£04 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION GI. 



provision should have been made to do away with the issue of such 

 easily negotiable instruments. In a comparatively short time some 

 60 to 70 per cent, of the men's shares were sold or pledged — mostly 

 to the publicans. To-day very few remain in the men's hands. 

 The system broke down, the management retired the miners' repre- 

 sentatives from the board, and the men joined in the next strike. 



There would be hope if something could be done to amend the 

 attitude of unionists in one or two directions. If, for instance, 

 the rapid worker were encouraged, and all workers were taught to 

 do their best. If the restrained output system were abolished, as 

 a thing discreditable to the men and injurious to the community. 

 If the doctrine were generalty accepted that any form of honest 

 work, well done, is essentially noble. If happier relations with 

 employers, on the basis of the board fixed wage, were sought as 

 sometfiing desirable in itself, then a distinctly happier era would 

 ensue. The worker under the existing Acts need not fear, as con- 

 cerns wages, the " sweater " on one side, or the non-unionist on 

 the other, for the boards fix the scale. Something should be done 

 to satisfactorily regulate the apprentice question, so that a steady 

 supply of trained recruits may pass into the labour ranks ; while, 

 on the other hand, provision should be made to prevent the undue 

 employment of boy labour by the less scrupulous employer. The 

 men should recognise that something is due to the employer who' 

 supplies the capital and the supervisory intelhgence, and who 

 incidentally bears the risk of the trading loss. Broadly, nowhere 

 in the world is the employee better off at this moment than in 

 Australia. 



On his side the employer should be ready to consider any 

 reasonable pleas put forward by the men, and he should be prepared 

 to regard them more as co-workers than as cogs in an industrial 

 wheel. He must be ready to admit that wages should enable the 

 worker to secure some relaxation as well as the bare necessaries 

 of life. Where practicable he should encourage the men to acquire, 

 if they so desire, an interest in the business for which they toil. 

 On this basis both sides would have a mutual stake in the success- 

 of the particular venture ; instead of the condition of veiled hos- 

 tility which exists to-day, accentuated at times by open hostility. 



Profit sharing and arbitration are probably only phases, and 

 the next step may be the" economic wage." "Will it ever be practic- 

 able to arrange a sliding scale wage basis for the ever-shifting; 

 cost of necessaries ? Will such a system make allowance for the 

 varying capacities of the workers ? Will a family of five remain 

 the accepted standard ; and, while the worker may be satisiied 

 with the provision for bread, will he not, with his growing idea of 

 the importance of labour in production, demand an ever increasing, 

 piovision for the circus ? And what i eyond the " economic wage ?" 



Society awaits the genius who can suggest a feasible method 

 lor bringing about industrial peace. Meantime we can only say 

 with Mereoith : " Ah, what a dust)- answer gets the soul when hot. 

 for certainties in this our life." 



