The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JULY 24. 1909. THE RIGHT TO WORK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2562, 24 July 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, JULY 24. 1909. THE RIGHT TO WORK.

The letter contributed by a correspondent, under the above heading, servos to remind us that we are threatened with a Right to Work Bill next session. Theoretically, there should be no objection to the establishment of the principle that every man in a community should be provided with an opportunity to earn a living for himself and those directly dependent upon him. As a matter of political economy it is suicidal for the State to allow any man to remain out of work, ror every day that he is idle lessens the production upon which the community as a whole must subsist --—JTLi' ctVc pcutor."Js« • o’uC 0 ’ uC 0 f employment for a month ho may, by the exercise of extraordinary economy, and by stinting his family, of articles which should be their lot,' be able to manage his affairs without becoming a charge upon the State, but if he then fails to find employment it is only a question of time when both himself and those dependent upon him must become a burden upon the rest of the community. The worst feature of unemployment, as we pointed .out some time back when dealing with the subject, is the deteriorating effect which the consequent receipt of charity has upon the recipients, and tliis provides another reason why all possible steps should be taken to find work for those who have failed to obtain it through the ordinary channels. In the last resort the State must keep those men and their families whether they work or not, therefore it is preferable, from every point of view, that they should not be allowed to remain idle.

Y"et to concede the duty of the State, in its capacity as representative of all the people, to find work for all who seek it is t-o bring us face to face with a problem that has many complications.. In the first place a Bill to deal with the question, would have to be very carefully drawn in order to set forth, in a satisfactory manner, when and how this work should be given. Would the State be compelled to- find work for any person who chose to consider himself workless at any time and place that lie chose to ask for it, or would this “right to work’’ bo only conceded under such special conditions as are existent at the present time? It seems to us that the difficulty of differentiating in this respect would be very great. If the State accepted the responsibility of finding work for 100 carpenters in 1909 when the building trade was very slack', what right would it have to refuse the same privilege to five carpenters who declared in 1910 that they were worklcss or oven to one in 1911 ? Again would the State he expected to suit each particular applicant- with the special class of work that he desired? Would the bricklayer be entitled as the,result of the passing of a Right-to-Work Bill to employment at his trade, and a carpenter at his and a slaughterman at liis? If so, we should soon be -faced with the necessity of establishing State abattoirs or freezing works to provide casual employment for out-of-work slaughtermen. The thing seems ridiculous, yet it would be of. little use giving, the slaughterman the right to work as -a. carpenter or a draper’s assistant the privilege of serving the State as a navvy on a bushfelliug contract. Then conies' the question of remuneration. If our unionist friends have-their own. way, the State would in all cases have to pay what industrial awards had set down as the minimum wage. Already they have shown their desires in this respect by the dire threats hurled at the Christchurch City'Council for daring to offer loss to some of the unemployed in tlic

southern city. Yet there is nothing so unreasonable in the suggestion that tho un employed should if occasion, requires, ho paid loss than the minimum wage. The minimum wage in many cases stands at a distinctly higher level than tho cost of living, and therefore tho argument that it only represents a bare subsistence does not a PPIy- Moreover., the minimum wage is supposed to represent the smallest amount which an employer can offer as 'the equivalent of labor given by a competent tradesman. But the ranks of tho unemployed are, presumably, filled by these whose standard of efficiency is below that of then- follows, otherwise their services would have been retained, and if the State pays them equal to the standard wage ruling amongst private employers it is clearly going to be a loser. And the full amount of that' loss has to be made up in some way by the rest of the community, and tho largest part will come from the pockets of tho working classes themselves. Moreover, the very fact of the State paying to inferior or less energetic workers a wage which they cannot command elsewhere would inevitably have a tendency to attract to the State labor bureaux a constantly increasing army of* men who would choose this means of earning an easier living than could be secured in the open competition of -the general labor market. ‘Where this ’would end it is not easy to conjecture, but it is difficult to believe that tne State would benefit by any great extension in this dirpetion of socialistic -principles. However, it is not im-ciy that these trifles will disturb the dreams of our socialistic friends, and we shall se quite prepared to find that their latest demand will be interpreted as the right of every individual who declares himself unable to obtain work in the open labor market to demand from the State immediate employment at his own trade at union wages and in a locality handy to town. Assuming such obligations were undertaken by the State, it follows that the State, in its turn would be entitled to demand irom the workers some such reciprocity as is suggested by .our correspondent. Otherwise there would bo a grave danger that tlii-s freedom from anxiety in regard to possible dearth of employment on the part of the worker might destroy the incentive to thrift which at present causes him as a rule to make some provision for illness, old age, and other emergencies. The problem is a very big one, and it will tax the utmost resourcefulness of our legislators to bring up any practicable scheme to deal with it.