The Labour War In America.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 239, 6 October 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

The Labour War In America.

Mb Stead's New.Book on the Subject.

Some Extracts.

(from our special correspondence,)

London, July 27. Though as a connoisseur in • spooks,1 and a player at the immortal game of' spoof,' Mr Stead may bo imperfect, there can be no doubb he is a grand journalist. Our English papers have been singularly at fault in dealing with the American labour troubles. The ' good man ' recognised this, and likewise the opportunity it offered, and in less than a month he partly writes, partly ' vamps,' and wholly publishes, an exhaustive booklet on that subject. It is a viva cioub piece of work, readably written, and giving the history, not only of the Pullman dispute, but of the general condition of the labour movement in America and of the men who direct ifc. Mr Stead was fortunate enough when visiting the United | States la*b year to have met mosb of the men who have loomejd large in recenb troubles; and the conversations which he had with them, as well as the opportunities which he onjoyed of examining conditions ab first hand, have enabled him to wrice with full knowledge and in an exceedingly graphic style. The Labour question on this side is different in many respects from the Labour question on that; but his little book is full of wise words for Englishmen, and will, we brusb, be widely read. The Cause of the Trouble. The immediate cause of the Chicago strike was the dogged refusal of Mr Pullman to permit any reference whatever of the dispute to arbitration, bat its real root lieu deeper : — • Ib i 8 to be found in the rooted distrusb which is the canker of American civilisation. In business, men havo forgotten God, they have lost faith in man, and they are reaping the penalty. From of old wa3 it nob written," If ye be willing and obedienb, yo shall cab of the fat of the land, but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath Bpokon it"? . . . . In every direction, wherever wo turn, we are confronted with tho same phenomenon. In place of the cooperation of confidence, there is everywhere the fiercesb rivalry of cufc-bhroat competition, eating confidence out of the heart of man.'

Fifty Years Behind.

Capitalism in America is, Mr Stead thinks, quite fifty years behind the times as represented by England :— 'It is like going back to the middle of tho century to visit the American Republic. In most matters pertaining to social evolution, in things industrial, and, indeed, in many other things, they are aboub fifty years behind us. Their trades unions are etill regarded with the same suspicion, resentment, and distrust that thoy were looked upon in the Old Country before the repeal of the combination laws. Labour, on it 3 part, relies more upon violence than upon organisation, and when a strike occurs, slaughter, on one side or the other, i& regarded aa an ordinary and unavoidable incident.' Carlyle's vindication of the Manchester Insurrection applies without the alteration of a word to the Coreyism of to-day. An Exceeding Great Army.

The origin of Coxeyism is to be found in the'existence of an immense number of unemployed men in the United States. Mr Stead quotes such' unimpeachable authorifcios as ' Dunn ' and' Bradstreet's,' that last winter there.were fromthree to four million workleaa workers in the American Republic : — 'If "Bradstreeb's" be righb,the Americana had an army of unemployed last winter as numerous aa the soldiers under the colours in all the standing armies of Europe, The political economist; who waxes eloquent over the waste of wealth occasioned by the bloated armaments of the present century always reckons the cose of the withdrawal of so many able-bodied men from productive industry as a heavier tax than the mere expense of their maintenance. The United States has no standing army "fcf eoldiers to speak of; but its army of unemployed is indirectly almost aa expensive as our European soldiery.' Yob America is the land of millionaires I The Pullman Dispute and What It Led To.

In proceeding to tell the story of the strike of the Pullman workers and what followed, Mr Stead givea first a description of the scab of war—Chicago ; and theu a oketch of Pullman and his model town and the Labour leaders. The strike began on May 11th, and on the 14th Mr Dobs firsb addressed the workers. Mr Pullman had refused arbitration and departed for the coast. Credit was stopped in Puilman Town, and as there were no wages coming in, the men appealed to fellow Unionists to assist them. It was then decided by a convention of the Railway Union to organise a boycotb of all the Pullman cars on the rails. A Committee of five was appointed to wait upon the Pullman Company to give them a laab chance, but they spurned it, and then became a case of Labour against the railway systems of the United States. In the Thick of the Fight.

The war with the railways was a very different thing from a war with Pullman, und Mr Debs miscalculated on this vital poinb. The railways decided to stand together as one man against the boycott. They appointed one Eg.au, who had the reputation of being, a tirelesß lighter, to conduct the campaign, and he said at once he would fight the strike and beab it. Tho boycotb had not been four days in progress before the strikers began to supplement moral suasion by violence :—

'Sometimes the strikers simply laid down or set up a child on a chair in front of the advancing train. Ab other times they tore up the rails, or loosened the ties, or threw a wrecked car across the line. Here and there they greased the rails, so that; the wheels would nob bite, slipped Band into the grease boxes of the locomotive, pulled out the coupling pins, cut the tube of the air brake, and generally put a spoke into the wheel wherever and whenever they found an opportunity. ' , s ". ''. In tact, did Everything, shorti of actually building: barricades across the permanent way, that they could imagine, in order to embarrass their enemies.'

M v S bead's description of the pass ab which matters arrived is altogether lively reading. Outrage followed outrage till tho Federal troops appeared on the scone and put an end to the disorder. The railways had triumphed.

The Outlook.

In hie concluding chapter Mr Stead deals with the Labour outlook in tha United. States, which he regards aa decidedly stormy. He thinks it is with themselves that the work of the regeneration of the working classes must begin :—

' The worst vampire that preys upon Labour in America is not) Capitalism, but the fatal lack of that spirit of loyal brotherhood which is the indispensable foundation of all effective co-opera-tion. The workers are numerous enough to control everything, if they cared to do so. But they care more for party shibboleths and sectarian feuds than for the weightier matter of fche law which governs their lives and the lives of their children.'

The chief hope that lies in the future seems to be that the obstacles and evils at present oppressing the labouring classes wiil by their very weight rouge the American people to deal with the problem with the same heroic thoroughness and devotion that they displayed in crushing ou& slavery. ' But that hope is hot for to-day, or even for to-morrow.'