAGGERER." 
 (By Telegraph Press Association Copyright.) 
 
 Sydney, March 20. 
 
 March 21. The town clerk has reported to the City Council that 
 
 the cost of cleaning Sydney has risen from 38,658 in 1905 to 100,634 
 
 in 1913. The mileage of the streets has increased only from 113 to 134 
 
 miles. Increases in wages are largely responsible for the increased cost. 
 
 Aldermen describe the statement as a staggerer. 
 
 SYDNEY TRAMWAYS. 
 
 DEFICIT FOR YEAR, 61,038. 
 
 (By Telegraph Press Association Copyright.) 
 (Received March 20, 9.50 p. M.) 
 
 Sydney, March 20. 
 
 March 21. The Premier supplied in the Legislative Assembly a 
 statement from the Railway Commissioners showing the tramway re- 
 turns for the year 1912-1913 as follows: Earnings, 1,754,566; expendi- 
 tures, 1,572,190; interest on capital invested, 214,832; deficit, 32,456; 
 estimated deficit for the year ending June 3Oth, 61,038. 
 
 FROM THE WELLINGTON POST. 
 
 THE LABOUR MARKET. 
 To the Editor: 
 
 March 27. Sir, May I ask through your columns what is going to 
 be done to provide employment for the new arrivals in New Zealand? 
 At present there is not sufficient work for men already settled here. I have 
 to keep a small boarding house as my husband is out of work, and two of 
 my boarders are out of work, and it is quite heart-breaking. They start 
 off in search of a job every morning, and all line in again about 12 
 o'clock No luck; can't find a job. One of them tried up country. He 
 got a job from a local registry office bush felling; he started off for 
 Featherston, the nearest railway station ; the camp was 7s. 6d. coach ride 
 from the station. When he arrived on the scene he found there was 
 another fourteen miles to walk from the coach, through bush, and over 
 hills, and across creeks, etc. He said he would not have minded all that 
 if the camp had been decent, but they had to shoot wild pig for meat, 
 or whatever was about. There was no milk, only boards to lie on, and 
 no conveniences to get a wash. He was so disgusted that after he had 
 taken a rest, he set off to walk back to the coach again. I ask, Is there 
 any encouragement for me to go up country? My brother came to New 
 Zealand last August, with the object of going on a farm to work. He 
 went up to Taihape and Inglewood in answer to an advertisement, and 
 found the jobs did not exist. When he got up there, he tried several 
 different places, and at last packed up and went back to England, while 
 he had the money to pay his fare. New Zealand is cracked up so good 
 at home in England that people think it is easy to get work here, but 
 my husband has been here two years, and is still no better off as far as 
 work is concerned. I have no doubt there are plenty more men the same. 
 
 45 
 
We are told to keep the cradles full, but I ask what encouragement have 
 we to bring children into the world when we are practically living from 
 hand to mouth. Why does New Zealand cry out for more emigrants and 
 more population when it cannot give work to the people already here? 
 I don't know what we shall do in the winter time. I have to work hard 
 all day to keep things going. Hoping you will find room for this letter, 
 I am, etc. 
 
 A WORKING MAN'S WIFE. 
 
 A UNION'S TYRANNY. 
 
 April i. Mr. D. Mpriarty, the modest secretary of the Wellington 
 Furniture Union, in this issue severely scolds The Post for an unpardon- 
 able piece of forgetfulness; the difference between a Wellington with 
 Mr. Moriarty and a Wellington without Mr. Moriarty was not noticed, and 
 the dreadful sequel is a charge by the irate magnate that The Post lacks 
 "common decency." However, before The Post applies itself to the task of 
 framing a suitable apology to the incensed secretary, it must discuss a 
 matter which is of more importance to the public, though, perhaps, of less 
 concern to the irate Mr. Moriarty. This is the reported persecution of a 
 member of the Furniture Union by other members, who have been encour- 
 aged by the secretary in their attitude, according to the official's statement. 
 Whatever Mr. Moriarty may have done or said in the past, there is no 
 possibility of mistaking the tone of his letter in today's Post. It is 
 practically approval of the tactics already pursued and an incitement 
 to the men to continue the victimisation of a cabinet-maker who dared 
 to accept work on the wharf during the strike, when he was unable to 
 find an engagement at his trade. First of all, the impetuous secretary 
 brushes aside as a negligible trifle the statement made by the union's 
 president, Mr. Kennedy, last week. This officer was questioned before 
 the man's complaint was published, and the two versions appeared to- 
 gether. If the union had decided to buy strike "solidarity" at the 
 price of 3s. a week ("to prevent any member from going to work on the 
 wharves"), why did not Mr. Kennedy mention this bonus scheme? The 
 member concerned says that he knew nothing about the offer. All that 
 he knew definitely was that he was out of work, and he tried to find a 
 suitable billet in city factories before he went to the waterside. 
 
 "We do believe," says Mr. Moriarty, "that it is an unpardonable 
 offence for any man to take on the work of another who has been forced 
 out of work." Who "forced" the Wellington water-siders out of work? 
 Who "forced" them to have their "stop-work" meeting? Who "forced" 
 them to flout a good agreement? It is very well known now that the 
 strikers deliberately chose the "stop-work" method, and thus treated 
 their agreement with contempt. Is that the sort of strike for which the 
 Furniture Union is prepared to persecute one of its members? 
 Mr. Moriarty, with a perversity which suggests that he is more or 
 less consciously flattering Mr. P. Hickey by imitating his inventiveness, 
 has made another glaring misuse of the word "force," thus: "If you 
 are successful in getting the employers to force us out on strike." This 
 is grim humour, surely not altogether unconscious. The unionists in this 
 case are aspiring to be the "master class." They have, in effect, dared 
 the employers to take on the black-listed member whom the autocratic 
 secretary addressed as an "ex-cabinetmaker.". The persecutors, not the 
 employers, have made the challenge, and Mr. Moriarty has thrown out 
 sundry sinister hints of boycott. But, of course, that is not "force." 
 It is only the punishment of the "unpardonable offence" of a unionist 
 against an intolerable conspiracy of Syndicalism. This word does not 
 lose "nastiness," but acquires more, by the methods of the Furniture 
 Union's members. The Red Federals are straight-out Syndicalists; the 
 Furniture Union has, on the facts published, laid itself open to the 
 allegation of being an aider and abettor of Syndicalism by devious ways. 
 
 46 
 
Is the Furniture Workers' Trust or Combine strong enough already to 
 dictate to the employers? Who are the actual employers and who are 
 the employed? That question arises from Mr. Moriarty's letter. 
 
 FROM THE CHRISTCHURCH PRESS. 
 
 STRIKING UNIONS. 
 
 April 3. Is the Labour Department going to prosecute the unions 
 or unionists working under Arbitration Court awards who went on 
 strike in November last, and thus committed a breach of the Industrial 
 Conciliation and Arbitration Act?" asks the "Post." "The question is one 
 which raises some very important issues, and the decision of the Depart- 
 ment is awaited with the keenest interest, not only by the offending 
 unions, but also by the employers and the new unions which were formed 
 to replace several of the Arbitration bodies which, though unaffiliated, 
 responded to the call of the Red Federation. If the Department decides 
 to proceed, the prosecutions will comprise the biggest batch that have 
 yet been launched at any one time within the history of New Zealand, 
 no fewer than 18 Arbitration unions, with some 8,000 to 9,000 members, 
 being involved. If, on the other hand, the Department decides not to 
 take action, the following issues, it is contended, will demand an imme- 
 diate solution: (i) What is the use of imposing penalties under the 
 Arbitration Act when they are not enforced? (2) What is to be the 
 fate of the new unions which were formed to replace the Arbitration 
 unions which went out on strike?" 
 
 From inquiries made by a "Post" reporter today, it would appear 
 that the latter question is at present greatly troubling both the employers 
 and the 'members of the old and new unions alike. At least three bodies 
 of workers are affected, viz., the Wellington drivers, the Auckland hotel 
 workers, and the Christchurch drivers. In all three cases dual Arbitra- 
 tion unions those which went out on strike and those which were 
 formed subsequently exist, and the puzzling situation is created as to 
 which unions hold the field. No one seems to know, and, as a result, 
 hopeless confusion prevails, the employers not knowing which union to 
 deal with, and the men being equally in the dark as to which union they 
 are to pay their subscriptions to. Some of the Wellington drivers, it is 
 stated, have solved the riddle for themselves by declining to pay into 
 either union until they know where they are. If the Labour Department 
 decides to take proceedings against the old unions for striking, and 
 secures convictions, the position will be much simplified. 
 
 If the Department is to take action, however, and thereby ,solve the 
 situation, it will require to act promptly, as under the Act it is provided 
 that a prosecution in case of a strike cannot take place after the expira- 
 tion of six months from the date of the cause of action, and in the 
 present instance five months have elapsed since the first union went on 
 strike. 
 
 FROM THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. 
 (Dunedin, N. Z.) 
 
 The following is an excerpt from an address by the Hon. 
 F. M. B. Fisher, Minister for Customs, at Wellington, April 3rd: 
 
 When the Minister got the audience again he said the meeting sug- 
 gested to him an interesting electoral reform, and that was to disfran- 
 chise every man who attempted to break up a public meeting. The sug- 
 gestion received a mixed reception. Continuing, Mr. Fisher said that 
 they would thus prevent the people, who did not respect the laws from 
 making them. These men must not get the idea into their heads that 
 they could frighten or terrorise the Government. * * * 
 
 47 
 
He said the secret ballot had taken away much of the power which 
 the agitator possessed at the present time. They were going to give 
 every working man the right to live, and the right to exercise his judg- 
 ment free and unfettered, and without the intimidation that had been 
 carried out in this town during the last 12 months. The Government had 
 some concern, not only for the people who voluntarily went on strike, but 
 also for the people who were forced out on strike against their will, 
 and it was necessary for the Government also to take into consideration 
 the wives and children who had suffered on account of the strike. 
 
 A Voice: "All the rats." 
 
 Mr. Fisher: "Are you referring to your friends?" 
 
 Continuing, Mr. Fisher said that the action of the Government had 
 utterly destroyed the Federation of Labour. (Applause and boohooing.) 
 When order was somewhat restored Mr. Fisher said they had heard it 
 stated that the Opposition Party was going to ally itself with the Social 
 Democrats. He first wanted to point out what it was these men stood 
 for. They stood for the red flag against the Union Jack, they stood 
 for anarchy and revolution against order, and their Socialism led them 
 in the direction cf entirely destroying family life. They respected not 
 law nor order. This was a signal for cheers and groans. "You will find," 
 he continued, "that the time has come when the voice of this country is 
 against these people. They may band themselves together, they may take 
 control of our public meetings, they may even ally themselves with the 
 Opposition, but even then they cannot win. Public opinion in this coun- 
 try is too British to allow them to win, (Applause and hooting.) They 
 come here led by foreigners, allied by 
 
 A portion of the audience then started to count out the speaker. 
 
 How THE MONEY GOES. 
 
 April 4. New South Wales is dominated by Labour Socialists. 
 Neither Premier Holman nor any member of his Cabinet is a free 
 agent. In common with the other members of the Labour Party who 
 have obtained seats in Parliament, they must follow the behests of the 
 irresponsible caucus, which, sitting outside of Parliament, is the real 
 overlord dominating members and Ministers of the Crown alike. And 
 this caucus is responsible neither to the electors, nor is it amenable in 
 any way to the public. 
 
 The Political Labour Congress issues its orders; they are perforce 
 obeyed, or the men refusing to accept its decisions pay the penalty in 
 the shape of political extinction. The Congress, consisting of delegates 
 from the respective unions, which are affiliated to the Political Labour 
 Federation, and which probably does not represent more than a third 
 of the employees who have attained the age of 20 years and over, nomi- 
 nated the Ministry, choosing Mr. Holman's . colleagues for him. Tt cen- 
 sured Mr. Griffiths, the Minister for Public Works; it mapped out the 
 policy Ministers must follow; it even went to the length of ordering 
 the abolition of the pensions that are paid to judges and the higher 
 salaried officials on their retirement from the same. And it committed 
 the country to a Socialistic programme that will still further deplete its 
 finances, which are, to say the least, in a very bad way. 
 
 EXPENDITURE ADVANCES BY NINE MILLIONS IN THREE YEARS. 
 The Labour Government in New South Wales succeeded to office in 
 1910, and to a surplus, bequeathed it by Mr. Wade, the Liberal Premier, 
 of 989,709. 
 
 By 1913 it had turned that surplus into a deficit of 1.500,000. In 
 other words, it had gone to the bad to the extent of 2,500,000, although 
 the revenue rose from 13,839,139 in 1910-11 to 16,057,000 in 1912-13. 
 that is by 2,217,861, 
 
 48 
 
The total expenditure of the Wade Government during its last year 
 of office was 17,853,827. 
 
 FROM THE GREYMOUTH EVENING STAR. 
 (March 21, 1914.) 
 
 Excerpts from an address by Prime Minister, the Right Hon. 
 W. F. Massey, at Greymouth, March 2ist: 
 
 THE BIG STRIKE. 
 
 The Premier then went on to refer to the recent strike. The Gov- 
 ernment had many difficulties to contend with when they came into 
 power. There were fires in the north, floods in the south, and then the 
 strike which was the worst of all. They could not please everyone, but 
 he believed that what the Government had done had pleased the ma- 
 jority of the people of this country. (Loud applause.) Personally he 
 considered that if the Government had not acted as they had done they 
 would not have been worthy of the position they occupied. (Applause.) 
 He knew from the start that they were up against the most serious 
 crisis in the Dominion's history. Trade was suspended, the ports were 
 closed, and the revenue was seriously affected. It was over now, and 
 things had returned to normal. There had been great excitement, and 
 many foolish things had been said. He did not blame the men for the 
 strike, but he blamed their leaders. (Applause.) He blamed their 
 vanity, their stupidity, and their obstinacy. He had tried his best to 
 settle the strike, and there were several conferences, but "they hadn't 
 a hope." There were not sufficient police to cope with the situation that 
 arose. Therefore, they did the only thing under the circumstances they 
 could do. They appealed for "specials," and they had a magnificent 
 response. (Applause.) They came to help from all parts in their 
 hundreds, and the number could have been multiplied by five. He took 
 the whole responsibility for what had been done. He wished to express 
 his high appreciation, as head of the Government, of the men who came 
 to help them, leaving their harvests and crops. If he could say that of the 
 men he could say more of the women who were left on lonely farms. 
 (Applause.) The stand taken by the settlers was a revelation. What 
 help did they get from the Opposition? Compare the attitude of their 
 own Opposition with that of the South African Opposition recently. 
 He would say no more, but leave it at that. Now that the strike was 
 over no one could really say what the strike was about. Every worker 
 had a right to sell his labour in the highest market, but he had no right 
 to interfere with or prevent another man getting work. Although no 
 one could tell the cause of the strike, the result was that it ended in a 
 revolt of the people against the tyranny of a foreign organisation known 
 in America as the I. W. W. organisation, and known here as the Federa- 
 tion of Labour. The great enemies of New Zealand were the agitators 
 who went about stirring up strife between employer and employee. If we 
 wanted to see the country prosper we would be better without this very 
 noisy and small section of which he had been speaking. 
 
 A Voice : Deport them. 
 
 Mr. Massey said that he hoped they would not need to do that, 
 but he would not shrink from even that if it was necessary. (Cheers.) 
 The strike had had a great effect on the politics of this country, and 
 parties were being readjusted. On the one side there was now the 
 party of progress the Reform Liberals, and on the other the party that 
 would put back the wheels of progress 50 years if their leaders' speeches 
 were any criterion. These were the Red Fed. Liberals. 
 
 49 
 
FROM THE MERCURY. 
 (Hobart, Tasmania, April 9, 1914.) 
 
 THE PLASTERERS' STRIKE. 
 PROSECUTION OF THE MEN. TECHNICAL POINT RAISED. 
 
 Adelaide, April 8. 
 
 For the past two weeks 200 plasterers, who are under a wages 
 board award, have been on strike for higher wages and shorter hours. 
 Today the secretary of the union (Sidney Riches) and 30 men were 
 summoned before the Industrial Court by Mr. Justice Buchanan (Presi- 
 dent), for their action. 
 
 On the men being asked to plead, Sir Josiah Symon, who appeared 
 for the employees, protested that the matter before the court was merely 
 an inquiry, and not a prosecution. 
 
 The President reserved the point for submission to the Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 It is understood that, the matter will be carried on by the issue of 
 individual informations against some of the men. 
 
 FROM THE LIBERAL. 
 (Melbourne, May, 1914.) 
 
 UNION OR LAW WHICH ? 
 
 The Political Union doctrine that the rules of the Union are su- 
 perior to the laws of the land was flagrantly and openly advocated by 
 Mr. Hampson, the Victorian Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of 
 Engineers, at a meeting on the I5th April, of the Port Phillip Ship- 
 wrights' Association. He said, in responding to a toast, that "Unionists 
 paid more respect to their own rules than to the laws of the land." 
 Coming as it does from the official representative of a union that used 
 to stand for sane trades unionism, industrial efficiency, and indifference 
 to political unionism, is symptomatic as demonstrating the vicious trend 
 of thought in modern militant political trades unionism. With such 
 folk in a contest between the law of a democratic country and the rules 
 of an aggressive union, the law. is beaten every time. Hence their desire 
 to get control of the police and military. When this is done democracy 
 has passed and the tyranny of the Trades Hall is supreme. 
 
 FROM THE MELBOURNE AGE. 
 
 EDITORIAL. 
 
 April 15. The gnawing anxiety of the Labour Party to clear the 
 way of all possible obstructions to its more violent industrial methods 
 was perhaps never so clearly demonstrated as in the proposals for 
 amending the Defence Act adopted by the recent Labour conference. 
 The party professes an unqualified belief in the principle of settling in- 
 dustrial disputes by the peaceful process of law; its leaders are never 
 tired of proclaiming their allegiance to the arbitration tribunals. As long 
 as these happen to give them all they want they are, no doubt, its ardent 
 champions; but the determination to have recourse to "direct action" 
 should such a course at any moment appear expedient is never absent 
 from their minds. It was for the purpose of making direct action on a 
 large scale as simple and as riskless as possible to the persons engaging 
 in it that the conference appointed a committee to suggest amendments 
 to the Defence Act. That this committee (of which Senator Barker and 
 Dr. Maloney, M. H. R., were members) thoroughly understood the nature 
 and intent of its commission every clause of its report shows. 
 
 50 
 
What alterations to the military system of the Commonwealth 
 would best suit the purpose of political unionism, give it the freest hand 
 and widest scope, and render it least liable to being brought to book for 
 any of its actions? The members of the committee must have asked each 
 other some such questions as that as they sat down to deliberate; and 
 the answer they supplied certainly does credit to their ingenuity. In the 
 first place, they said, make impossible the "Continental practice" of men 
 on strike being "called to the colours" under penalty of military punish- 
 ment. This can as yet scarcely be called a "Continental practice," for it 
 has been tried only once; but the success with which by its means 
 M. Briand checkmated the syndicalists in their deep-laid plot to stop 
 traffic on the French railways and "hold up" the Government and nation 
 naturally horrified our law and arbitration champions in Australia, and 
 inspired them with the ambition to make such a device for protecting the 
 community against violence and outrage impossible here. Dr. Maloney 
 and his friends next proceeded to declare that in no circumstances should 
 any members of the defence force be required to "interfere with workers 
 engaged in an industrial dispute." Under the law as it stands a State 
 Government has the right to ask the Commonwealth Government for 
 military assistance should the resources of the State be unequal to the 
 task of preserving order. 
 
 It is the duty of the Federal power to render assistance to a State 
 Government when help is demanded, but, as everyone knows, the Fisher 
 Ministry refused the request of the Queensland Government, even when 
 Brisbane seemed on the point of falling under the lawless sway of a mob 
 of unionists during a general strike. The committee of the Victorian 
 Labour conference, fearing that some Federal Ministry might prove more 
 faithful to its duty than the Fisher Cabinet proved, wishes to provide in 
 advance against any such contingency. Nor is this the full extent of the 
 lesson conveyed to it by the Brisbane experience. It remembers thai the 
 Denham Ministry, left in the lurch by the authority controlling the mili- 
 tary forces, enlisted the services of some of the volunteers who thronged 
 in such inspiring numbers to help the cause of law and order against the 
 hosts of anarchy; and it has accordingly suggested a means of preventing 
 the repetition of such a spectacle. One of its recommendations is, "That 
 no State Government be allowed to raise, arm, or use any force against 
 the workers in the time of an industrial dispute." No amendment of 
 the Defence Act would, of course, suffice to deprive the States of this 
 right; but the fact that the committee suggested, and the conference 
 adopted a proposal of the kind stated shows what an overmastering 
 desire these people have to place the community absolutely at the mercy 
 of organised labour. The "unionising" of the police would just about 
 complete the process. 
 
 Having thus suggested means for rendering the community power- 
 less, it might have been supposed that the committee and the conference 
 would rest content with their labours. But in the true spirit of their 
 kind they set themselves to devise a plan for making positive use of the 
 defence system to help them and their cause against the public. For 
 what is really the most sinister of all their recommendations is the one 
 declaring that "every member of the citizen forces should be made cus- 
 todian of his small arms and equipment." The position they want to 
 bring about is one in which the use of the forces for the preservation of 
 law and order shall be absolutely prohibited, while each individual 
 member of the forces shall have it in his power to render armed assist- 
 ance, should he think fit, to the people assailing that cause. In other 
 words, the Government is not to be permitted to call out the military, but 
 the Trades Hall is! Men less unsophisticated than Senator Barker, 
 Dr. Maloney, and their friends would, however anarchical their tempera- 
 ment, hesitate to express their purpose quite so candidly, but the fact 
 that these individuals are too naive to give their meaning a semblance 
 of decency by cloaking it in diplomatic language does not make these 
 
 51 
 
recommendations any less significant. Men like them are the pace- 
 makers of the Labour movement. They catch the ear of the most ex- 
 treme of the groundlings, and these, in the long run, dominate the party. 
 The conference, it should be remembered, adopted en bloc everything the 
 committee thought proper to suggest. 
 
 The Brisbane wharf labourers have shown the boycott to be capable 
 of a development which it had not previously reached even in Broken 
 Hill, where the Barrier Labour Federation was generally credited with 
 having exhausted its possibilities as an instrument of terrorism. They 
 refused to handle cargo under the supervision of an officer of one of the 
 shipping companies who had given evidence distasteful to them in the 
 Arbitration Court, and the steamer Ready had in consequence to be laid 
 up. Trade unionism regards victimisation by the other side as the 
 most heinous of industrial offences, and its definition of the word in such 
 circumstances is comprehensive in the extreme. No matter how offensive 
 or destructive a unionist has been in a discussion or a strike, his asso- 
 ciates make it a condition of settlement admitting of no qualification that 
 his position and status in the employer's service must remain absolutely 
 unimpaired. "No victimisation" is, in short, the loudest and most fre- 
 quently heard of those insenate cries which unionists use without know- 
 ing precisely what the language they employ really means. It means to 
 them a purely one-sided thing. Their notion of liberty is liberty to 
 oppress all outside their ranks; their idea of equal opportunity is as 
 Mr. W. H. Irvine has pithily remarked, "equal opportunity to all and 
 preference to unionists"; the word victimisation they regard as being 
 without -meaning except when they are (however deservedly) the suffer- 
 ers by the process. They do not, for example, consider it victimisation 
 at all when they exert their immense strength to deprive non-unionists 
 of the means of supporting themselves and their families. The term they 
 use to describe this is "justice." 
 
 Never before in all the vagaries of its wayward spirit has trade 
 unionism ventured to boycott an individual for having given evidence 
 evidence on oath and presumably truthful against a claim made by a 
 union in an Arbitration Court. The person objected to in this case is 
 an officer in the service of one of the shipping companies, and in express- 
 ing his views in the witness-box apparently he did not hesitate to say 
 exactly what he thought. His evidence must have either damaged the 
 cause or wounded the vanity of the claimants, and the- lesson they wish 
 to convey by the present boycott is that men who do that sort of thing, 
 where organised labour is concerned, do so at their peril. It is an 
 instance, if there ever was one, of the fountain of justice being sullied at 
 its source, and unless the Court concerned promptly vindicates its author- 
 ity by punishing the outrage on its dignity in some unmistakable manner 
 will simply be conniving at a monstrous injustice. If an employer ven- 
 tured so much as to betray a wish to deal with a unionist in this way 
 the country would ring with denunciations of the infamy, and the of- 
 fender would be read a lecture from the Bench which he would not 
 soon forget. 
 
 RAILWAY MEN STRIKE. 
 ISO MEN DOWN TOOLS. 
 
 Wagga, Wednesday. 
 
 April 16. The trouble regarding the handling of "black" chaff 
 assumed a grave aspect this morning, when the locomotive staff employed 
 on the new railway from Wagga to Tumbarumba refused to handle chaff 
 from A. Brunskill's Allonby Farm. They were in consequence sus- 
 pended by the resident engineer, Mr. G. C. Bernard. Immediately fol- 
 lowing upon Mr. Bernard's action the whole of the men employed over 
 the entire length of the new railway "downed" tools and went on strike. 
 
 52 
 
FARMERS AND THE A. W. U. 
 
 "BLACK CHAFF/' CARRIERS ORDER MEN TO HANDLE. 
 
 THREAT TO EMPLOY NON-UNIONISTS. 
 
 Sydney, Wednesday. 
 
 April 16. It was stated at a meeting this morning of the Master 
 Carriers' Association that it had been decided to inform employees that 
 they must handle goods whether these have been declared "black" or not. 
 Association officials declined to make any statement in regard to the 
 affairs of that body. It is said that for some weeks employers have been 
 warning their men that if they did not handle "black" chaff non-union 
 labor would be engaged. 
 
 WORKS REMAIN CLOSED. 
 
 EMPLOYERS MEET TO-DAY. 
 
 April 16. There was no fresh development yesterday in regard to 
 the trouble in the stone cutting industry, and all the works connected 
 with the Master Masons' Association, with the exception of the Foot- 
 scray and Malmsbury Company, remain closed. 
 
 STRIKERS AND THE LAW. 
 MINISTER AS MEDIATOR. 
 
 Perth, Thursday. 
 
 April .18. A deputation of employers waited upon the Hon. Minis- 
 ter (Mr. Dodd) today, and brought under his notice matters arising out 
 of the recent refusal by the carpenters at Millars' timber-yards to work 
 with non-unionists, thereby in the deputation's opinion breaking the law 
 prohibiting strikes. 
 
 A DESERTED TOWN. 
 
 DISASTROUS STRIKE. GRAVE POSITION AT JUMBUNNA. 
 
 Jumbunna, Monday. 
 
 April 21. The strike at Jumbunna coal mine has extended over 
 nine weeks. Practically no work has been done since ist January, only 
 26 shifts having been worked. Deputations representing the men have 
 repeatedly waited on the manager and made certain proposals to him in 
 regard to the trouble over the hewing rate. The miners have asked for 
 a price which will enable them to secure a living wage, but so far no 
 settlement has been arrived at, and matters are now at a deadlock. 
 The manager refused to give the price asked, and the miners refuse to 
 accept any reduction. The result is that empty houses are to be found 
 in every part of the town, as the miners are leaving as soon as they secure 
 work elsewhere. Miners who have been here for fifteen years have been 
 compelled to leave. The town is in a deplorable condition. Business is 
 paralysed, and unless the strike is soon settled business people will have 
 to close their shops. 
 
 MINERS SUGGEST A STRIKE. 
 
 Kalgoorlie, Sunday. 
 
 April 27. A meeting of the Miners' Union was held in Boulder 
 town hall this afternoon for the purpose of further discussing the ques- 
 tion of not working with non-unionists after ist May. 
 
 UNIONISM IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
 THE TIMBER WORKERS' STRIKE. 
 
 Perth, Sunday. 
 
 April 27. The Employers' Federation has rejected the proposal of 
 the Hon. Minister, Mr. Dodd, for the holding of a conference with the 
 Carpenters' Union over the compulsory unionism strike at Millars' timber 
 works, because the union declared a boycott of Millars' material while 
 
 53 
 
the conference negotiations were proceeding. At a special meeting oi 
 metropolitan timber yard employees last night it was resolved to continue 
 work till further advised by the Labor Federation. 
 
 In addition to 56 men who struck at Millars' against working with 
 non-unionists, about 30 carpenters and a number of painters have losl 
 their jobs owing to the shortage caused by the strike. 
 
 WORK AND WAGES. 
 COMPULSORY UNIONISM. POSITION IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 
 
 Perth, Monday. 
 
 April 28. The Labor Federation has issued a statement in con- 
 nection with the compulsory unionism strike, claiming that the Employ- 
 ers' Federation, by refusing a conference, is forcing on a lockout, and 
 is victimising unionists by reducing hands in the carpentering trade. 
 
 It transpires that the fines imposed last month on Geraldton lumpers 
 for striking have not been paid. 
 
 The Kalgoorlie miners, who resolved not to work with non-unionists 
 after ist May, are apparently weakening as the time draws near for 
 enforcing or retracting the resolution. A conference of all mining unions 
 has been called to reconsider the position. 
 
 ONE MAN ONE JOB. 
 
 "HANDY" MAN IN TROUBLE. ACTION BY MINERS' ASSOCIATION. 
 FIGHT AT A MEETING. 
 
 Ballarat, Sunday. 
 
 May 4. Complaint has been made publicly by members of the 
 Ballarat branch of the Federated Miners' Association of Australia at 
 the action of Mr. J. D. Dale, a member of the committee of the branch, 
 in working as a carpenter, and also in other capacities on wages in his 
 spare time. 
 
 THE PAINTERS' CONFERENCE. 
 
 A DEFENCE FUND. 
 
 May 9. The Inter-State conference of master painters and decora- 
 tors concluded yesterday. 
 
 Mr. J. F. Maxwell (Brisbane) moved 
 
 "That it be a recommendation to the various associations throughout 
 the States to consider the advisability of establishing a sinking fund for 
 the purpose of protecting employers' interests before industrial courts 
 and wages boards." 
 
 As he understood, the employers in the trade were on the edge of a 
 precipice, and unless something of the sort he proposed was done, their 
 interests were apt to be annihilated. 
 
 FROM THE MELBOURNE ARGUS. 
 
 April 14. In spite of the protest of the Boilermakers' Union 
 against the announcement that it is the intention of the Minister for 
 Immigration (Mr. Hagelthorn) to allow Messrs. Thompson and Co, of 
 Castlemaine, to secure artisans from England for their works, Mr. Hagel- 
 thorn is adhering to his original decision. He states that it really amounts 
 to an attempt on the part of the union to prevent British boilermakers 
 from working for a firm which, apparently, offended it some months ago. 
 Messrs. Thompson and Co. have installed plant costing 50,000, and 
 Mr. Hagelthorn is not prepared to allow an important industry in the 
 country to be crippled as a result of the efforts of the union to obtain 
 complete control of the labour. He in no way questions the competency 
 of the Victorian workmen who are members of the union, but he points 
 out that it is absolutely necessary that sufficient labour should be made 
 available to enable the industry to be carried on. 
 
 54 
 
Melbourne, Saturday. 
 
 April 18. The Prime Minister's reply to Mr. Fisher's attack upon 
 the Government has set rolling a ball of contention that will probably 
 travel far before it stops. The Senate, by adjourning for three weeks, 
 has indicated the extent of public time the Labor caucus thinks the 
 debate will consume; yet Mr. Hughes yesterday informed the House 
 there never was a period in Australian history when there was a greater 
 and more urgent call for serious legislative effort. Mr. Cook's speech, 
 judged from his party's standpoint, was both impressive and effective. 
 Mr. Fisher had charged him and his Ministerial colleagues with having 
 wilfully and deliberately slandered the people of Australia by making 
 allegations of illicit voting after last general election. Mr. 'Cook re- 
 torted that Ministerialists could, at most, be accused only of slandering 
 a few people, but that Mr. Fisher for his part had slandered a big 
 majority of the workers by stigmatising non-unionists as "mostly the 
 sneaks of society." There are 433,000 unionists in the Commonwealth 
 and 724,000 non-unionists, said Mr. Cook. "Who, then, is the worst 
 slanderer of the people?" 
 
 "BLACK" CHAFF TROUBLE. 
 SCARCITY OF FODDER. A BAFFLED DEPUTATION. 
 
 Sydney, Monday. 
 
 April 21. In connection with the "black chaff" trouble, the position 
 at the railway goods yards at Redfern today was very similar to that of 
 Friday and Saturday. The master carriers made no attempt to effect 
 deliveries, and unionist carters did not put in an appearance. The whole 
 place wore a deserted aspect. Members of the Trolly, Draymen, and 
 Carters' Union discussed the position in an informal way with their 
 secretary at the Trades Hall. It was admitted that the outlook was 
 gloomy, and that employers, by their silent and concerted action, were 
 determined to enforce discipline. Meanwhile, the owners of live stock 
 are greatly worried over their inability to get supplies of fodder for 
 their animals. 
 
