Our Industrial Problems. 
Where the Trouble Lies. 
It is that during very comparatively re 
pent years the Lrade Union Movement 
has gathered tremendous power, and by 
exercising that power in various directions, 
chiefly industrial and political, have forced 
the employer to adopt a defensive atti 
tude, but—and here is the point—the 
anions have not been able or willing to 
shoulder the responsibility which alone 
justifies the possession of power. Let me 
llustrate the point I wish to make clear. 
A soap box orator on the Esplanade can 
indulge himself by propounding fantastic 
ideas along almost any conceivable line— 
economic, political, ethical, ete.~~but if 
you take that orator, elect him to the 
Legislative Assembly, present him with a 
Ministerial Portfolio and entrust to him 
the management of one of th. most im- 
portant departments of the State’s ac 
tivities (and stranger things than this 
have happened) then, if he be a real man, 
he will put away his fantastic ideas with 
his soap box and will administer his de- 
partment with due sense of the responsibil- 
ity which has been laid on him. If he does 
this Lie will probably incur the condemna- 
tion of his old Esplanade audience 
for “twisting,” but he will feel that he is 
doing his duty. 
Organised Labour has produced sufficient 
brains to govern both State and Common- 
wealth, and every unbiased eritiec must 
admit the Labour Governments have 
made a reasonably good showing and com- 
pare not unfavourably with some others 
we have been afflicted with. What is to 
prevent the Manufacturer calling to his 
aid the brains of the Labour movement to 
assist him to manage his business? I 
know this is a revolutionary idea, but 
it is only in this direction that a real and 
lasting settlement of the Industrial war 
pan be sought. Possibly some of your 
readers will gasp at the bare idea of in- 
dustry being given over body and soul 
to “Job Control.” Job control, however, ag 
we, see it exemplified for example by the 
Marine Cooks’ Union, in “irritation tac- 
tics’”’ hanging up boats, ete., is just the 
[isplanade oration from the soap box, not 
the line of action pursued by the Hon. 
the Minister for —, It is just another 
case of cause and effect. If you treat men 
as children incapable of grasping the com- 
plexitics of business and do not permit 
them to know Doth the strength and wealk- 
ness of the employer’s position, then you 
must expect them to get out of control 
like children when opportunity offers. 
I have no hesitation in affirming that 
unless a radical change of relationship be- 
tween Labour and Capital is effected ‘we 
shall have much more of our present brand 
of Job Control to contend with even than 
we have at present. The unions are shrewd 
snough to realise that. the organ- 
isation which is strong enough to 
put the screw on the Community 
in this manner ig going ta wring from the 
41 
smployer bigher wages and better cone 
litions while the orgasisation that is 
sagy-going and adopts a conciliatory attie 
;ude with the Employer gets left every 
rime. 
Another factor to be considered is the 
psychological effect of the present rela- 
tionship.” Any person with practical ex- 
perience of employment in works of any 
size, must be aware of the constant stream 
of rumours that are in circulation, The 
usual mode of greeting is “Hullo! What 
lo you kuow?”’ and the indivdual thus 
appealed to—especially if he has a reputa- 
tion for being “In the know’’—feels im- 
pelled to pass on an account of some little 
incident, almost always of an unsettling 
shavacter, Some glaring mistake the boss 
or one of the “Heads” has made, or how 
there is going to be a. big “pay off,”or 
something of that nature. I know these 
are only frifles, but the sum total of these 
trifles is no trifle. Again, apart from 
rumours, how many of us have had to sit 
tight and say nothing while we see care. 
lessness, dilatoriness or gross incompetence 
wreck the business where we have been 
employed; and if a word. of advice is 
proffered it is met with a contemptuous 
“If the job don’t suit you get out of 
it. I’m running this business, not you.” 
The trend of modern industrialism is to- 
wards mass production in large centres 
and the old-time outlet for the man with 
initiative and a few pounds saved up, to 
start in ‘business for himself is getting 
more remote, The avenue he must look to 
more and more for advancement is to 
nositions of responsibility in the big fac- 
rories, 
I am fully aware that gestures in the 
Yireetion of 
Co-Partnership and Profit Sharing 
have been made of late years, chiefly in 
America and Great Britain, and that the 
rade union movement has been antago. 
nistic to them. The reason for this is that 
hey have been ouly gestures. Many 
American business concerns afford their 
smployecs very favourable opportunities to 
purchase shares in the business, but they 
take good care that these easily purchased 
shares carry no weight in managing the 
husiness. The manager, as a matter of 
ourse, sends round and collects the proxies 
sefore the board meetings, 
If the employers of Australia are bold 
enough to bring forward a fair and equit- 
ible scheme of co-partnership I am convine- 
that there are sufficient reasonable men 
od in the organised labour movement to en- 
gure that the same fair and equitable spirit 
will be shown in the consideration of the 
idea. The overtures must come from the 
employers, because it must not be a de: 
mand but a courteous offer to come in 
md lend a hand, It must be an agree. 
nent between equals, not a dispensation 
if seraps from the rich man’s table amongst 
aegears at the door. T now it would be 
The Complete Home Paver is “The Western Mail.”