WIRE PULLERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 32, 8 February 1890, Page 4

WIRE PULLERS.

By J. C. Firth.

European telegrams indicate a significant unrest of labour all along bhe line. The London dock labourers struck the keynote of an old song to a new tune. Nob only in tho United Kingdom, bub Europe, workmen are wiping bhe dust from toilworn brows, and asking, in a voice which cannob be longer silenced, " Are we slaves, machines, or men ? How long is Capibai to claim all rights; how long is Labour to endure all wrongs ?"

In Germany the other day the coalminers struck for shorter hours. The Emperor bade them go to work or he would shoob them down. Well, bhey went to work. Now they have struck once more, and not, as it is easy to see, for the last time. The young Emperor appears to be unable to recognise that the strikers in the Fatherland are seeking to secure their reasonable rights in a reasonable way. Will he see thab a fair adjustment between Labour and Capibai be made now, whilst it can be made ? Or will bhis modern military despot prefer to play the part of his Russian brother, who sits on a high-pressure safety valve, and breathes an atmosphere thick with treachery and poison, in watchful terror by day, in sleepless horror by night? Or, will he wait tor the cry to be raised as of old, "To your tents, O Germans?" The latest. Berlin telegrams indicate that consideration has come to the rescue of bhe young Emperor from the perilous position in which he had rashly placed himself, for we read thab "bhe Emperor William has directed Prince Bismarck to invite, the Great Powers to arrange a conference on bhe labour quesbion;" bhat "he has 'summoned the Staatsrath to thoroughly discuss the condition of the operatives. He will preside himself." Thab " he will ameliorate the condition of tho working classes, and will promote peaceful relations between employer and employed."

Capital in Germany is strong. It pulls the wires there, as it pulls them elsewhere. Rulers are ibs puppets in Imperial Germany as in republican France. The other day we had a curious instance of its secret power. Russia desired to raise a loan in Paris, when Rothschild, the commander-in-chief of Capital, interposed and foiled the operation, saying that France would require a loan for herself shortly. Next day comes the news that tho Russian loan had been raised in Berlin, probably under the influence of the House of Rothschild in thab capital. And so France retains her money to fight Germany with, and Germany rinds the money for Russia, the ally of France. Such an operation shows that republics, empires, and their rulers are just as much puppets in the hands of capitalist wire-pullers, as are the common people of every civilised country. It is the wire-pulling showman's story, with a difference, *' Shentlemen, you pay your money, and you have—no choice." ■

This kind of wire-pulling is coming to an end. The common people have had enough of it. They are beginning to see not only that " knowledge is power," but thab " numbers are a power," and that the combination of the two will make a power which there will be no resisting.