 All day today a deputation of farmers from the Wagga district 
 waited about, hoping for an interview with the Premier (Mr. Holman). 
 They did not succeed, however, and had to be satisfied with the answer, 
 "The Premier hopes to be able to see you tomorrow." The deputation is 
 headed by Mr. J. Halloran, president of the Wagga District Council of 
 the Farmers' and Settlers' Association. It wants to see Mr. Holman 
 about the attitude of the Public Works officials in preventing the car- 
 riage of produce on the completed section of the Wagga to Tumberumba 
 railway line. Mr. Halloran stated this evening: "It is an absurd mis- 
 take for Sydney people to think that we have had any strike in the 
 Wagga district. Although the Australian Workers' Union sent six or- 
 ganisers to the Wagga district, and maintained a free food camp of about 
 70 men for about n weeks, the fact is that our farm labourers kept at 
 work, and never expressed any dissatisfaction. I am in a position to 
 say that of 70 men who lived in the camp not a single one was a local 
 man. We know that they were specially brought across the Victorian 
 border in order to make a show of trouble. Our men have remained at 
 work, and all our crops came off in good time." 
 
 Free labourers are expected to be available tomorrow. A good 
 many farm hands are reported to have come down from the Wagga 
 district. The farmers are said to be very determined not to have their 
 stuff blocked. The future would appear to be full of complications and 
 difficulties of all kinds. There were over a hundred trucks of chaff on 
 the sidings today, including 10 declared to be "black." Since Saturday 
 27 trucks have been shunted in. Demurrage fees have to be paid on the 
 loaded trucks. Today's charges came to over 100. 
 
 55 
 
EDITORIAL. 
 
 April 2i. It is no exaggeration to say that the "black chaff" dispute 
 in New South Wales is raising issues which threaten the very founda- 
 tions of political and industrial organisation. The dispute originated 
 from the fact that the farmers of the Coolamon district of Riverina 
 refused to conform to the conditions laid down by the rural workers' 
 log, formulated by that powerful body the Australian Workers' Union. 
 All the farmers of Australia are now alive to the nature of the demands 
 in that log, and many of them consider that if it be enforced they will 
 be constrained to desert their farms and join the union, as the surer 
 and more expeditious means of acquiring a competency. At any rate, 
 the farmers resisted, and resisted successfully, the attempt to force the 
 log upon them. Chaffcutting was continued, despite the strike of em- 
 ployees, and it has been demonstrated to the A. W. U. that the work 
 can be carried on without its co-operation or consent. 
 
 Though the farmers may fight the unions, they are helpless when 
 their own weapons the agencies of the Government which they have 
 paid for in taxes are turned against them. When, at the instigation of 
 the unionists, railway men refuse to carry their chaff, because it has been 
 declared to be "black," they are ,in the position of combatants who, in 
 the hour of success, are betrayed by treachery. The facts are, that a 
 considerable portion of a railway from Wagga to Humula has been com- 
 pleted. Following the usual practice, goods traffic has been permitted on 
 the completed portion of the line, and the farmers' chaff was forwarded 
 to market by that means. But the men employed by the Government in 
 the construction of the line, finding that the farmers were successfully 
 resisting the extortions proposed in the rural workers' log, struck work 
 because "black" chaff was being conveyed along the completed portion. 
 Mr. Hutchinson, engineer in chief of railway construction, speedily ar- 
 rived from Sydney, ordered the resumption of work by the construction 
 staff, and withdrew the concession made to farmers to convey chaff over 
 the completed portion, declaring that construction must have preference 
 over the shifting of produce, and that the Farmers' Association must be 
 allowed to settle its own quarrels with the Australian Workers' Union 
 without involving the railways. When a deputation from the Farmers' 
 Association waited on Mr. Hutchinson, it was found that he was not 
 acting on his own motion, but was carrying out the orders of the 
 Minister for Railways. Therefore, it appears that it was the Minister 
 for Railways who was responsible for the statement that "the 'railways 
 must not be involved" in the quarrel. 
 
 With that statement everyone should agree. The railways, which 
 are the property of all, should not be converted into a weapon of com- 
 pulsion, and placed in the hands of a few. Up to the hour when the 
 men on the line struck, railway work was being done in the ordinary 
 way. It was no more "involved in the quarrel" than was the portion of 
 the line from Wagga to Sydney. It was brought into the quarrel by 
 the railway men, and their action has been sanctioned by the Minister 
 on the extraordinary ground that "the railways must not be involved in 
 the quarrel." In a land where so many commercial services are carried 
 on for the people by the State and municipal Governments, such a de- 
 cision by a Minister is a clear violation of public duty. Citizens cannot 
 live and carry on their various avocations as free men if the instrumen- 
 talities of Government, which are the property of all, are to be placed as 
 a weapon of offence in the hands of any section. 
 
 If the workers may stop the running of a railway in order to help 
 'certain other workers to coerce farmers into conceding a rate of wages 
 which the farmers regard as exorbitant, where is the new tyranny to 
 stop? For a similar trifling cause the post-office may suspend its func- 
 tions lest "black" letters be carried; cities may be thrown into darkness 
 at night, deprived of food or water, and, in fact, all the commercial 
 
 56 
 
operations of Government may be paralysed. The great and obvious 
 principle involved is that all persons employed in the services which, in a 
 complex society, supply the necessities of the citizens to whom they 
 belong are trustees for the public safety in the same sense that members 
 of the defence force are trustees, and they cannot use their positions 
 against the public except by becoming disloyalists and traitors. That a 
 few ignorant men should occasionally be led into mutinous revolt is not 
 to be wondered at; but _ when a craven Minister of the Crown, for politi- 
 cal ends, and in the guise of palpable sophistries, sanctions the treachery 
 which he ought to be the first to condemn and suppress, what basis of 
 security is left to the people? Obviously there is no security save that 
 which the electors are prepared to sturdily and persistently maintain 
 for themselves. 
 
 STATE BRICKWORKS. 
 MEN ON STRIKE. 
 
 Sydney, Sunday. 
 
 April 30. The trouble with the employees at the State brickworks, 
 in Botany, has not yet been settled. About 50 men went on strike after 
 the dismissal of two of their mates. They sent a deputation to Mr. Flow- 
 ers, M. L. C. (representing the Minister for Works), on Friday and were 
 told that there would be an inquiry into the alleged grievances if the 
 men returned to work. The men decided to present themselves on 
 Saturday morning, and did so ; but, to their surprise, were told that their 
 services would no longer be required. Carters from the brickworks say 
 that they will refuse to do further carting. 
 
 The manager of the brickworks (Mr. Hutton) says that two men 
 who were unsatisfactory were discharged, and without the least warning 
 the whole lot kept away on the following day. They were therefore 
 discharged on Saturday. Mr. Hutton added that the men had shown 
 a total lack of consideration to a State industry. 
 
 EDITORIAL. 
 
 May i. That large class of workers whom Mr. Fisher terms 
 "sneaks of society" have naturally come in for a good deal of attention 
 during the very dreary speeches which have echoed in the emptiness of 
 the House of Representatives this. week. The Prime Minister, in the 
 speech with which he followed Mr. Fisher a fortnight since, pointed out 
 that there are in Australia more than 1,500,000 employees of 20 years 
 of age and over, and, as there are only 433,000 unionists, there must be 
 over 1,100,000 "sneaks of society" earning their living in the Common- 
 wealth. When Mr. Cook was reminded that he had in his day con- 
 demned non-unionists in strong terms, he replied that he spoke of a 
 unionism very different from the political unionism of today. Mr. Spence, 
 the powerful head of the Australian Workers' Union, reverted to the 
 subject on Wednesday, and, with his usual mildness of tone, displayed 
 the venomous dislike which he also entertains to the non-unionist or 
 anti-unionist, as he prefers to call him. He said he would not allow such 
 a man within a mile of any job he controlled. "He was not only a sneak- 
 thief ; he would swindle his employer or anybody else." 
 
 Mr. Spence sees the force of the objection that when men who do 
 not believe in the policy of the Labour Party are compelled to join 
 unions they are obliged to pay levies for the support of principles to 
 which they are opposed. He said that it was the greatest mistake in 
 the world to suppose that every man in a union voted for Labour. 
 The admission proves the case against those who would force men into 
 unions, either by misapplying public funds to give preference to union- 
 ists, and exclude non-unionists from employment, or by the more forcible 
 process of making Australia a "hell upon earth" for them, or by throw- 
 
 57 
 
 
ing them into a river a process which Mr. Spence once described to t 
 House with every manifestation of humorous enjoyment. It is by 
 curiously sophistical process that Mr. Spence endeavours to prove th 
 unionists who will not vote Labour are not compelled to subscribe to 
 political faith to which they are opposed. They are, of course, requir 
 to contribute to the union funds, a large proportion of which is devot 
 to political purposes ; but Mr. Spence affirms that, since they gain mu 
 more in wages through the efforts of the union than they contribute 
 dues and levies, they actually do not contribute at all. On the sar 
 ground Mr. Spence might contend that every adult person should 
 compelled to contribute to the fighting fund of the Labour Party. I 
 would have no hesitation in affirming that the advantage to the coi 
 munity of Labour rule would be so great that each would gain mo 
 than he contributed, and so, in fact, would not contribute at all. 
 
 Such reasoning is, of course, patently false and insincere. ^ 
 Spence is too acute to be himself deceived by it. The opprobrious epitf 
 "sneaks of society," which Mr. Fisher has coined; the policy of houndi 
 dissentient non-unionists from place to place, of subjecting them to t 
 wrong and indignity of deprivation of their due share of such pub 
 employment as is available all betray the inherent intolerance of th 
 men, who so loudly demand unfettered liberty for themselves. Th< 
 own revolt against laws and conditions, industrial and social, is, of cour 
 noble and laudable. But at that stage liberty and toleration must er 
 To dissent from their political doctrines, to question their authority, 
 refuse to join their unions, and decline to contribute money for t 
 propagation of their policy, is ignoble, mean, intolerable. None but t 
 "sneaks of society" would do such a thing actual "sneak-thieves." 
 the sacred name of freedom let such malcontents be decried, insult< 
 and persecuted. Labour members boast that they have come through t 
 fire of persecution. If so, it has not been a purifying fire. All the drc 
 of bitterness, intolerance, and bigotry is still in them." 
 
 SYDNEY STOREMEN STRIKE. 
 VICTIMISATION ALLEGED. 
 
 Sydney, Sunday. 
 
 April 20. Some 60 storemen in the employ of the Vacuum Oil Co: 
 pany and members of the Storemen and Packers' Union have gone 
 strike. They complain that one of their number has been victimised 
 the company's works superintendent. The strike affects the compan; 
 stores at Pyrmont and Pulpit Rock. 
 
 With respect to the strike reported in the last above quot 
 news item, the facts, as given to us by an official of the Vacut 
 Oil Company, are, that a man who was in the employ of t 
 Company was frequently insolent to his foreman, worked wh 
 he felt like it, usually absent two days a week and did about 
 he pleased, after being notified several times that he would ha 
 to do differently or his dismissal would be necessary, was final 
 discharged for insubordination. Immediately his reinstateme 
 was demanded by the union which, being refused, caused 
 general strike. Waterside workers refused to handle the Coi 
 pany's product and the industry was brought to a standst: 
 How extended the strike became or how it resulted we did n 
 learn. 
 
 58 
 
At this juncture, and before quoting the next editorial from 
 The Argus, some reference to State and Federal laws, which 
 at the present time govern industrial conditions in the Common- 
 wealth of Australia, will be in order. Each State has its own 
 laws which, though differing in some respects, embody the same 
 general principles. 
 
 In Queensland the Industrial Peace Act, of 1912 repealed 
 the Wages Boards Acts 1908 to 1912, created an Industrial 
 Court having jurisdiction over all industrial matters and indus- 
 trial disputes in any calling, which may be submitted to it by 
 not less than 20 employers, or not less than 20 employees in any 
 such calling. The Act provides that the judge of such Court 
 may at his discretion order the creation of Industrial Boards of 
 from four to twelve members, each consisting of an equal number 
 of representatives of employers and employees, and prescribes 
 the manner in which such members shall be elected or chosen; 
 the awards of such Boards being subject to appeal to the Court, 
 whose decision is final. The Act also provides that "No person 
 shall be refused employment or in any way discriminated against 
 on account of membership or non-membership in any industrial 
 association" and that "No person who is an employer or em- 
 ployee shall be discriminated against or injured or interfered 
 with in any way whatsoever on account of membership or non- 
 membership of any industrial association." The Act also pro- 
 vides a penalty for any act tending to encourage or incite a lock- 
 out or strike in connection with certain specific public utilities 
 unless or until a compulsory conference has been held, by call 
 of the court, and such conference fails to adjust the differences 
 at issue, and thereafter unless and until after 14 days' notice 
 in writing of the intention to lock-out or strike has been given 
 to the Registrar of the Court, and after the Registrar has taken 
 a secret ballot amongst the employers or employees, as the case 
 requires, in the calling concerned, and such ballot has resulted 
 in favor of such lock-out or strike. The same provision ap- 
 plies to all the industries, except as to the compulsory confer- 
 ence which only applies to the public utilities. 
 
 What would appear to a man of ordinary power of mental 
 justice as a most extraordinary provision of twentieth century 
 law, is Section 43 of this Act, which provides that: 
 
 When an award has fixed the lowest price or rate which may be 
 paid to any person for wholly or partly preparing or manufacturing any 
 particular article of furniture, and also the period of time within which 
 the ordinary working hours shall be worked, it shall not be lawful for 
 more than oe member of a partnership to personally work inside a fac- 
 tory of the class to which the award related at any time beyond such 
 periods of time, unless such partnership has first obtained the written 
 permission of the Registrar. 
 
 59 
 
Another somewhat remarkable feature of the Act is: 
 
 Where an employer through depression in any calling has reduc 
 the number of his employees so as to affect the prescribed proportions 
 number of apprentices employed by him, the Court, after full inqui 
 may, if it thinks fit, permit him to continue employing such apprentic 
 for the full term of their indenture. 
 
 These, however, are but fair examples of industrial freedo 
 deal out to the people of the "Land of No Strikes." An ei 
 ployer is awarded by a legalized Board a given number of a 
 prentices with whom he enters into indenture contracts, ft 
 fillment of which the law should enforce, yet in case of the fa 
 ing off in business requiring a reduction in the working for 
 the employer must repudiate his contracts with his apprentic 
 and dismiss them from his employ in proportion to the redt 
 tion in working force, unless, after taking each case before 
 Court, the judge elects that the apprentice may be retained ai 
 the employer be thus allowed to make good his part of the co 
 tract. It would seem bad enough for a Government to yk 
 to an organized part of its constituency to limit the opportuniti 
 for its youth to acquire the knowledge and skill of an industr 
 trade rather than grow up wharf laborers or tramps, and whi 
 it would not yield to its unorganized constituency. But wh 
 a Government makes it incumbent upon a master to plead befc 
 a Court at Law for the privilege to make good his legitimc 
 obligations to his servant, that, to a sane and just mind, is abhc 
 rent and repulsive and certainly cannot inure to the credit a 
 advancement of the State or Nation. 
 
 An apprentice is designated as an "improver" and is i 
 quired to obtain a license before he can engage as such, t 
 application for such license being of the following form : 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL PEACE ACT OF IQI2. 
 APPLICATION FOR LICENSE TO WORK AS IMPROVER. 
 
 To the Industrial Registrar, Industrial Court, Brisbane: 
 
 I hereby make application for a license to work as an improver 
 not less than the wage fixed for improvers of years' experiei 
 
 under the Award of the Industrial Board : 
 
 Applicant's full name: 
 
 Applicant's address : 
 
 Applicant's age last birthday: 
 
 Applicant's occupation : 
 
 How long employed in such occupation, and by whom: 
 
 Name and address of last employer: 
 
 Wages received in last employment : 
 
 Wages for which license is required : 
 
 (Signature of Applicant) : 
 
 (Date) : 
 
 60 
 
Provided the application is granted the following form of 
 license is issued : 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL PEACE ACT OF IQI2. 
 
 LICENSE TO WORK AS IMPROVER. 
 
 Office of the Industrial Registrar, 
 
 Edward Street, Brisbane. 
 
 This is to certify that I am satisfied that of has not 
 
 had the full experience prescribed for improvers by the Award of the 
 Industrial Board for the calling of , and I hereby grant this 
 
 license to the said person to work as an improver at the calling of 
 for a period of , from the date hereof at a wage of not less than 
 
 per (hour, day or week), such rate having been fixed by the 
 Award of the said Industrial Board. 
 
 (Signature) 
 
 Industrial Registrar. 
 Secretary to Industrial Board. 
 
 TAKE NOTICE. This license must be returned to Registrar on the 
 expiration of the period for which it is issued; also, it must be pro- 
 duced on the demand of an Inspector of Factories and Shops or of any 
 person authorized in writing by the Court or Chairman of the Industrial 
 Board. 
 
 Should this license be lost or destroyed, a duplicate may be obtained 
 from the Registrar on payment of the prescribed fee (25. 6d.). 
 
 (NOTE. See further reference to the subject of Apprentice- 
 ship.) 
 
 In cases where employment cannot be obtained at the mini- 
 mum wage rate application can be made for a license to work 
 for less than said wage. The following is the form of such 
 application : 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL PEACE ACT OF IQI2. 
 
 APPLICATION FOR LICENSE TO WORK FOR LESS THAN THE MINIMUM WAGE. 
 
 To the Industrial Registrar, Industrial Court, Brisbane: 
 
 I hereby make application for a license to work for a period not 
 exceeding twelve months at a less wage than the minimum wage fixed 
 for under the Award of the Industrial Board. 
 
 Applicant's full name: 
 Applicant's address : 
 Applicant's age last birthday: 
 Applicant's occupation : 
 How long employed in such occupation : 
 Name of last or present employer : 
 Address of employer: 
 Wages received: 
 
 Wages for which license is required : 
 
 Reasons why license is required (such as old age, slowness, or 
 infirmity) : 
 
 (Signature) : 
 
 (Date) : 
 
 If in the judgment, or otherwise, of the Registrar, who 
 apparently is the sole dictator as to whether or not the petitioner's 
 
 61 
 
prayer for the privilege of earning the best living he can for 
 himself and family, if he has one, is worthy of earning a living 
 at all, either for himself or those dependent upon him, or whether 
 he should be treated as an undesirable, classed with the colored 
 races for whom there is no place in Australia, and allowed to 
 exist or die as the charitably disposed may elect, the petitioner's 
 application is granted, then a license of the following form is 
 issued to him: 
 
 THE INDUSTRIAL PEACE ACT OF IQI2. 
 LICENSE TO WORK FOR LESS THAN THE MINIMUM WAGE. 
 
 Date, ,19 . 
 
 This is to certify that after investigation I am satisfied that 
 of , is unable through being (aged, slow, or infirm) to obtain 
 
 employment at the minimum wage fixed by the Award of the Industrial 
 Board for the calling of , and therefore I hereby grant this 
 
 license to (him or her) to work as a for a wage of per 
 
 (hour, day or week) for a period of months from the date hereof, 
 
 such wage being less than the minimum wage fixed by the Award of the 
 said Industrial Board. 
 Entd. by: 
 
 (Signature) 
 Secretary to Industrial Board. 
 
 NOTE. Under Schedule III, 15 (2), the number of persons so 
 licensed shall not, without the consent of the Board concerned, or the 
 Court, exceed the proportion of one-fifth of the whole number of per- 
 sons employed by the same employer at the minimum wage fixed for 
 adults or at piece work rates : Provided, that one person so licensed may 
 be employed by any one employer. Any employer who, without consent, 
 employs any greater number than the fixed proportion, shall be liable to a 
 penalty not exceeding twenty pounds. 
 
 At the expiration of the license it is returnable to the Regis- 
 trar. 
 
 (NOTE. See further reference to the Minimum Wage.) 
 
 These are samples of legislation endorsed by Australian 
 statesmen, whose boast is the democracy of the country and the 
 individual liberty enjoyed by its people who have not yet been 
 inflicted with the "chain-step," but know not how soon they will 
 be. What shall be said of such democracy and such liberty? 
 What shall the real statesmen say of it? Is it any wonder that 
 the people of Australia, which ranks among the most fertile and 
 richest countries of the world and whose climate is ideal, long- 
 ing and struggling for more population as they do, fail to realize 
 their desire? No country ever put forth more strenuous effort 
 or labored with more zeal to increase its population and build 
 up its industries; even going so far as to pay a bonus of 5 
 to the parents of every white child that is born in the Common- 
 wealth. In this country of "peasantry government," the man 
 who "can't make good" is the last man to find employment and 
 
 62 
 
the first to lose it. His bargains being made for him by the 
 State he surely is "between the devil and the deep sea." But, 
 like the cow that gave the full bucket of milk and then put her 
 foot in it, the beneficent advantages which the country itself 
 offers are more than offset by the kindergarten policy of its 
 Government. In no other country do vested interests feel less 
 secure or capital more timid. Its peasantry "rules the roost" 
 and is breeding a nation of idlers. The functions of Government 
 have been brushed aside and usurped until, in the language of 
 one of its most prominent business men, it has become "a fool's 
 paradise." But, as to this, let the views expressed by its own 
 citizens in the quoted portions of this report be the basis of any 
 opinions which may be formed thereon, while we pass on to a 
 brief explanation of the industrial laws of the other States and of 
 the Commonwealth itself. 
 
 In New South Wales, the industries are regulated, or 
 sought to be regulated, by an Industrial Arbitration Act, en- 
 acted in 1912, which, as in the Queensland Act, creates an Arbi- 
 tration Court, and Industrial Board and embodies substantially 
 the same principles and features, except that the New South 
 Wales Act contains a provision that preference to labor unionists 
 may be given. 
 
 Victoria operates under an Act known as the Factories and 
 Shops Act, enacted in 1912, and which provides for Wages 
 Boards and a Court to which the decisions of such Boards may 
 be appealed. Under this Act preference to unionists cannot be 
 given. Its general provisions are similar to the Queensland 
 Act. 
 
 Tasmania operates under Wages Board Acts adopted in 
 1910 and 1911, embodying substantially all the features of the 
 Queensland Act, and prohibits the giving of preference to 
 unionists. 
 
 In South Australia there are four Acts under which the in- 
 dustries are controlled, the Factories Acts of 1907, 1908 and 
 1910, and the Industrial Arbitration Act, passed in 1912. 
 These various Acts provide for the creation of Wages Boards 
 and an Industrial Court, and embody substantially the features 
 of the Queensland Act, and do not permit of the giving of 
 preference to unionists. The Act of 1912 goes a step farther, 
 in the right direction, than do those of the other States and 
 seeks to protect the citizens in their right to the peaceful con- 
 duct of their business callings and occupations. Section 43 of 
 the Act provides as follows : 
 
 Notwithstanding anything contained in the Conspiracy and Protec- 
 tion of Property Act, 1878, any person who: 
 
 63 
 
(a) Attends af or near any workshop, factory, place of business, 
 or other place where an industrial dispute is taking place, or is threatened 
 or impending, or has taken place, or at or near the residence or place 
 of business of any person and 
 
 (b) Induces or attempts to induce any other person to take part in 
 such industrial dispute or in a lock-out or strike, or to do or abstain from 
 doing any act, matter or thing whereby any party to such industrial dis- 
 pute, or any other person either directly or indirectly interested therein 
 or concerned therewith, may or might be injured in his trade, business 
 or calling, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 20 or to imprison- 
 ment, with or without hard labor, for a term not exceeding three months. 
 
 The Secretary of a South Australia association, in a letter 
 dated May 7, 1910, said: "Australia has during the last few 
 years been going through a particularly trying period of indus- 
 trial unrest, the chief cause of which no doubt has been the re- 
 markable prosperity of the activities." Again the same gentle- 
 man, in a letter dated August 31, 1910, said: "Industrial condi- 
 tions have not yet reached the impossible stage in Australia but 
 they are going rapidly that way. The labor party is a big politi- 
 cal force here, and at present controls the Federal Parliament 
 and that of West Australia. They also controlled our own 
 State until the elections in April last when they went out with 
 a thud." 
 
 In Western Australia the provisions of the Industrial Arbi- 
 tration Act, passed in 1912, are similar to those of the laws in 
 the other States. The Act does not permit of the giving of 
 preference to unionists. New South Wales stands alone among 
 the States as willing that its Wages Boards and Arbitration 
 Court should, if they desire, say to a citizen artisan or laborer, 
 "You must be a member of a labor union if you wish to earn a 
 living in this State." And this cruel privilege is granted by the 
 (ommonwealth itself. 
 
 In addition to the various State Act, there are the Common- 
 wealth Conciliation and Arbitration Acts of 1904 and 1911, 
 designed to operate to adjust and regulate industrial conditions 
 of an interstate character and over which the State laws had 
 no jurisdiction. It was soon found, however, that there was 
 clashing between the State and Federal awards in that many 
 instances arose wherein the awards of both the Commonwealth 
 and the States were effective and the awards varied. This con- 
 dition has caused much confusion and annoyance and has been 
 the subject of considerable agitation which the labor unions, 
 through their representatives in Parliament, have sought to turn 
 to their advantage, claiming that, under the Federal Act, where 
 a controversy existed in similar trades or callings in any two 
 States at the same time, whether the parties to such disputes 
 were in any manner directly interested in both disputes or not, 
 
 64 
 
it came within the jurisdiction of the Federal Court. The ap- 
 parent reason for so maintaining being that the Federal Court is 
 headed by a judge who, it is claimed, is distinctly biased in favor 
 of the laboring element and that more favorable decisions could 
 be gotten where cases were taken before that tribunal. With 
 lespect to this, the gentleman just referred to, in his letter of 
 August 31, 1910, said: 
 
 The great trouble to manufacturers here at present is the dual 
 control of industrial legislation. The States so far have jurisdiction on 
 all matters which affect their own particular State. The Commonwealth 
 has jurisdiction where an industrial dispute extends beyond the borders 
 of one State. In addition to this the Commonwealth has an Arbitration 
 Court- with a Judge who was appointed by the Labor Party from 
 amongst their own number : he consequently has a distinct bias in favor 
 of the men and a Federal Arbitration Court making awards which also 
 fix wages and, possibly conditions on a different basis, and which, under 
 the Act, apply only to the members of unions and to the employers 
 who are cited, who to get the advantage of a judgment under the Federal 
 Arbitration Court create a technical dispute in more than one State and 
 another award is obtained in that Court. You can imagine the confusion 
 which arises under these conditions. You have a State Wages Board fix- 
 ing wages and conditions. I can assure you that Australia has not" been 
 made the "Land of No Strikes," or a "Labor Utopia" by Act of Parlia- 
 ment yet. 
 
 This means that practically all local labor disputes could by a 
 simple "presto-change" performance, be taken from the jurisdic- 
 tion of the State Boards and placed in the hands of the Judge of 
 the Federal Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, and thus the 
 industrial destiny of the nation would be practically in the hands 
 of one man. As an example of how this could be done, let us take 
 the case of the great strike at Brisbane, in January 1912, re- 
 lating to which we gathered the following information from an 
 authoritative source. The local tramway men struck because the 
 company would not rescind its rule that its employees, during 
 service hours should wear no badge or emblem exposed upon their 
 clothing, other than that of the tramway company. In open defi- 
 ance of this rule a number of the men proceeded one morning to 
 take out their cars, wearing their union buttons. They were 
 promptly advised that their service with the company was suspend- 
 ed until such time as they would comply with its rules and at once 
 a strike of the tramway men was declared. Whereupon a general 
 strike of all unions in the city was called, some forty or more 
 unions responding to the call. A siege of war at once began and 
 anarchy, in all the name implies, reigned supreme for about a 
 week. The union leaders set out to teach the citizens of Bris- 
 bane, and incidentally of Australasia and the world, the lesson 
 that unionism must not be thwarted in anything it wished to do, 
 and that no rules could be enforcible over its own. Following 
 military tactics, they declared "martial law" of their own, 
 
 65 
 
ordered the suspension of all business, smashed the windows 
 and otherwise destroyed property of those who refused to obey 
 the order. They forbade the delivery of ice, milk and all other 
 food supplies by any and all persons not having a permit from 
 the supreme union official. In fact, they took possession of 
 the city in the same spirit and as completely as could have been 
 done by an overpowerful foreign enemy. It was the first grand 
 demonstration of the havoc ''Syndicalism," or "one big Union," 
 as they prefer to call it, (,we call it "I. W. W.,") can play when 
 it wants to. However, its reign of terror was of comparatively 
 short duration. While it frightened some cowardly public officials 
 away from the scene of action, there were others who stood by 
 their guns, spurred up to their duty and with courage to perform 
 it; among whom may be mentioned, Mr. Barnes, the Chief Sec- 
 retary, and Major Cahill, Chief of Police who, realizing the 
 exigencies of the situation and the limitations of his authority 
 to act in the premises, gave the authorities the ultimatum of 
 accepting his resignation or placing him in absolute control with 
 no higher power to interfere. After considerable hesitancy, and 
 a good deal of reluctance, is was decided to place Major Cahill 
 in supreme control and orders were issued to that effect, with 
 the result that 1500 or 2000 citizens were sworn in as special 
 police and hundreds of pastoralists, from the surrounding dis- 
 tricts, who volunteered their services, were also sworn in. Bat- 
 talions were formed and assigned to different sections of the city ; 
 the country contingent being mounted, rode through the streets 
 beating the mob right and left with batons, while the city forces 
 scattered the insurgents and arrested many of them. With this 
 line of action normal conditions were restored after five days' 
 reign of anarchy and terror, with the breaking of many heads 
 and other bodily injuries. Before the assistance of city and 
 country volunteers was sought, however, the city authorities, 
 finding themselves hopelessly unable to cope with the situation, 
 applied to the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth (Mr. 
 Fisher) for Government aid, but the response came, "I see no 
 reason why assistance should be given," and instead of ordering 
 the aid asked for, he is said to have sent a donation of 10 to 
 the strike fund of the riotous strikers. When the mob had been 
 thus subdued and the machinery of municipal government was 
 again working smoothly, the tram lines resumed after a week's 
 tie-up, with a full complement of men, comprising those who 
 were forced into the strike against their wills, and new men in 
 place of those who were instrumental in causing the strike or 
 voluntarily joined it, or refused to resume work unless allowed 
 to wear their union badges. A new, and independent, union 
 
 66 
 
was formed among the tramway employees and registered under 
 the Queensland Industrial Peace Act and the old union, which 
 was affiliated with the "Red Feds," as the syndicalists are called, 
 was ignored. But, nothing daunted, they proceeded to appeal 
 from the local Board to the Federal Court of Conciliation and 
 Arbitration on the ground that pending the difficulty at Brisbane 
 there was also a dispute in the tramway system at Adelaide, 
 South Australia, which also resulted in a very serious and costly 
 strike. The Federal Court, of which Mr. Justice Higgins is 
 president, considered the case and made a most remarkable award 
 therein. It not only ruled that the members of the plaintiff 
 union should wear their union badges if they so desired, but 
 that, notwithstanding the provision in the Queensland Act that 
 there shall be no discrimination in employment, the company in 
 the employment of men must give preference to members of 
 such union. Thus creating a complex situation and raising an 
 issue between the State and Federal Governments that promises 
 serious consequences and which may lead to the final disintegra- 
 tion of the Commonwealth, which, unless the people of Australia 
 awake to their danger, socialistic labor unionism will accomplish 
 sooner or later. 
 
 The Brisbane Tramway Company, in order to test the right 
 of Federal jurisdiction in the premises, brought an action in the 
 High Court, at Melbourne, which, by a majority of four to two, 
 held that the provision of the Constitution, under which the action 
 was brought, was sufficiently elastic to support the position taken 
 by Justice Higgins. A similar case, known as the "Builders La- 
 borer's Case," involving the same constitutional question was 
 tried out in the High Court, at Sydney, the following reference 
 to which is quoted from the Adelaide Advertiser of May 16: 
 
 Sydney, May 15. Important constitutional questions respecting the 
 jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration 
 were involved in two cases argued as one before the High Court of 
 Australia on April i6th and succeeding days. The court gave judgment 
 today. The essence of its majority finding was that the Arbitration 
 Court had properly made an award between the Builders' Laborers' 
 Federation and the employers. The Court was divided in judgment, but 
 by a majority of four to two, the Chief Justice (Sir Samuel Griffith) 
 and Mr. Justice Barton being the dissentients, refused the application by 
 the Master Builders' Association of New South Wales for prohibition 
 of the award. The Court was unanimous, however, in making absolute 
 a rule nisi in restraint of that portion of the award in which the presi- 
 dent of the Arbitration Court directed that compensation should be paid 
 on the same basis as that provided for in the Commonwealth Workmen's 
 Compensation Act, a measure applying only to employees of the Common- 
 wealth Government. 
 
 THE CHIEF JUSTICE'S JUDGMENT. 
 
