The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1891.

Auckland Star, Volume XII, Issue 31, 6 February 1891, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1891.

"for t_B cause that lacks as-'_ta_ce, For the -wTong that needs resistance, _.or the future in the distance, t-d the good that vre can do.

The record of strikes and lockouts in Great Britain during 1889, chronicled by Mr Burnett, the labour correspondent of the Board of Trade, shows that the year was one of exceptional disturbance, especially in connection with shipbuilding and its allied industries. This condition of unrest is readily traceable to the marked improvement in trade which commenced about 1887, and steadily progressed during the two succeeding years. From a monthly average of per cent, of workmen out of employment in the ship-building and boiler-making trades in 18S6, the percentage fell to 2iJ_ in 1887; to P4 in 1888; and 2 yi per cent, in 1889. In March, 1890, the percentage of unemployed was only '85. The numerous strikes which occurred represented the efforts of the workers to secure a fair share of the larger profits which accrued to employers through the improvement in business. The strikes in 1889 numbered 1,145. Mr Burnett remarks that the general demand made for higher wages " was but a repetition of what has invariably taken place at similar periods of industrial prosperity." He also shows that the trades which passed most peacefully through the change were those in which boards ■of conciliation and arbitration existed. The well-organ-ised trades were very successful in enforcing their demands, while, on the other hand, those not fortified with adequate organisation had, in most cases, to submit to the terms imposed upon them by employers. Not the justice ot the demand, but the power to enforce it, is the gauge of success quite as much in industrial warfare 3s in the conflicts of nations. Those whodenounce trade organisations should bear this fact in mind, which is as true of the relative positions of capital and labour to-day as it was fifty years ago.

The great events of 1889 in the labour world were the rapid organisation of the Seamen's Union and the dock labourers' strike. From a membership of 500 when the Trades Congress sat in 1888, the Seamen's Union increased in a few months to 40,000; in 1889 the membership rose to 65,000, and the movement for the organisation of seamen showed unabated activity in 1889, the ranks of the Union being continually augmented. The organisation of the mass of unskilled labourers numbering about 100,000 men who gained a precarious living by casual labour at the docks, into a powerful Union acting as one man, was perhaps the most wonderful achievementin the history of Trades-Unionism. Mr Burnett speaks o( the movement as almost without parallel in English history, the only thine; at all resembling it being the rising of tbe English agricultural labourers in 1872. If the leaders have sometimes experienced'a difficulty in controlling divisions of this vast undisciplined army, is it surprising? Let the critics of Burns, Tillett, Champion and Mann consider the magnitude of what they have achieved, and their failures will then appear, by contrast, as of no greater moment than the spots upon the sun.

The strikes in 1889 were pretty equally distributed over the kingdom. There were 813 in England, 53 in Wales, 246 in Scotland, and in Ireland, Mr Burnett has ascertained that 714 were settled by conciliation, 48 by arbitration, 141 by submission of workpeople, 49 by hands being replaced, 20 by submission and by hands being replaced ; 38 by submission and conciliation, 40 by conciliation and hands being replaced, and one firm became bankrupt; 41-6 per cent, of the strikes were entirely successful, 32*1 per cent, were partially successful, 18-1 were unattended with any degree of success and of B'2 the results were not ascer tamed. Upon the whole, therefore, in the great majority of cases employers admitted the justice of the demands by conceding them, in whole or in part. Unfortunately, great loss of capital and wages was caused by these disturbances. In the case of the great dock strike the loss from these causes is estimated at several millions sterling. It is deplorable that some better means than a succession of conflicts between two classes which are so dependent upon each other has not yet been generally adopted.

Mr Burnett gives a very interesting review of the growth of the international labour movement, which he dates back to the Congress held in Paris in 1883. With regard to the Congress of 1888, which was the most important of the series since held, Mr Burnett remarks that there was a marked difference in the character of the measures favoured by English and Continental workmen. " The British Trades Unionists," he says, "had fought for and won for themselves most of the privileges they enjoyed, and looked upon their organisations as the best, if not the

only, means of obtaining all the industrial progress they desired. On the other band, the Continental workers, never having enjoyed full liberty of combination, had but iittle faith in trade unionism as a means oi progress, but looked to the State to provide all the wants and needs of labour." At the Congress in i3BB only ii English delegates voted in favour of the legal eight hours day, while 33 voted against it. It was, however, passed by the votes of the Continental delegates in the following form: " This Congress is of opinion that, owing to the concentration of capital, and the relative weakness of Trades Unions in proportion to the number ot workers, it is impossible to further reduce the hours of labour without the aid of the State, and that in every case eight hours should be the maximum number of hours worked." Guided by the " new Unionism," there has since been a rapid growth of opinion among English workers in favour ot legislative interference, a majority of the Unions having since endorsed the resolution passed by the Congress.