Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1914-05-06

and numerous powers. The "a III
of its jurisdiction may be seen from
the Commonwealth definition of in
dustrial matters"
"All matters relating to work, pay,
wages, reward, hours, privileges,
rights or duties of employers or en-
ployes, or the mode, terms and condi-
tons or employment or non-employ-
ment; and, in particular, but without
limiting the general scope of this def
milton, the term includes all matters
pertaining to the relations of employ
ers and employees, and the employ
ment, preferential employment, dis
| missal or unemployment of any par
| ticular persons, or of persons of any
| particular sex or age, or being or not
being members of any organization,
association or body; and any claim
arising under an industrial agreement;
and all questions of what is fair and
right in relation to any industrial
matter having regard to the interests
of persons Immediately concerned and
Of society as whole" Surely, this
definition is broad enough to satisfy
any workingman.
The object of the court, to summar-
ize further provisions of the law, is
to endeavor to prevent and settle in
dustrial disputes; and when they have
occurred to reconcile the parties. The
| court may fix and enforce penalties
for breaches of awards, restrain con-
traventions of the acts and exercise
all the usual powers of a court of law.
The court may prescribe minimum
rate Of wage; 1t may, also, as regards
employment, direct that preference of
employment or service shall be given
to members of unions. An opportunity
is offered for objection to a preference
order, and the court must be satisfied
that preference is desired by a ma
jority of the persons affected by the
award who have interests in common
with the applicants. The court is to
bring about an amicable agreement,
If possible, to conciliate and not to
arbitrate, and such agreement may be
made an award.
Wages Increased.
The result OF compulsory arbitra-
ton is not an academic question in
Australia. The fruits of this and other
labor legislation are here. First and,
to the wage Garner, the most impor-
tant fruit is that wages have been in
creased. Among the minimum wages
established by courts or wages boards
few representative ones may be
quoted, in most cases an increase Of
10 to 80 per cent:
Bricklayers, So day; carpenters,
$2.75; painters, $3.50; plasterers, SO;
stonemasons, $3.50; milliners. for
women, So a week; bookbinders, SIC
for men, Sc for girls; brickmakers,
$3.50; butchers, $14; cigarmakers,
SIP; gardeners, $11.50; farm laborers,
Sc week, with rations.
InciviIity and Glass Discord.
Not only have wages been increased
and conditions of labor improved, but
the workingman has gained an fnde-
pendence which sometimes degene-
rates into incivility and brutality. He
has not, as a mass, learned how to
use his leisure hours for other things
than gambling, sporting and loafing.
AS result of or accompanying the
new labor legislation, laziness has in
creased and slackness of work is OBJ
servable in many quarters. That
gentle manners have not come to the
Australian workingman might well be
expected. He will lay down his life
for a woman, but he will not stoop to
pick up her handkerchief. And most
women, in Australia, would rather
have their handkerchiefs picked up
daily than their lives saved once in
long while Civility the working
man mistakes for servility and Of
the latter he will never be guilty.
Gentleness is a plant of slow growth
and not product Of acts of parlia-
ment.
The class spirit enhanced if not en-
gendered by labor legislation makes,
for the present at least, bitterness
between employer and employe that
does not argue well for the future.
The common interests are not yet gen.
orally recognized. This class spirit is
encouraged by many paid officials Of
the trades unions who find their oecu.
pations gone in times of industrial
peace, and hence seek to upset court
awards, defy court judgments, pro-
mote strikes and stir up strife.
The necessary wounds made by
labor legislation would heal much less
slowly if the paid agitators could be
compelled to refrain from tearing
them open. Strikes continue and
most serious condition-capital, with
out which working with labor Austria
liza cannot develop or prosper, hesi-
tates.
The Danger Ahead.
"The compulsory arbitration laws
and allied measures have greatly i'm
proved conditions of living in Aus
tralia," said g distinguished labor
minister, "but they are in the first
stages of experiment. If they can be
impartially administered in the inter-
ests of society as a whole by disinter-
ested judges, with obligations equally
/ fo ha observed by and Denalties