 The Chief Justice during an exhaustive review said: The case 
 raises for decision in a concrete form the proper construction of the 
 
 67 
 
much-debated provisions of Sections 51 (35) of the Constitution, which 
 empowers the Commonwealth Parliament to make laws with respect to 
 conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of indus- 
 trial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State. This being 
 a new power conferred upon a Legislature of limited jurisdiction, which 
 as a general rule has no authority to interfere with the domestic trade 
 or industry of a State, it lies on the party making its exercise to show 
 affirmatively that the case in which the exercise is involved falls within 
 the power. * * * The matter is one with which a State is fully competent 
 to deal. 
 
 The Brisbane and Adelaide Companies appealed to the High 
 Court for a prohibition of the award of Justice Higgins and 
 these cases were proceeding by argument at the time of our de- 
 parture from Australia. It is fitting to mention here, that the 
 tramway company, the City of Brisbane, as well as the whole 
 of Australia, are to be congratulated upon the fact that such a 
 man as J. S. Badger was at the head of the tramway company. 
 A cool headed, fair minded, determined man, whom no body of 
 law breakers could frighten nor intimidate; nor men swerve 
 from the path of duty. One has only to mention his name almost 
 anywhere throughout Australasia to be convinced of the esteem 
 in which he is held. It would be well for Australia if it could 
 boast of a few more such men as Mr. Badger, even though he is 
 an American. It may seem, and indeed is, strange that after 
 such an experience as the Brisbane strike, the Queensland Par- 
 liament should pass an Act embodying the provisions hereinbe- 
 fore quoted, especially in view of the political aftermath of the 
 Brisbane and the Adelaide strikes, when at the next State elec- 
 tions in both Queensland and South Australia the public gave 
 expression to its dissatisfaction with the Socialistic Labor Party's 
 evident contempt for laws, largely of their own making, and their 
 flagrant disregard of the public's interest and convenience by 
 voting them out of office. But there is no accounting for the 
 extremes to which some Australian legislators will go in their 
 mad attempts to establish "Industrial Peace." 
 
 In a speech by the Hon. Wm. Watt, "Liberal" Premier of 
 Victoria, delivered in November, 1913, referring to the matter 
 of Labor legislation, he said : 
 
 The Liberal Party believes that salvation by legislation is not pos- 
 sible. It thinks there are many things that legislation can do, but there 
 are many things it cannot do, and while we believe in bringing legislative 
 progress to you, we are not offering the millennium which must arrive 
 on some different road. 
 
 Referring again to the question of Federal jurisdiction over 
 local or State authority in matters industrial, aside from the 
 question of Federal interference with State Rights, as limited by 
 the Federal Constitution, it should not, because it cannot equi- 
 
 68 
 
tably deal with local industrial matters in fixing uniform wages 
 and conditions throughout the whole Commonwealth. For it is 
 a plain proposition that widely varying conditions must of neces- 
 sity prevail in the various States and municipalites and that, 
 therefore, a Federal Court in fixing a uniform wage, and uniform 
 conditions for each industry throughout the entire country, must 
 be as unfair as it is impracticable and unwise to attempt to do 
 so. Moreover, in effect, it is a long step in the direction of 
 nationalizing State Socialism. 
 
 During our stay in Melbourne an award to waterside 
 workers wharf laborers pending before Judge Higgins, ex- 
 cited a great deal of interest. The following excerpts from an 
 editorial in the Argus expresses the general sentiment of the 
 thinking public as we heard them freely expressed by those with 
 whom we discussed the subject. The Argus says : 
 
 April 17. The main point about Mr. Justice Higgins's award in 
 the waterside workers' case is that it gives the men practically all they 
 asked for. Their formal claim was for 2s., but it is well known to be 
 the practice in these matters to pitch the demand a good deal above the 
 amount acceptable. One shilling and nine pence an hour is to be the 
 rate of pay for wharf-lumping in future. Mr. Justice Higgins con- 
 fesses that when he looked at it he was "startled to find so high a rate 
 necessary for unskilled labor" ; but so it is, and the employers and the 
 community will have to bear it with what grace they can. For there can 
 be no getting away from the fact that an increase in freights and fares 
 must follow the increase in wages. 
 
 Again, under date of April 20 the Argus says : 
 
 As the full significance of Mr. Justice Higgins's award in the 
 waterside workers' arbitration case comes home to the general public it is 
 bound to produce a feeling little short of dismay. To begin with, there 
 is the immediate cost of it the heavy additional burden which it lays 
 upon the shipping industry. The sudden jump in wage rates will, it is 
 estimated, increase the working expenses of the industry throughout the 
 Commonwealth by at least 400,000 a year, which is considerably in 
 excess of the net profits of the steamship companies. In the first instance 
 the increase will fall upon the shipping industry, but it will, as a matter 
 of course, be passed on at once to the community in the form of higher 
 freight and passenger charges. That is always the result when the 
 working expenses of a trade are artificially increased by taxation or 
 other exercise of State authority, legislative or judicial. It is absurd, 
 in the circumstances, for Mr. Justice Higgins to seek escape from the 
 consequences of his action by pretending that if such a rise in the scale 
 of shipping charges occurs now it may have no connection with his 
 award. The additional 400,000 has to be found, and the people of 
 Australia will have to pay it. 
 
 Laws and Wages. 
 
 Some twenty-two years ago, during 'the great maritime 
 strike, the idea of solving the then vexatious labor problem by 
 legislation, it is said, was first conceived in New Zealand and it 
 
 69 
 
was there that the suggestion first took root, which was imme- 
 diately transplanted in Australia. The country was prosperous 
 and the people were bent on taking advantage of their oppor- 
 tunities to make hay while the sun shone. This seemed to be 
 the way out of the drawback to continued prosperity and the 
 avenue through which industrial peace could be enjoyed. Em- 
 ployers and workers alike caught the fever, which became epi- 
 demic, and the struggle against the economic law of supply and 
 demand began in earnest. Employers tell us that they welcomed 
 the advent of any system or policy which promised relief from 
 the troublesome industrial conditions with which they were con- 
 stantly confronted. They also tell us they would still prefer the 
 many arbitrary and unjust annoyances of labor legislation, as 
 it has developed, to the perplexities of the old regime if the 
 scheme worked out as it should, but that it does not. It worked 
 fairly well as long as the awards made under the system of 
 Wages Boards and Arbitration were favorable to the workers. 
 But when a halt necessarily had to be called to the constant ad- 
 vancement of wages, reduction of hours and other handicaps to 
 economic progress such as restrictions of output, the transfer, 
 practically, of control of the employers' business from its owners 
 to their employees, and the wanton attacks on discipline neces- 
 sary to the management of employees in any line of business, 
 back came the strike with all its evil accompaniments, until now 
 the industrial conditions are worse than ever and the whole coun- 
 try is agog with industrial turmoil and strife. 
 
 In discussing the subject of Wages Boards and their effect 
 on the industries with a Sydney manufacturer of household 
 goods who employs from 600 to 800 workers, he told us that, 
 "barring the fact that Wages Boards are not a success," most 
 manufacturers and some other employers would prefer to be 
 relieved of the wage agitation and have a uniform wage for 
 each industry fixed by a legalized board and to run for a definite 
 period, and that they did not care at what rate wages were fixed 
 because they always took care that advances were passed on to 
 the public "with something added for good luck," but that it was 
 hard on the unorganized portion of the public who could not 
 retaliate and must carry the burden; also, that the system 
 worked hardship to superior men in the industries whose 
 opportunities for reward for increased productivity and skill 
 were abridged by the system which practical operation had demon- 
 trated to be a medium through which a horizontal standard is 
 developed. The following from the Sydney Telegraph, of May 
 20th, entitled "Our Industrial 'Heavy Fee,' " will be of interest 
 at this point, as it refers to the Bacon-Bartlet Bill: 
 
 70 
 
One of the speakers at Monday night's gathering of builders and 
 other employers commented on the "very heavy fee" the people of New 
 South Wales are paying "for the maintenance of industrial peace." 
 The price, however, would not be considered too high if it bought what 
 is paid for. What makes it unbearable is that in return for it the people do 
 not get industrial peace, but experience about the same amount and inten- 
 sity of war as in times when they did not have to keep up the costly 
 pretence of ensuring peace. That is the position in New Zealand as it is 
 in New South Wales. As the president of the Employers' Federation 
 said, the Commonwealth Statistician has recorded the Australian indus- 
 trial disputes of a year as numbering 208, and involving over 50,000 
 workers, and it is safe to say that the majority of these occurred in New 
 South Wales, where the law and the form of tribunal have been changed 
 more frequently than in any other State in deference to unionist dis- 
 satisfaction and the hope of finding an acceptable method. Indeed, pro- 
 portionately to our population we seem to have got atread of other coun- 
 tries in industrial strife. When the last mail left the United States there 
 was before Congress a bill promoted by the American Federation of 
 Labor and legalising "any" combination or agreement with a view to lessen- 
 ing the hours of labor or increasing wages or bettering working conditions. 
 This measure protected workers from injunction on account of the con- 
 sequences of the acts of any such combination unless they occasioned 
 irreparable injury to property or a property right. Then it went on to 
 define the relations of employer and employee, and the carrying on of 
 business in such relation to be matters of "personal right." So that 
 preventing workers from taking strikers' places and thus compelling an 
 employer to close his business down would not be an offence, neither 
 would any kind of boycotting, because in all such things only "personal 
 rights," not "property rights/' would be involved. The proposed legisla- 
 tion has been alarmedly protested against, and was indignantly de- 
 nounced by President Roosevelt five or six years ago as meaning "the 
 enthronement of class privilege in its crudest and most brutal form." 
 But would it legalise anything appreciably worse than we have endured 
 and are always more or less liable to in this State? 
 
 The law purporting to lay a safe foundation for industrial peace 
 here has in large degree had the opposite effect through the great induce- 
 ment and facilities for organization it has provided. By this method the 
 numbers of unionists have been increased and the mass stiffened by that 
 incentive to combativeness which is naturally given by the litigious proce- 
 dure of the Arbitration Act. The potency of combination has also been 
 thus drilled into workers. In the American bill which has been men- 
 tioned it is not only employees that are proposed to be allowed to com- 
 bine. As well the law's protection is to be given to farmers who make 
 "any" agreement or combination for the purpose of enhancing the prices 
 of agricultural or horticultural products. The reach of the protecting 
 law that covers "any" arrangement will be obvious ; and not in that 
 respect only, but evidently with a view to showing farmers a way to 
 harness combination to their own purposes the proposal reveals a class 
 astuteness which ignores the public interest. Employer and employed 
 can combine in any way they please, that is what it amounts to, and 
 of course that is what the law encouraging combination suggests, along 
 with its concomitant disregard of the public which must find the money 
 combined effort extracts from it. What ought to gratify us in this 
 country is that so far employers and employed have not co-operated in 
 methods which grind the public between the upper and nether mill-stones, 
 as it has been put in America. No doubt employers sometimes find it 
 difficult to pass on the whole cost of concessions that are demanded by 
 workers, but at the same time it is a conclusion backed by evidence that in 
 resisting extravagant claims they are moved by public-spiritedness as 
 well as by appreciation of the economic impossibility of much that is 
 
 71 
 
demanded of them. And it is some solace to know that in this respect 
 there are limits of practicability which cannot be passed though ap- 
 parently they will be reached. 
 
 However, labor legislation is on the statute books, the ma- 
 chinery for its administration has been firmly installed and the 
 system so thoroughly established that it has become a fixed 
 political asset that cannot easily be changed or removed. The 
 situation is indeed a serious one and many thinking men pre- 
 dict even more serious consequences before there will be any 
 improvement, some going so far as to declare there will be a 
 revolution before many years. But we do not share that opinion, 
 as we believe the Australian people, as a whole, are possessed 
 of sufficient intelligence and common sense to eventually restore 
 normal conditions through rational and peaceful methods. We 
 cannot but observe, however, that the country is in the hands of 
 its enemies and that political demagogues are falling into line 
 with the advocates of the "New Unionism," a deceptive term for 
 "Syndicalism," better known in the United States as "I. W. W.- 
 ism," the plain purpose of which is to throw the whole country 
 into the condition experienced in Brisbane, when and as often 
 as may please its violent socialistic leaders, whose creed is 
 "No God, No Master, No Church, No Religion, No Morality, 
 No Society. Just Anarchy." 
 
 When these men have completely dammed the rivers of in- 
 dustry and choked the streams of prosperity perhaps Australia 
 will awake from her slumbers and break down the barriers to 
 her progress and development which they have erected. 
 
 According to the report of the Chief Statistician for the 
 Commonwealth, in February, 1914, in the six capital cities, the 
 average purchasing power of 175. 7d. in 1901 was equivalent to 
 2os. in 1911, and 225. id. in 1913. And the rent buying power 
 of 155. id. in 1901 was equal to 2os. in 1911, and 225. 4d. in 
 
 The same report gives the number of industrial disputes for 
 the year 1913 as 208, in which the number of workers involved 
 was 50,283 ; the number of working days lost 622,535 ; the esti- 
 mated loss in wages 288,101 ($1,400,170), and the average loss 
 per head 5 145. 7d. In addition to which, the report estimates 
 the loss in output at 1,400,000 ($6,804,000); the loss to em- 
 ployers directly concerned, at 140,000 ($680,400), and the re- 
 sultant indirect losses and damage to business and the trade as 
 very large in comparison with the direct losses. 
 
 A close examination into the history of organized labor in 
 Australasia reveals the same conditions that prevail in the United 
 States and other countries, with something added for good 
 
 72 
 
measure. The more radical Socialists find the places of trust in 
 the organization and occupy them. Drunk with the power of 
 organization, they side-track reason and appeal to treason, rather 
 than to common sense, and proceed to enforce their own radical 
 views upon the community no matter how great the tendency 
 toward the downfall of society and their own ultimate ruin 
 may be. Irrespective of statute law or economic conditions they 
 seek to establish a system of equality for themselves at the ex- 
 pense of everybody else and contrary to the economic law of 
 nature which, in spite of all that they have ever done, or ever can 
 do, will assert itself and regulate the commerce and industries of 
 the world. In this particular, we found it quite interesting to follow 
 the proceedings of Wages Boards in their investigations into the 
 cost of living as compared with the time of the last previous 
 award, in order to establish a basis upon which to fix a new 
 award. So while the Wages Board is a creature of written law 
 it instinctively proceeds to perform its function in accordance 
 with the established principle of the unwritten law of supply 
 and demand. A good illustration of this phase of the subject 
 was presented to us by a merchant in Sydney, who likened the 
 wage question to a huge circle of industry in which the slaughter- 
 ers, for example, demand and receive an additional shilling. 
 Then the "butchers, the bakers, and the broom-stick makers" 
 and all the other occupants of the circle, each in their turn, 
 demand and receive an additional shilling and by and by the 
 slaughterers say, we are no better off with the additional shilling 
 than we were before we got it. All prices are higher and we 
 must have another shilling, and so the circle keeps moving. 
 Apropos to this illustration, is a leading article in the Sydney 
 Bulletin of April 9, 1914, a weekly publication, which is here 
 reproduced in full. The article is of especial significance because 
 of the fact that it appeared in a publication that is said to lean 
 strongly to the side of the labor unions. It follows : 
 
 THE WAGE QUESTION, AND ABOUT 100 SIDE ISSUES. 
 The outstanding feature of industrial life in Australia today is the 
 strike or the arbitration too often it is the strike for better wages and 
 better conditions and shorter hours. The next most prominent feature 
 is the clamor about high prices and high rents, about the increased cost 
 of living and the increased cost of dying, and the prohibitive price of 
 burial. The unrest is especially marked in New South Wales, because 
 that State has been indulging in a loan boom of heroic dimensions, and, 
 for some reason that it is not easy to define, it is in the sere and yellow 
 tail-end of a boom that industrial troubles are most numerous. In Sydney, 
 which is the center of the excitement, the cost of the place which we 
 occupy when above the ground has been increased because there has 
 been a great upwardness in the wages of the carpenter, mason, brick- 
 layer, brickmaker, paperhanger, quarryman, etc. Also the cost of shifting 
 materials is far greater than it used to be, and land to build upon has 
 
 73 
 
been run up to an insane figure by the congestion policy which tries to 
 crowd all the trade and finance and most of the new population of the 
 State into one bottle-necked city. Then the loan boom has created a 
 feverish condition, and the landlord has been hustling for all he could 
 get, and repairs cost more than they did, and rates have gone up, and 
 the price of garbage-removal is greater, because the community is be- 
 coming more civilised, and is taking more trouble which means expense 
 about sanitation, and is more desirous that its tenements should be 
 habitable. As for the place which we occupy below ground, the miser- 
 ably ill-paid mute had to get a trifle, and the tombstone-maker required 
 a little extra per week to counterbalance the increased price of existence, 
 and it is even alleged that the old black horse which drags the late 
 lamented to his home of clods has received an additional feed, but this 
 is uncertain. 
 
 * * * 
 
 As a general rule, a country of high wages and high cost of living 
 is a good one to inhabit, and low-wage and cheap-living country isn't. 
 There are exceptions of course, for a high wage may be the temporary 
 result of an influx of foreign loans, or of mad speculation in wild cats, 
 or may be partly brought about by selling the public estate to all and 
 sundry, and treating the proceeds as revenue. But on the whole the rule 
 is sound. In the country where wages and prices are lofty there is the 
 largest margin between earnings and expenditure ; the standard of living 
 is best, and the savings are greatest. If the community assuming it is 
 a well-governed and well-ordered community isn't satisfied with the 
 savings and the standard of living, then the only thing that remains is to 
 do more work, or to invent better machinery, so that it may be possible 
 to produce better results with the same amount of work. This is an 
 obvious proposition, based on the fact that no more can come out of a 
 pot than has been put in it. Unfortunately the Political Drunk is always 
 with us. There is the one who thinks that the way to be a high-wage 
 man in a cheap-living community is to import low-price colored labor 
 slave or otherwise. He is a Fat person and wholly ignorant and objec- 
 tionable, and his belltopper is a horror. Then there is the Free Trade 
 person, sometimes Fat and sometimes Lean, who hopes to achieve the 
 same millennium by importing, not the cheap, enslaved worker, but the 
 cheap slave goods of his manufacture. There are other devices for 
 living in cheap houses put up by expensive labor, and for having cheap 
 food grown by highly remunerated growers ; and for travelling at low 
 rates on railways built and worked by costly people, and for doing less 
 toil and getting more for it. But they all come up against the ultimate 
 fact that the pot, in the long run, can't supply more than its contents. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Taking New South Wales as a case in point, that State produced 
 in 1912 later figures are not yet available wealth to the estimated value 
 of ^74,100,000. That included the cow and the wheat, the coal that was 
 dug up and the tree that was cut down, the gold, silver and lead, the 
 factory products even the output of the hen and the bee and the rabbit. 
 The total represented something like 41 per inhabitant, and as the wages 
 paid must have some dim relation to the value of the goods produced, 
 it is plain that wages have their limitations. A coin may do marvels in 
 the way of paying many men's wages in a year, but the limitations 
 remain. The farmer gets one crop of wheat per annum, and it is eaten 
 once, and then it is gone, and his possible wage fund for the year is the 
 value of his output no more and no less. Certainly last year New 
 South Wales borrowed something abroad about 4 IDS. per inhabitant 
 to be accurate, which represented some 22 los. for an average family of 
 five, a figure which works out at nearly QS. per. week. Therefore foreign 
 borrowing represented the State's fifth biggest industry. It brought in 
 more than fisheries, or forests, or dairying, or the group of minor jobs 
 
 74 
 
which arc lumped together as "Poultry, bees, rabbits, etc." It was only 
 beaten by the pastoral business, by agriculture, by mining and by manu- 
 factures, and borrowing ran both agriculture and mining very close 
 indeed. But this is only a temporary relief, and as a set-off the export 
 of interest is eating a dreadful hole in the State's production. In the 
 long run, the wage possibilities of a country can be guessed at by the 
 value of what it produces, less the net amount it has to pay to the foreign 
 creditor from whom it got the loan of the dead horse in the days when 
 it took no thought for the morrow. 
 
 * * * 
 
 A community that is loaded with foreign debt has its special 
 limitations. It has to sell a large proportion of its produce abroad to 
 meet the interest bill. It has to sell whether it can spare the goods or not, 
 and whether prices are good or bad. In fact, it has to sell at the foreign 
 buyer's market figure and be glad to get it. This foreign price, to some 
 extent, fixes local prices in the industries affected, and all the kick in the 
 world hasn't yet succeeded in raising wages beyond the limit that these 
 prices will stand. The worst-paid industries are those in which men grow 
 the goods that are mainly sold to Bull at the other end of the world 
 sold at Bull's valuation to cover the interest on the debts which Bull lent 
 us at his own valuation, and which he renews at his own valuation when 
 the account falls due. There really seems to be altogether too much of 
 Bull's valuation and Bull's option in this borrowing business. 
 
 * * * 
 
 It might possibly be well if trades unionism devoted itself a little 
 less to the frontal attack and a little more to a subtle circumventing of 
 the enemy. It is good to push up wages, but wages won't go up beyond 
 a certain point, no matter how much they are pushed, unless conditions 
 are altered. There are schemes for forcibly shoving down rents by 
 putting a dead weight on top of them. And there was recently a scheme 
 for shoving down the price of local meat by stopping the export of meat to 
 foreign parts. If the proposition had succeeded it would probably have 
 spoiled the next foreign loan, for the exported meat helps to pay the 
 interest, and when the loan failed the partially built railways wouJd have 
 stopped, and thousands of unemployed navvies would have swarmed to 
 Sydney and started wharf-lumping for a living. And their competition 
 would have reduced the wages of the men who refused to load the meat 
 for export, and they would be forced to do with less meat, and there 
 would have been astonishment all round. Three propositions might be 
 worth considering. One is that trades unionism should devote itself 
 more to digging up improved methods of production so that the output 
 of the country may be a great deal more than 41 per head, and there 
 may be a bigger possible wage fund to divide. Another is that it should 
 toil a great deal harder at eliminating the middleman especially the 
 foreign one, who is a great deal worse than the local article, inasmuch 
 as he doesn't spend his profits in the country. The foreign importer, who 
 is persistently cockered up by the Labor policy of "sinking the fiscal 
 issue" is a very expensive burden. And among needless local burdens is the 
 one absurdly big city, and the needless distances that goods have to travel 
 to reach that city. And by way of a third proposition, trade unionism, 
 and the Labor Party of which it is the foundation, might think a great 
 deal harder about leaving off the debt habit and eliminating the foreign 
 money-lender. For he lends us money at his own figure, and when the 
 loan falls due he renews it at his own figure, and the country has to sell 
 him wheat and frozen beef and sundries in his own market at his own 
 figure in order to find the wherewithal to meet the liability. All these 
 things complicate the wage problem exceedingly. 
 
 * * * 
 
 At the basis of the whole trouble lies the fact that the output of 
 
 75 
 
all New South Wales industries only represents 41 per inhabitant, and 
 there are a multitude of absurd importers, frauds, loafers, sharks, middle- 
 men, speculators, loan-mongers, and the like gnawing at that amount 
 there may be even too many trades union secretaries and a superfluity of 
 archbishops. And it isn't such a very large amount of production per 
 head whatever way you look at it. The wage question, at the last resort, 
 comes up against the fact that all that can possibly come out of a pot 
 is the quantity that is in it. 
 
 In the course of an address by the Hon. A. H. Whittingham, 
 President of the United Pastoralists Association of Queensland, 
 he said: 
 
 Naturally, the first matter which engages one's attention is the 
 record of the industrial troubles which have occurred in the district. 
 Prominent among these was the attempt made by the Carriers' Union 
 to force all our loading through the Carriers' Union Office under Car- 
 riers' Union conditions, and practically denying to the employer any right 
 to make his own carriage arrangements. By this action on their part the 
 Carriers' Union was infringing upon the basic principle on which our 
 association was founded namely, the maintenance of freedom of con- 
 tract. It was, therefore, imperative upon us, if we wished to maintain 
 our individual freedom, in the management of our business, that such 
 an attack should be fought to the uttermost. 
 
 A very significant contribution to the history of industrial 
 conditions in New South Wales is contained in a letter from the 
 Melbourne correspondent of the London Economist, published 
 in the Economist under date May 17, 1913, as follows: 
 
 LABOR DISPUTES IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 
 
 Labor disputes in New South Wales have of late been of an unusu- 
 ally serious character. Notwithstanding the Arbitration Act, under which 
 strikes and lock-outs were to be penalized, and notwithstanding that in 
 two or three instances the arbitration machinery had been set going in 
 the Court, large bodies of men have insisted upon their claims being 
 granted without examination. 
 
 Virtually, therefore, the principle of arbitration has been aban- 
 doned in New South Wales, and the Labor Ministry has only to register 
 the formulated demands of the men. The strikes have occurred with 
 extreme suddenness. With little premonition of what was coming 
 Sydney was plunged into darkness at new moon time by the strike of 
 the gasworkers, who refused to submit their claims to the Court. The 
 Ministry was placed in a dilemma. The law really necessitated a support 
 of the gas companies pending arbitration, but it could not afford to 
 break with the men who, as unionists, are members of the Labor Party. 
 Ultimately the Government induced the companies to yield to the men, 
 the compensation being that the Act passed a few months ago regulating 
 the price of gas is to be amended, so that the maximum price will be 
 3d per 1,000 higher. 
 
 Another strike, still dragging itself along, was that of the miners 
 employed in the Southern Collieries. It was ostensibly occasioned by the 
 dismissal of an employee, but other grievances were alleged, although 
 a judicial award has recently been made. The mine proprietors were 
 asked by the Industrial Registrar to consider the proposals of the men, 
 but they replied in the following terms : 
 
 In the circumstances of the present stoppage of work at the Southern 
 Collieries the proprietors will not discuss any alleged grievances. The 
 
 76 
 
employees have wantonly broken the award, which, inter alia, provides 
 that in no circumstances shall work cease except after giving fourteen 
 days' notice. The proprietors feel that they represent in this matter the 
 principle of obedience to the law of the contract, without which no 
 civilized community could hold together. Their decision therefore is 
 that the men must return to work and recognize the award, which is 
 equally binding on employer and employee. They now look to the Gov- 
 ernment to uphold the law, and feel that if awards or agreements are 
 to be continually violated the status of compulsory arbitration will be- 
 come a dead letter. 
 
 From another quarter a startling sensation was sprung upon the 
 Sydney public. Owing to the expansion of Sydney along the harbor, 
 with its numerous inlets, a large traffic is carried on by ferry steamers, 
 and principally by the Sydney Ferries, Limited. Without a preliminary 
 statement of grievances and claims, the men struck as from the morn- 
 ing of Good Friday to the great inconvenience of the public. The blow 
 was struck with the intention of impressing the public with the great 
 power possessed by the firemen and deck hands. 
 
 Again, a great deal of palavering followed between the men, the 
 company and the Government. The strike leaders demanded that the 
 Government should seize the company's boats and work the service itself 
 at the company's expense, acceding to all the demands of the men. 
 The coerced company capitulated, and is striving to make good the loss 
 it incurs by raising fares to a moderate extent. But workmen belonging 
 to the Labor Party object to pay the increased fares, and the Government 
 may again be invoked to coerce the company. 
 
 The next great conflict arose from the determination of the Barrier 
 Labor Federation that no non-unionist in any trade or occupation should 
 be allowed to live in Broken Hill, a town containing 40,000 people, miners, 
 their wives and children, business people and their employees and others. 
 Some of the miners have occasionally proved themselves recalcitrant, 
 but they have been called to heel. The leaders of the Labor Federation 
 were not satisfied, and they resolved to compel everybody to join a union. 
 
 On the 2nd instant the employees of the Silverton Tramway Com- 
 pany (which conveys the Broken Hill products for a distance of 36 miles), 
 acting under orders from the Labor Federation, struck work because the 
 clerks and other officers of the company were not unionists. The officials 
 then formed a union, but the directors of the company declined to allow 
 seven of them who occupy confidential positions to remain in the union. 
 The traffic between Broken Hill and the rest of the world has therefore 
 been hung up for a week, and supplies of all kinds are running short. 
 The mines are gradually closing, their storage arrangements for ore being 
 inadequate. 
 
 At about the same time as the strike at Broken Hill occurred the 
 sudden cessation from work of several hundred laborers employed by 
 the New South Wales Railway Department. They had presented claims 
 which on their face were preposterous, and declined to wait for a de- 
 cision of a wages board. Other branches of the service are actively 
 displaying sympathy, in deciding not to handle "black" goods ; that is, 
 merchandise handled by free labor. Again the Government is at its 
 wits' end. There are now three contests in active progress in New South 
 Wales, in defiance of arbitration legislation, viz., the Southern Collieries 
 strike, the Broken Hill embroglio, and the railway strike. The existence 
 of the Labor Government depends upon its ability to placate the men, 
 and it cannot do so excepting by implicitly carrying out their instructions. 
 Even should the disputes be settled, there will be no guarantee that 
 further troubles will not arise. 
 
 Of equal significance with the above letter is an interview 
 with Mr. Howard W. Berry, President of the Associated 
 
 77 
 
Chambers of Australia, as published in the Manufacturers News, 
 Chicago, May 15, 1913, and from which the following is quoted: 
 Wages have been advanced steadily, as the labor unions say, to 
 meet the cost of living, but they won't, admit that the advancing wages 
 have been an important element in the higher cost of living, which of 
 course is apparent to economists. The industrial interests have advanced 
 wages steadily out of proportion to their earnings rather than to submit 
 to trade demoralizing strikes, but there must be a limit to such advances. 
 If Australia should have a dry season it would cause widespread depres- 
 sion and employers, I suppose, would simply let their men go on a strike. 
 
 LABOR IMMUNE AGAINST LAW. 
 
 Employers must obey the laws governing the arbitration of labor 
 questions or suffer heavy fines or imprisonment. They must pay the 
 wages fixed by arbitration boards. Labor, however, has been able to 
 ignore the awards with impunity. If Labor is not satisfied with an 
 award made by an arbitration board, Labor goes on strike the same as 
 in this country. It is impossible to punish the strikers. There wouldn't 
 be enough room in all the jails to accommodate them. It has been found 
 impossible to make the men work unless they want to, but employers can 
 be severely punished for locking their men out. * * * 
 
 The Labor Party has been successful in Australia, not because it 
 has more votes, but because it is so much better organized than the 
 Liberal that it is able to get out the vote. The vote of the women has 
 largely contributed to the success of the Labor movement. Women iden- 
 tified with the Labor Party never fail to vote, but the other class pays 
 much less attention to the ballot, being occupied too often with social 
 duties. * * * 
 
 Restriction of Output. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Australasian unions, as every- 
 where else, indignantly deny that restriction of output is a re- 
 sultant feature of unionism, the evidence on every hand is so 
 manifest that any attempt of the unions at denial of the charge 
 sinks into ridiculous insignificance. As a case in point, the 
 Melbourne Argus, in its issue of March 3, 1912, published an 
 item entitled "Bricklaying Records," in which it was shown that 
 in four and one-half hours four bricklayers laid 5608 bricks, 
 an average of 374 bricks per hour, per man. Commenting on 
 the circumstance, another authority said this was an eye-opener 
 to the contractors of Melbourne, but it was a greater eye-opener to 
 the Bricklayers' Union that any union men should be such fools 
 as to let the cat out of the bag by proving that the ordinary layer 
 of bricks, who lays some 400 to 500 a day, had been nearly 
 equalled in capacity by one of these men in an hour. The result 
 was that the union fiat went out, and the public, who had 
 gathered around the building in Bourke Street the next morning 
 to witness a further test for a record, were disappointed, the men 
 having fallen back to the usual pace. We made a number of in- 
 
 78 
 
quiries in New Zealand and Australia as to the number of bricks 
 laid for a day's work and the answers varied from 450 to 550, 
 whereas 2000 is a fair average for a day's work of eight hours. 
 Whether or not the "stint" is fixed by the union, the fact is, the 
 laziest or slowest man in the trade .controls the brake to energy 
 and efficiency and sets the pace for all. 
 
 In this connection the following from the Adelaide Adver- 
 tiser, of Nov. 20, 1912, is significant: 
 
 Because he broke his pledge to the executive of the Iron and Brass 
 Moulders' Union that he would not do more than a certain amount of 
 work, a moulder, still employed by Messrs. A. Simpson & Son, has been 
 expelled from that organisation, and it has been hinted that members of 
 the union will consider the question whether or not their employment in 
 the establishment shall continue alongside a non-unionist. 
 
