The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-02-20
Is AND CAPITAL.

The great Australian strike OF last
year has been productive OF some good
result, il we may judge by an interest
ing experiment now being made in the
province OF Hawkes. Bay, in the north
island Of New Zealand. 1t is a plan by
which tho employers and the workmen
OF this district, and not these alone, but
''all classes Of the community" are in
vited to enter an association whose
prime object it is ito establish pernia-
nent and mutually beneficial relations
between capital and labor. Strikes are
expensive Injuries for all concerned,
and the man or the association that will
provide a satisfactory means for their
extinction willbenetit workingmen and
capitalists alike. 1t is the widest and
most pernicious Of fallacies to declare
that labor and capital are Of necessity
natural and inevitable enemies, and that
any injury done to the former must re-
suit in the good and profit OF the latter.
Capital and labor are mutually depend
emit on each other, and no blow struck
at the one can be without injury to the
other.
The Stree association OF employers
and workmen" is seeking to discover
whether terms. moi merely OF truce, but
Of peace and mutual aid and co-opera-
ton, cannot replace the condition OF
war that lately existed between wage
farmers and wage-payers. To attall the
main objects Of establishing permanent
and mutually beneficial relations" be-
tween employers and workmen, and of
improving the conditions of workers of
all classes, a fund has been created to
provide assistance for members Of tho
association when injured by accident or
otherwise. Another fund is for the
protection Of members, and, most i'm
portant Of all, is the establishment of a
board Of Cancellation for the prompt
and effective settlement OF any disputes
that may arise either between employ
ers and employed or between the en-
ployed themselves. Boards OF concilia-
tion and arbitration are NJ new thing.
it is true, in the labor world. Many OF
them have already been productive Of
good results, but nowhere, perhaps, has
so thoroughly organized a shape been
given to the common interest which
capital and labor should have il work
ing in union, instead of in ~antagonism,
as in the scheme We speak Of.
Under the rules. it is to be noted that
employers are admitted to membership
only when they pay entrance fees and
annual subscription, OF have become
large donors to the funds of the 1850
c.ition. A workingman, on the contra
~, may become a sharer in all the ben
Gifts, simply by subscribing a declaration
pledging himself to promote the objects
OF the association and to abide by it's
stitution and functions of the concilia-
ton board seem to have been drawn out
with studieuc fairplay, and both sides
receive equal representation on the
tribunal. 1t is required that "no strike
or lockout shall under any circum-
stance be threatened or resorted to, un-
til the matter in dispute shall have been
referred to the board, and its decision
shall have been refused recognition and
observance" OF course, there is the
addendum that "the members are
pledged to accept such decision as final"
The further fortunes of the scheme de-
serve to be watched by everyone inter
ested in industrial movements. If the
board can retain it's cohesion and main
tam it's authority, it will have succeeded
in a trying attempt. But, even go, it
will not follow that every or any other
board, animated by equally laudable
motives, will prove itself to follow in
the footsteps of the promoters Of the
Hawkes. Bay scheme.