HC G>e M3 UC-NRLF SB MD Sflfl CM ^r o 04 O PB 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 i :. r f. '. 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. -. .,!,.., -, - ; - ' -V, .: - r ; ,'- , ! > .-:. ' ,- > , .... :.,: '., - .>, ,: i '!.-. , . >i 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 -~' -: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 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