 During the hearing of the recent Ironmoulders' Wages Board 
 appeal case, the Hon. J. H. Vaughan drew from one of the employers' 
 witnesses (Mr. A. A. Simpson) the surprising statement that the secretary 
 of the Ironmoulders' Union (Mr. F. B. Spafford) had written to one 
 of Messrs. A. Simpson & Son's employees requesting him to reduce his 
 earnings. The incident has resulted in the expulsion of the stove moulder 
 from the union for earning more than 3 35. gd. per week. It seems that 
 some months ago Messrs. A. Simpson & Son, rinding that moulders in 
 Sydney were making 105 washing copper castings a week, offered this 
 moulder a bonus of pd. in addition to his wage of 3, for all the castings 
 he could make weekly in excess of 50. This was not an illiberal offer, 
 as if the moulder has reached the Sydney output his wages would have 
 been 5 is. 3d. The moulder, so encouraged, at once made over 60 castings 
 per week, but the executive of the union, at a meeting held in August, 
 decided that the work was in excess of that prescribed by the under- 
 standing, which is said to prevail in all local foundries, and in the 
 letter referred to ordered the moulder to reduce his castings to 50 per 
 week though he was quite able to make 65 and earn 75. 6d. a week more. 
 The moulder at first paid attention to this request, but at last, failing 
 to see why he should reduce his wages he defied the authorities, -with 
 the result mentioned. His employers complain that the enforced restric- 
 tion of output is hampering their operations. They are now importing cast- 
 ings from Scotland, which they formerly made here, and during the past 
 year have so imported many thousands from Great Britain. Meanwhile, 
 it is stated that another local foundry has also been partly abandoning 
 manufacturing for importing, solely owing to this restriction of output. 
 
 The foregoing extract was furnished us by Mr. Simpson 
 himself, who is Mayor of Adelaide. He informed us that the 
 expelled union member was still working for his firm and was 
 averaging 90 castings a week and earning from $6 to $7 a week 
 more than the union allowance. It will be of interest to note 
 here, that not many years ago the city of Adelaide secured a 
 new charter, differing somewhat from other chartered munici- 
 palities in that it contains special voting qualifications in matters 
 relating to municipal affairs, whereby, in voting on general ques- 
 tions every property' owner or occupier has one vote and limited 
 corporations three votes in the ward or precinct in which the 
 plant or business is located. On financial questions the same 
 
 79 
 
qualifications prevail, but the voting is on a sliding scale based on 
 rental value, assessed by city valuation as follows : One vote on 
 25 and under, two votes on 25 to 35, three votes on 35 to 45, 
 four votes on 45 to 55, five votes on 55 to 65 and six votes on 
 over 65. As a result of these special voting qualifications, the 
 Labor Party is unable to secure more than a scant representa- 
 tion in municipal affairs; there being but one Representative in 
 the city council at the time of our visit to Adelaide. 
 
 Another example along the line of decreased efficiency was 
 given us by the Mayor of an Australian city, a contractor and 
 merchant, who, in discussing labor conditions in Australia, said : 
 "This country appears to be going bad very fast. The indif- 
 ference and independent attitude of the working people and the 
 high wages which must be paid for poor service, is getting to be 
 intolerable and it's a question how long we can stand it." 
 "Why," said he, "the commoner the labor the more it costs, 
 and there is an oversupply at that; just think of a situation like 
 this. We have to pay common laborers is. lod. (44 cents) an 
 hour for regular time and up to 55. 7d. ($1.25) an hour for 
 overtime work, Sunday night work being paid for at four times 
 the regular rates. Labor unions and Labor legislation are put- 
 ting everybody to the bad and making a sorry mess of the coun- 
 try." He told of a case, just the day before, where a wharf 
 laborer was wheeling three bags of grain on a truck. One fell 
 off, the man stopped, lit his pipe and deliberately waited 25 
 minutes until another laborer, whose business it was to load 
 the trucks, came along and put the bag on the truck again, when 
 laborer No. i proceeded to wheel the grain to the ship. He 
 cited this as one of many incidents of the abuses which the people 
 are compelled to endure by reason of the intolerable condition 
 into which the industrial situation has drifted, and said there 
 must be a day of reckoning soon, and the president of the 
 Chamber of Commerce added : "The great drawbacks to Australia 
 are lack of people and labor legislation." Another business man 
 volunteered the suggestion that "all that ails Australia is dearth 
 of population and the unbearable condition of its labor market." 
 
 A member of a large rice importing firm in Melbourne said 
 _ they were paying 25 per cent more for labor now than when they 
 averaged 700 tons unloading against 400 tons under present con- 
 ditions. 
 
 The question, "Is olive growing a profitable industry in 
 Australia?" was asked an official in the office of the Minister of 
 Agriculture for South Australia. The response was : "Not now, 
 but it used to be before the labor problem killed it." While 
 
 80 
 
passing through the works of one of the Government railways, 
 the manager told us that on account of the labor situation it 
 was his determination to install a machine whenever he could 
 displace a man by doing so ; that he had no difficulty in managing 
 machines, but with men it was often <a question of whether, he 
 or they were running the shops. 
 
 The head of a rubber firm, with whom we conversed, stated 
 that his firm had until recently employed 100 people in the manu- 
 facture of rubber goods, but that the labor situation had become 
 so rotten that they decided to close their factory; that they ar- 
 ranged for the agency of several American manufacturers, whom 
 they now represent, and have rid themselves of the torments they 
 were forced to endure as manufacturers and are making more 
 money. An official of another and much larger rubber manu- 
 facturing plant said that they were trying to get along as best 
 they could under present conditions, but that their experience 
 was no exception to the rule, and that manufacturing in Australia 
 was a tough proposition. Again, an- official of a large engineering 
 plant which was then in the midst of a long drawn out strike, ex- 
 pressed himself as thoroughly disgusted with industrial conditions. 
 
 Wage Earners' Views. 
 
 The suggestion thrown out to a waiter at the Hotel Aus- 
 tralia, that "this country is a paradise for the working man," 
 brought an unexpected and somewhat surprising rejoinder. He 
 said he was born in England and married in Australia; that he 
 worked five years in the United States, one year in the Conti- 
 nental Hotel, Philadelphia, and two years at Atlantic City; that 
 he was going back to the United States as soon as he could raise 
 enough money to cover the expense; that Australia is no place 
 for a working man who has any ambition ever to be anything 
 else ; that he found it much harder to get along in Australia than 
 in the United States notwithstanding all the blow about its being 
 the "workingman's paradise" ; that there are more tramps and low 
 down poverty in Australia than in the United States in proportion 
 to population ; that production and efficiency are getting so low in 
 Australia that the wealth of the country is being eaten up and 
 that, bye and bye, there will be nothing but poverty unless things 
 change materially. We failed to observe very much of the low 
 down poverty to which this man alluded, but we did, while on 
 a motor trip of no miles out of Sydney, pass no less than eight 
 tramps, with their belongings swung over their backs, who were 
 ostensibly looking for work but afraid they would find it. What- 
 ever may be the necessity to tramp very far to find work in either 
 
 81 
 
Australia or New Zealand, the "soap-box" orator is very much 
 in evidence in both of these countries. In Wellington we 
 stopped and listened to one of these "World Reformers" who 
 was haranguing a crowd of about 25 men, urging the workers 
 of the Dominion to drop ^raft organizations and join the "one 
 big union which, when perfected, will drive capitalism into the 
 sea, and then the workers' millennium will come." In Sydney, 
 where there are a number of large areas set apart for the use 
 of the public, these agitators "wax fat" and can be seen by the 
 dozens every Sunday afternoon shouting the same sort of doc- 
 trine to hundreds and thousands of listeners, very much to the 
 discomfort of industrious, home-loving citizens, and to no good 
 results to the country as ,a whole. 
 
 One mechanic with whom we discussed labor conditions 
 said: "The unions would be all right if they didn't 'try to get the 
 earth without earning it, and would act with decency and in 
 reason, but they don't. A working man must either give up his 
 self-respect and abandon his independence or stand to be 
 hounded by an organized minority of his fellows who are always 
 shouting about the 'brotherhood of man' and, at the same time, 
 trying to force their brother workmen, who don't submit to being 
 driven like sheep, into a condition of union servitude that has 
 already made Australia, with all its shorter hours and many 
 holidays, a mighty poor country for a workingman, with any 
 ambition to get up in the world or raise a family to become 
 anything more than laborers, to live in. Their idea is to keep 
 on getting more money for less work, instead of getting more 
 money for more work, as they should do. And what does it all 
 amount to? Nothing. We can't buy as much for the money we 
 get now as we could when we got less and things didn't cost so 
 much, and besides, the unions have knocked merit sky-high. 
 I believe, just as much as any of these socialistic agitators do, that 
 labor creates wealth, but I don't believe that the way for the work- 
 ing people to get more wealth is for them to produce less of 
 it. That's one too many for me." 
 
 According to the statement of the Prime Minister, Mr. 
 Cook, in his speech in Parliament, April 17, 1914, the total 
 number of unionists in the Commonwealth of Australia is 433,000, 
 (9 per cent of the total population, 37 per cent of all the workers, 
 male and female, over 20 years of age,) and of non-unionists 734,- 
 ooo. Therefore, the story of this man presents a striking illustra- 
 tion of the power of organization and, from his viewpoint, is a 
 clear demonstration that industrial legislation has proven a flat 
 failure. Business men find it irksome, annoying and inefficient, 
 and are at all times on the "anxious seat" lest they be summoned 
 
 82 
 
before this or that court for violation of some law or ruling which 
 they know nothing about. Furthermore, the fact that there are 
 737 separate and distinct Wages Boards in Australia, with more 
 strikes than ever before, amplifies the old adage, "All that glitters 
 is not gold," and proves conclusively that "mere movement is 
 not progress." 
 
 Unionism's Effect on Discipline. 
 
 A most noticeable result of the domination of unionism is 
 its effect on discipline of employees about the hotels, which is 
 at a low ebb, and it is everywhere apparent that unionism is 
 boss. One illustration of this will suffice to show the spirit 
 which prevails throughout the hotels and, from our observations, 
 in all other lines of employment. One of the members of our 
 party asked the clerk of a hotel at which we were stopping for 
 some stationery. The clerk called a page and told him to bring it. 
 The boy looked up at the clock, which registered one minute to 
 one, and indignantly replied, "Get it yourself, I'm off at one." 
 The clerk went for the stationery without commenting on the 
 boy's action. This attitude on the part of the employed was 
 so pronounced that we soon began to express sympathy for the 
 management, rather than complain of the lack of courtesy, or 
 consideration for and attention to the wants and comfort of the 
 hotel guests. 
 
 Hours and Wages. 
 
 Some scattering mention has hereinbefore been made of the 
 question of hours and wages, but in order that this phase of the 
 subject may be more fully given, the following table from the 
 Commonwealth official statistics for 1913 is presented. In the 
 table, "s" indicates shillings and "d" pence, the value of which 
 in United States money is shown in the columns headed "U. S.," 
 which we have added to the table for the purpose of ready com- 
 parison. The rates given in the table are for regular specified 
 work-hours, outside of which overtime is paid for at rates stipu- 
 lated in the various Wages Boards awards. 
 
O M 
 
 S S 
 
 1 
 1j 
 
 1 1 
 
 id J3 
 
 11 
 
 ii 
 
 it 
 
 9 a 
 I I 
 
 |J 
 ll 
 
 n 
 
 J-9 
 
 S 
 
 I 
 
 TfOO OOOiNOTfOO OOOOOOTt* OOO -fO O-* OOO OOOOTjt 
 OOOO -<}-^!|^O!NT) TtrfTttN Or QOO OC4 -*O W O * 
 
 icco -Jic t^Tji doi rjJdco' 
 
 OOO ODOOOO OOOO OO <OO OO 
 
 OO OOOO 
 
 5 3 
 
 ) 1C OO 
 .^^H<N 
 
 OOO OOOOOO OOOO OOOOO OO 
 COOOIN <!< IN (N 00 O5 <N CO lO <N 5O CD O O 5 <-< OOOO 
 
 OOOOCDOD 
 
 00 O "5 O N- C -1 
 t^ t CC 
 
 8^.8 ^8888^ 88^8 88 8S 8^ 88S9 8^5 
 
 id "3 06 ccididoo^co io'ot^^ ujid ict>I odd ' 
 
 000 OOOOOO OOOO 00 00 00 OOOO 00 
 
 C<>-l 
 C 
 
 M'tOOOO 00 <*< OO 00 N 00 O O X O O * C^ IN * O O C< 
 
 9 n ^ ^ Tj I c ^ Tt I T t'~! Tf ! < *P T t c JP (:v * t> ; t> : c ^. . *s ^ 
 coodd 
 
 OOOO 000000 ^00000000 CSIO OOOOCCL- 
 
 OOOO Tji^OOOO i-tOOOOOOC'OOO ^O OiCCOO-JT -- 
 X IQOOO U30JOOOO IOU3OOOO>0OOO OO O O <N (N Tf tfi 
 
 ioi eeoC4K><OtcO<O 
 
 OOOOOOU5 
 
 dot^ o 
 
 oooo ooooooooooo po oo oooo-^oooooo 
 
 OlONO 
 ' 0?-0 
 
 CTf O'* 
 
 00 Ot^ 
 
 js : i i 1 
 
 
 ll 
 
 --^ ssou o 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Taking the six capital cities as a basis of average, as shown 
 elsewhere in this report, the purchasing power of money dur- 
 ing a period of 12 years, 1901-12, has depreciated a trifle over 25 
 per cent, while, during the same period, the average increase in 
 wages has been a fraction under 25 per cent showing again that, 
 notwithstanding all the industrial friction and cost of political 
 machinery, the race has been neck and neck with the economic 
 law of supply and demand. The same statistical report says: 
 "Taking the average for the six capital towns, the cost of living 
 in the third quarter of 1913 was 25.5 per cent higher than in 1901. 
 Of that amount 8.3 per cent was due to increase in price of food 
 and groceries, while the remaining 17.2 per cent was due to 
 increase in house rents." 
 
 A comparison of the wages enumerated in the foregoing table 
 with those obtainable in the United States, in the same occupations, 
 except common labor, will be interesting and instructive as show- 
 ing the effect of Governmental interference with economic ques- 
 tions. It will clearly be seen that wages average higher in the 
 United States than in Australia, while from the most careful 
 investigation into the cost of living we found it to be fully as 
 high or higher in Australia than in the United States and that, 
 after all, the Australian worker pays his full portion of the cost 
 of the economic waste of time and production. 
 
 April 27th, while we were at Melbourne, the annual Eight- 
 hour Day parade was held, in which there were estimated to be 
 11,760 marchers, representing 65 unions. There are 408 unions 
 in Australia, of all kinds, 64 per cent of the total membership 
 being organized on an interstate basis. The total membership 
 in trades unions in 1912, was 433,224, of which 415,554 were 
 males and 17,670 females; the total estimated num'ber of em- 
 ployees 20 years of age and over, male and female, being 1,154,- 
 812, and the percentage of unionists to all employees 37.52. 
 The total number of factories in 1912 is given as 14,878; the 
 number of hands employed 328,000; wages paid 31,296,000 
 ($152,098,560) and the total value of output 148,745,000 
 ($722,900,700.) The Eight-hour Day is recognized as a 
 legal holiday and takes the place of Labor Day in the United 
 States. Union members who fail to turn out are fined. How- 
 ever, there is a persistent and vigorous struggle constantly going 
 on for still shorter hours, which, in some cases, has been recog- 
 nized, as indicated in the table. Only recently, an application 
 of the Builders' Laborers' Federation to the Federal Arbitration 
 Court for an award of 44 hours a week, with a raise in wages to 
 equal the 48 hours' pay, was allowed by that court, and still more 
 
 85 
 
recently Justice Higgins, the president of the same court as 
 previously mentioned, awarded the waterside workers a raise 
 in wages to is. pd. an hour, based on 30 hours being a week's 
 work. We were informed by a mine operator at New Castle 
 that miners only work five hours a day. 
 
 This gentleman told a sad story of labor conditions in the 
 mining industry. He said, "The situation is so bad that nothing 
 short of a revolution will ever better it," adding to this pessi- 
 mistic expression of opinion, "One of the finest countries in the 
 world is rapidly going to the devil." In this connection the 
 following from the Australian Mining Standard of June 14, 
 1914, is worthy of note: 
 
 Australia, truth to tell, has done very little with its gigantic re- 
 sources. Its great mineral wealth in very many places has been scarcely 
 more than tapped, and everywhere the development of them has been 
 hampered by the restrictions imposed by the labor clauses of the Mining 
 Acts of the various States, * * * but one thing we may be sure of is that 
 before Americans invest any money here, they will be very careful to 
 consider how the position is affected in every branch of industry by 
 Federal and State legislation. 
 
 But the steamship companies appear to experience the 
 greatest hardships in the management of their business, for aside 
 from the excessive cost of labor in loading and unloading cargo, 
 they never can tell when in port what minute they will be held 
 up by a strike, or for how long. Strikes come on like lightning 
 out of a clear sky, and whether their duration be long or short 
 depends upon the humor of the freight handlers who never give 
 a thought to the inconvenience they cause the traveling public 
 or the losses which they Impose upon commercial interests. The 
 captain of one of the ships on which we traveled told us that 
 on his previous trip he left a cargo, the carrying value of which 
 would amount to fully $5,000, on the wharf at one port, rather 
 than wait the pleasure of striking wharf laborers to load it. He 
 said he always felt relieved in mind, at each port, when his ship 
 cast off her staylines, and wondered whether he would pass the 
 next port without a holdup. 
 
 Holidays. 
 
 There are twice as many legal holidays in Australasia as 
 there are in the United States. When we arrived at Melbourne, 
 Saturday, April nth, it was the midst of Easter Holiday season, 
 which runs from Thursday night to the following Tuesday 
 morning, except with the banking institutions, which stretch it 
 over to Wednesday. The ship on which we came to Melbourne 
 had either to lay over until the following Tuesday to have its 
 
 86 
 
cargo loaded and unloaded or pay double time for labor, if it 
 could find any. Suffice it to say, the ship waited the pleasure 
 of the holiday season. The following editorial from the Mel- 
 bourne Argus of April 30, 1914, will be of interest as showing 
 the extent of the holiday "plague." 
 
 MELBOURNE ARGUS. 
 (April 30, 1914.) 
 
 Mr. Justice Heydon, president of the New South Wales Industrial 
 Court, made some very sensible comments on Tuesday on the holiday 
 nuisance. General holidays and trade picnic days are becoming alto- 
 gether too numerous, and it is time that some regard was shown for the 
 public interest. Strangers visiting Australia are amazed to observe the 
 spirit of resignation in which the people submit to these encroachments 
 on their convenience. An occasional day's rest from physical or mental 
 toil is an excellent tonic for the individual, arid the community, of course, 
 shares in the benefit. But in a country where the hours of work are short 
 and strenuous application is far from being conspicuous these constant 
 breaks in the continuity of the ordinary services to the public are 
 mischievous. There should be an element of reasonableness preserved in 
 all things. Trade picnics are, no doubt, very pleasant festivities for those 
 participating in them, and if they were held at suitable times there would 
 be no special objection to them. This is far, however, from being the 
 case. Mr. Justice Heydon remarked that the Melbourne fruiterers had 
 their holiday during the very season when fruit is most in demand. 
 His Honour happened to be here at the time, and was evidently deeply 
 impressed by the absurdity of the spectacle. It was about the severest 
 day of the summer, yet by Act of Parliament the shopkeepers and hawkers 
 were forbidden to sell an ounce of fruit, excepting to purchasers con- 
 suming it on the premises. The folly and wastefulness of the proceeding 
 were obvious to everyone; yet it will probably be repeated each summer 
 for years to come. 
 
 Bakery employees, again, are persons for whom every reasonable 
 consideration should be shown; but it is surely not reasonable that the 
 public should 'be forced to eat stale bread on 26 Wednesdays in the 
 year, as well as on every Sunday. All that was thought of when the 
 fortnightly holiday was decreed was the pleasure and convenience of the 
 bakers and bread-carters ; the interest of the consumers was never for a 
 moment considered. So well do the employees concerned understand the 
 principle on which these things are usually done that they have recently been 
 agitating for a compulsory system of day-baking. True, the people might 
 dislike eating stale bread; but what were trivial objections like these when 
 weighed against the desire of the hands employed in the industry? 
 What does the public exist for but to serve the ends of unionism? 
 Mr. Justice Rich fortunately took a different view of the position when 
 the claim of the bakers came before him the other day, and for his pains 
 will no doubt be considered a judge unsympathetic with labour. Mr. 
 Justice Heydon has rightly declared the rapidly increasing number of 
 holidays to constitute "rather a serious question." Though the president 
 of an arbitration tribunal, he regards his function as being essentially 
 judicial. 
 
 He refuses to shut his eyes to the economic consequences involved 
 in the claims submitted to him, and never fails to let the claimants know 
 when he thinks them in the wrong. From remarks like those he offered 
 on the holiday question, they learn that there are two sides to every 
 question, and that the mere fact of a demand being made does not neces- 
 sarily mean that it will be conceded. 
 
Sunday Observance. 
 
 In this connection it is pertinent to speak of the respect 
 observed for the Sabbath, which is both especially noticeable and 
 commendable.- The tramways do not operate their cars on Sun- 
 day mornings and not until one or two o'clock in the afternoon. 
 While this may seem a great inconvenience to the public, the 
 people appear to have adjusted themselves to the custom and 
 do not suffer very much inconvenience from it. In comment- 
 ing on this feature of Australasian life, some writers have 
 claimed that their Sunday observance comes from the prevalent 
 desire to loaf, but this we believe to be an extreme view of the 
 matter, and hardly just to the large class of intelligent Christian 
 people of these countries. 
 
 The Minimum or Living Wage. 
 
 (See former reference) 
 
 Referring again to the subject of "The Minimum," or 
 "Living" Wage, as it is sometimes called. The rate of wages 
 fixed by the Wages Boards, in the various industries, is the 
 minimum wage at which labor may legally be employed, and 
 while higher wages may be paid, as a matter of fact, the rates 
 established by the Boards become the standard, and practically 
 abolish all other bartering with respect thereto. Moreover, the 
 principle upon which these boards were created, and the chief 
 reason for their existence, was to settle the question of wages 
 and working conditions by law, and do away with all other forms 
 of bargaining and thereby abolish labor controversies and 
 strikes. Employers generally accept the awards of the Boards, 
 and being thoroughly organized, a general understanding pre- 
 vails in the industries that the same shall be rigidly adhered to, 
 otherwise the Wages Boards would perform no function other 
 than to establish a general starting point at which wage agitation 
 and strikes should begin. They also appreciate the fact that the 
 payment of rates higher than the minimum in some cases would 
 tend to bring the minimum up to much higher rates at the next 
 award. Hence, as a general rule, the minimum is also the maxi- 
 mum. Then again, as the minimum wage is necessarily based 
 upon the average capacity or efficiency of all workers in a given 
 industry, those who are incapable of "making good" in produc- 
 tivity to the value of the "standard" wage are not wanted in 
 times of depression and are only grudgingly employed at any 
 time, while the more energetic and efficient worker is compelled 
 by law to accept less for his services than they are worth, or 
 stultify his ambition and honor by producing less than he is able 
 
and willing to produce if his natural inclination were not muzzled 
 by the law of the land. The effect of the system upon the higher 
 class of workers was vividly expressed during a conversation we 
 had at Melbourne with two such men, who are entirely out of 
 harmony with industrial conditions as they prevail in Australia. 
 One of them said that no self-respecting artisan could be a happy 
 and contented individual when the laws of his country fixed the 
 compensation he must accept for his services and erected legisla- 
 tive barriers to his opportunities to become anything more than 
 a slave to the ideals of Socialism. "Such conditions," said he, 
 "are not conducive to a higher standard of efficiency, but, on the 
 contrary, they encourage inefficiency and the devoting of one's 
 mind and energy to the promulgation of a lower standard of 
 civilization." 
 
 Now, the avowed object of the "living wage," so-called, is 
 to insure to the workers and their dependants if they have any, 
 as most workers do a decent living. But the proposition is 
 fraught with many difficult problems. Among them, what con- 
 stitutes a decent living? How many "livings" should the wage 
 provide for? The cost of living? The amount of efficiency to 
 be expended by the wage recipient ; changes in business and gen- 
 eral economic conditions ; tariff ; imports and exports ; the natural 
 resources of a country and the proportionate wealth of its 
 people, and various and sundry other things, bearing upon and 
 subservient to the economic law of supply and demand, and 
 which, in combination, present an insurmountable barrier to a 
 just and equitable economic solution of the problem. 
 
 Australia and New Zealand are both agricultural countries 
 having a combined population of less than 6,000,000 souls. The 
 unusual prosperity which they have enjoyed since the introduc- 
 tion of the refrigeration system of shipping pensnable products 
 has enabled their people to endure an amount of unsuccessful, 
 uneconomic and experimental legislation which would have caused 
 the downfall of some other countries if attempted. 
 
 They can hardly aspire to becoming manufacturing coun- 
 tries, at least for a long time to come, and until they become suf- 
 ficiently populated to create a competitive home market for manu- 
 factured products. Yet, notwithstanding the vast natural rich- 
 ness of these countries and the homogeneousness of their people, 
 few business men, or men in public life who are not making 
 their living or getting rich out of socialistic politics, can be found 
 who will not admit that the whole economic scheme of labor 
 legislation is a dismal failure and a drawback to the welfare and 
 development of both of these otherwise glorious countries. 
 They will tell you that the minimum wage is a harmful and un- 
 
 89 
 
just abridgment of the rights of skillful and efficient artisans 
 who, in the absence of such legislation, would be better paid for 
 their services, that it simply amounts to a scheme whereby 
 "Peter is robbed to pay Paul" by fixing a higher minimum wage 
 than the inefficient, lazy and indifferent are capable of earning, 
 and that the wages of the more highly efficient and skillful 
 workers are reduced to the same average level. Mr. Robert 
 S. Walpole, an eminent student in economics, who is recognized 
 to be the best informed man in Australia on its industrial situa- 
 tion, in the treatise, "The True Basis of the Living Wage," 
 says: 
 
 No sensible man desires to lower the standard of living and comfort 
 in this country, but it must be admitted that the Australian is not as 
 frugal as his brother the German, Frenchman, etc. His general Half- 
 holiday and other holidays, and the shopping done in the shortest hours 
 on Friday nights, largely enhance the cost of the retail article and in 
 many other ways he has made a rod for his own back, though it may be 
 admitted that the producer passes on these extra costs to the consumer, 
 who is largely the wage-earner. 
 
 In summing up the whole matter, if our experimental legislation 
 is to be effective, the living wage must be so fixed (if it can be) that 
 in the worst times, the slow, old and inefficient worker will be properly 
 protected, for it is this class, and this only, which is sweated. The 
 shrewd, smart worker who realizes these facts is the man who would 
 sooner see a piece-work living wage fixed, on a more businesslike basis, 
 than the absurd minimum wage now current in many trades a price 
 which will 'last under all conditions, and not break down at the first sign 
 of bad weather, knowing that he himself is protected by his skill and 
 smartness in earning a good, profitable wage. 
 
 Governments are only human, and, like individuals, inclined to be 
 generous, rather than just, especially in good times, because of the popu- 
 larity attached to the fixing of a high minimum wage; but, remember, 
 they can neither produce work nor maintain artificial wages, which, under 
 bad conditions, must break down of their own weight. 
 
 The sooner the workers grasp this fundamental principle the better 
 for themselves and those dependent on them. 
 
 "You cannot make bricks without straw" is an old saying, and you 
 cannot make wages without capital, nor capital without labor. The 
 product and its value is the essence of the wage fund, and the thorough, 
 efficient worker, starting on an equitable piece work rate in a country 
 like Australia, must before long have saved enough to be a boss on his 
 own account. This should be the laudable ambition of every independent 
 Australian worker. * * * I have endeavored to show that the living wage 
 (now called the minimum) is not one that can be fixed by "rule of 
 thumb," as has hitherto been the case in New Zealand and Australia, be- 
 cause it defeats the very object of the "wage" i. e., the ensuring of a 
 decent living to the poorest class of workers for all time, due to their 
 being incapable of producing sufficient to justify the high minimum fixed 
 by Act of Parliament. 
 
 The right to work. Adam Smith in his "Wealth of Nations," 
 says, "Is the property which every man has in his own labor, the original 
 foundation of all property. * * * The patrimony of a poor man lies in the 
 strength and dexterity of his hands, and to hinder him from employing 
 his strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper, without in- 
 jury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this most sacred property." 
 When the Wages Boards were first enacted in 1894, it was due to 
 
 90 
 
a wave of altruistic feeling in the public mind that many women and 
 men were being paid a "sweating wage, one which did not provide for 
 a decent existence." The period was one of great distress, due to previous 
 years of over-gambling by the people of Australia, which resulted in the 
 break of the land boom, banks, and many other businesses. This set up 
 conditions which have occurred before and will occur again. * * * From 
 report of Royal Commission 1898: "Undoubtedly when master butchers 
 were compelled to pay 455. and 55s. per week for assistants they saw 
 to it that they employed, as far as possible, such men as were worth 
 the money. Hence, the inferior men found it very hard to get regular 
 employment in the trade, and while they were formerly subjected to 
 sweating, they now, in many cases, were deprived of work altogether." 
 We thus see the principle of providing a living or minimum wage had 
 been departed from, and eventuated in the Boards becoming a meeting 
 place for men to fight for the highest wage possible, irrespective of those 
 workers at the bottom of the ladder, the very class which the altruism 
 of the public at the Wages Boards' inception desired to protect. * 
 The working of the Act is best summed up by certain questions put by a 
 late chairman of some of the Boards, and answered by himself. * * * 
 He concludes with: "I do not believe that any form of legislation can 
 rigidly fix the rates of wages to be paid to all classes of workmen with- 
 out doing more harm than good. The true test will be when bad times 
 come, then they must go down : No determination here can affect the 
 workshops of Germany, England or America and no tribunal can fix 
 wages as between employer and employee." 
 
 Dr. Victor Clark, in his summing up, says, referring specially to 
 clothing and furniture (especially in the large employment of Chinese) : 
 "Therefore, the law has not eradicated the evils it was devised to meet, 
 but, nevertheless, it appears to have mitigated them." Again, comparing 
 this 20th century legislation with similar legislation in the Middle Ages, 
 he says: "The latter were in favor of property, and the first are class 
 legislation in favor of labor. * * * The economic effects of such laws 
 may prove to be the same in both instances. * * * They may be suffi- 
 ciently important to predestine the experimental legislation of Australasia 
 to failure; but broader knowledge and profounder study than have yet 
 been devoted to this subject, are required to give us conclusions of value." 
 
 The above statements in respect to Wages Boards by the Royal 
 Commission, by the chairman of a Board, and by the expert Labor Com- 
 missioner from the United States Government, show that we are on 
 dangerous ground, seeing that we are building on an unsound economic 
 basis. The fact, as pointed out by the Royal Commission, that, very early 
 in its inception, the Act led to the man who was formerly sweated, in many 
 instances being "deprived of work altogether," shows that such legisla- 
 tion, as Adam Smith says, "committed a plain violation of the worker's 
 most sacred property the employment of his strength and dexterity." 
 
 This is the weakness of the Wages Board. Instead of standing on 
 firm foundation, the fixing of an actual or standardised minimum or 
 living wage for all time, subject only to variations caused by enhanced 
 costs of living when the same could be brought up for further adjust- 
 ment by Parliament, it has allowed the Boards to be called together 
 every three years, when a further struggle has taken place, not to stop 
 sweating, but how to obtain as high a wage as possible, beyond that fixed 
 three years before. Thus, losing sight of "their original intent, the merely 
 enforcing of a living wage/' as Dr. Clark so wisely says, the high mini- 
 mum has had a tendency to level down the best worker to the standard 
 of the lowest worker earning the minimum, thus stultifying the best that 
 is in a pushing, clever artisan, and making him purely a wage-earner; 
 further, at the same time, carrying out the Darwinian maxim, "the sur- 
 vival of the fittest," by crushing out the less efficient worker in an over- 
 ' crowded market and leaving, when times are bad, "the sweater" to work 
 
 91 
 
his unholy trade. The great nations of the earth, for over a thousand 
 years, have studied this subject and experimented. They have done great 
 work in regard to the employment of children and women, but have 
 fought rightly shy "at the fixing of wages," knowing the difficulties that 
 always will arise in trying to equalise all men's labor. In conclusion, 
 I think we may all agree that during the past prolific years in Australia, 
 the Wages Boards, in comparison with some other legislative experiments 
 we know of, have been fairly successful ; but the true test has yet to 
 come, when (as now looks possible) lean years come, money and work 
 become scarce, as to whether the minimum now existing can be main- 
 tained, or whether it will fall like a "house of cards" because it is 
 founded on unsound economic conditions. If so, will this cause serious 
 labor trouble? For man is only human, not minding how much you 
 raise his wages or shorten his hours, but strongly objecting to the oppo- 
 site course being pursued. Will the Government be then prepared to 
 acknowledge, as Dr. Clark cleverly puts it, "The responsibility of the 
 State for a living wage logically leads to the responsibility of the State 
 for employment at that wage," to ensure the high minimum and the 
 certainty of employment? 
 
 Thus, from the foregoing discussion of the subject of a 
 legalized minimum wage, there seems to be an abundance of 
 argument that the Government should keep its hands off this 
 complex and purely economic question, and that any attempt at 
 Governmental regulation of wages is a usurpation of Govern- 
 mental function which can only result in disaster. 
 
