38o 



The Review of Reviews. 



HOW THE AUSTRALIANS DEAL WITH STRIKES. 



By Mr. Sidney Low. 



The best account of the anti-strike legislation in 

 Australia is furnished by Mr. Sidney Low to the 

 readers of the Fortnightly. He admits that it has by no 

 means completely achieved its object, but he points 

 out with justice that, — 



\Viih all its defects it is an honest attempt on the part of 

 perhaps the most deniocratic coniiminiiies in the world, and 

 those in which labour has more politic.Tl power than anywhere 

 else, to substitute industrial peace for industrial conflict, and to 

 transfer the struggle from the factory and the mine to the law 

 court and the council chamber. 



COMPULSORY ARBITRATION. 



Mr. Law summarises the Acts by which the strike 

 and lock-out are vetoed. They arrange other means 

 for the settlement of industrial disputes : — ■ 



These vary in the different States. New Zealand set the 

 precedent of establishing compulsory arbitration courts, and the 

 example has been followed in New .South Wales and other 

 colonies. The President of the Court is a judge of the highest 

 tribunal in the Commonwealth or the State, and is provided 

 with assessors chosen by the parties to the dispute. He has 

 jurisdiction in any dispute over wages and conditions of service 

 referred to him jointly by the parties, but he is also empowered 

 to call them before hijn on the- application of the Government, 

 or, if he thinks proper, on his own initiative. It is his duty in 

 the first instance to get the parties to come to terms by voluntary 

 agreement, and when .such agreement has been made and filed, 

 it has the force of law, and must be carried out by both 

 employers and employes under penalties which can be enforced 

 in the ordinary way before a magistrate. Failing agreement, 

 the judge, after hearing the evidence on both sides, makes the 

 award, and fixes the schedules of rates which he considers best 

 adapted to the circumstances of the industry. 



now ENI'OKCED. 



This schedule is binding usually for a period of three years, 

 and any attempt to disturb it by a strike or a lock-out can be 

 punished, in some cases by imprisonment, or by fines which 

 ra.iy amount to as much as /J 1,000 upon the employer, or £\o 

 and ;^2o upon the indivitlual workman. Three points are 

 worth noting ; first, that under several of the Acts the Industrial 

 Ccurt may decree a preference in favour of the employment of 

 trade union workmen ; secondly, that the funds of the unions 

 are themselves liable for breaches of the Act ; thinlly, that 

 in case the union funds are not sufiicient to pay the amount 

 levied by the Court, the penalties n-iay be recovered pro rata 

 from the individual menii>crs themselves. .-V few- cases have 

 f)ccurred in .-Vustrjlia, and a large number in New- Zealand, in 

 which the costs have been recovered under an order of the 

 Court from the individual workman. 



CO.NCLUSION. 



In England too much weight has been attached to the com- 

 pulsory side of Australasian labour legislation and too little to 

 the voluntary and conciliatory side. The Wages Boards and 

 Conciliation Boards are as characteristic as the Industrial 

 Arbitration Courts, and in at least one of the States they are 

 much more important. IJoth in New Zealand and in New 

 South Wales (under the Act of 1908) the dispute must be 

 referred to I3oards of Conciliation, jointly representing employers 

 and employes in the first instance. The Hoard can make a 

 determination to regulate the industry, but an appeal is allowed 

 to the Industrial Court, which is also entrusted with the duty 

 of enforcing the Act. 



THE si'CCEs.';. 



Jhc Acts have completely broken down in some 

 cases, but according to the State Labour Bureau of 



New South Wales, in its report issued in 1909, jus., 

 before the great coal strike, — 1; 



The Act has already lived down the bitter hostility of a 

 section of the trade unions, the majority of them having alreadjj 

 applied for the appointment of Wages Boards to determint 

 rates of wages and conditions of labour in their particulail 

 industries. The opinion is fast gaining ground in industriiil 

 circles that greater benefits are likely to accrue from thf 

 operations of the Act than could be expected from the method; 

 of the strike. 



THE NEW SOUTH WALES COAL STRIKE OF I909. 



The most famous failure of Arbitration and Concilia 

 tion Courts to prevent a strike was the great coal strike 

 of 1909, which was crushed after six weeks by an Act 

 of coercion of unparalleled severity. Under this Act 

 the police could disperse and arrest any persons who 

 assembled to advocate a strike in any industry affecting 

 coal, milk, or other necessaries of life. The leader of the 

 strike was sent to gaol for tweh e months : — 



The result of these strong measures was a successful conference 

 between the Wages Board and representatives of the colliery 

 proprietors and the miners, and then a ballot of the men, which 

 gave a heavy majority in favour of returning to work. In this 

 case, then, the Acts were certainly not abortive. 



Mr. Low does not mention that as a result of these 

 coercive measures the Liberals were turned out of 

 ofTice, and that the Labour Party then triumphantly 

 released the imprisoned strikers. 



Mr. Low's article is full of interest, and supplies just 

 the information which ever) body wants at the present 

 time. 



FUTURISM: BY A FUTURIST. 

 The Lady's Realm states that London is bewildered 

 by the madness of the Futurists. But Gino Severini, 

 one of the painters of the pictures, thus explains to 

 the writer : — 



"The I-'uturists are the forerunners of the future art," he said. 

 " We do not copy Nature nor do we have models for our work. 

 Neither do we follow the archaic warning of this eternal cry, 

 ' Study Nature, copy things in their entirety — detailed and I 

 exact — just as they exist.' That is not art. To reproduce! 

 Nature as it is, is the photographer's business. I 



"What we aim at representing on our canvases are the! 

 sensations that have been left on our minds after the person, or 

 street, or object is beyond our vision. We paint the sensations, 

 not the thing as it is. 



" .\ busy thoroughfare is a muddle vision, is it not ? Hence, 

 toppling buildings, motors thunilering along like roaring 

 monsters, an eye of a pretty girl or a frightened woman is 

 the vital spark of remembrance of this scene ; or perhaps a 

 quarter or side view of a face is dominant in the mind ; it' so, 

 it is then simply the eye or face that is inserted in the painting. 

 For example, if we paint a cab relatively bigger Ih.-in a house 

 it is 'o emphasise the fact that the cab is the leading motive. 

 That IS the principle carried out by the Futurists in all their 

 work . 



" We affirm that painting and sensation are two inseparable 

 words. Therefore our sole effort is to give the public a sensa- 

 tion. Vivid colours, zone colours, rpeak not only of .sunlight, 

 but of gaiety, happiness, riotous celebrations. To express this 

 condition we splash on the violet paints with the palette knife 

 to give an emotion to the spectator." 



