smaller incomes than those judicially bestowed on ordinary seamen.) The discrimination exercised has naturally caused bitter resentment among the workers-usually of a distinctly superior type-who are injuriously affected by it, for class favouritism must always provoke class hatred. In the case of the favoured class the bestowal of liberal rewards without insisting on the rendering of faithful service in return has a decidedly demoralising effect. Cupidity is excited on the one hand and industry discouraged on the other. The average trade unionist, taught to regard a State tribunal as his pay-master and protector, loses the proper respect which he ought to feel towards his employer and is only too apt to fall into habits of slackness. Healthy ambition also withers when the worker feels that efficiency and industry will not improve his condition.

To piecework and the granting of bonuses for superior merit the trade union officials in Australia offer a determined resistance. During the hearing of an application by the Australian Society of Engineers for a new award last August, Mr. Justice Powers strongly condemned this attitude and remarked with truth that it was a sad thing to see a man on the same class of work for twenty or twenty-five years." He added that "in all awards where piece-work and bonus-work rates had been laid down the men had enjoyed better wages and higher conditions." American experience entirely confirms the judge's statement. Yet the officials of the Victorian Railwaymen's Union are now threatening to black-list and expel all those members who avail themselves of a bonus system lately introduced at the Newport railway works by the Commissioners. Further, there is much evidence to show that the pernicious "go slow " policy is being pursued by certain unions. Men who have recently joined those bodies often declare that they are abused and threatened if they work harder than their companions. (A case has just occurred at Port Douglas in North Queensland where sixteen wharf labourers took an hour to load 3 tons of sugar.) General Booth stated publicly at a luncheon given to him in Sydney by the Millions Club in April last year that he was sorry to observe that "there was a distinct effort to reduce output in Australia." As an illustration he mentioned the painful fact that bricklayers employed there by his own officers were only doing " about one-third the work they did twelve years ago." In considering a request made some time

before by the federated unions for the fixing of a basic wage for all industries the President of the Arbitration Court himself described the diminution of production shown by official figures placed before him by the representatives of the employers as startling." And it is almost unnecessary to add that kindly feelings and a spirit of friendly co-operation can hardly prevail between employers and employees when they are judicially regarded as natural opponents occupying separate camps. Voluntary arbitration promotes conciliation. Compulsory arbitration absolutely precludes it.

Another unfair feature of the system is this. Some years ago the first President of the Arbitration Court introduced the practice of making each new award operative, so far as increased rates of wages were concerned, from the time when the original plaint was filed. Since, owing to the immense congestion of business, a case had frequently to await hearing for a lengthy period, the accumulated difference between the old and the new rates of pay which the employers were required to make up to their employees, when the new award was at last pronounced, often amounted to a very considerable sum. In October, 1919, for instance, the Waterside Workers' Federation obtained an award by which largely increased rates of pay were granted to the unions affected. It was ordered that the new rates should apply retrospectively to the preceding May. In describing this decision as "appalling" the representative of the inter-State and over-seas shipping companies who had been cited as respondents stated that the aggregate difference between the old and the new rates for the five months amounted to nearly £250,000 and this large sum had to be paid by the employers. The case of the timber-workers was even worse. The plaint was filed by the union on February 3, 1919, and the award was not issued until November 20, 1920. By its terms the unfortunate employers were ordered to pay the whole of the substantial increases of pay granted retrospectively for a period of no less than twenty months. This award had the immediate effect of closing down scores of saw-mills, ruining their proprietors and causing a great deal of unemployment. It need scarcely be added that in the very few cases where wages have been reduced by the Court the awards have not been made retrospective in their operation.

VOL. 241. NO. 492.

P

The facilities offered by the existence of the Federal Arbitration Court and by its methods of procedure, to men with political objects of a most sinister kind in view, constitute in themselves a source of danger. It has previously been mentioned that a dispute can be brought before the court by any union for compulsory settlement by the simple process of filing a plaint containing a list of more or less fantastic claims which had previously been submitted to, and rejected by, the employers. The instrument embodying such claims is popularly called a "log," and the "log " is a most effective weapon in the hands of labour agitators for injuring great industries. Each "log" is fabricated by a small coterie of obscure officials at the union's headquarters, and its contents are frequently unknown to a large number of the workers interested, and very imperfectly understood by the rest. So preposterous are the claims put forward in most of these productions that it is difficult to believe that they are dictated by anything but a spirit of mockery.

