The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-18

that strike was on. I would have
 had a tremendous order from the Rus sians but the people down here would not enter into their contract without the strike clause. It will take a long time to live this bad reputation down. Mines have been opened in Japan, China, and Borneo, which would not
 have been opened if strikes had not occurred here. There are also by products that could be produced from
 the coal in Newcastle. One of the
 by-products from the gases is used
 place an order tomorrow if 1t were not for the strike clause"
 Plan to Combipe All Unid ns r An industrial movement of far reaching import in Australia-which doubtless will find reflexes in other parts of the world-has begun here. What is being sought is amalgamation of all the trades unions into "one big union." Should this object be attain ed, the result must be political ma chine more powerful and inflexible than any other of it's precise kind on thef ace of the globe. It will settle labor conditions and fix wages; it will make and unmake, governments in Australia; and it will exercise potent
 influence of probably destructive
 kind upon the principle of compulsory arbitration to which every government
 in Australia. is committed. Even now compulsory arbitration, which a few years ago was hailed as the long sought panacea for strikes lockouts. and boycotts, resolves itself into test
 nf hn yof oR
 and employees. and with some, al- though not all, unions matter of ex-
 pediency whether awards fixed by
 law shall be observed or not
 The ''one big union" was projected
 at Z, al conference of secretaries and delegates of New South Wales unions held in Sydney a week or two ago. So Tar N the movement does not extend beyond the, State, But that the eyes of trades-unionism, as represented by the laborites in New South Wales, are
 on the future is indicated by the phraseology of a report issued after
 the conference. This report said that Nthe Committee of Ways and Means fnamed after the Sydney conference
 was instructed to draw up a skeleton constitution which would be submit
 ted to another unionist conference for
 its action. The report added:
 Tt was stated that a program such as this might take ten years to com
 plete, but that would not deter the
 men from striving from now on to- close up the ranks of the workers
 and bring them under such control that the move now being made by the
 capitalist class all over Australia
 would be checkmated. However, so
 that the committed would mot go to
 sleep on their job. an instruction was given by the meeting that the busi-
 ness for the conference must be ready before three months
 Lack of Efficiency DepIored
 Under the heading ''The Efficiency
 of Labor" the June number of the Commonwealth Engineer, a periodi- cal devoted to the engineering profes- sion in Australia-civil, electrical. ma- rine, and mining7said editorially: "If there is one complaint more general in regard to labor in Aus tralia today, it is that the efficiency of the worker is decreasing and un-
 fortunately the gospel of limitation of
 output is being consistently preached. practiced and enforced in our midst even in regard to the manufacture of
 war munitions. It is surely a matter deserving of more than passing no- tice that the showdown policy is not i confined to private enterprise. but l also, holds sway in socialistic under
 takings such as our railway work shops Until labor recognizes that limitation of output means in the long run elimination of work, and un til the general body of workers is prepared to give the employer-re presented either by the government or
 an individuals fair deal, the pros poets of establishing a sound enei- neering industry in Australia are re- 1 mote. Only recently caucus mem Der of the present Labor ministry felt compelled to protest publicly against the exorbitant cost of building war
 ships at the naval backyard and he threatened the employees that if the present state of affairs continued the
 manufacture of warships in Australia
 would cease"
 A+HAAUHNH