 Compulsory Arbitration. 
 
 Reference has been made to compulsory arbitration laws, 
 but as this subject forms an important factor in the labor legis- 
 lation of Australia and New Zealand a more explanatory and 
 detailed reference to the same should be given, and to that end, 
 and by permission of the author, Mr. Walpole, hereinbefore 
 referred to and quoted, we reproduce an article covering the sub- 
 ject completely. This article so thoroughly bears out and em- 
 phasizes the information which we gathered from our various 
 investigations, that we feel it to be unnecessary to burden this 
 report with further comment in the premises, except to say, the 
 article itself is evidence of its writer's ability to handle the sub- 
 ject. It follows: 
 
 Compulsory arbitration may be said to be the immediate effect of 
 the great maritime strike of 1891, which, for the time being, held up 
 Australia and New Zealand. The men were ultimately defeated, but all 
 parties employers, employees, and the public demanded some change 
 in the methods of fighting out industrial disputes in the future. 
 
 New Zealand was the first to give voice to this view, and the Hon. 
 T. McGregor, M. L. C. together with the Hon. W. P. Reeves, drew up a 
 Bill in 1894 for conciliation and compulsory arbitration. Both of these 
 gentlemen honestly believed they had found the way out of all industrial 
 difficulties, and peace would in future reign supreme; but, unfortunately, 
 when the Bill became an Act, and its administration was put into force, 
 one of its fathers Hon. J. McGregor (a leading New Zealand barrister) 
 
 92 
 
was driven by candor to admit that the system, when worked out, was 
 not a success, and with a view to remedying the wrong he had done, 
 he wrote a most trenchant pamphlet, dealing fully with the Act, in which 
 he says: "The system is not in any sense what it was intended to be 
 a means of settling industrial disputes and strikes by conciliation and 
 arbitration, but it is rather a system for the regulation of the industries 
 of the Colony by means of ordinances, misnamed awards, issued by a 
 court of law." In spite of this criticism, the Act, though subject to 
 numerous amendments, continues in operation. One of the most im- 
 portant amendments was the abandonment of conciliation and going 
 straight to the Compulsory Arbitration Court. 
 
 Its administration encouraged a large number of walking delegates 
 in the Colony to go from workshop to workshop instigating disputes to 
 be brought before the Court, and later appearing before the Court as 
 special advocates in such disputes. 
 
 In 1905 the late Premier (Mr. R. Seddon), recognising that there 
 was no finality in the demands of the workers for more wages every 
 time agreements expired, said: "It was the duty of the Government to 
 hold the balance fairly between employers and workers. He realised 
 that, in the face of the present keen competition, no further burden 
 should be placed on the industries. He was almost in dread of what was 
 going to happen to New Zealand when the Panama Canal was com- 
 pleted, and New Zealand brought face to face with the old world compe 
 tition" In this statement the Premier wisely saw the economic fallacy 
 of believing that wages can be adjusted by legislation in face of the 
 world's competition by countries who have no such restrictions. This is 
 clearly shown by the increase in imports in two of New Zealand's pro- 
 tected industries apparel and slops and boots before and after the 
 Arbitration Act came into force: 
 
 IMPORTS. 
 1894 1908 Increase 
 
 Apparel and Slops 301,774 775,559 Over 100 per cent. 
 
 Boots 139,455 244,443 Over 50 per cent. 
 
 These two industries, if any, should be expected to hold their own 
 in a protected country, but, as shown in a previous article, due to the 
 product of the outside worker being greater, his hours longer, and no 
 artificial legislation, the wall of protection was overcome, and the con- 
 sumer provided with the imported article at a satisfactory price. 
 
 New Zealand, to whom it has been credited, as a land without 
 strikes, is not a manufacturing country in the true sense of the word. * * * 
 This would, to some extent, account for there being fewer strikes if 
 viewed in comparison with the great European and American industrial 
 centres; though, if space would allow, the writer could furnish details 
 of many strikes that have taken place since the Act came into force, 
 in such industries as coal, slaughtermen, iron founders, miners, etc., etc. 
 
 New Zealand has been well called the paradise of the workman, 
 though its wonderful success cannot be credited to the soothing effect 
 of compulsory arbitration, but due to the Creator having given the New 
 Zealander one of the most splendid climates and prolific soils in the 
 world. This is revealed in the exports for 1909 (practically all primary), 
 amounting to 21,290,436 not bad for a population of some 900,000. 
 This wonderful result is sufficient reason as to why the consumer is 
 enabled to pay the extra cost of all he wears and eats as passed on by 
 the employer, and, though the late Prime Minister (Hon. R. Seddon) 
 said that, "Despite increased wages, the workers found themselves no 
 better off than formerly, on account of the increased cost of living," 
 the Act still remains in force, like the Wages Boards and other experi- 
 mental systems for framing wages. Specially good times allow the merry 
 
 93 
 
game to go on. "You get more wages ; you pay more for what you get." 
 Of course, the day of reckoning must come, and then the New Zealand 
 Government will have to prove whether the high minimum fixed by the 
 Court can be maintained, and if not, it must face the result of falling 
 wages and consequent industrial strife. 
 
 The history of compulsory arbitration in Australia commences in 
 1896, when Commissioner Russell, appointed by Mr. Kingston, the 
 Premier of South Australia, became first President of the Arbitration 
 Court of South Australia, but this gentleman had special powers to 
 settle matters voluntarily if he liked, and in 1902 the shearers' strike 
 settlement was effected voluntarily by him, and gave such satisfaction to 
 both parties as to encourage the Commissioner to act in a voluntary 
 capacity in other cases, the consequence being that in seven years there 
 were only seven disputes ; whereas in New Zealand, with its paraphernalia 
 of a Judiciary Court, and due to the encouragement the Act afforded to 
 busybodies to bring disputes before the Court, there were 400 disputes in 
 five years. 
 
 New South Wales was the next State to take up compulsory arbi- 
 tration, and at its inception determined to leave out conciliation. During 
 its existence it managed to create more turmoil perhaps than any- Act 
 placed on any Statute Book in the world. Shortly after it had come into 
 force a big shearers' strike took place, and the country, believing that it 
 had now the means of settling disputes by compulsion, called upon the 
 Court to do its duty. Parliament was also asked why the Court delayed 
 in settling this dispute, and the reply given by Mr. Wise, the father of 
 the Act, was casuistical in the extreme. He said: "The Act defines a 
 strike as a cessation of work by a body of employees acting in com- 
 bination. Now the shearers have not ceased to work, but have declined 
 to begin work, and that is a very different thing"; but what Mr. Wise 
 failed to state was that, though it was true these men had refused to com- 
 mence work, which was entirely their business, they had refused to 
 allow anyone else to work in their place, which was quite another thing. 
 
 This want of action on the part of the Government and the Court 
 in the first great strike since the inception of the Act was the commence- 
 ment of its failure, and, as we shall see, gradually broke down the Act. 
 Its real weakness was the impossibility of the Court to enforce its de- 
 cisions on the thousands of shearers on strike. The Court could not 
 fine them, because the Government knew it would not be paid, and, 
 failing this, the only recourse was to put them in gaol, which, as one 
 of the men said, "there were not enough gaols to hold them," and sec- 
 ondly, if they could have done so, no Ministry would have lived 24 hours. 
 
 The New South Wales Act was perhaps the most drastic of all the 
 State Acts. It not only gave power to the Court to deal with wages and 
 hours in every employment, but the modes, terms and conditions of em- 
 ployment, the dismissal of or refusal to employ any particular person or 
 class of persons, or any established custom or usage of any industry, 
 either generally or in any particular locality. In the words of Mr. Ash- 
 ton (then Minister of Lands), the Act purposed giving a Supreme 
 Court judge "a power beneficent or ill, so great that no Parliament that 
 ever existed would dare to exercise it. It meant," he continued, "that 
 a Supreme Court judge will hold in the hollow of his hand the industrial 
 development of this country." 
 
 The judge of the Court was allowed two assessors or lay members 
 of the Court, because, as Mr. Ashton said, "he did not think any Su- 
 preme Court judge had the requisite amount of wisdom to enable him 
 to perform that duty without committing very serious errors." In this 
 he showed his fore-knowledge, because subsequently many judges, even 
 with lay representatives, tried their hands at the game, and, in en- 
 deavouring to carry out the extreme powers vested in them, caused 
 action after action to be brought before the Full Court of the State, and 
 
 94 
 
in some cases before the High Court of the Commonwealth, in which 
 their judgments, fortunately for the people of New South Wales, were 
 nullified. 
 
 Some of the infringements on the rights of the individual were 
 shown in the preference to unionists, who at that time did not represent 
 a decent minority of the workers in the State. We find in the Arbitra- 
 tion Court Report, 1903, the following : "In the undertakers' award, an 
 employer, in case of an emergency, is not justified in engaging a non- 
 unionist without applying to the secretary of the employees' union to 
 ascertain whether any competent unionist is available." In the saddle 
 and harness makers' award, the following clause is inserted : "Should 
 any dispute arise out of this award, it shall, if practicable, be settled by 
 the employer and the union secretary, failing which it shall be referred 
 to the Registrar for decision." Yet another glaring instance of might 
 over right being exercised by the Court when it laid down the principle 
 that, in discharging hands, the employer must do so on the following 
 conditions, "the last to come, the first to go." 
 
 These instances show some of the results of the desire for legis- 
 lative industrial peace in New South Wales. 
 
 It is well summed up in Dr. Victor Clark's (Labor Commissioner 
 for the Government of the United States) remarks re the New Zealand 
 Court. He says : "The practical effect of the law has been to establish 
 a tribunal for making collective .bargains. The name Court is mislead- 
 ing. * * * In the first place the Arbitration Court is a representative, 
 not an impartial and non-partisan body. * * * It does not grant trial by 
 jury, nor are its decisions reviewed by any other tribunal. All these 
 facts are faults from the statesman's point of view, and they do violence 
 to the general experience of mankind, as crystallised in political opinions. 
 To unite legislation and judicial functions in a single body, irresponsible 
 to any higher power than the popular legislature, must appear to Ameri- 
 cans, with their constitutional principles and precedents in view, a dan- 
 gerous retrogression to more primitive conditions of law." Anyone who 
 has studied the working of compulsory arbitration in Australia and 
 New Zealand, whether State or Commonwealth, must agree with the 
 above thoughtful statement furnished by an impartial and expert judge. 
 
 As the powers of the Act became better known, and the unions 
 found the true value of the privileges granted to them by law, the 
 Wharf Labourers' Union, by closing their books, refused admission to 
 any more applicants in their union, thus limiting both quantity and 
 quality. 
 
 The Act also enabled the unions to become a powerful factor in 
 political life. This was shown in some of the rules of the Australian 
 Workers' Union in their dispute with the Machine Shearers' Union re 
 registration under the Court, one of the rules (No. 57) being: "Any 
 member of the union voting or working against the selected candidate 
 shall be fined the sum of 3." 
 
 These tyrannical powers given to the unions by the Act, and the 
 adverse decisions in both the High and Full Courts in respect to the 
 overriding of common law rights, brought matters to a crisis, and 
 Mr. Justice Darley, the highest authority in the State of New South 
 Wales, made the following declaration re the Act: "It is beyond ques- 
 tion that the Arbitration Act as in force in this State is an Act which 
 is derogation of the common law. It does encroach upon the liberty of 
 the subject as regards persons and property. It creates new crimes 
 unknown to common law or contained in any previous statute. It inter- 
 feres with the liberty of action of both employer and employee. * * * 
 Further, I think the Act is productive of the most alarming and deplor- 
 able amount of litigation with its concomitant ill-feeling and ill-will 
 between employers and employees, who are by this Act forced into 
 hostile camps. I believe the object of the legislature in passing this 
 
 95 
 
Act was to promote peace and goodwill between employers and em- 
 ployees, but I fear it has not done so." Subsequently Mr. Justice Hey- 
 don, President of the Court, referring to the numerous adverse de- 
 cisions given against the Court, said: "It had been riddled, shelled, 
 broken fore and aft, and reduced to a sinking hulk." In other words, 
 the regular courts had saved the people from a course of tyrannical 
 rule by this ''intruder" equaled only by that of the Neros of old. 
 
 Public opinion swung round, and called for Wages Boards, with 
 the result that the Act was so amended as to make the once-powerful 
 Court a Court of Appeal. Fortunately, out of evil came good. The 
 other States with such examples as New Zealand and New South Wales, 
 decided they would have" none of it, and Wages Boards, except in 
 Westralia (where an Arbitration Court had already been created), 
 became the vogue in all the States. Compulsory arbitration for the 
 settlement of strikes and industrial peace had been found wanting. 
 
 COMMONWEALTH ARBITRATION ACT. 
 
 One would have thought with such glaring examples before them 
 (for these Acts were in full vogue at the time), the Federal Govern- 
 ment, and that a so-called Liberal one, would have avoided creating such 
 a Court to look after Commonwealth industrial affairs, especially when 
 the power to deal with industrial conditions had only been agreed to 
 in the last Federal Convention by a small majority, with the under- 
 standing that such power would be provided only to meet a similar case 
 to that of the great maritime strike. 
 
 Section 51, when inserted in the Constitution for the prevention of 
 disputes extending beyond one State, was at the time looked upon as a 
 harmless preventive, but when the Bill was brought before the House 
 in 1904, it was found to be similar in many respects to the Acts of 
 New South Wales and New Zealand in all its autocratic powers, and 
 worse in one particular, that it had no lay representatives, but left every- 
 thing ^to the power of one man, in spite of the statement made by 
 Mr. Ashton already quoted, that "He did not believe any Supreme Court 
 judge had the requisite wisdom to perform that duty without committing 
 very serious errors." 
 
 The Act has had a similar effect upon the body politic to the New 
 South Wales Act, and the words of Mr. justice Darling apply equally 
 as apt to the Commonwealth Court, especially in the last paragraph: 
 "The Act is productive of the most alarming and deplorable amount of 
 litigation * * * and its object was to promote peace and goodwill be- 
 tween employers and employees, but I fear it has not done so." 
 
 Thousands of pounds have been spent by both employers and em- 
 ployees in the courts of law in "riddling" and "shelling" this iniquitous 
 Act. Eight years have been spent in hearing disputes by the Court, 
 whose decisions have in many cases been thrown out by the High Court. 
 Amendment after amendment have been made in the Act, with a view 
 of giving the Court greater and greater powers than even those men- 
 tioned by Mr. Ashton at the inception of the New South Wales Act, 
 and still no one is satisfied. Industrial peace is no nearer, and industrial 
 war is quite as frequent as before its passage as an Act. Strikes take 
 place all over the Commonwealth, and the leaders of the unions regis- 
 tered under the Court point-blank say: "We reserve the right to strike. 
 * * * A strike was the best weapon the workers had at the present time." 
 Agreements made are broken and the leaders recommend the men "that 
 unions should not bind themselves to their employers," and if an agree- 
 ment arrived at by both parties was not signed at the moment of a 
 contemplated strike, like in the case of the waterside workers and the 
 shipping companies, in which a penalty of 1,000 was inserted for strik- 
 ing, the men were encouraged "in waiving it on one side." Even in the 
 case of the great Brisbane strike, when 42 unions, who had nothing 
 
 96 
 
whatever to do with the original dispute, went out in sympathy, one of 
 which was the "Boot Employees' Union," registered under the Arbitra- 
 tion Court, and working under an agreement of that Court. 
 
 It is true this Court is very popular at the present moment with 
 employees, and registrations of unions are taking place every day; but at 
 the rate it is moving many of those anxiously awaiting at the door to 
 have their cases heard are likely to be grey-headed before admittance. 
 
 COMPULSORY ARBITRATION. 
 
 Compulsory arbitration, as an experiment in both Australia and 
 New Zealand, if put on the stage, as "Pinafore," would prove a most 
 successful, laughable farce, if it was not so serious to the Australian 
 people. It has set up war between the classes; it has set up trouble 
 between the States and the Commonwealth, having virtually offered a 
 premium to the union to stir up troubles in those trades under Wages 
 Boards, due to a late decision of the High Court that the Arbitration 
 Court cannot make an award inconsistent with the determination of a 
 Wages Board that is to say, it cannot fix wages lower than those fixed 
 by the Board, but can, if the employees appeal to the Court, increase the 
 same, the men well knowing if they fail they still must get the wage 
 fixed by the Board. Could anything be more one-sided? The Act has 
 truly become the Storm Centre in William street, as so-called by the 
 Hon. W. H. Irvine, M. H. R. 
 
 Much more could be written re the last amended Acts still giving 
 more powers to the Court but the glaring examples given in this 
 lengthy paper must suffice. * * * 
 
 The experience given above by the chief actors in connection with 
 the administration of this Act in New Zealand and Australia would in 
 any other country have been sufficient to have stopped the same being 
 put on the Commonwealth Statute Book, especially when the States 
 have provided legislation like Wages Boards, practically giving the 
 workers plentiful protection in wages, hours and conditions. Compulsory 
 arbitration is a drastic failure. Why not admit it? 
 
 Apprenticeship. 
 
 (See former reference) 
 
 In addition to what has already been said with respect to 
 the matter of apprentices, we call attention to this vital phase of 
 the industrial problem and emphasize the fact that limitation 
 of the number of apprentices which may be employed to a given 
 number of artisans is fixed by the Wages Boards. Therefore, 
 the opportunities for the youth of the country to acquire trades 
 and thereby increase the industrial efficiency of the nation are 
 limited by law; which, in reality and practical operation is, in 
 the last analysis, regulation by the labor unions. Moreover, the 
 prevailing high rate of wages fixed for common labor has a de- 
 terrent effect on the desire of young men to become skilled me- 
 chanics, but is an incentive to seek employment where remunera- 
 tion is high and industrial education altogether nil. 
 
 Australia and New Zealand both have built high protection 
 walls to protect their manufacturing industries against outside 
 competition; so, too, they have built equally high walls to keep 
 out internal development of their own industries by restricting 
 
 97 
 
the number of those who otherwise would become artisans and 
 upon whom the future industrial development of the country 
 must, necessarily, largely depend. The policy, to a thoughtful 
 man, aside from its repugnance, is much "like a man trying to 
 lift himself over a fence by pulling upon his boot straps." 
 
 The matter of constantly infusing new blood into the indus- 
 trial bodies of these countries is of such vital importance to their 
 growth and development that, if their present Governmental 
 policy of restriction of and discouragement to apprentices is 
 continued, they are sure to experience a gradual scarcity of 
 skilled mechanics, and it will not be long before they reach a 
 condition of industrial dry rot. 
 
 But little attention has heretofore been given to technical 
 training in the schools, although some interest in that direction 
 is just now being displayed. But of what little avail can be 
 any effort to teach the apprentice the theoretical side of the trade 
 he is seeking to learn when the very root of the proposition is 
 stunted by the restrictive policy which the Government itself 
 places upon its freedom and growth. 
 
 What's Wrong with Unionism ? 
 
 During our stay at Melbourne, it was our privilege to have 
 a number of interviews with Mr. J. T. Packer, Secretary of 
 the Liberal Workers' League, a political organization composed 
 of independent workers who are not in sympathy with the mili- 
 tant socialistic policy of the unions which dominate labor con- 
 ditions in Australia, and whom an effort is being made to band 
 together in a political organization to counteract the evil influ- 
 ence of that radical element of the Labor Party known as "Red 
 Feds." 
 
 We found Mr. Packer to be a man of wide experience in 
 industrial matters, a conscientious and intelligent representative 
 of the independent class of Australian workers, with whom it 
 was a pleasure to converse and to whom we are indebted for 
 much valuable information concerning the handicaps to the 
 "right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" which the 
 independent worker has to endure in Australia. Mr. Packer 
 is a union man and a firm believer in unionism when confined to 
 its proper and legitimate purposes and when founded on efficiency 
 and not deficiency. He is a fair representative of the average 
 Australian worker, who, our investigations lead us to believe, 
 is intelligent, frugal and conscientious, measuring up with the 
 average of those of any other country, and who sees and regrets 
 the evils of "the system" as much as anybody. 
 
But, although in the majority, he is powerless to change 
 them, because he is not organized and "the system" is. Mr. Packer 
 was "read out" of his union because of his expressions of pro- 
 test against some of the many arbitrary and unjust practices of 
 unionism as it is conducted. He is the author of a book of 200 
 pages, entitled "What's Wrong W T ith Unionism?" This report 
 would hardly be complete were we to fail to quote from it some 
 sentiments expressive of a working man's views on the kind of 
 unionism that is holding Australia in shackles. We shall, there- 
 fore, take the liberty to quote somewhat at length from the book, 
 because its author is a man who knows his subject and speaks 
 of things as they are and as we found them. And also, because 
 our mission was to make a thorough investigation of and report 
 in detail the true and actual industrial conditions in Australasia, 
 which having found to be as herein reported, we feel, as before 
 intimated, that a liberal share of the evidence upon which our con- 
 clusions are based should be presented in our report. 
 
 FROM "WHAT'S WRONG WITH UNIONISM?" 
 
 (PAGE 12) 
 
 As an Australian worker a strong believer in unionism, as a 
 former executive committeeman of a Victorian union, and a delegate 
 on the Trades Hall Council, my objective in penning these pages is 
 solely to place in cold print, concisely as possible, just the danger zones 
 and hidden snares that are today undermining the great superstructure 
 of Australian unionism, and which, if unheeded, will, as sure as night 
 follows day, bring ruin to the most wonderful industrial organization 
 the world has yet seen. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 16) 
 
 The idea is uppermost in the minds of present day leaders, that 
 unionism cannot progress unless there is discord and industrial warfare. 
 The Labor Daily at Ballarat, of January 30, 1913: "The union that 
 can't or won't keep on fighting should disband." This policy is still 
 further emphasized by Senator Rae, a representative of the Australian 
 Workers' Union in the Federal Parliament, who is reported in "Handard" 
 to have stated: "I hold that whether it is any big political issue, or any 
 industrial issue, force still holds sway, and that striking produces better 
 results than any other method yet found out." 
 
 This class of legislator, sent to sit in our Parliamentary Halls to 
 introduce legislation for the peaceful settlement of industrial disputes, 
 states clearly that, as far as the school of thought he belongs to is con- 
 cerned, it has no time for peace between man and man. "The right to 
 strike is the only weapon the workingman has,- and he will not give it up," 
 states the Hon. James Page, another prominent member of the A. W. U. f 
 sitting as a Parliamentary representative in our Federal Parliament. 
 Then again, the official organ of Australian unionism, the Sydney 
 Worker, in its issue of January 9, 1913, stated : "Don't be surprised if 
 1913 presents us with some of the greatest strikes on record. Labor 
 must not only be prepared to strike, but to back up the strike with armed 
 force go in for civil war, in fact." 
 
 Again, the New South Wales Trades Union Congress of 1912 had 
 a serious resolution to consider, which was only negatived by seven votes, 
 
 99 
 
which read that, "We demand the repeal of all Industrial Legislation that 
 takes away the right of contention and the right to strike." 
 
 The Sower, the monthly organ published through the union 
 office of the Melbourne Trades Hall, in January's issue, 1913, had an 
 article which read: "What an army of workers if well organised on 
 right lines and trained on the objects of more effective methods can 
 accomplish is illustrated in the Irritation Strike. At a given hour on a 
 fixed date all workers would suspend work suddenly; stay out a week, 
 and then return to their posts after a week or ten days' suspension, 
 acting as if nothing had happened. The manufacturers, thinking the 
 trouble had blown over, would start to run the factories full blast, when, 
 at a moment's notice, every man would walk out again, only to repeat 
 these methods over and over again, until the manufacturers were de- 
 moralized and the factories crippled. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 21) 
 
 Each State, as well as the Commonwealth itself, has laws for the 
 peaceful adjustment of wages and conditions of labor. The need for the 
 expensive strike levies has been completely done away with by the 
 avenues thus opened up for the legal adjustment of industrial differences. 
 Yet, is it any wonder, when we consider the statements as expressed 
 earlier in this chapter by modern trade union leaders, that we find that 
 during the three years running from May I, 1910, to April 30, 1913, 
 no fewer than 349 strikes occurred in the Commonwealth, making an 
 average of over 115 for the 12 months? * * * 
 
 This is a startling position, mysterious as it may seem to those 
 who are in close touch with modern trade unionism. * * * 
 
 Those trade unionists who some years back saw in political action 
 a panacea whereby all their industrial ills could be righted, have experi- 
 enced a rude shock to their theories. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 22) 
 
 The hatred between the worker unorganized and the worker or- 
 ganized is the great fight now waging in democratic Australia. The 
 members of organized trade unions may still hate the capitalists, but 
 organized labor's hatred toward unorganized labor burns like a flame, 
 eats like nitric acid and is malignant beyond all description. * * 
 
 To refuse a man the right to work, and hound him from job to 
 job on account of his non-membership in a socialistic union is now 
 called a principle. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 23) 
 
 This policy of compelling a man to loaf on the job is now, in the 
 words of the unionistic leaders, the principle at stake. * * * It can safely 
 be stated that about 50 per cent, of these men inside organized labor's 
 ranks today are men who have been forced in the interest of peace and 
 their homes to pay into the union coffers. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 24) 
 
 The writer recently spoke to a man, an engineer working in a 
 large engineering establishment, whose views had always been expressed 
 in a moderate and reasonable manner, and when asked how it was that 
 he was willing to condone the revolutionary and immoral acts of modern 
 trade unionism in its boycotting and coercive methods, stated, what was 
 he to do, he was building up a home, had a wife and five children, to 
 keep. His house he was buying on time payment, and if he refused to 
 pay his money into the union, or attempted to utter his sentiments in 
 opposition to that of the union executive, his life would at once be made 
 so unpleasant in the workshop that he would be compelled to give up 
 his position. "So," he stated, "I am compelled to sink conscience, and 
 find it cheap peace at 6d. a week." * * * 
 
 100 
 
(PAGE 26) 
 
 The long suffering public, bending under such taxation, have, in the 
 light of recent and current events, been wondering in amazement at 
 the failure of the mass of political industrial machinery upon our State 
 and Commonwealth Statute Books, enacted at the cost of thousands of 
 pounds, at direct public expense, to bring about the long-hoped-for and 
 much-desired industrial peace and contentment. 
 
 Wages Boards have been introduced, and constituted by law to 
 adjust the differences between capital and labor; master and man sit 
 at one table, having equal rights, and equal votes, and with an inde- 
 pendent chairman. The Boards meet with perfect freedom, and under 
 Government protection. 
 
 Arbitration Courts have also been instituted, with the same objec- 
 tive. Yet, in the face of the Constitution providing such peaceful and 
 humanitarian methods to settle trade disputes and differences, Aus- 
 tralian workers are on every hand seething with discontent, and indus- 
 trial turmoil is rife in many quarters. In the face of all this, the bur- 
 dened and tired public asks, "Are strikes and trade and labor troubles 
 justified?" * * * 
 
 (PAGE 28) 
 
 The name of trades unionism is today inseparably linked with the 
 condonation of violence and other illegal acts, and frequently the courts 
 of our State are called upon to administer a well-deserved check. * * * 
 Although unionism has a fairly large number of workmen among its 
 members, * * * they have either been forced into its ranks by coercion, 
 or under pressure from a section of their fellow workers and the paid 
 agitator, or, in fear of being classed as "scabs" or "blacklegs," they, 
 for peace sake, become members. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 29) 
 
 Australian trades unionism today is an organized concreted cam- 
 paign, to pit class against class a warfare of hate and malice. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 30) 
 
 The moment a union gets strong enough, it begins a policy of 
 restricting membership, restringing apprentices and improvers, restricting 
 output, and in many other ways limiting and controlling the particular 
 industry for the advantage of its own members and to the disadvantage 
 of those outside its ranks, whether they be employers or working men, 
 or boys desiring to learn a trade. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 31) 
 
 As we are all aware. Compulsory Conciliation and Arbitration is 
 the law of the land. Coincident with it we have disputes in almost 
 every industry to an extent never known before. This lamentable state 
 of affairs is most injurious to the workers of the community, who, 
 forming, as they do, the? majority of the population, feel most keenly 
 any stoppage of industry. From the outset, the Compulsory Conciliation 
 and Arbitration principle had many opponents. The term is in itself a 
 misnomer, since conciliation presupposes compromise, and a desire on 
 the part of those concerned to meet each other's views hardly compatible 
 with the compulsory condition of the law. In the same way, since 
 Arbitration means settling disputes without an appeal to law, the com- 
 pulsory element necessarily destroys the principle of arbitration. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 32) 
 
 That the result of the experiment has not been wholly satisfactory, 
 the most ardent of the advocates must admit. Their remedy is simple. 
 "More arbitration," they declare, is wanted, but when this is inquired 
 into, it will be found that this simply means "more compulsion." * * * 
 
 101 
 
(PAGE 35) 
 
 "No differentiation" is the watchword, and that in time means the 
 production of one vast level. The Wages Board principle recognizes the 
 rights of both sides to consideration, but the Arbitration Court system 
 in its latest development considers the interests of only one side, and 
 would have the Court, its judges and officers simply existing to register 
 the decision of the labor bodies. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 36) 
 
 Australia industrially is groaning under the weight of legislative 
 regulation and prohibition. Less law-making is now wanted and more 
 confidence. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 46) 
 
 The much debated question of preference to unionists has reached 
 a position in Australia of well-nigh breaking point. When first intro- 
 duced in the Federal Act it was thought it would act in a manner that 
 would result in the unions adopting clean methods and a peaceful atti- 
 tude in connection with the settlement of industrial disputes, but such 
 a position has not been realized. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 49) 
 
 Perhaps the greatest setback as far as the repulsion of public sym- 
 pathy is concerned, that has yet been received by organized labor, was 
 when on September 18, 1911, the Labor Prime Minister, Mr. Andrew 
 Fisher, received a deputation from union officials of the Melbourne 
 Trades Hall, and afterward announced that it was intended that as far 
 as the administrative policy of that Labor Government was concerned, 
 preference was to be given to unionists in Government employ. With a 
 large majority in the House, the Government knew that it had a three 
 years' run to go, and under the cracking of the socialistic whip the 
 Cabinet was compelled to state its policy in black and white, and the 
 mandate was issued that in the engagement of all temporary employees 
 in the Home Affairs Department of the Commonwealth, preference to 
 unionists was to be given. At once there was a public outcry against 
 this altogether unprecedented policy of spoils for the victors as far as 
 Australian public life was concerned. It was found that out of 34,000 
 persons employed by the Commonwealth, 19,000 were outside the control 
 of the Public Service Commissioner, and who could be engaged outside 
 the ordinary policy of examination, etc., which is usual in the appoint- 
 ments made in Government offices. The Leader of the Opposition, 
 Mr. Alfred Deakin, moved a motion of want of confidence in the 
 Government. He moved: "That in the opinion of this House, the 
 preference in obtaining and retaining employment recently introduced 
 into his Department by the Minister of Home Affairs, is unjust and 
 oppressive; prejudicial alike to the public interest, and to the public 
 servants, and to the relations between Parliament and the public servants." 
 The issue was made a party one, and of course, having a majority, the 
 union representatives in the House carried it. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 52) 
 
 The Secretary of the Amalgamated Miners' Association stated: 
 "Our unionists will not work with non-unionists. If Mr. Cook wishes 
 to break up unionism he will find that he is more likely to cause a civil 
 war. If Mr. Cook wants to clog the wheels of industrial life, he is going 
 the right way to do it." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 56) 
 
 Within two years, no less than 16 independent unions have been 
 created that acknowledge the identity of interest between capital and 
 labor, and who eagerly have concentrated their activities on the im- 
 provement of the workers' conditions; the upholding of the law of the 
 
 102 
 
land, and the utilising of the legislative facilities for the adjustment of 
 industrial disputes. Whether the forces of socialistic unionism, with 
 its attendant weapons of the boycott, threat, and intimidation, will be 
 so strong as to stultify the further extension of this movement, has yet 
 to be proved. But, in its policy of compulsory unionism, it has been 
 settled in the eyes of the union boss that a man can only be a unionist, 
 according to his vision, by being affiliated with a political or socialistic 
 union; and attempts are being made in a manner which holds up the 
 workers' cause to the strong criticism of public opinion, to force these 
 independent unionists into the ranks of socialistic bossdom. Yet the 
 fallacy of this position is worth reviewing, and if the rank and file of 
 present day unionists can be made to think for themselves, there is still 
 time to check the dangerous policy which is now being carried on by 
 its leaders. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 64) 
 
 Another fine example of unionists' tyranny was evidenced recently 
 in Western Australia in connection with the Carters' strike. 
 
 Here the men, contrary to the law made by their own Parliamentary 
 representatives, decided to use force rather than avail themselves of the 
 peaceful means of adjusting their demands. 
 
 Apparently, no doubt realizing their demands were unjust and that 
 a Court of Equity would rule against them, they took the matter into 
 their own hands, and made an endeavor to hold up industry in the 
 capital of that State. Other workers in that city then took up the 
 cause of the men, and on behalf of the general public made an endeavor 
 to keep the wheels going round. 
 
