UNREST OF LABOR

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 3974, 3 July 1913, Page 3

UNREST OF LABOR

“THE CLOUDS ABE THICKEN.IXG.” LONDON “TIMES” ASKS QUESTIONS. Lord Salisbury, speaking in the House of Lords, expressed his conviction that the signs of the times indicate that “we are on the eve of a greater struggle between capital and labor than has yet been seen in this England.” If Lord Salisbury is right, the “Times” was well advised to prepare the special series of articles on “Labor and Industry,” which it has just published, February 19, 20, and 21. The writer of these “lias recently carried out a tour of investigation, in the course of which he has visited most of the chief industrial centres and mining districts. The object of his inquiry was to ascertain the present and prospective state of tilings with regard to trade and employment, labor movements, and the relation of employers to employed.” A WELTER OF IDEAS.

“The task is exceptionally difficult just now because of the extraordinary activity of thought and action prevailing in the industrial world, the numerous .and contradictory movements going on,'the opposing tendencies, and the rapid changes in progress,” says the “Times” in a leading article. “There has probably at no previous period been such a welter of ideas or such rapid movement. Trade unionism is complicated by Socialism ami both again by syndicalism. Political and industrial action are friends at one moment and enemies the next. Employers and employed resort to conciliation here and repudiate it there. Labor leaders do 'tlieir utmost to stir up trouble in one quarter and to allay it in another. They are themselves alternately obeyed and ignored ; in receipt of halfpence or of kicks. The State interferes and withdraws ; it will and it won’t. And all the time quack-salvers cry their cure-alls in the market-place and deafen the public in their efforts to shout down rivals.

GATHERING CLOUDS. “What is going to come of it all? The clouds appear to be thickening again in an ominous manner after a period of wliat our correspondent calls comparative tranquility. He is careful to explain that he does not mean by this a state of peace in the industrial world, but- only a lass troubled'atmosphere than that which prevailed a year ago, when we were approaching the coal strike. He attributes the relative calm that has since prevailed in part to the coal srike itself, which temporarily exhausted the appetite for battle, or, at any rate, the sinews of war.

“Fighting is always followed by reaction, and the greater the scale of operations the quicker and stronger the reaction. The coal strike was the greatest effort yet made by trade unionism. and the after-effects were commensurate with the struggle. It left its mark not only on'the miners but to a greater or less extent on all the principal industries. The unions found that it meant a steadily increasing drain on their funds for out : of-work pay due to a quarrel from which they stood only to lose.

GOOD TRADE

“A pretty steady stream lias been going; on at the rate of about 60 a month in different industries and different- parts of the country; but none have spread and few have lasted any length of time. There has been a general disposition on both sides to come to terms.

“The ‘Times’ correspondent does not attribute this entirely to the reaction after tlio big strikes. He considers the good state of trade a still more important factor. It enables employers to give advances and makes them unwilling to stop work. At the sanio time, it provides the workpeople with full employment at higher wages than they have been receiving for some time. Neither side is eager to sacrifice the present benefits by pressing the other too hard.. The London taxi-cab strike is an exception.” Here are some of the things tlio “Times” special correspondent says: “The buoyancy of trade is such that it eases all sorts of burdens, soothes raw places, allays friction, and covers up weaknesses, all of which would otherwise be felt or seen, and so produces a deceptively smooth surface. It makes employers unwilling to stop work and disposed to adopt any tolerable arrangement in order to avoid it. They are full of orders, which they wish to execute as quickly as possible ; they want to make hay while the sun shines. THE TEST OF EMPLOYMENT. “It- cannot be too strongly insisted on that employment is the real test of national prosperity. Trade is only a means or an index; the ultimate oqject from the public point of view ito furnish employment and support the population. The two go together in a general way, no doubt, and employment is never good when trade is bad; but the opposite cannot be affirmed. There is no exact correspondence between the two. Different forms of trade vary greatly in the amount of employment they give, and the i elation between the total volume hand led and the work represented is constantly changing. “The mean percentage of unemployment during the last four years was: 1909, 7.7; 1910, 4.7: 1911, 3; 1912, 3.2. If the coal strike period is excluded the percentage was below 3 in every month of. 1912 and with a falling tendency down to November, when the lowest point—namely, 1.8 reached. December showed an advance to 2.3, but this is mainly seasonal. In every industrial group enumerated in the returns, with the sole exception of miscellaneous metals, the proportion out of work was smaller in December, 1912, that at the same time in 1911.

That is to say, the improvement was maintained up to the end of the year. The industries most fully employed then were coal-mining, woollen and wosted, glass and pottery. The important groups with the largest percentage out of work were building (4.). iron and steel (4.2), shipbuilding (3.8), paper and printing (4.8), furnishing and woodworking (3.8), leather (4.8). DON’T IGNORE FACTS.

The “Times,” in concluding its leading article on its correspondent’s statements, says: “The horizon is already beginning to wear a more stormy look again. Several questions of the greatest magnitude are pending. The cotton trade, the railways, shipbuilding, .and coalmining—to say nothing of local matters —are all threatened with trouble. We have no wish to paint the prospect darker than it is, nor shall we do so. But to ignore plain facts is always foolish, and the present appearance of affairs is sufficient justification for a careful review of the whole field.”