OUR INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS.
s
(By *
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lar Plexus.”)
To help in unravelling the knotty ques.
jon—how to improve our industrial state
Jf affairs—it will be necessary to take
the gloves off and without any com-
promise show where the fault lies, and, if
nossible, give some constructive ideas that
may help to do good to the masses. So,
if during this article, should at any time
the remarks appear too caustic, the writer
would ask the reader to remember that
he (the writer) has been a unionist for
nearly twenty years, and has always had
at heart the interest of the workers and
their families, and was (to the best of his
belief) the first publicly fo propose Child-
hood Endowment.
The first question is, is there anything
wrong with Australia from an industrial
point of view?
To answer that question we must con.
sider how industrial matters should be in
Australia and how they actually are.
During the last ten years Australia’s
main exportable articles have been cons
sistently bringing phenomenal prices and
wealth, through them, has poured into the
country, and if all were well anyone who
chose to work should find it easy to obtain
highly remunerative employment.
and others that contain tens of millions
of pounds’ worth of gold and other miner-
als that should be going into the pockets
of the workers, shareholders, and other
members of the community, are marking
-ime waiting a better assurance of the con-
tinuity of labour, and many manufacture
ing industries for the same reason have
been afraid to start. The remark over-
heard some days ago of one working man
to another discussing the outlook. sums
up the situation: “I reckon any capitalist
putting his dough into a business nowadays
is a b—— mug”
We have now diagnosed the industrial
aondition, and it is, we will say (not to
on our friend’s more virile adjective) very
sad.
Before attempting to apportion the
slame to any one or more parties it would
se well to consider the proportional ine
terest of the different members of the
sommunity in the average industry.
It is so palpable that the average indus-
ry pays very much more money directly
to the workers and indirectly to the coms
munity than it does to the so-called owner
that the closing down or checking of any
such industry does far more harm to the
two other parties than to the so-called
owner. This being granted, industries
now existent and in embryo should be helps
sd as much as possible by the workers
and the general public. as well as by the
IWners.
To give an example--some years ago,
quoting from memory, the output of the
W.A. mines was given as 140 million
pounds, of which 19 milljons had been
returned to shareholders in the shape of
dividends; the bulk of the balance, about
120 millions, had been paid for labour and
material, ete.
Further, all parties should be agreed that
labour should obtain the best wages and
conditions that the annual wealth of the
country ean give, while recognising the
fact that too high a standard will only
ripple industries and cause unemploy-e
Tent on a large scale. We now have these
sastulates:—
Is it too much to assume that if the
two great factors in the production of
wealth—labour and capital—had worksd
together amicably they would have gare
nered the fruits ready to drop, and Aus.
tralia would be to-day the most prosper
pus and contented country in the world.
Now what is the actual situation? With
all the wee'th pouring in but without a
great deal more that should be pouring
in, the industrial position is in a fearful
state; unemployment is rife, poverty is
rampant; and no one can look ahead with
any assurance of things being better. The
coal export trade has been strangled, half
the coastal shipping is lying rotting, our
Nommonwealth Line has had to go, mines
‘hat should be payable had closed down
The Complete Home
Paner is
“The Western Mail”