SETTLEMENT OF INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES. 503 



the primary and secondary industries are at this moment very 

 short of men, the unions are against immigration of labour, skilled 

 or unskilled. They discourage any system of profit-sharing, as 

 likely to divert the sympathies of the men from the unions to the 

 concerns in which they have a monetary interest. 



Any reversion to the older basis of freetrade in labour is 

 unlikely. The unions are here, many of them created under the 

 Arbitration Acts, and they are here to stay with their collective 

 bargaining. To-day the unions have political power behind them, 

 but even if they had not it is doubtful whether the old basis could 

 be restored. In an over-supplied labour market a proportion of the 

 masters would be certain to resume something in the nature of 

 ■" sweating " — -taking advantage of the men's necessity. In an 

 under-supplied labour market a proportion of the men are bound 

 to press their claims unreasonably far. The situation to-day is one 

 of under-supply. The unions know this, and while they retain 

 political power they are unlikely to allow anything to greatly 

 ■change matters. 



The old basis meant the strike as the eventual Court of Appeal, 

 and the community is likely to suffer several more experiments 

 in the hope of some better mode of settlement than the strike as 

 the only alternative to the private and voluntary agreement. The 

 strike is like a frenzied Asiatic running amok, he may hit an enemy, 

 but is just as likely to injure a friend. It is impossible to confine 

 the area of a strike to the particular employers sought to be coerced. 

 So inter-dependent is commerce that a dozen other sections of the 

 community, not interested in the dispute, become involved in 

 its economic losses. 



In the existing situation of affairs it is difficult to see the 

 solution. The unions discourage profit sharing in any form, as, 

 for instance, in the Furness case not long ago in England ; otherwise 

 something might be done in that direction. The handing of a 

 percentage of profits to employees, as has been done here, I believe 

 in one or two retail establishments, is one method. The acquire- 

 ment by the men of an actual interest, say in the form of shares, 

 with representatives on the managing body, is probably the sounder 

 method. 



An experiment of this kind was tried a few years ago at one 

 -of the Newcastle collieries. Contributing shares were issued to the 

 miners, and were gradually paid up by percentage deductions from 

 their earnings. After a time the men collectively held a very 

 material interest in the mine, and, by invitation of the proprietors, 

 two of their number sat on the board. Relations between the 

 management and the men were satisfactory. Negotiations were 

 ■conducted through these two representatives, in whom the men had 

 implicit confidence, and any possible troubles were thus averted. 

 The system successfully stood the test of two district strikes, the 

 men in this particular mine declining to join the movement. 



Eventually the shares became fully paid up, and the men got 

 their scrip. This proved to have been the initial error. Some 