 At once the Secretary of the local socialistic union council issued 
 a letter to all affiliated unions, calling on all fellow unionists to treat the 
 independent workers as rats, and to make their life the life a rat ought 
 to live, for no other guilt than their decision to abide by the law of 
 the land. 
 
 The daily labor paper of Broken Hill recently openly stated in a 
 leading article, that as far as unionism was concerned, it recognized no 
 liberty of the individual. That socialistic unionism was the only channel 
 through which Australian workers could be represented, and all workers 
 outside its domination, whether organized or not, were traitors to them- 
 selves and to the State, and the employment of every justifiable means to 
 procure either their conversion or extinction was more than vindicated 
 by its urgent necessity. Yet still the fight goes on between worker and 
 worker. * * '* 
 
 (PAGE 65) 
 
 Apparently the reason why some unions are still in a measure 
 availing themselves of the legislative methods of dealing with their 
 industrial disputes, is the fact that they are not strong enough numeri- 
 cally to do without it. This strange position was emphasized by one 
 of the leaders in Victorian trade unionism recently, who in the press 
 was reported to have stated : "He recommended that if a union was 
 strong enough to do without a Wages Board it should not have one. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 66) 
 
 On Sunday, August, 1913, the Amalgamated Miners' Union at 
 Broken Hill, where the shop assistants were on strike, passed the fol- 
 lowing resolution: 
 
 "That this association pledges itself to strike a levy of 6d. per 
 member per week to assist the shop assistants and warehouse employees 
 in their industrial trouble, provided that they do not go to a Wages 
 Board for a settlement of their dispute, and that the levy be dispensed 
 by the Executive of the A. M. A., who are to arrange with the Executive 
 of the Shop Assistants' Federation for the disposal of the levy col- 
 lected." 
 
 103 
 
There we have a union offering a monetary bribe to another union 
 if it will evade and ignore the lawful Wages Board. Surely this posi- 
 tion will open the other eyes of the extreme unionistic partisan. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 71) 
 
 With all the much boasted legislation put on the Australian Statute 
 Books at the cost of many thousands of pounds, and as the outcome of 
 the enlightened intellect of educated workers, yet in the face of all this 
 discord still exists. Penalties for the disobeying of the law have little, 
 if any effect. Unions willingly pay the cost of huge fines oftentimes 
 inflicted upon them as the direct result of the rash leadership of those 
 in authority. It seems as if the way to prevent strikes is not in the 
 direction of punishments by the legislative penalties. The Chief In- 
 spector of Factories in Melbourne recently stated that all legislation 
 passed hitherto to that end had been abortive. Neither direct punish- 
 ment, nor courts, nor Boards of Conciliation have had any real effect. 
 Apart from the doubtful quality of such legislation it is wrong in prin- 
 ciple from the fact that it attacks the effect and not the cause. We must 
 remove the cause of strikes, he said. * * * In Australia the cause of indus- 
 trial discontent at the present time is not that the conditions under 
 which men labor are injurious or harmful, it is not that wages generally 
 are low or hours of labor long, but it can be attributed more or less to 
 the harmful influence of the class hatred policy of the syndicalist and 
 man of revolutionary methods. Rid organized labor of this policy, substi- 
 tute one which gives equal opportunities to all and favors to none, and 
 which will endeavor to educate democracy along the line of rational 
 enlightenment; together with the preaching of the highest ideals of 
 Christian Brotherhood, and then there will be a reasonable hope of 
 industrial peace. 
 
 Perhaps there is not more irritating factor causing bitter antagon- 
 ism of employers toward labor unions than that of the blatant manner 
 in which modern unions break agreements. It is a common occurrence 
 for unions to break legitimate agreements made between employers and 
 men, at the shortest notice. As an example of this can be quoted the 
 case of the colliery proprietors in New South Wales. 
 
 During 1912 a joint Conciliation Committee was appointed, and for 
 some time was occupied in the position of mediator between the em- 
 ployers and employees in connection with industrial matters in that 
 district. 
 
 As the outcome of friction, the employers' representatives withdrew 
 from the Committee, and the following letter, dictated by the Secretary 
 of the Colliery Proprietors' Defence Association, was sent to the Secre- 
 tary of the Colliery Employees' Federation: 
 
 Dear Sir: I beg to advise you that the colliery proprietors at 
 their meeting today decided to withdraw from the joint conciliation 
 committee. When the committee was constituted it was clearly under- 
 stood that there could be no excuse for interruptions in trade caused 
 by stoppages of collieries by individual lodges, but the committee had 
 not long been in existence before the colliery owners had to put up- 
 with the same state of affairs as existed prior thereto. 
 
 There is no need for me to dilate upon the serious effect which 
 those sudden stoppages have upon the trade of the port, because this 
 has been pointed out to your federation upon numerous occasions in 
 the past, so much so that the miners must realize what their actions 
 mean to the colliery proprietors and the conduct of their business. 
 However, the colliery proprietors have manifested a considerable amount 
 of forbearance in overlooking the transgressions of the miners, but 
 despite repeated warnings which have gone forth from the owners' 
 representatives on the joint committee the position is not improved, but 
 rather the contrary. 
 
 104 
 
As you are aware, the joint committee held its first meeting on the 
 28th February of last year, and up to the I4th November, a period of 
 eight months and a half, no fewer than 44 stoppages are recorded. 
 At this particular stage the joint committee arrived at the conclusion 
 that unless something could be done to put a stop to these cessations of 
 work, which were seriously interfering with the operations of the joint 
 committee, that tribunal would be rendered useless. 
 
 The committee was then adjourned for a week, and in the mean- 
 time the miners, through the medium of the combined lodge meetings, 
 were appealed to to observe that portion of the constitution of the joint 
 committee which provided for disputes being referred to it, instead of 
 laying the mines idle. Every lodge in the district was appealed to in this 
 way, and the result in every case was a unanimous decision not to inter- 
 fere with the work of the committee by the cessation of work at the 
 mines. The committee then got to work again, and in a brief period of a 
 month between that time and the adjournment of the Christmas vacation, 
 on 23rd December last, there were fewer than six stoppages, and since 
 the latter date the Rhonda, Burwood and Elermore Vale collieries have 
 been stopped, to say nothing of the aggregate meeting which was held 
 on Monday last when nearly the whole of the Maitland collieries were 
 laid idle. This is a position which the proprietors refuse to tolerate 
 any longer and has led to the decision arrived at by them referred to in 
 the opening sentence of this letter. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 75) 
 
 A leading employers' journal recently stated: "While it is manifest 
 that unless labor tyranny is to be allowed to run rampant, a counter- 
 acting combination must be formed." This is the lesson of experience. 
 There has never been any combination between employers which has 
 not been preceded by a combination of workers. Self-defence compels 
 employers to combine. Before that, it was the union boss who attacked 
 them singly and defeated them easily. * * * This clash of arms between 
 Capital and Labor can have no good result. The damage that will be 
 done before common sense rule is established will be immense. In Bris- 
 bane during the general strike, when the employers combined and locked 
 put many of their workers, while the unions called out others, is a case 
 in point. Because the Courts ruled against the workers and the forces 
 of law and order were brought into focus to maintain peace and order 
 in the city, the official organ of organized labor in Australia, The 
 Worker, in its issue of January 9, 1913, stated: "As the case has been 
 decided against them so, labor must not only be prepared to strike, 
 
 but to back up the strike by armed force go in for civil war in fact." 
 
 * * * 
 
 (PAGE 78) 
 
 The Australian public is living dangerously near the edge of a 
 volcano. So far the outbursts have been brought more or less under 
 control before whole communities have become engulfed in disaster, but 
 the escape has been perilously narrow more than once. Unionism ap- 
 pears to have lost its sense of responsibility. 
 
 Theoretically, under industrial arbitration, labor surrenders the 
 right to strike, and relies upon the law to see that it gets fair treatment 
 at the hands of the employers. But legal "Awards" have given only 
 partial satisfaction to labor. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 79) 
 
 At Broken Hill, the home of "modern and advanced unionism," 
 a controversy recently waged hot and strong in the local labor press on 
 a proposal that "experienced men should be excluded from union mem- 
 bership," on the theory that being "experienced" he may some day be- 
 come a boss, and would then know all the "secrets" of unionism. It was 
 
 105 
 
"allowing the enemy to enter the camp," was the text of this strange 
 argument. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 83) 
 
 It is increased productivity that gives wages a natural rise. Pro- 
 ductivity or efficiency is the legitimate reason for higher wages. No one 
 knows the justice of this principle better than the crafty militant union 
 leader; but it pays him better to keep in with the "new school," and 
 thus we have the strange anomaly that while the wages in Australia are 
 among the highest in the world for all classes of skilled and unskilled 
 labor, and hours are shorter than many other of the foremost countries 
 of the world, yet still Australia is teeming with industrial unrest. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 87) 
 
 It is not often that unionism is prepared to listen to the advice of 
 an employers' organization, but it will act as "balance" to hear the 
 opinions of the President of a Victorian Employers' Association, a well- 
 known and respected public man, and one who has, unlike the union 
 leaders of the Barrier, been able to make a success of his own business. 
 In a recent speech he is reported as stating the following solemn truths : 
 "Men were not refusing to join unions," he said, "because they 
 wished to sneak out of paying for any advantages that might be derived 
 from its work, but because such a state of tyranny was being built up 
 that those who otherwise would be willing to pay their share would have 
 nothing to do with an organization which meant their surrender of every 
 vestige of personal freedom and respect." This is the truth, and 
 Australian workers know it, although it is an employer who so plainly 
 states the position. 
 
 Yes, it can be truthfully stated, "that self-respect" is at stake today. 
 What self-respecting worker would be willing to financially support a 
 union that employs as its official organizer one who stands before his 
 admirers and states: 
 
 "If a non-unionist is wheeling a truck, put sand on his wheels; if 
 he asks you for a light, strike a match, blow it out and put the box 
 back in your pocket. Never speak to him. If you are a 'shouting' in 
 a pub., leave him out; if he is shouting, leave yourself out. Don't insult 
 him or hurt him, for it will only arouse sympathy for him, but if anyone 
 else is punching his head, don't try to stop him. I know a lot of you 
 would like to throw all non-unionists into the Murray, but don't do 
 that. Still, if you see one drowning, don't go to help him." 
 
 Apparently, there is hardly a limit to which the "extreme" union 
 official will not go to incite his dupes. 
 
 And a further serious aspect is presented when we consider that 
 the United Laborers' Union, the employees or the organizer who holds 
 and states these anarchical views is affiliated with the Trades Hall Coun- 
 cils of the various States, and it was from this Council that the recent 
 Federal Labor Government received a deputation of union bosses, who 
 urged the following condition: , 
 
 "That in connection with Commonwealth work, preference be given 
 to unionists, i. e., that in cases where workmen were required by Com- 
 monwealth Departments, such men should be engaged through the 
 Trades Hall." 
 
 And the reply of the Labor Prime Minister, the custodian of the 
 public purse, was: 
 
 "In regard to your representations in favor of preference to union- 
 ists, that is the policy of the Government. As to hiring the men through 
 the Trades Hall, so far from being antagonistic to the proposal, I am 
 decidedly in favor of it." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 90) 
 
 War breeds after its kind, so do strikes and their progeny is hatred, 
 uncharitableness and all ill-will. They leave behind them legacies of 
 
 106 
 
bitterness. They may sweep away some abuses but they generally 
 create more. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 92) 
 
 Nowadays, organized labor itself, through its governments, has 
 declared the strike illegal in Australia, and has finally adopted a new 
 method of getting justice. Yet within three years we have had no less 
 a number than 349 distinct breakings of the law. Yet no official of 
 organized labor has so far told the strikers that they are a new kind 
 of "scab." "It is about time," stated the Sydney Bulletin recently, 
 "that somebody did so; assuming that organized labor is in earnest in 
 finally adopting arbitration as its weapon, and if it is not in earnest, it 
 had better drop the pretence overboard at once." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 96) 
 
 There is no time in unionistic ranks for independence of thought. 
 As an indication of this, in the Melbourne Argus of ipth July, 1912, was 
 reported what appears to be another example of union tyranny, which 
 has led to the resignation of a member of one of the principal Wages 
 Boards in Victoria. This man was a representative of the employees 
 on this Board, and on one or two occasions happening to find himself 
 in agreement with the employers sitting on the board, he voted with them. 
 For this act he was summoned to appear before the Committee of the 
 union, and asked for an explanation. His defence apparently did not 
 satisfy the Committee, and he was informed that "no matter that my 
 own opinions were rightly or wrongly, I must on all occasions vote 
 with the union members of the board." The employee declined to submit 
 to these orders, and at once intimated his resignation, and in a letter to 
 the Department he explained the circumstances and stated "rather than 
 sacrifice my own will and become a mere automaton, I will retire and 
 allow one who is not so particular to do their will." This is the action 
 of a brave man, and it is needless to state how he will fare in the future 
 at the hands of the union boss. * * * 
 
 (PAGE no) 
 
 The unionistic politicians in their socialistic gospel tell the workers, 
 that Nationalisation is the only panacea for their industrial troubles ; but 
 this is not justified by convincing evidence. In New South Wales, the 
 Government's own railways were disorganized by the rash actions of 
 trades union employees, as reported more fully elsewhere. 
 
 The great Victorian railway strike is another instance where Na- 
 tionalisation failed in its "peace" qualities. 
 
 The Hon. Alfred Deakin, one of the most liberal and democratic 
 of the Australian statesmen, and a prominent leader in the Anti-Sweat- 
 ing League, summed^ up the position in a recent speech dealing with 
 the industrial unrest : 
 
 "The solution which appears to find most favor with the labor 
 politicians or from the people who support them most loudly is that 
 of universal employment by and under a legislature elected by that 
 community. One can hardly conceive of a worse or more unworkable 
 method. The confusion of the business of politics of the financial 
 interests of individuals and classes with the comprehensive interests of 
 the nation would occasion the worst encounters, and threatens the most 
 disastrous results." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 112) 
 
 The statement published in an interview with the Labor Minister 
 of Works in N. S. W., at the conclusion of the Railway strike, surely 
 is sufficient evidence to prove that the opinions of the other statement 
 as quoted here are worthy of serious consideration and study by all 
 wage-earners. 
 
 "We can no longer logically propose the Nationalisation of indus- 
 
 TO; 
 
tries as a cure for industrial trouble," is the judgment of this Labor 
 Minister of State; then, following up this contention, unionists will re- 
 call the statement of the Minister of Labor in that same N. S. W. 
 Labor Cabinet. If the unions are everlastingly kicking at the people, 
 the people will kick back at the unions. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 118) 
 
 Universal discontent and general disgust with the present state of 
 industry is probably an accurate summary of the views of any intelligent 
 observer today. Everything is unsettled; no one seems anxious to find 
 points of agreement. 
 
 The theory of a normal attitude of criticism and cynicism holds 
 the field. "When there should be a willingness," recently wrote a well- 
 known student of industrialism, "to meet men for discussion sullenness 
 prevails, and altogether, the first decade of this 2Oth century closes a 
 chapter of pessimism." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 128) 
 
 For, after all, there is much wisdom in the statement of the writer 
 who said, "The disease of strike is really the disease of loaf in a bad 
 form a disease that can kill the healthiest nation quicker than the guns 
 of a possible invader." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 130) 
 
 Tt has been shrewdly suggested in the columns of the press that the 
 best remedy for strikes would be disfranchisement. There is very much 
 to be said for that view. Every striker who defies the law, having a legal 
 remedy in a Wages Board or Arbitration Court, and who flouts both 
 and flies to strike violence, is a criminal, and as a criminal should be 
 deprived of his franchise. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 132) 
 
 Is it to be finally concluded then that this "slow-down" policy, which 
 is so often quoted about by employers, is as bad as reported? What an 
 advertisement for a young, developing country, which is rising to take 
 its place among the manufacturing countries of the world. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 134) 
 
 Another case where the doctrine of the "slow-down" policy stands 
 condemned was recently cited by a South Australian politician in dealing 
 with higher wages and less work. He said: 
 
 "Take bricklayers. A few years ago, when a bricklayer's wage was 
 9s. a day he used to lay about 800 bricks, but today when his wages run 
 from 135. to 155., or i6s., he lays about 400 bricks. Let us get back to 
 the building of a cottage which today costs 270. Where does the dif- 
 ference in cost come in? The value of the timber, on which there is 
 not a considerable amount of labor bestowed for that four-roomed 
 cottage, has not increased by more than at the very outside 30. But the 
 cost of building that cottage was nearly doubled. The point is that 
 socialism is aiming at equality. They are aiming at an impossible thing. 
 No such thing as equality is possible unless they destroy liberty. If 
 you have equality, there is no liberty, and if you have liberty there can 
 be no equality. 
 
 The Socialistic Labor principle of today is to pull everyone down 
 to the level of the average man, and then call themselves democrats. 
 True democracy means calling every man up to the height of his capacity 
 for service. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 143) 
 
 There is a call an urgent call at the present time being made to 
 Australian workers to rise up from the mire into which they have been 
 dragged, and to respond to their better nature, and the appeal from the 
 
 108 
 
general public for justice and for sane reasoning. This bitter hatred 
 between Capital and Labor must be turned down. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 171) 
 
 A skilled worker representing a powerful union said at a recent 
 sitting that he and his colleagues were sent there to get increases, no 
 matter what their own individual opinions might be. They would only 
 vote the one way, and he supposed the employers' delegates would vote 
 the other way, so that the chairman would have to make the decision. 
 It did not matter what increase the Board gave; the unions were de- 
 termined to go on and ask for more. They had no minimum, and no 
 concern as to what effect it had on the industry. If it meant killing it, 
 then it would have to be killed. If they did not carry out their in- 
 structions, they would at once be shunted, and others more determined 
 would take their place. They were out for all they could possibly get, 
 regardless of any other issue, and the future must be left to take care 
 of itself. This was an honest exposition of the policy of the Trades 
 Hall and employees' delegates to the Wages Board, and correctly inter- 
 preted their attitude at the meetings, which were really degenerating into 
 a farce. The question of increase of wages had today no relation to 
 the condition of an industry or its ability to bear the burden of increased 
 wages' cost. The only solution they saw was that when an industry 
 could not further continue by passing the increased cost on to the 
 public, the Government must proceed to prohibitive duties, or, better 
 still, nationalise all industries. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 182) 
 
 The issue is plain. It is not whether political unionism is right or 
 wrong. It is now more than an issue ; it is nearing a crisis. It is a 
 struggle between law and lawlessness. It is an issue that has now reached 
 its culmination in this country? 
 
 Today the Australian people each man, woman and child of whom 
 is directly interested in our common industrial welfare must face the 
 question whether socialistic and ofttimes criminal unionism or law and 
 order and common justice, shall prevail. * * * 
 
 (PAGE 204) 
 
 Recently a large employer of labor said: 
 
 "I have dealt with organized labor for perhaps 20 years, and we 
 have kept our industry running, but at the expense of much thought, 
 time, and money, and all we have so far been able to accomplish, has 
 simply been to sit on the safety valve and prevent an explosion. How 
 long we shall be able to do this is problematical." * * * 
 
 (PAGE 206) 
 
 Even though this appeal from a worker to workers is as a man 
 crying out in a wilderness, yet just as surely as the sun rises and sets, 
 the peaceful solution of labor problems must eventually obtain if this 
 country is to advance. Men of great foresight and broad views are 
 coming to understand this as never before, and the doctrine here taught, 
 will, I believe, find a lodgment in the hearts of all classes, and then 
 the day of the square deal will surely dawn. 
 
 Woman Suffrage. 
 
 In the matter of political franchise in Australia, the right 
 to vote at all elections is extended to women equally with men, 
 and, as this right of franchise is of long standing, the argument 
 that woman suffrage will purify politics and better the condi-* 
 tion of women does not hold good in these countries. We dis- 
 
 109 
 
cussed this question with many men and women, in both New 
 Zealand and Australia, and found no one who did not express 
 the opinion, substantially, that the votes of women were more 
 responsible for the unfavorable industrial conditions than any 
 other influence, for the reason that the political power of the 
 organized forces was doubled by the women's vote, while the 
 vote of the unorganized classes was not proportionately increased 
 because of the indifference and apathy of the women of these 
 classes, particularly among the society women, who take but little 
 or no interest in political matters. In fact, so far as our obser- 
 vations extended, the interests of women would be the better 
 safeguarded if left entirely in the hands of the men. To us, 
 a most lamentable spectacle of disrespect for womanhood is the 
 general custom of "barmaids" in the saloons of Australasia, in 
 most of which women, instead of men, dispense the liquids. If 
 woman suffrage means anything at all, it should never permit 
 the existence of a system so degrading to womanhood as the 
 passing out of beer and whiskey over saloon bars, and the fact 
 that such is the common custom throughout Australasia, where 
 for many years women have exercised the right to .vote, does 
 not warrant the claim that woman suffrage is either beneficial 
 or elevating to womanhood. So far as we could ascertain, 
 Parliament has not enacted a single ^law especially beneficial to 
 or at the instance of women during its existence. Social in- 
 dustrial justice has not been advanced by the votes of women, 
 else class domination and color discrimination would have 
 ceased. 
 
 "A White Australia." 
 
 One cannot mingle very long among the people of Australia 
 without realizing the fact that many of them have strong preju- 
 dices against every human being through whose veins flows a 
 drop of blood which gives to the skin a tinge of yellow, black or 
 brown. Their slogan is, "A White Australia," for admission to 
 which no member of the colored races need apply. They have 
 buried, deep down in oblivion, all memory of the fact that this 
 country which they now so boldly declare shall be a "white man's 
 country" was, not so very long ago, a black man's country, 
 and that, had the aborigines, who are of the blackest of black 
 men, adopted the policy that none but black, yellow or brown 
 men should inhabit it, the white man might just now be a curi- 
 osity in Australia, and these same aborigines, instead of being 
 hived together in a little section by themselves, might be enjoy- 
 ing that which is justly their own. 
 
 There is no country or spot of ground in the wide world, 
 no matter by what people inhabited, that the white man does 
 
 1 10 
 
not invade just as soon as he discovers there is wealth to be 
 obtained there, and his first move is to grab all that is worth 
 having and drive the natives "into their holes." Every man, 
 of whatever race or color, has the right to go anywhere on earth 
 to seek the opportunity to earn a living and accumulate wealth, 
 if he goes about it honestly and does not intrude on the rights 
 of others or violate the law. To discriminate against a China- 
 man, Japanese, Hindu, or any other human being by uncondi- 
 tionally denying them this right, while granting it to all others, 
 is a crime not only against these people, but against the Creator 
 of all men, for which, some day, the white man will have to 
 render an account. 
 
 There are more than 450,000,000 people in China, 325,000,- 
 ooo in India, 36,000,000 in Java and 50,000,000 in Japan, a total 
 of approximately 861,000,000 in these four countries alone, be- 
 sides many more millions scattered throughout the Far East, all 
 of whom come under the ban of Australia's "White Man's" 
 policy. The combined area of China, India, Java and Japan is 
 approximately 6,367,400 square miles, having an average of 
 135 persons to the square mile, while Australia has 2,974,581 
 square miles with an average of a trifle over one and one-half 
 persons to the square mile. 
 
 The white man in all countries, particularly in America, 
 is spending millions of dollars annually in the support of mis- 
 sionaries to teach the yellow, black and brown races to aspire to 
 higher ideals, and at the same time they are denying these per- 
 sons the right of opportunity to obtain the higher standard of 
 living which they are educating them to aspire to. Surely there 
 is no consistency in such "benevolence," and the higher education 
 which these people are gradually acquiring is opening their eyes 
 to the insults which the "white man" is heaping upon them. 
 Bitter will be the punishment when the accounting is demanded, 
 perhaps in less than fifty years hence. They have a real griev- 
 ance to settle, and the sooner the "white man" silences the dema- 
 gogues who cater and truckle to the shrieks of labor agitators 
 and undesirable "white" citizens and treat these people fairly, the 
 farther off will the day of reckoning be, and the less serious its 
 consequences. Many Australians realize this and are filled with 
 fear that, particularly, China and Japan have designs on Austra- 
 lia's vast area of peopleless territory as a relief station for their 
 already over-crowded and ever-increasing population. These 
 labor agitators are insisting upon social industrial justice for 
 their own privileged few, while flagrantly compelling the Govern- 
 ment to deny it to these and all non-unionists and employers. 
 
 Mention the subject to almost any man you chance to talk 
 
 in 
 
with and he will express the fear, if not the belief, that unless 
 they manage to settle up the country before very long, the 
 "Japs" or the Chinese will people it for them, in spite of their 
 restrictive color laws and in face of any defence that Australia 
 could possibly muster, with her compulsory trained army and 
 infant navy, and such short-sighted Governmental discrimination 
 would itself furnish the cause of war. The Japanese-British 
 alliance may be relied upon temporarily to appease the situation 
 and delay the day of reckoning, but when the day for retribution 
 does come, no alliance will stand in the way of its execution. 
 Take, for example, Queensland, with 670,000 square miles and 
 656,000 population, and the Northern Territory, 523,000 square 
 miles and 3,700 population. If, perchance, there should some 
 fine morning be 50,000,000 people landed on the shores of these 
 two spots on the map, they would then only be one-third as 
 thickly peopled as are the countries named in the above estimate. 
 Land now worth ten "bobs" (shillings) an acre would then rise 
 in value an hundredfold, and, in accordance with the socialistic 
 or communistic theory, toward which Australia is rapidly drift- 
 ing, why should those people be crowded into the sea when there 
 are such large areas of unpopulated country near by which by 
 dint of hard toil, for which they are noted, they could cultivate 
 and enjoy the privilege of performing their fair share in the eco- 
 nomic problem of life. "But," cries the workless agitator, "we 
 can't compete with coolie labor." No such cry comes from the 
 business man, notwithstanding the fact that the demagogic poli- 
 ticians in Australia, as in the United States, pander to an or- 
 ganized labor monopoly and use their influence in Parliament to 
 further legislation tending to promote the interests of the shift- 
 less and improvident, at the expense of the thrifty and compe- 
 tent, and at the same time, and by the same means, further a 
 condition of ruthless competition in business. 
 
 The socialistic labor unionists and their sympathizers are 
 infected with the craven idea that if the man of color is permitted 
 to settle in Australia, a few years will see the black man, the 
 yellow and the brown man "in the saddle," and in superior 
 authority to themselves. It is as common in Australia as it is 
 in the United States for public demagogues who wax fat in 
 their profession to talk a great deal about the "dignity of labor," 
 while all laborers would willingly forego their share of the dignity 
 if they could rid themselves of the necessity. If, then, there is 
 so much dignity in labor, the Chinese and the Japanese coolies 
 are supreme in all its glory, for they can teach the "white man" 
 how to labor and what labor really is, yet we hear not a word 
 from them about its dignity. To exclude them, unconditionally, 
 
 112 
 
from any country is to fear them, and if they are inferior, to 
 fear them is cowardice of the rankest kind. 
 
 If a Chinaman or a "Jap," or any other so-called man of 
 color, can do certain work for less pay than the so-called white 
 man and do it as well or better, he certainly is entitled to par- 
 ticipate in the "dignity of labor" and its economic results in any 
 country in which labor is dignity, and, after all that is said 
 against him, if you will compare the coolie, for example, with 
 the thousands of shiftless loafers and bums that swarm the 
 parks, the wharfs and saloons of Australia, and with the millions 
 of undesirables we not only admit but welcome to the United 
 States as "white men," you will find them far more desirable 
 residents in any community, for they are a peaceably inclined, 
 law abiding, provident, temperate and industrious people. They 
 are frugal in their habits and get as much for their -labor as 
 economic conditions will allow. They adapt themselves to cir- 
 cumstances and waste nothing. Their "white" antagonists could, 
 if they would, learn from them a lesson in this respect that would 
 be most helpful in lessening the discontent that is so prevalent 
 among themselves. These people are polite and courteous by 
 nature, and their natural bent is in the direction of good citizen- 
 ship rather than toward being a burden upon society. 
 
 During 24 days' stay in four principal cities in China, one 
 in Manchuria and three in Japan, we made frequent visits to the 
 coolie districts without witnessing a single drunk or disorderly 
 person, while in Australia we found drunkenness to be a com- 
 mon pastime. 
 
 Australians of all classes are liberal spenders. A favorite 
 argument of the labor agitator against these excluded classes 
 is, that they don't spend their money, while the Australian worker 
 does, and is, therefore, a better man in a community. This may 
 be good logic, but a thoughtful man will hardly admit that a 
 man who wastes his surplus earnings is a better citizen than 
 one who saves them for a- rainy day. 
 
 While, as we have stated, Australia is a country of great 
 natural resources, it is not without its pests and natural draw- 
 backs. In Queensland there are hundreds of thousands of 
 acres of wonderfully fertile land so thickly covered with prickly 
 pear (cactus) that it cannot be utilized for any purpose, the 
 expense of destroying the pest being greater than the value of 
 the land when cleared. This pest is spreading so rapidly as to 
 cause serious alarm. 
 
 A scientist, who has been experimenting for a number of 
 years on a means of destroying the pest by some sort of manu- 
 factured gas, has entered into a contract with the Government 
 
 "3 
 
to undertake to clear 100,000 acres on condition that if he is suc- 
 cessful in the venture the land is to be deeded to him. In all our 
 travels through China and Japan we saw no land anywhere that 
 was covered with rank growths ; every foot of tillable ground be- 
 ing under a high state of cultivation, and we venture the asser- 
 tion that if Queensland would open her doors to a few thousand 
 Chinese or Japanese, and give them a portion of this prickly pear 
 land for clearing it they would find a way to annihilate the pest 
 and that they would transform prickly pear land into a veritable 
 garden of profitable agriculture, such as can be seen all over 
 China and Japan. 
 
 Then there is the white ant pest, with which Queensland 
 is especially seriously troubled. These little pests seem to have 
 an economic theory of their own ; unlike the labor unionists they 
 believe in industry as the best means of advancement. That they 
 are industrious and efficient, no one who has seen them at work 
 and examined the results of their labor will doubt. They seem all 
 to be "woodworkers" by trade, and bend their energies on honey- 
 combing the woodwork in houses, which it is the general custom 
 to build upon stilts or piles, with inverted pans, resembling ordi- 
 nary pie pans, at the top ends of the piles and under the sills of 
 the house. They say the ants won't venture to travel around 
 the edge walls of these pans, but confine their destructive opera- 
 tions to the piles, which, being ten to fifteen inches in diameter, 
 years of their labor is required to materially injure them. In 
 the country district, these enterprising "Miniature Socialists" en- 
 gage in home building. In motoring through woods around 
 Brisbane we saw hundreds of these ant houses or hills, as they 
 call them, some of which were fully six feet high and five or 
 six feet in diameter at the base. In external appearance these 
 houses resemble a tapering pile of baked clay, the interior of 
 which upon close examination will be found to contain millions 
 of fine cells which constitute the dwelling places of these busy 
 little insects, so that in reality these odd looking clay hills are 
 modern ants' tenement houses. 
 
 If there were a fair sprinkling of brown and yellow men, 
 or both, throughout Queensland, perhaps they would find a way 
 to eliminate these pests or turn them to some useful purpose. 
 But of all the pests with which Australia is infected, the rabbit 
 pest is the worst. The country is literally alive with rabbits, 
 and the question of their elimination is one of serious importance 
 to the farming and pastoral interests. They eat everything in 
 sight, and sight everything to eat. Farmers and pastoralists are 
 put to great and otherwise unnecessary expense, in erecting wire 
 netting fences around their lands, and which extend six inches 
 
 114 
 
to one foot below the surface of the ground. Then they set 
 out to trap, shoot, poison or otherwise destroy the pests that are 
 inside the fenced lands. Here again the Chinaman and Japa- 
 nese would come in handy in promoting the general welfare of 
 the country, for they would soon find a way to convert all the 
 rabbits into potpie, and thereby leave the sheep and cattle free 
 to enjoy that which is their own. 
 
 Then, again, Queensland, for example, is one of the finest 
 cotton growing pieces of country on earth, but no one cares to 
 engage in the industry because of labor conditions. If, how- 
 ever, coolie or negro labor could be had, the resources of 
 Queensland could be made to develop by leaps and bounds, and 
 which the narrow, selfish, "dog in the manger" policy of the 
 Government, at the bidding of the labor unions, is holding back. 
 Australians would have no vegetables to eat if it were not for 
 the few Chinamen who are there, and were there before the 
 exclusion act was passed, and w r ho are the principal market gar- 
 deners of the country. Australians do not take kindly to such 
 work. 
 
 Australia is pleading and crying for more people, any kind 
 of people, so long as they are "white." What a pity we cannot 
 turn her way some portion, at least,, of the millions of the low 
 class of immigrants that are constantly flocking to our shores 
 from Southern Europe, who would find plenty of sympathizers 
 in Australia, and who would increase the popular clamor for 
 "a white Australia." 
 
