PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



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Employers' Associations and Trade Unions hav« developed to the point at which 

 both merit State recognition, to enforce under penalty agreements made between 

 them on all those, either employers or workpeople, who wished to work at the 

 industry within the area under the recognised organisations. Thus it would 

 not be necessary to make membership compulsory; self-interest would be the 

 extent of the pressure. 



Turning to workpeople's unions we also find defects which require removing. 

 The policy of union has been pa-actised among the workers for upwards of a 

 century, and for at least half that time with well-marked success in certain 

 directions. In the first instance it was the aristocracy of labour that realised 

 the advantage of collective action, but, notably since the late 'eighties of last 

 century, efforts have been made to extend the policy to all grades of labour. 

 Hence the ailments which have to be noted are rather more mature than those 

 affecting Employers' Associations. Success in certain directions has perhaps led 

 some of the more ardent spirits to expect more from their unions than working 

 conditions allow. The experience of old and tried leaders has led them to adopt 

 a more cautious policy than the young bloods are inclined to accept. Hence 

 there has been a want of loyalty, different, it is true, from that met with among 

 employers, but equally disastrous if persisted in to the object in view. 



All the men in a given industry should be members of the union, provided 

 that the union is well organised aJid ably administered. This should, however, 

 be the result of self-intereet and a regard for the good of fellow-workers, rather 

 than of compulsion ; how that may be attained has been suggested. Perfection 

 of organisation will come when workpeople not only realise the real possibilities 

 of collective action, but are prepared to follow loyally leaders who have been 

 constitutionally elected. The leaders are in a better position to know the facts 

 of the case immediately under review, but if thedr leadership has been found 

 faulty there should be adequate machinery for replacing them with men who 

 command the confidence of the majority of the members. When agreements 

 have been entered into, the terms should be implicitly observed, even though 

 they may turn out to be less advantageous than was expected. Periodical 

 revision would make it possible to rectify mistakes or misapprehensions. But it 

 cannot be too strongly emphasised that for both sets of organisations the great 

 factor making for smooth and satisfactory working is absolute loyalty to the 

 pledged word. A large employer of skilled labour, writing to me on this point, 

 said : ' In my opinion no industrial harmony can exist between employers and 

 employees until Trade Unions, through their Executives, can compel their 

 members to adhere to and honourably carry out all agreements entered into with 

 the employers. ... In fact, until a more honest code of morals exists on both 

 sides no improvement can be looked for.' 



Further, there is a need for a more complete and authoritative central 

 authority, both for individual industries and for federated trades. The 

 machinery for this exists ; it merely requires development. When the local and 

 central machinery has been perfected, the right to strike, whichj in common with 

 the right to lock out as a final resource, should be jealously maintained, would be 

 carefully regulated, and would only be resorted to as the considered judgment 

 of the most experienced men on either side. It should be impossible for either 

 an individual association or a section of it to order a strike or a lock-out on its 

 own responsibility. 



What, then, do I consider should be the main outline of industrial organi- 

 sation ? Employers should be organised into : — 



(a) Associations of one trade in a given district. 

 (h) National Associations of one trade, 

 (c) Local Federations of trades, 

 (rf) National Federations of tradee. 



Of these, b and d should be organised under a system of representation. 



Workpeople should have unions and federations corresponding to those of 

 the employers, and in both cases the National Federations should be carefully 

 organised Councils who would enjoy a large measure of authority, tempered by 

 the necessity to win and preserve the confidence of their electors. From these 

 two representative bodies there could be elected an Industrial Council as a Court 

 of Appeal, representative of the whole industrial activity of the country, and so 