A few examples may be given in support of this statement. In June, 1922, the Waterside Workers' Federation presented a "log" demanding rates of pay varying from 3s. 6d. to 10s. 6d. per hour, two half-hour intervals on full pay for refreshment each day and various other indulgences. In August, 1924, the Carters' and Drivers' Union asked in a similar way for a minimum wage of £7 a week for only 44 hours work, rising to £8 17s. 6d. a week for men required to drive two horses or to do work of an unpleasant kind. For boys under 18 the modest sum of £5 a week was demanded, and on reaching his nineteenth year each fortunate youth was to receive his full £1 a day for maintenance and refreshment. This "log" has excited particular consternation among shopkeepers of all kinds, and were its terms granted an immediate increase in the cost of bread, meat, groceries, etc., would assuredly follow. Workers in jam factories are more moderate. Their latest "log" is still, like that just referred to, awaiting judicial attention; it stipulates for a minimum wage of £5 5s. for men and £3 10s. for women, a substantial reduction in the number of hours worked weekly, a Saturday half-holiday, and double and in some cases treble rates of pay for work done after 5 p.m. and on holidays. Seeing that, when great quantities of perishable fruit have to be dealt with, work in large jam factories cannot be limited to eight hours a day, and holidays must at times

be disregarded, these new demands affect two important Australian industries most seriously. The official champions of the fruitworkers are equally zealous to promote the interest of the class they claim, with doubtful justification, to represent. Their "log,' manufactured in Melbourne and just served on all the leading orchardists and fruit-growers, is of a most extraordinary character, including demands for wages rising from £3 10s. per week for children under 15 to an average rate of about £6 per week for adults engaged in various occupations connected with the industry. To crown all, besides payment in full on all public holidays, a month's holiday each year on full pay is requested. Were these terms granted many Australian fruit-growers now would gladly change places with their employees. Finally, the Australian Workers' Union has just launched two "logs against the farmers and pastoralists respectively, demanding inter alia a minimum guaranteed wage of £9 10s. for shearers, both skilled and unskilled; £15 per week, with keep, for wool-classers; and £8 per week for ordinary station hands. Since in the agricultural districts far more free labour is available than in the pastoral, the farmers are let off more easily for the present, but nevertheless the terms asked are altogether unreasonable and cannot possibly be granted.

The chief ultimate object aimed at by the junta of trade union. officials, by whom most of the leading industries in Australia are subjected to unceasing attack through the abuse of the machinery provided by the law for settling disputes, is-there seems good reason to believe that of effecting far-reaching political and social changes. Industrial unrest, class hatred, insecurity of property and unemployment are conditions eminently favourable to the designs of men who wish to bring about revolutions. There are, indeed, very few professed communists in political circles in the Commonwealth, but in industrial circles there they exercise great influence. There is substantial evidence to support the opinion that communists now control some of the largest Australian trade unions. Much light was thrown on their activities at the meeting of the "All-Australian Trade Union Congress " which assembled in Melbourne in June, 1921. A resolution was adopted on that occasion favouring the conversion of all the different unions into one huge organization whose main object was defined as that of destroying by industrial and political methods the present

capitalistic system " and replacing it by one very similar to that which has raised Russia to her present state of " prosperity." The Inter-State Labour Conference held in Brisbane in the following October carried by 22 votes to 10 a motion to the effect" that the socialisation of industry, production, distribution and exchange be the objective of the Labour party." The" industrial methods" referred to in the first resolution have unquestionably been facilitated by the existence of the Federal Arbitration Court and the opportunities it affords for harassing employers, exciting feelings of cupidity and restiveness among the workers and rendering property insecure. The industrial incendiary finds abundance of inflammable material among masses of ignorant and deluded men who have been taught to regard the Arbitration Court, not as a tribunal for the settlement of real disputes, but merely as a machine for the unlimited increase of wages. However the court may decide, the communist plotter is the gainer. further disabilities in the way of increased wages and reduced hours of work be imposed on employers the "capitalistic" class is weakened. If the demands put forward on behalf of the employees be rejected bitter feelings are aroused among the men who had been led to hope for quite impossible benefits. The mandatory powers bestowed on the court have throughout completely sterilised its efforts to preserve industrial peace, and have made it rather an instrument of dissension.

If

The supreme test of the value of every institution is that of results. This test after the lapse of nearly twenty years since its foundation may fairly be applied to the chief industrial tribunal in Australia. Ostensibly it was created to promote industrial peace. How far that object has been attained is demonstrated by the fact that between the year 1913 and the middle of 1920 official statistics show that there occurred in the Commonwealth 2843 disputes involving the loss of 17,015,747 working days and the sum of £9,964,072 in wages alone. During the quinquennial period 1917-1922 there were 2381 disturbances of the same kind in which 651,029 persons were implicated and the total loss in wages came to £7,056,521. Later figures are by no means encouraging and the competition of greed among the trade union officials seems to be increasing rather than diminishing. At all representative meetings of employers the working of the