 It was our privilege and pleasure to have audiences with a 
 number of Chinese and Japanese high officials, and in each case 
 this question of discrimination against their people was dis- 
 cussed. The keen sense of humiliation and displeasure with 
 which they look at the matter was manifest, although in no case 
 was there any spirit of retaliation apparent. 
 
 As a matter of fact, what Australia really needs, to fit in 
 with her vast peopleless areas and her natural advantages, is five 
 to ten millions of Chinese, Japanese and our American negroes. 
 If she would admit these people under proper stipulated political 
 restrictions, they would be the means through which her unde- 
 veloped resources would spring forth and a new era of pros- 
 perity would be developed for everybody. If she does not 
 amend her present "White Man's Policy" and give her yellow 
 and brown neighbors a chance, she may be sure that some day 
 they will help themselves to what they are justly entitled to, with 
 something added for good measure, and then Australia will rue 
 the day of her "White Man's Policy" and her people will regret 
 their stupidity. 
 
Let Australia, as a means of developing her resources and 
 peopling the country, repeal her injurious labor laws, and estab- 
 lish tolerable industrial conditions; abandon her State owner- 
 ship policy; "limber up" her immigration laws; sell or lease 
 her railroads to private corporations and grant liberal franchise 
 for the building of new ones, guaranteeing assurance of per- 
 manent enjoyment of the same, and she will, in a short time, 
 blossom like a rose. 
 
 New Zealand. 
 
 Referring now more specifically to New Zealand, its total 
 area is 104,760 squares miles. In 1900 its total population was, 
 whites 770,682, Maoris (natives) 39,854, making a total of 810,- 
 536. In 1912 its white population was 1,052,627 and Maoris 
 49,844, making a total of 1,102,471 ; being an increase in whites 
 of 281,945, Maoris 9,990 together 291,935. Its total debt in 
 1900 was $241,509,363, per head 1313.37. In 1912 its total debt 
 was $400,281,419 or $380.27 per head, the increase per head in 
 12 years being $66.90. Its principal cities are Auckland, Well- 
 ington, Christchurch and Dunedin. 
 
 Auckland, the most northerly of New Zealand cities, is a city 
 of hills and valleys, spread over a large area, and including its 
 suburbs, has a population of 110,000. It has a magnificent 
 harbor, excellent docking facilities and extensive shipping in- 
 terests. Its business and public buildings are of substantial con- 
 struction and the city bears evidence of a prosperous and intel- 
 ligent upbuilding. It has a good tramway system, which is 
 owned and operated by an English corporation, the fares being 
 the same as in Sydney, a penny (2 cents) for each section or 
 district. There are no tenement and very few two-story houses 
 in Auckland, nearly all families being provided with neat, cozy 
 houses. Its telephone service is good, but its system of street 
 lighting is deficient and not at all up to the requirements of a 
 modern city of its size. 
 
 Wellington, the capital of the Dominion, is situated at the 
 southern extremity of North Island, 425 miles from Auckland 
 by rail, and has a population of 74,000. The residential part of 
 the city is built on the side of a very high hill or mountain, whose 
 side curves in the form of a horseshoe ; its business section lying 
 on practically a level plateau at the base. Wellington has an ex- 
 cellent harbor and its shipping interests are extensive. It has 
 a good tramway system, which is owned and operated by the 
 municipality. The Sydney and Auckland system rates of fare 
 prevail, a four-mile ride, for example, costing 4d. (8 cents). Its 
 business and public buildings are of substantial character and 
 
 116 
 
will compare favorably with those in modern cities of similar 
 size in the United States. 
 
 Christchurch, situated on the east coast of South Island, 
 175 miles from Wellington by water, has a population of 85,000. 
 The city is level and beautifully laid out with wide streets and 
 public grounds, and the impression the visitor gets of the city 
 is that it is an ideal place in which to live. 
 
 Dunedin, situated on the east coast of South Island, 190 
 miles south of Christchurch, has a population of 68,000. Its 
 residential section is built on the side of a hill with its business 
 section lying at the base. It has a good harbor, with excellent 
 docking facilities, and its shipping interests are of considerable 
 importance. 
 
 That part of New Zealand north of Auckland is but sparse- 
 ly populated and is practically barren rock and sand; the chief 
 product being Kauri gum, which is dug out of the ground where 
 it has been deposited from trees long since extinct and shipped 
 in large quantities to all parts of the world for use, principally, 
 in making varnish. This is an extensive industry, and many 
 firms are engaged in exportation of the gum. 
 
 Government and Business. 
 
 New Zealand is primarily a pastoral country and can never 
 be anything else. As such it has accomplished marvelous things 
 in the development of its cities and natural resources. Seventy 
 years ago it was inhabited only by native Maoris, except a few 
 white settlers who were scattered here and there about the 
 islands. Its real development has taken place within the past 60 
 years, although the cities look much older. Nature has not 
 done more for any country than it has done for New Zealand, 
 which is the paradise of cattle and sheep and once was a Utopia 
 for their owners. But, as is the' case everywhere, there has 
 not been an equal distribution of the wealth of the country, and 
 so the discontented ne'er-do-well and socialistic element set about 
 to juggle its institutions into a conglomerate mass of State owned 
 enterprises, which at present include banking, fire and life insur- 
 ance, coal dealing, farming, manufacturing, butchering, export- 
 ing, real estate and some 20 or 30 other lines of commercial 
 and industrial activities, with the result that about every man 
 you meet and talk with wears a woe-begone countenance and 
 expresses his disgust at the turn of events. The very atmos- 
 phere seems to be pregnant with depression and stagnation, 
 such as prevails in boomed towns after the bottom has dropped 
 out. In fact, the great number of unemployed, the languishing 
 
 117 
 
condition of the industries, the attitude of the people and the 
 appearance of things generally, all have a tendency to suggest to 
 the observer a process of decadency and dry rot. As an illustration 
 of this, we said to a certain business man, with whom we were dis- 
 cussing these matters, "There doesn't appear to be any very rich 
 men here. Are there no millionaires in Auckland?" His reply was, 
 "Yes, several of them and a good many men worth upward of a 
 million, but they don't display their wealth." We asked, "Why is 
 that so?" He replied, "They are afraid to let it be known for 
 fear the Government will find a way to take it away from them." 
 This colloquy was repeated to a hotel-keeper, who said, "Right 
 he was. There is a very pronounced, though quiet sentiment 
 of that character among business men all over New Zealand." 
 
 A merchant expressed the belief that New Zealanders were 
 seeing the folly of experimenting with socialistic theories, which, 
 while attractive and fascinating, in practice work only for evil 
 and humiliation, and said that, in his opinion, the ultimate result 
 of the great Auckland and Wellington strikes of 1913 would be 
 to change public sentiment entirely with respect to legislation 
 and the Government policy of robbing the prudent man for the 
 benefit of the idle and the improvident. 
 
 The Government of New Zealand protects its manufacturing 
 industries by a heavy tariff ; but it is quite apparent that its 
 limited market will not warrant manufacturing on a scale large 
 enough to justify extensive investments in manufacturing en- 
 terprises, either by the State or by individuals, or to create home 
 competition by which prices may be kept within reasonable 
 bounds. Consequently, the masses are taxed to promote an 
 impossible proposition. Then, again, suppose the Government 
 should take a notion to monopolize the industries of the country 
 and should adopt methods to drive out individual competition, 
 what is there to prevent it doing so, and what would become of 
 the private capital invested in such industries? This is quite 
 possible in a socialistic community. 
 
 Government Lands. 
 
 One of the enticing theories of the socialistic party is to do 
 away with private ownership of land, and as rapidly as it can, 
 the Government is resuming all the large estates; consequently 
 private owners of large tracts of land have a strong feeling of 
 insecurity in their possessions, for whenever the Government 
 wants to resume their lands it will do so. Hence, no man will 
 buy land in the hope of building up a home for himself in his 
 old age and a heritage for his children; the ultimate goal to 
 
 118 
 
which New Zealand at present aspires being that the State shall 
 be the only freeholder. To that end a graduated land tax so 
 burdens the larger land holders that they are glad to sell their 
 lands to the State. Thus stock raising on a large scale is gradu- 
 ally drawing to an end. Lands bought by the State will not be 
 resold but will be leased in small parcels, on conditions similar 
 to those mentioned elsewhere in this report as prevailing in 
 Australia, and which are of such a restrictive and arbitrary 
 character as to destroy all ambition of the tenant to improve the 
 land he occupies or do more than, from year to year, sap it of 
 its virtue. He feels that he has been victimized ; that the system 
 under which he labors forbids that he shall possess more than 
 he consumes ; that all his excess production belongs to the public ; 
 that he has surrendered his individuality to the State and is no 
 longer a free agent, but simply a single equal unit among the 
 industrious and the idle; the thoughtful and indifferent; the 
 provident and the spendthrift; the honorable and the dishonor- 
 able; the drunkard and the temperate; the sane and the insane; 
 the soil-tiller and office-holder; the preacher and the doctor; 
 the lawyer and the barmaid; the tax gatherer and the tax 
 payer, and all else that goes to make up the activities of life, 
 and beyond all this he sees for the future only a paradise for 
 paupers and a premium on idleness. 
 
 It will be remembered that not many years ago a certain 
 individual gathered together a large number of people in 
 Australasia who were not satisfied with the progress being made 
 along the lines of their socialistic ideals, and hied them off to a 
 place by themselves, in Paraguay, which was the proper thing 
 to do, but before they reached the "promised land" dissensions 
 arose because some had provided themselves with crackers and 
 other things which they refused to assign to the family kettle 
 but kept for their own consumption. Suffice it to say that the 
 enterprise soon fell to pieces and that the prime mover in the 
 scheme is now said to be back in Auckland, connected with a 
 newspaper of that city. 
 
 Government Railways. 
 
 There are about 2000 miles of railroad in New Zealand, 
 owned and operated by the Government, the gauge of which is 
 3 feet 6 inches. The road-beds are good and the equipment and 
 service, while primitive and inefficient when compared with rail- 
 roads in the United States, are all that could reasonably be ex- 
 pected when the differences in conditions are considered. The 
 average rate of fare, first class, is 3^2 cents per mile, sleeping 
 car rates about the same as in the United States. Not all New 
 
 119 
 
Zealanders are proud of their railroads; though some office- 
 holders are especially boastful of them and claim that they are 
 a paying investment. Not having any statistics at hand we can 
 neither verify nor refute the claim. The roads seem to be 
 fairly well managed and operated, considering all the circum- 
 stances relating to their existence, and it would be unfair to 
 criticize adversely, as some have done, the railroads of New 
 Zealand by comparing them with roads in more thickly populated 
 countries. 
 
 Industrial Conditions in New Zealand. 
 
 With respect to industrial conditions in New Zealand. In 
 addition to the references and quotations from publications which 
 appear earlier in this report, under the caption "Australasia," a 
 brief history of the great general strike which took place in the 
 fall of 1913, which we obtained from an authoritative source, will 
 be of interest. This strike was launched October 2Oth, at Hunt- 
 ly, by the coal miners, who struck in violation of agreement and 
 contrary to law, because the mine operators discharged 16 men 
 whom they claimed they had no work for on account of dull 
 trade. The Miners' Union was registered under the Arbitra- 
 tion and Conciliation Act, and, therefore, for it to peremptorily 
 strike was a direct violation of the law. Moreover, after a 
 similar trouble a year before, work was resumed under an agree- 
 ment with the company in which the union officials agreed to do 
 all in their power to prevent any strikes in future, and not to 
 promote any strike until a secret ballot had been taken, as pro- 
 vided by law, and consent obtained of two-thirds of the mem- 
 bers, but no secret ballot was taken before this strike was de- 
 clared. The United Federation of Labor supported the action 
 of the union leaders in declaring the strike, on the pretence that 
 the company had discharged the men because they were active 
 in union matters. October 22d the waterside workers of Well- 
 ing struck against a local ship company, and there was trouble 
 brewing at several other places in the Dominion. The strike 
 of the waterside workers at Auckland was called Oct. 29th, 
 the men refusing to handle coal brought to that port by sea. 
 When this strike had been in progress a few days, the Fed- 
 eration of Labor called a general strike of waterside workers, 
 carters, seamen and 15 or 20 other unions, the idea being to 
 so paralyze the industries of the country as to force recog- 
 nition of union supremacy in all industrial matters. When the 
 strike was at its height there were about 7000 men involved in 
 Auckland alone, and a condition of chaos prevailed in all 
 parts of the Dominion, the result being, the complete paraly- 
 
 I2O 
 
zation of shipping and the holding up of all vessels for a period 
 of about two weeks. The Government was helpless, though ap- 
 parently witling to maintain order and prevent destruction of 
 property, and the local police were entirely inadequate to cope 
 with the situation in any of the affected districts. 
 
 Therefore, realizing that the country was facing a condition 
 of anarchy, the authorities issued a general call for volunteers, 
 mounted and unmounted, to be sworn in as special constabulary 
 to re-establish normal conditions. The call was promptly and 
 generously answered and thousands of men from the cities and 
 the country districts volunteered their services and were mus- 
 tered into service. About 3,200 volunteers were assigned to duty 
 in Auckland, which had then become the pivotal point in the 
 industrial war that had seized the "Land of No Strikes." About 
 one-half of these volunteers were mounted men from the coun- 
 try districts who provided their own horses. They were fur- 
 nished with axe-helves for batons and assigned to duty at the 
 wharfs and other places where trouble was on or likely to occur. 
 Some of the mounted "specials," together with a large number 
 of men who had been willing but afraid to work, started in to 
 discharge and load the many ocean liners that were held up in 
 the harbor, while others acted in the capacity of carters, and, 
 under the strong protection of the mounted farmer boys, de- 
 livered freight to and from the ships and warehouses. This 
 broke the backbone of the strike, which after a duration of 
 eight weeks was called off and law and order was then restored. 
 
 Next to Auckland, Wellington was the more warlike port, 
 and the situation there was handled the same as in Auckland, 
 the authorities of the two cities working in co-operation and 
 harmony. The tramway system at Auckland was tied up for 
 1 8 days, ostensibly for want of coal, but in reality as a matter 
 of diplomacy. 
 
 The losses sustained by all classes, through this industrial 
 upheaval, were very heavy, the total loss to the country being 
 estimated at from $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. But there is a 
 strong feeling among the business and thoughtful men generally, 
 that the loss, however great, will prove a blessing in disguise, and 
 that it will prove to be the beginning of the end of socialistic 
 foolishness in New Zealand, evidence of which is already apparent, 
 and is mildly expressed in the following from the Melbourne 
 Age of April 3Oth: 
 
 RESULT OF MAYORAL ELECTION. 
 
 In the Wellington mayoral election, which was held today, J. P. 
 Luke, sitting mayor, received 11,501 votes, D. Maclaren (United Labor 
 Party), 4,339 votes; J. Glover (Social Democrat), who contested the 
 
 121 
 
seat in place of J. Holland, who is now undergoing a sentence for sedi- 
 tion in connection with the recent strike of waterside workers, 4,337 
 votes. 
 
 The Honorable J. MacGreegor, one of the sponsors for the 
 New Zealand Arbitration Act, has written a number of "open" 
 letters to the Dominion Prime Minister, Mr. Massey, leader of 
 the Liberal Party, on the failure of the law to achieve industrial 
 peace, and as one of them, in particular, characterizes the 
 effectiveness of the law as measured by its practical operation, 
 we take the liberty to quote from it the following : 
 
 You have, I have no doubt, some recollection of that remarkable 
 deputation that waited upon you in February last to submit you certain 
 resolutions that had been passed by the "Syndicalist Socialist Conference," 
 surely the most arrogant and insolent deputation that was ever granted 
 an audience by a Prime Minister. I am going to endeavor to show with 
 regard to one of those resolutions, at any rate, that due consideration 
 would mean treating with contempt. As you are aware, no union can 
 have any status under the Act, unless it is registered as an "industrial 
 union"; but provision is made for enabling a union to get its registration 
 cancelled and so surrender the benefits and escape the penalties of the 
 Act. In this way a union is enabled to indulge with impunity in the 
 luxury of a strike. Now, the Waihi union cancelled its registration. 
 Thereupon a number of the members of the union who believed in the 
 arbitration system had seceded, formed a new union, and got it regis- 
 tered. This was made the pretext for the Waihi strike that proved so 
 disastrous to all concerned. We are not in a position to understand 
 the nature of the demand made by the deputation : that the Act should 
 be so altered that when a registered union cancels its registration in 
 order to be free to strike, as the Waihi union did, no other union shall 
 be allowed registration in its place : that an Act intended to prevent 
 strikes should be so altered as to facilitate and encourage strikes, by 
 forbidding registration, in such circumstances, of unions that are op- 
 posed to strikes. It is surely difficult to conceive greater impudence that 
 is implied in the submitting of such a demand to the Prime Minister, 
 by a deputation comprising several of those agitators who were 'largely 
 responsible for the worst strike New Zealand ever saw. And now we 
 find the demand made by this deputation suggested as one of the 
 "objects" of the proposed United Federation of Labor that is to re- 
 generate our effete social and industrial systems. But the same Act 
 that forbids a registered union to strike gives it the right to cancel its 
 registration in order to strike. The legal position, therefore, seems to 
 be that, by registering under the Act, a union surrenders the right to 
 strike, with the reservation of the power to resume that right at any 
 time. The first thing that strikes an ordinary man with regard to 
 such a provision in an Act for the prevention of strikes is, that it must 
 tend to render the Act futile, and futile it certainly has proved. 
 
 In your speech at Dunedin a few days ago you referred with a 
 feeling of satisfaction to the immunity from strikes existing at the time, 
 and you were no doubt entitled to do so, for the improvement is no 
 doubt largely attributable to the firmness shown by the Government in 
 its administration of the ordinary law in the case of Waihi; but it was 
 also largely due to two other facts namely, that the employers and 
 especially the farmers have at last been roused to combine and organ- 
 ize for the protection of the community against the intolerable tyranny 
 and arrogance of organized labor. There are embodied in our Act three 
 principles which, under the manipulations of the kind of unions that the 
 
 122 
 
Act has created and fostered, inevitably render it practically useless as 
 a means of preventing strikes. Two of those principles have been in- 
 troduced at different times since 1894, no doubt at the instance of the 
 unions, and all that is necessary to perfect it as one instrument far 
 enabling the Federationists to attain their ends is to comply with the 
 demand now made for an amendment to prevent the creation of what 
 they call "scab unions." 
 
 The three principles referred to are found in the following pro- 
 visions : First, that which forbids the registration of a second union 
 of any trade in the same locality; second, that which authorized the 
 granting of preference to unionists, by which workers who are opposed 
 to strikes may be coerced into joining a union whose main reliance is 
 upon the strike; and third, that which allows a union to cancel its 
 registration at any time in order to strike. * * * 
 
 I implore you to scrutinize closely any proposals for legislation 
 dealing with such industries, and to bear in mind that nothing is easier 
 than to cause irreparable injury to an industry by ill-considered legisla- 
 tion. * * * There must be a limit to legislation for the propitiation of 
 labor, and that this limit seems to have been reached in this country is 
 indicated by the fact that every effort in that direction not only fails 
 to produce the desired effect, but, instead, simply increased the cost ^of 
 living. The labor leaders know this, and they rejoice at every legislative 
 failure because each one as it occurs plays into their hands by furnish- 
 ing them new arguments in favor of their contention that there is no 
 hope for the worker except in the overthrow of the whole industrial and 
 social system. The Industrial Arbitration Act is, itself, the most com- 
 plete failure of all our legislative experiments, and the labor leaders 
 simply tolerate it because it serves their purposes; the amendments I 
 suggest would go far to thwart thejr designs. 
 
 On April 3, 1914, the Honorable F. M. B. Fisher, "Liberal" 
 Minister of Customs, addressed a public meeting at Wellington, 
 and from whose address quotations appear elsewhere in this 
 report, at which meeting there was a disturbing element evidently 
 bent on breaking up the meeting. After a number of interrup- 
 tions and noisy demonstrations, the speaker said : "The meeting 
 suggests to me an interesting electoral reform, and that is to 
 disfranchise every man who attempts to break up a public meet- 
 ing * * * they would thus prevent the people who do not re- 
 spect the laws from making them. These men must not get the 
 idea into their heads that they can frighten or terrorize the Gov- 
 ernment." 
 
 The following are extracts from the annual report of the 
 Wellington Employers' Association, adopted September 19, 1913: 
 
 The past twelve months have been fraught with the worst form of 
 labour unrest the Dominion has experienced since the Arbitration Act 
 came into operation. Of chief importance has been the Waihi strike, 
 which was brought about by members of the New Zealand Federation of 
 Labour, in an endeavor to coerce the engine-drivers at Waihi into joining 
 their organization. * * * 
 
 The busy season of the Freezing Companies was selected by the 
 slaughtermen of the Dominion for the making of an unreasonable de- 
 mand of an increase of 5s. per 100 in the rate for sheep-killing. This 
 demand was made notwithstanding the definite arrangement made at the 
 preceding conference held in 1910 between the Dominion employers and 
 
 123 
 
the representatives of the Slaughtermen's Federation that the settlement 
 then arrived at was for a period of five years. * * * 
 
 In common with other industrial world centres, New Zealand is 
 experiencing a full share of the troubles brought about by what your 
 Committee considers are prevalent mistaken ideas in the minds of some 
 workers that they are not receiving adequate pay for services rendered, 
 and that their interests and those of their employers are antagonistic. 
 The inculcation of these beliefs is directly due to the advocacy of a 
 considerable section of the workers' leaders, who are creating a grave 
 and hurtful spirit in the minds of many workers that they are not re- 
 ceiving fair treatment from their employers. The resulting dissatisfac- 
 tion is showing, not only in decreasing efficiency in the work in hand, 
 but also in the characters of the workers. The absence of the right 
 spirit in many employees is plainly apparent, and this must inevitably 
 injuriously affect their moral fibre and general character and efficiency. 
 The present attitude of workers towards their work is a large factor in 
 creating a disinclination on the part of those with capital to venture into 
 any new industry. The open advocacy of lawlessness and disregard of 
 both legal and moral obligations by some leaders is doing untold harm 
 in this Dominion. 
 
 With respect to industrial legislation, employers were fortunately 
 practically free from the necessity for considering amendments or new 
 legislation, owing chiefly, it is believed, to the existence of a new Parlia- 
 ment, and the taking over of the reins of government by Mr. Massey 
 and his party. It is hoped that the new Government will recognize that 
 the trades and industries of the Dominion have already been subjected 
 to more restrictive legislation than is necessary, and will grant a time 
 of peace. 
 
 The operation of the Shops anjl Offices Act is continuing to harass 
 and interfere with the business of shopkeepers, and is preventing them 
 from coping with the unavoidable exigencies of their business. The 
 shopkeepers of the city are looking forward to securing, through the 
 Minister of Labour and Parliament, some relief from many of the un- 
 necessary restrictions they are labouring under. 
 
 As time goes on, the greater need arises for securing combined and 
 united action on the part of employers on all matters affecting the 
 employing class, and the usefulness and value of the Federation and 
 affiliated Associations is now being more fully recognized and appre- 
 ciated by employers. It is anticipated the Federation will be called upon 
 at its next annual meeting to formulate a definite plan for organization 
 and the creation of a Defence Fund. 
 
 The experiences of recent years clearly demonstrate that employers' 
 interests can best be protected and advanced by their having a Central 
 Committee, and officers who can speak in the united name of the 
 employers of the Dominion. 
 
 The following synopsis of procedure in settlement of a trade 
 dispute under the New Zealand Industrial Conciliation and Arbi- 
 tration Act, as amended in 1911, will in this connection serve a 
 useful purpose: 
 
 It is optional for Employers' or Workers' Unions to register as 
 Industrial Unions under the Act. 
 
 When alterations in hours, wages and working conditions are 
 sought by either side the initial step is the service of the claims to be 
 made. This means the creation of the "dispite," a necessary preliminary 
 to the legal proceedings which follow. It has to be noted that a Workers' 
 Union may create a dispute with individual employers who have no union, 
 but Employers' Unions cannot seek an award in any trade unless the 
 
 124 
 
workers have registered a union in connection with it. Thus, the work- 
 ers have the option of working under an Arbitration Court award or 
 not, but the employers have no alternative if the workers desire to bind 
 them by an award. When an award is made by the Court it remains 
 binding upon the employers until either side chooses to ask for another 
 award or the union cancels its registration under the Act. 
 
 The application is to the Conciliation Commissioner. There are 
 three of these appointed by the Government at $2,500 a year each and 
 travelling allowances with jurisdiction over stated portions of the Do- 
 main. Their chief duty is to endeavor to induce the parties to a dispute 
 to agree upon terms of settlement. Each employer named in the list is a 
 
 earty to the dispute and has the right to appear in person or by agent, 
 sually the secretary of the local Employers' Association appears as 
 agent for all the employers. A solicitor (practicing lawyer) cannot 
 appear in these cases unless all parties consent. As a matter of fact, 
 legal gentlemen never have taken part in these trade disputes. 
 
 The Conciliation Commissioners with the Assessors named at the 
 end of the attached application and an equal number of Assessors whom 
 the employers are required to name form a Conciliation Council whose 
 duties are, firstly : 
 
 (i) To endeavor to bring about an amicable settlement of the 
 dispute by conference. Prior to consideration of the dispute before the 
 Council the respondents have the right to submit the terms and conditions 
 they wish to secure. This they do by filing "counter-proposals." 
 
 Failing a settlement by conference the Council endeavors to unani- 
 mously agree upon terms which it can recommend the parties to adopt 
 in settlement of the dispute. It is important 'to note that these recom- 
 mendations must be unanimously agreed upon and that they are not 
 settled by the majority vote. 
 
 If the Council induce the parties to agree upon some points such 
 partial agreement is reported to the Arbitration Court, and the other 
 matters in dispute are referred to the Court for settlement. 
 
 Should a recommendation on all points in dispute be made by the 
 Council, 30 days are given dissatisfied parties within which they may 
 lodge objection. If no objection is lodged the recommendations come 
 into force in the same way as an industrial agreement would if signed 
 by the parties. 
 
 Should an objection be filed then the dispute is referred by the 
 Clerk of Awards to the Arbitration Court. 
 
 The Court is constituted of a Judge who has the same status as a 
 Judge of the Supreme Court (a life appointment) and one representa- 
 tive each for the employers and workers, appointed every three years by 
 the Industrial Unions of Employers and Workers, respectively. They 
 receive 500 a year and travelling allowances. 
 
 This Court sits every three months in the various centres for the 
 hearing of local disputes. The area affected by awards is generally 
 stated in them. In the carpenters' case under review it was limited 
 to 50 miles from Wellington City. 
 
 When a case is called on by the Court the ordinary procedure of 
 the law Courts is generally though not rigidly adhered to. After hearing 
 arguments and evidence from both sides the Court reserves its decision 
 and ultimately makes an award which is a final settlement of the matters 
 in dispute for the period of time (not exceeding three years) fixed by 
 the Court. 
 
 There are 20 secretaries of Labor Unions in Wellington, drawing 
 salaries aggregating, at a low estimate, $15,000 a year, the estimate for 
 the Dominion being $75,000 a year for salaries of Union secretaries, 
 alone, in addition to which a very large sum is expended in salaries and 
 expenses of other Labor officials and agitators, with which this wonderful 
 little country is abundantly supplied. 
 
 125 
 
At the hotel at which we stopped the following notice was 
 posted in each room : 
 
 Owing to New Zealand Labor laws visitors are particularly re- 
 quested to observe punctuality at all meals. 
 
 One of your Commissioners stepped into a cobbler's shop 
 and waited 20 minutes while the cobbler built up the heels of 
 his shoes. He asked the cobbler if he belonged to the cobblers' 
 union. He said, "No, I would not let those fellows control me." 
 Your Commissioner said, "Why not? They have succeeded in 
 having wages raised, haven't they?" "Yes," he said, " they have 
 and the more they succeed at it the worse they are off, for they 
 can't buy as much with their high wages as they could when they 
 got less, and besides, they are not nearly as well satisfied as they 
 were then and everybody else is grumbling about conditions, 
 which aint like they used to be by a good deal." 
 
 The following is a reproduction of a schedule of wages and 
 working conditions which were received by an employer at Auck- 
 land while we were there and was handed to us for use in con- 
 nection with this report. 
 
 Amalgamated Society of Engineers. 
 
 AUCKLAND BRANCH 
 
 Proposed Working Conditions for Northern Industrial District. 
 
 I. Hours of Work. 
 
 Forty-four hours shall constitute a week's work. Eight hours ' 
 shall be worked on each working day except Saturday, upon which 
 day four hours shall be worked. Starting time to be at 7.30 a.m. and 
 stopping time at 5 p.m. 
 
 II. Overtime. 
 
 (a) All time worked in excess of that mentioned in Clause I. hereof 
 to be paid for at the rate of time and a-half until 10 o'clock 
 p.m., and from thence to the starting of the ordinary day shift 
 next morning, double time rates to be paid, and each day to 
 stand by itself. 
 
 (b) Systematic overtime shall not be allowed. Overtime worked 
 for more than 12 hours in any two consecutive weeks to be 
 deemed systematic. 
 
 III. Holidays and Sunday Work. 
 
 Work done upon New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Mon- 
 day, Anniversary Day, Labour Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day or 
 Sunday, double time rates to be paid for working the same number 
 of hours of an ordinary day. Any time worked before 7.30 a.m. or 
 
 126 
 
after 5 p.m. shall be paid for at the rate of time and a-half in addi- 
 tion. An employee called to work after usual working hours shall 
 receive a minimum payment equivalent to four hours' work. 
 
 IV. Night Shifts. 
 
 (a) Workers engaged upon night shifts shall be paid 50 per cent, 
 extra. Three consecutive nights to be worked before it can be 
 recognized as a night shift, otherwise overtime rates, as men- 
 tioned in Clause II. hereof, to be paid. 
 
 (b) A night shift shall mean eight hours worked between ordinary 
 stopping time in the evening and starting time next morning. 
 
 (c) Only one shift in the 24 hours to be regarded as a day shift, 
 namely, eight hours worked between ordinary starting time 
 in the morning and stopping time in the evening. 
 
 (d) Any employee having worked all night and being required 
 to continue working on into .the next day, the double time rate 
 to be paid for all such time worked. 
 
 V. Outside Work. 
 
 (a) A worker employed outside of the employer's establishment 
 shall 'be paid one shilling per day extra, or for any portion of 
 a day. 
 
 (b) All employees required to travel to a job during working hours 
 shall be paid for such hours at ordinary rates, also for such 
 ordinary working hours that they may be kept waiting after 
 arrival at the job. 
 
 (c) All employees required to travel outside of ordinary working 
 hours shall be paid for the actual time of travelling, provided 
 that the maximum number of hours on each outward or home- 
 ward journey to be so paid shall not exceed twelve. 
 
 (d) Employees shall be paid their fares both ways and reasonable 
 travelling expenses, and if required to stay away from home, 
 their board and lodging at current rates. 
 
 (e) Employees travelling by boat shall, if travelling by coastal boat, 
 be allowed saloon fare; and if travelling by inter-State boat, 
 second-class fare, except when such represents steerage, in 
 which case saloon fare shall be allowed. 
 
 (f) When travelling at night time by train, if at any time second- 
 class sleeping accommodation is provided, the employer shall 
 allow second-class sleeping berth ticket. Patternmakers, for 
 work done outside the employer's establishment, shall receive 
 i/- per day extra. 
 
 (g) Any employee sent out to work and placed in charge of one or 
 more workmen, shall receive 3/- per day extra. 
 
 VI. Dirt Money. 
 
 (a) Ships: Any journeyman or apprentice who is engaged upon 
 ship repair work shall receive i/- per day extra or for any por- 
 tion of a day. 
 
 (b) Ashore: Journeymen and apprentices employed on dirty repair 
 work, such as stripping old machinery or removal of same, or 
 inside smoke boxes or through manholes of boilers or con- 
 densers, machinery connected with freezing works, or all run- 
 ning machinery, shall receive i/- per day extra or for any por- 
 tion of a day, in addition to other allowances. 
 
 127 
 
5. d. 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8 
 
 13 
 
 4 
 
 8^ 
 
 ! 13 
 
 8 
 
 ii 
 
 VII. Wages. 
 
 The minimum wage for the following classes of workmen 
 shall be: Per hour. Per day. 
 
 Fitters 
 
 Turners 
 
 Armature winders 
 
 Milling machinists .. 
 
 Motor mechanics 
 
 Brassfinishers .. 
 
 Die sinkers and tool makers 
 
 Universal grinders 
 
 Blacksmiths .. .. .. . . / .. 
 
 Coppersmiths 
 
 Oliver smiths 
 
 Stampers and drop hammer forgers 
 
 Planers, shapers, slotters and borers 
 
 Patternmakers .. 
 
 Drillers, screwers and other machinists 
 
 not otherwise mentioned 
 Leading hands to receive 25 per cent, in addition to above rates. 
 All wages to be paid weekly, and no back time kept. Wages to 
 be paid in employer's time. 
 
 Definition of a Motor Mechanic 
 
 A chauffeur shall not be deemed a motor mechanic. A motor 
 mechanic is a workman engaged upon the repair or construction of 
 cars, or may be employed upon the upkeep of the plant or machinery. 
 
 VIII. -Piecework. 
 
 (a) Piecework, taskwork or premium bonus system shall not be 
 engaged upon under any conditions whatsoever. 
 
 (b) No workmen to be employed upon two machines at the same 
 time. 
 
 IX. Termination of Engagements. 
 
 (a) Upon the termination of an engagement either on the part of 
 the employer or workman, the wages of such worker shall be 
 paid the same evening or immediately after the ordinary start- 
 ing time next morning. Failing such the worker shall be paid 
 at ordinary rates for all such time that he is kept waiting. 
 
 X. Apprentices. 
 
 (a) An employer taking an apprentice to learn the trade shall be 
 deemed to undertake the duty which he agrees to perform as a 
 duty enforceable under this Award, and shall pay such appren- 
 tice not less than the under-mentioned rates of wages: 
 
 s. d. 
 First year, per week . . . . . . . . . . 10 
 
 Second year, per week . . . . . . 15 
 
 Third year, per week.. .. .. .. .. 20 
 
 Fourth year, per week . . . . . . . . 30 
 
 Fifth year, per week . . . . . . . . . . 40 
 
 (b) At the expiration of the apprenticeship he shall receive not less 
 than the minimum rate as paid to journeymen. 
 
 (c) Boys shall be apprenticed to any of the following branches of 
 the trade: Fitters, Turners, Electrical Fitters, Armature Wind- 
 ers, Toolmakers, Die Sinkers, Motor Mechanics, Spring Smiths, 
 Blacksmiths, Coppersmiths, Cliver Smiths, Brassfinishers, 
 Milling Machinists, Universal Grinders, Patternmakers, Drop 
 Hammer Forgers, Planers, Shapers, Slotters and Borers. 
 
 128 
 
(d) The period of apprenticeship shall be for five years, and all 
 apprenticeships shall be by indenture. A copy of the inden- 
 ture shall be registered with the Chief Industrial Registrar, or 
 Local Inspector of Factories, and a copy shall be held by the 
 lawful guardians of such apprentice, and no apprentice shall be 
 more than 18 years of age at the time of the execution of the 
 indenture. Three months probation shall be allowed the first 
 employer of any apprentice to determine his fitness, such three 
 months to be included in the period of apprenticeship. An 
 apprentice shall be kept constantly employed at the particular 
 branch of the trade to which he is indentured. 
 
 (e) In no case shall an apprentice be allowed to work overtime. 
 
 (f) At the end of the period of apprenticeship the employer shall 
 give the apprentice a certificate to show that he has served his 
 apprenticeship. Also a certificate of moral character if required. 
 
 (g) Should the employer at any time before the termination of the 
 apprenticeship wish for any reason to dispense with the ser- 
 vices of the apprentice, he shall give him a certificate for the 
 time served and procure him another employer carrying on a 
 business within a reasonable distance of the original employ- 
 er's place of business, who shall continue to teach the appren- 
 tice and to pay the rate of wages prescribed by this award 
 according to the total length of time he has served, and gen- 
 erally to perform the obligation of the original employer. But 
 it shall'*not be obligatory upon an employer to find the ap- 
 prentice another employer if he shall so misconduct himself as 
 to entitle the employer to discharge him, but he shall give him 
 a certificate covering the time actually served. 
 
 (h) An employer taking an apprentice shall give notice to the In- 
 spector of Factories within one week after the expiration of 
 the period of probation, and shall state the branch of trade to 
 which he is indentured. The employer shall receive an ac- 
 knowledgment of receipt of same, and an employer transferring 
 an apprentice to another employer shall similarly within one 
 week give notice of such transfer to the Inspector. 
 
 (i) An employer shall not be deemed to have discharged his duty 
 to an apprentice, if he fails to keep him at work through slack- 
 ness, but such slackness may form a proper ground for trans- 
 ferring him to another employer willing to undertake the re- 
 sponsibility of teaching him. 
 
 (j) When an apprentice is discharged for cause, the employer shall 
 give notice in writing of the discharge and the cause thereof 
 to the Inspector of Factories, who shall notify the Secretary 
 of the Union. 
 
 (k) All time lost by an apprentice through his own default or 
 through sickness in any year of his apprenticeship shall be 
 made up before such apprentice shall be considered to have 
 entered upon the next succeeding year of his apprenticeship. 
 An apprentice shall not be compelled to make up any time 
 lost through accident occurring or through compulsory mili- 
 tary training. 
 
 (I) An employer shall not be bound to pay an apprentice for lost 
 time through the default of the apprentice or by his voluntary 
 absence from work with the consent of the employer. But an 
 employer shall not be entitled to make any deduction from the 
 wages of such apprentice for lost time through sickness or 
 any cause other than those hereinbefore described. 
 
 129 
 
(m) It shall be deemed to be a breach of this award if an employer 
 uses any undue influence to coerce an apprentice to take a 
 holiday with a view to avoid payment for same. 
 
 (n) Where facilities are provided, it shall be compulsory for an 
 apprentice to attend classes at a Technical College, and the 
 employer shall pay the college fees for the period of two 
 years for any two classes that the apprentice may elect to 
 attend during any two years of his apprenticeship. 
 
 (o) The proportion of apprentices to the number of journeymen 
 employed shall be as one to four. After the date of the filing 
 of this award no fresh apprenticeships shall be entered into 
 by an employer which will make the total number of appren- 
 tices to all trades mentioned greater than the above propor- 
 tion. For the, purpose of arriving at the above proportion, the 
 total number of journeymen shall be deemed to be the aver- 
 age number of journeymen working on all the working days 
 of the twelve months immediately previous to the time of 
 indenture. 
 
 (P) All apprentices employed at the date of the filing of this award 
 must be indentured for the unexpired period of their appren- 
 ticeship, and the conditions as to wages, etc., as provided in 
 this award, to apply to these apprentices also. 
 
 (q) A Board of Examiners shall be appointed to consist of one 
 representative of the Union and one representative of the em- 
 ployers. Periodical examinations of the apprentice shall take 
 place in the month of May. Such examination-to be held in 
 the workshop where the apprentice is employed. The employer 
 shall provide machinery, time and material, and in every way 
 facilitate the work of the Examiners. 
 
 If upon due enquiry the Examiners are of opinion that the 
 apprentice has not been given reasonable opportunity by the 
 employer to obfain a proper knowledge of the trade, they shall 
 report the same to the Department of Labour as a breach of 
 this award. 
 
 The Board shall be provided with a list of the names and 
 occupation of the various apprentices and the dates of their 
 indenture, and not less than 14 days previous to the date of 
 the examination shall issue a certificate to the apprentice, and 
 also notify the employer. If such apprentice fails to satisfy 
 the Examiners, they will not endorse the certificate until such 
 apprentice again submits himself for examination and satisfies 
 them of his competency. 
 
 An employer shall not be compelled to pay an apprentice 
 the increase of wages accruing to him if he fails to satisfy the 
 Examiners. 
 
 In the engaging of apprentices preference shall be given to 
 sons of members of the Union. 
 
 XI. Under-rate Workers. 
 
 (a) Any worker who considers himself incapable of earning the 
 minimum wage fixed by this award, may be paid such lower 
 wage as may from time to time be fixed on the application of 
 the worker, after due notice to the Union by the Inspector of 
 Awards or such other person as may from time to time be ap- 
 pointed for that purpose. And such Inspector or such other 
 person, in fixing such' wage, shall have regard to the worker's 
 capability, his past earnings, and such other circumstances as 
 such Inspector or other person shall think fit to consider, after 
 hearing such evidence arid argument as the Union and such 
 worker shall offer. 
 
 130 
 
(b) Such permit shall be for a period not exceeding six months as 
 such Inspector or other person may determine, and after the 
 expiration of such period shall continue in force until 14 days' 
 notice has been given to such worker by the Secretary of the 
 Union, requiring him to have his wage again fixed in manner 
 prescribed by this clause. Provided that in the case of any 
 person whose wage is so fixed by reason of old age or perma- 
 nent disability, it may be fixed for such longer period as such 
 Inspector or other person shall think fit. 
 
 (c) Notwithstanding the foregoing, it shall be competent for the 
 worker to agree with the President or Secretary of the Union upon 
 such wage without having the same so fixed. 
 
 (d) It shall be the duty of the Union to give notice to the Inspec- 
 tor of Awards of every agreement made with a worker pur- 
 suant hereto. 
 
 (e) It shall be the duty of an employer before employing a worker 
 at such lower wage to examine the permit or agreement by 
 which such wage is fixed. 
 
 XII. Preference. 
 
 (a) From and after the coming into the operation of this award, 
 any worker of the classes mentioned in Clause VII. hereof 
 shall, within fourteen days, become a member of the Union, 
 upon forwarding to the Secretary a written application, ac- 
 companied with an entrance fee of 5/-, and the weekly con- 
 tribution not to exceed sixpence per week, such worker to be 
 admitted a member without ballot or election, and such worker 
 to be admitted a member providing he is a competent work- 
 man and of sober habits and good moral character. 
 
 (b) It shall be a condition of employment that employees become 
 members of the Union under the conditions as set forth in 
 sub-section (a) of this clause. 
 
 (c) If any worker having joined the Union voluntarily resigns, he 
 shall be dismissed from his employment. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 This award shall come into operation upon the day 
 
 of and continue in force until the day of 19 
 
 As Applying to Ohinemuri Goldfields. 
 I. Hours of Work. 
 
 (a) Forty-four hours shall constitute a week's work. Eight hours 
 shall 'be worked each day except Saturday, when four hours 
 shall be worked. 
 
 (b) Work shall commence at 7.30 a.m. and cease at 4 p.m., with an 
 interval of half-an-hour at noon for crib time. 
 
 II. Overtime. 
 
 (a) All time worked in excess of that mentioned in Clause I. hereof 
 to be paid for at the rate of time and a-half until 10 o'clock 
 p.m.. and from thence until starting of the ordinary day shift 
 next morning, double time rates to be paid, and each day to 
 stand by itself. 
 
 (b) Systematic overtime not allowed. Overtime worked for more 
 than 12 hours in two consecutive weeks to be deemed sys- 
 tematic. 
 
III. Holidays and Sundays. 
 
 (a) Work done upon New Year's Day, Good Friday, -Easter Mon- 
 day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Miners' Day or Sunday, dou- 
 ble time rates to be paid for working the same number of 
 hours of an ordinary day. 
 
 (b) Any time worked before 7.30 a.m. and after 4 p.m. shall be paid 
 for at the rate of time and a-half in addition. 
 
 (c) An employee called to work after usual working hours shall 
 receive a minimum payment equivalent to four hours' work. 
 
 IV. Night Shifts. 
 
 (a) Workers engaged on afternoon or night shifts shall receive 
 2/- per shift extra. Three consecutive nights or afternoon 
 shifts to be worked before it can be recognised as such, other- 
 wise overtime rates to be paid as provided in Clause II. hereof. 
 
 (b) Only one shift in the twenty-four hours to be regarded as a 
 day shift, namely, that worked between 7.30 a.m. and 4 o'clock 
 p.m. 
 
 (c) Any worker who has been engaged for 24 hours with the ex- 
 ception of crib time, shall be compelled to stand off for eight 
 hours. 
 
 V. Outside Work. 
 
 (a) A worker employed outside of the employer's establishment 
 shall be paid one shilling per day extra, or for any portion 
 of a day. 
 
 (b) All employees required to travel to job during working hours 
 shall be paid for such hours at ordinary rates, also for such 
 ordinary working hours that they may be kept waiting upon 
 arrival at the job. 
 
 (c) All employees required to travel outside of ordinary working 
 hours shall be paid for the actual time of travelling, provided 
 that the maximum number of hours on each outward or home- 
 ward journey to be so paid shall be twelve. 
 
 (d) Employees shall be paid their fares both ways, also reasonable 
 travelling expenses, and if required to stay away from home, 
 their board and lodging at current rates. 
 
 (e) Employees travelling by boat shall, if travelling by coastal 
 boat, be allowed saloon fare, except when such represents 
 steerage, in which case saloon fare shall be allowed. 
 
 (f) When travelling at night time by train, if at any time second- 
 class sleeping accommodation is provided, the employer shall 
 allow second-class sleeping berth ticket. Patternmakers, for 
 work done outside the employer's establishment, shall receive 
 i/- per day extra. 
 
 (g) Any employee sent out to work and placed in charge of one or 
 more workmen shall receive 3/- per day extra. 
 
 VI. Dirt Money. 
 
 (a) All journeymen or apprentices employed upon tube mills, ele- 
 vation wheels, turbines, gas engines, condensers, under engine 
 beds, all boiler work (other than new work), inside boilers or 
 smoke boxes, and all underground work, agitators and crush- 
 ers, or -any dirty, confined places, shall be paid i/- per day 
 extra or for any portion of a day. 
 
 (b) All journeymen or apprentices employed in mining shafts, or 
 at water turbines, shall also receive dirt money, and the shifts 
 shall not exceed six hours. 
 
 132 
 
VII. Minimum Wage. 
 
 (a) The minimum wage for the following classes of workmen 
 shall be: Per hour. Per day. 
 
 s. d. s. d. 
 
 Fitters 8 13 4 
 
 Turners . . . . . . . . . . 8 134 
 
 Armature winders . . . . . . . . 8 134 
 
 Milling machinists . . . . . . . . 8 134 
 
 Electrical fitters 8 13 4 
 
 Motor repairers . . . . . . . . 8 134 
 
 Wiremen 4% n o 
 
 Blacksmiths .. .. .. .. .. 8 13 4 
 
 Coppersmiths . . . . . . . . 8 13 4 
 
 Patternmakers S 1 /? 13 8 
 
 Machine joiners . . . . . . . . 8% 13 8 
 
 Planers, shapers, slotters and borers . . I 8 13 4 
 
 (b) Leading hands to receive 25 per cent, in addition. 
 
 (c) All wages to be paid weekly in the employer's time and no 
 back time to be kept. 
 
 VIII. Piecework. 
 
 (a) Piecework, taskwork or premium bonus system shall not be 
 engaged upon under any conditions whatsoever. 
 
 (b) No workmen to be employed upon two machines at the same 
 time. 
 
 IX. Termination of Engagements. 
 
 Upon the termination of an engagement either on the part of 
 the employer or workman, the wages of such worker shall be paid 
 the same evening, or immediately after starting time next morning^ 
 failing such the worker shall be paid at ordinary rates for all such 
 time that he is kept waiting. 
 
 X. Apprentices. 
 
 (a) For youths at all classes of trades mentioned in Clause VII. 
 hereof the following rates of wages shall be paid: 
 
 s. d. 
 First year, per day . . . . . . . . . . 40 
 
 Second year, per day . . . . . . . . . . 5 o 
 
 Third year, per day .. .. .. .. .. 6 o 
 
 Fourth year, per day . . . . . . . . . . 7 o 
 
 Fifth year, per day . . . . . . . . . . 8 o 
 
 (b) All youths, after five years' service, shall receive the minimum 
 rate as paid to journeymen. 
 
 (c) Certificates covering length of service shall be given to youths 
 when leaving their employers. 
 
 XI. Preference. 
 
 (a) From and after the coming into operation of this award, any 
 worker of the classes mentioned in Clause VII. hereof shall, 
 within fourteen days, become a member of the Union, upon 
 forwarding to the Secretary a written application accompanied 
 with an entrance fee of s/-, and the weekly contribution shall 
 not exceed sixpence per week. The applicant shall be ad- 
 mitted without ballot or election, provided he is a competent 
 workman and of sober habits and good moral character. 
 
 (b) It shall be a condition of employment that workmen become 
 members of the Union under the condition set forth in sub- 
 section (a) of this award. 
 
 133 
 
(c) If any worker having joined the Union and voluntarily resigns 
 from the same, he shall be dismissed by the employer. 
 
 Conclusions. 
 
 Based upon the information acquired from many sources, 
 and the published and oral statements hereinbefore presented, 
 your Commissioners are led to the following conclusions: 
 
 (1) That magazine and newspaper articles to the effect 
 that Australasia had solved the industrial problem by legislative 
 action and that Australia and New Zealand had each been trans- 
 formed into an industrial paradise are idle tales, without a 
 shadow of fact upon which to base them; that instead of indus- 
 trial conditions in these countries being "ideal," they are deplor- 
 able in the extreme, and that there are to be found in New 
 Zealand and Australia more idle, disillusioned, faultfinding people 
 who condemn the country and its institutions, than can be found 
 in any other communities of equal population. 
 
 (2) That New Zealand is, as has been claimed, "a glorious 
 little country," and that the development of its cities, its com- 
 merce and industries in the 60 years of its progressive history, 
 bespeaks thrift and energy on the part of the sturdy, open- 
 hearted people who have brought such things to pass, but who, 
 because of the general prosperity which they have enjoyed, have 
 grown apathetic and indifferent as to whither its institutions, 
 politically, were drifting, until an organized minority, which 
 looks upon the public purse as an inexhaustible treasure supply 
 from which every man can help himself, had practically seized 
 control of the Government, and until evidence of decadence is 
 seen and heard on all sides; that the eyes of the sober-minded, 
 substantial citizens have been opened to the deplorable conditions 
 into which, during the past decade or more, the country has 
 been plunged, and that they now are moving to correct the errors 
 which have surreptitiously crept into their legislative policies. 
 Results of recent elections indicate that New Zealand is retrac- 
 ing her steps. 
 
 (3) That the natural resources of Australia measure up to 
 the claims that are made for them, and that it has followed the 
 lead of New Zealand in the matter of experimental legislation 
 and State Socialism, which have taken root and become a chronic 
 disease in the Commonwealth and State Governments, with the 
 result that Australia is facing a period of decadence and dry 
 rot, while the process of "Nationalizing the Industries" is still 
 going on, and a chief subject of agitation is the placing of a 
 premium on idleness by the paying of wages, out of the public 
 treasury, to habitual idlers and unemployed. 
 
 134 
 
(4) That, although there is plenty of wealth in Australasia, 
 there is no vulgar or ostentatious display of it. People having 
 vested interests at stake realize the socialistic trend of things 
 and religiously avoid aggravating the situation by feeding the 
 soap box orator and his political allies with examples of luxurious 
 display of what they please to call "predatory wealth." In this 
 regard Australasia is holding out an object lesson that would be 
 well for many people in this country to heed and follow. 
 
 (5) That, in practical operation, State Socialism in Aus- 
 tralasia, while attractive in theory to some people, has proved a 
 
 .dismal failure and has made these countries appear before the 
 world as "ideal countries going wrong" and as expressed in the 
 language of one of their own business men supported by the 
 opinion of many others, as "the Paradise of fools," the responsi- 
 bility for which rests chiefly upon the shoulders of dishonorable 
 politicians . who make capital out of catering to the organized vote 
 at the expense of the welfare of the country. The hope of Aus- 
 tralasia lies in the repudiation of these politicians and their 
 theories. 
 
 (6) That the Press of Australasia is, as a rule, clean, con- 
 servative and fair, with very little tendency to muck-raking, or 
 yellow journalism, which may, however, be accounted for by some 
 law regulating the liberty of the Press (while we were at 
 Sydney, a judgment for- $2,000 was affirmed against a Mel- 
 bourne newspaper for printing an obituary notice of a person 
 not dead, which was handed into the office of the paper in the 
 customary manner by some person not identified) ; that the 
 fairness, vigilance and impartiality of the Press is a prime factor 
 in keeping public life reasonably clean. 
 
 (7) That the stretch of conscience that enables a repre- 
 sentative of all the people to vote for "preference to unionists" 
 is abominable, and that decadence is a just reward for any coun- 
 try whose Government stands for such a flagrant violation of 
 human rights. Yet, with all, neither the Australian nor the 
 Dominion Parliaments have fallen so low in the sphere of political 
 injustice as to enact, or even propose, such vile legislation as 
 the exemption provision of the Sundry Civil Appropriations Bill, 
 passed by the present "American" Congress, or, as embodied in 
 the Bacon-Bartlet Bill. 
 
 (8) That the laws of Australasia which provide for com- 
 pulsory Arbitration, Wages Boards and a Minimum Wage, have 
 proved inefficient and inadequate for their intended purposes, 
 and that instead of accomplishing their objects they are serving 
 to make New Zealand and Australia breeding countries of 
 loafers and idlers; that they have practically destroyed all hope 
 
 135 
 
of reward for personal ambition among the workers and have 
 served only the socialistic purpose of leveling up and leveling 
 down the whole class to one standard of opportunity. 
 
 (9) That the wage question is an economic problem 
 which should be kept aloof from politics, for once it gets mixed 
 up with them, it can never be separated and a sorry mess will 
 inevitably result. It has been thoroughly demonstrated in Aus- 
 tralasia that the function of Government is not to appease its 
 warring factions by compromising fundamental principles, but 
 to protect the rights of every citizen by the use of all the power 
 at its command when necessary; that the more Government 
 intervenes in private business, the more it will be compelled to 
 intervene, and that it is easy to enact but almost impossible 
 to repeal such measures, especially when their effect is the cre- 
 ation of a huge Governmental machine. 
 
 (10) That workmen's compensation laws are correct in 
 theory, upon the ground that loss through injury to a worker 
 should find its equity in the cost of production, and that when 
 such laws are founded upon just principles and fairly adminis- 
 tered they are a benefit to the community. 
 
 (IT) That, according to official Commonwealth statistics 
 for 1914, the purchasing power of money had depreciated since 
 1901, practically in the same ratio as wages a-dvanced during the 
 same period, it being, therefore, apparent that however much 
 legislation may have been enacted as a panacea for the economic 
 ills of society, the same has had practically no effect on the 
 natural law of supply and demand which has maintained its 
 supremacy, and that the real effect of the industrial legislation 
 has been to create disappointment and breed more discontent 
 by imposing upon the people a burdensome and expensive system 
 which has failed to give value received. 
 
 (12) That, if, in view of the homogeneous character of 
 the workers of Australia, its system of industrial legislation fails 
 of its purpose, namely, the creation of industrial peace, any 
 hope of similar legislation proving successful, or even partially 
 so, in the United States, with its heterogeneous mass of workers, 
 must be futile and could only prove suicidal to the best interests 
 of the nation. 
 
 (13) That, (a) non-enforcement of law is one of the 
 prime causes of lawlessness in cases of labor disturbance, and 
 for which officials charged with the responsibility of maintaining 
 the peace should be held to account; (b) that officials of labor 
 unions should be held individually responsible for damages ac- 
 cruing from strikes, in the same manner that directors and 
 
 136 
 
officers of business corporations are held responsible for what 
 happens as result of their actions. If this were the case, there 
 would be fewer strikes, less maiming of independent workers 
 and less destruction of property; (c) that employees of public 
 service utilities should be enlisted for stated periods, under con- 
 tract that would make stoppage by strike or other conspiracy 
 equivalent to mutiny or desertion; (d) that, if the organization 
 of the labor unions places men in power in Government who 
 enact laws favorable to the unionists, such Government will re- 
 fuse to enforce such laws against the unions. A domestic ex- 
 ample of such dereliction in the enforcement of the law against 
 powerful privileged classes is found in the unwillingness of our 
 Federal Government to prosecute labor unions under the Sher- 
 man Law. 
 
 (14) That practically all labor organizations of Austral- 
 asia, as in the United States and elsewhere, are based upon 
 false principles principles that are not only economically un- 
 sound, but which work unjust and cruel hardship upon the ma- 
 jority of workers themselves, who do not agree with the unions 
 but suffer at the hands of an organized minority of their fellows, 
 who try to force out of industry more than it contains, and 
 whose slogan is the socialistic idea that labor creates all wealth 
 and, therefore, all wealth belongs to labor. But we have only to 
 look at the results of labor when not directed by superior guid- 
 ance, reinforced by capital, to see the absurdity and ridiculous- 
 ness of the claim. 
 
 (15) That, (a) a practical remedy for industrial unrest 
 and disturbance lies in the dissolution of unionism as at present 
 organized, and the founding of a new unionism, with efficiency 
 and greater productivity, instead of deficiency and restricted 
 productivity, as its watchword and basis of conduct, and recog- 
 nizing that the only line along which it can hope to permanently 
 better labor, or realize its expectations is by lessening the cost of 
 production through increased productivity, and thereby increas- 
 ing the purchasing power of money wages; (b) that when labor 
 purges itself of its evil and organizes with equity in lieu of arbi- 
 trary despotism as its basic principle, when it adopts and operates 
 upon a platform of equitable business methods and when it seeks 
 no privileges which it is unwilling to extend to others, then and 
 not until then will industrial peace and harmony be restored, 
 then and not until then will labor and capital go forward hand 
 in hand to higher and nobler achievements. It is not within 
 the tolerance of human nature for one class of citizens to meekly 
 submit to the imposition of tyranny by another class. 
 
 i37 
 
(16) That, the fact of the whole matter is that the only 
 thing that will save our own country from the influence of 
 organized industrial despotism, is concrete organization and co- 
 operation of employers and other forces who are opposed to the 
 same, too many of whom have heretofore been apathetic and in- 
 different as to what has been going on around them, and too 
 much absorbed in business and pleasure, but who cannot escape 
 the consequences if they stand idly by and permit an organized 
 minority to rule over them, and who, in furtherance of that end 
 elect to public office men who have no scruples about lending 
 their influence to the promotion of class legislation designed to 
 tear down the citadel of security that has so long preserved our 
 free institutions, and who cast their vote at the crack of the lash 
 of organized labor, for which they should be treated with con- 
 tempt in their respective communities. 
 
 (17) That, the more industrial peace is sought to be en- 
 forced through legislation which encroaches upon the natural and 
 inalienable rights of citizens, the more pronounced will be the 
 spirit of antipathy between the employer and the employed ; that 
 there are certain avenues over which industrial legislation can 
 safely and successfully travel, and other avenues which lead to 
 turmoil and strife and therefore unwise to enter upon. We be- 
 lieve results in Australia clearly demonstrate that industrial 
 "salvation by legislation is not possible," that "there are many 
 things legislation can do, but there are many things it can not 
 do/' and therefore great care should be exercised to draw the line 
 at the proper limit, wherein lies the danger of industrial legisla- 
 tion. Men can enact legislation that will assist the operation of 
 natural laws, but when they undertake to enact laws which are 
 opposed to the laws of Nature failure and chaos will be the in- 
 evitable result. 
 
 (18) That, inasmuch as a number of States have enacted, 
 and others are contemplating enacting, minimum wage laws, we 
 believe that such legislation is ill-advised and will in time prove a 
 serious mistake, in that it will work to the detriment rather than 
 to the advantage of the common weal, and, furthermore, that 
 legislation having for its object the regulation or control of 
 contractural relations between employer and employee in this 
 country should be given far more serious consideration by our 
 lawmakers than it has heretofore received, lest we encounter the 
 pitfalls to which attention has hereinbefore been specifically 
 called, only to find, in the last analysis, that "in going down hill 
 on a slippery track the going is easy, the task, getting back." 
 
 (19) That, inasmuch as present-day legislation seems 
 
 138 
 
to be leaning strongly toward a policy of compromise of basic 
 principles in partial satisfaction, at least, of organized demands 
 for special privileges and immunities, and for so-called "Social 
 Justice," regardless of its effect on prosperity and posterity, we 
 recommend that the National Association of Manufacturers, in 
 keeping with its constructive policies, adopt measures to keep 
 itself informed on the progress and development of all subjects 
 for legislation affecting fundamental principles, that it may at all 
 times be in position to act intelligently and wisely with respect 
 thereto and not fall into the snare of supporting measures pur- 
 porting to be constructive, but which, in the last analysis, will 
 prove to be destructive, and that it steadfastly maintain its oppo- 
 sition to any and all legislative innovations whose tendencies are 
 to create or encourage national inefficiency, or class distinction, 
 or which do not contribute to human achievement. 
 
 (20) That, waiving the questions of its Socialistic tendencies 
 and its deplorable industrial conditions, which will, we believe, 
 right themselves in time, Australasia, located as it is in the South 
 Pacific, aloof from all other English speaking nations, is prone 
 to a friendly and sympathetic feeling toward the United States 
 to which it would naturally turn for assistance in seasons of dis- 
 tress, and that the possessions of the United States in the 
 Hawaiian and the Philippine Islands and Samoa should lead to 
 a close bond of friendship and mutual interest between these 
 countries and cement them together in inseparable ties of friend- 
 ly intercourse and good will. 
 
 (21) That it is not to be inferred from anything herein, 
 that we deprecate legitimate progress, decry effort to bring about 
 an amelioration of the condition of labor, or are averse to any- 
 thing which will work a restoration of the ancient amity that 
 existed between employer and employee. We heartily approve 
 every movement that promises permanent progress to either labor 
 or capital. We cordially espouse all effort intelligently directed 
 to improvement in the conditions of labor and laborer, and we 
 look forward with genuine enthusiasm to that day which shall 
 witness the exit of the professional agitator and the advent of 
 peace between employer and employee, a peace based upon mutual 
 regard for mutual interests and not upon selfish regard for mere 
 class advancement. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 JOHN KIRBY, JR. 
 DAVID M. PARRY. 
 
 ALBERT A. SNOWDEN, 
 
 Secretary. 
 139 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Accidents, compensation for 10 
 
 Adelaide, city of, brief account of 6 
 
 Anti-Trust Legislation 15 
 
 Apprentice, form of application for license to work as 60 
 
 Apprentices 97 
 
 Arbitration, compulsory 92 
 
 Auckland, city of, brief account of 116 
 
 Australasia, people of, brief account of 19 
 
 Australia, Commonwealth of, brief account of 4 
 
 pensions paid in 6 
 
 people of 1 10 
 
 principal cities of 4 
 
 public debt of 6 
 
 railways of 7 
 
 taxes in 10 
 
 Banking institutions 18 
 
 Brisbane, city of, brief account of 4 
 
 Christchurch, city of, brief account of 117 
 
 Cities, principal, of Australia 4 
 
 New Zealand 1 16 
 
 visited 3 
 
 Commonwealth of Australia, brief account of 4 
 
 Compulsory arbitration 92 
 
 Conclusions and recommendations 134 
 
 Crown lands 16 
 
 Discipline, Unionism's effect on 83 
 
 Dunedin, city of, brief account of 117 
 
 Editorial on debate on industrial laws 25 
 
 Editorials and other newspaper accounts 23 and 71 
 
 Government and business in New Zealand 117 
 
 owned railways in Australia 7 
 
 ownership of homes for workingmen 15 
 
 land in Australia 16 
 
 New Zealand 118 
 
 railways in New Zealand 119 
 
 Hobart, city of, brief account of 6 
 
 Holidays 86 and 88 
 
 Homes for workingmen 1 5 
 
 Hours and wages 83 
 
 Industrial conditions in Australia 22 
 
 New Zealand 120 
 
 laws, debate on, newspaper account of 28 
 
 press comments on 38 
 
 140 
 
PAGE 
 
 Industries, Government ownership of 8 
 
 Industry, Government regulation of 63 
 
 Labor and capital, editorial on 25 
 
 Land, Government ownership in New Zealand 118 
 
 Laws and wages 6 9 
 
 Industrial, debate on, newspaper account of 28 
 
 press comments on 38 
 
 regulating industries 63 
 
 Melbourne, city of, brief account of 5 
 
 Mineral wealth 19 
 
 Minimum wage, form of application for license to work at less than.. 61 
 
 Minimum wages 88 
 
 Newspaper account of debate on industrial laws 28 
 
 Newspaper articles 23 and 71 
 
 New Zealand, brief account of 116 
 
 cities of 116 
 
 Government and business in 117 
 
 ownership of railways in 119 
 
 industrial conditions in 120 
 
 Output, restriction of 78 
 
 Pensions in Australia 6 
 
 People of Australia no 
 
 Australasia, brief account of 19 
 
 Perth, city of, brief account of 6 
 
 Press, Tl^e, opinions of 23 and 71 
 
 Public debt of Australia 6 
 
 Railways, Government ownership of, in Australia 7 
 
 New Zealand 119 
 
 of Australia 7 
 
 Rates of wages, weekly, for principal occupations 84 
 
 Refrigeration system 17 
 
 Restriction of output 78 
 
 Sydney, city, of, brief account of 5 
 
 Taxes in Australia , ' 10 
 
 Trust Legislation 15 
 
 Unionism, effect of, on discipline 83 
 
 views on 98 
 
 what is wrong with ? 98 
 
 Unions, number of members of, in Australia 82 
 
 Wage earners' views 81 
 
 Wages, weekly rates of, for principal occupations 84 
 
 hours and 83 
 
 laws and 69 
 
 minimum 88 
 
 Wellington, city of, brief account of 116 
 
 Workingmen, homes for 15 
 
 Workmen's Compensation 10 
 
 141 
 
LOAN DEPT.