TOO STEREOTYPED. BEN TILLETT AS A CRITIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 7

TOO STEREOTYPED.

BEN TILLETT AS A CRITIC.

OUR SMUG CONTEXT. SOME INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS. [IIV TELEGRAPH— OWN COREESPOKDE.VT .}' AUCKLAND, This. Day. Mr. Ben Tillett, interviewed upon Lis arrival here yesterday, gave tome vtery interesting information in regard to tha industrial and political conditions of the countries lie has, visited. "In South Ainca," said Mr. Tillett, "I found the trade;, and labour movement in a ve'rjr limp condition. In Capetown I, should say the woik 13 nil going to ruin Labbiir and value are both at a very low' ebbPOVERTY AND BLACKLEGS.- '» "la the tours I lia,vc vieited in "Australia, the people ceem to take a very optimistic view of things, although - £k« economic difficulty appeals to etand in tho way of progress. The trades xiitfons appear to bo numerically strong, -bub theic does not seesi to be the same qpirifc and vim as tliare was t«n years' ftgo. Tlse tendency to hang on and be satisfied with small advantages is in evidence. Thcra also appears" to' be a great deal of poverty in Australia. In Sydney >bu will find about 1000 blacklegs-to do'<!0«l lumpers' work — a number jOu could not find in London with its'six" millions. The work if, however, more flourishing in Australia than in South Africa. NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE. "Looking at the potentialities of you* country, Ido not believe anything, is impossible for it. You have rich/land ttnti a glorious climate; the one great fault is that yotl try to follow too closely, the industrial and political movements of 'the Old Country. From, an econoraio standpoint the workmen her© are no. "better off than those in the Old Countrj.. There tho workmen haye 1 more privileges and there wages have a greater purchasing power than they appear to have out here. Considering the great advantages the colonies have, it becms to mo to be possible for them to be very 'productive indeed: _ Witness the Completeness -of your vessels and carrying trade ; your up-to-clutc. agricultural, . dairy and mining madmit-rv, and the keen business instinct v, inch runs the whole^'concfern. 'i-iiere arc tremendous possibilities in th» colonies. , „,,*""" v "Your methods," continued Mr. Tillett, "appa&r to be too stereotyped; you.JiiiY,* btill to go to tho United' Kingdom -for your food products and tho O"ld Country is becoming an agricultural country less by lets and year by year. One feels it a great pity that you should, follow it so closely and copy sonic of its bad t habits. NO PUBLIC OPINION. "The lack of public opinion is o;ie reason that your great legislators are, unable to place on the statute book «ueh i measures as should give labour to land, co to speak, and .land to labour. You lack public opinion which will look after national interests from a fairly collective standpoint.. 1 really think that 'tie digcreraling influence le the smug content of your people. Your tremendous I,'a-s.ftilitirs end the youth of your conchy pbouKl scud jt far and~ f RwaT iibe-kd of our hiile-bonnd' country o£"'lra« ditions. I consider that you have,', here son>o very great legislators — somo of"th« most able m the world- ' * "I was indeed very sorry to hear of lh v deith of Mr. Soddon. I looked upon him not only as a generous man* but an man of very keen instinct and * statesman who, had bo lived and kept his health, would have, yielded tremendous possibilities to the people of New Zealand." . y '•'; COMPULSORY ARBITRATION ~ Asked as to the feeling in .'England' ww garding compulsory arbitration, Mr. Tillett said he 'bad carefully- studied ,th» I question, besides investigating the experij ence of uniouistsi with whom the system j is in vogue, and he liad been Very*"iavoarably impressed with the result hi lus i enquiries. For the last eigtit ycars"i»e had moved a resolution in favour' of compulsory arbitration at the Trades Unions' Congress. They had mcl eased the number of supporters of by hundreds of thousands, "'3iut strange-, to say those most opposed to it wex6 uaio^s who hid been most subject to tho tyranny of employers. -The Boilermaker^* Union, for icstasxe, Avhioh had* a ine'm' bewliip of 00,000, liad previously suffered from a lock-out, and this year they, were again threatened with similar action on tlie pnrt of tho employers. • Trade nuioni&m certainly did require the benefits of tho Act, for in these dnys $t frenzied finance,- one could rjot teHj'what evils speculation would ' .bring iib'oat— cvih # which wpuld affect the whole cwii7nunity.\and endanger Trational prosperity. "Mr. Pcmber Reeves," continued Mr.' Tillelt, ' "lias helppd .to piomulgate the' idea of compulsory - arbitration m England, and I fesl .nu-e the time will come when tho English unions will ao* cept it." , ,-.!>,., THE VISITORS PROGRA'Miffi:. Mr. Tillett intends visiting Welling, ton, and some of the other. laboVr 'pentrep. Ho will probably, ho.wevcrj ",a<ldress a meeting in Auckland in about a fortnight, leaving the Dominion 'on ' bis wa\ to Australia ia abbaf'a mciiith at &Ls weeks. ADDEESS TO WOEEEBS. ' * i W6RDS OF ADVfcE. ' ' tBT TEtEOH.VPH.^-rKESS ASSOOtATIO*.] AUCKLAND, This Day. In response to aa invitation, Mr, Ben Tillett expressed his willingness to address tho dock workers 'yesterday, and I at 12 o'clock scmo three hundred men assembled in olio Of the lSfge goods sheds. Mr. Tillett, who was greeted with cheerb, said that on the last occasion when ho visited Auckland '" there was no organisation of tho dock workers, and be hud been informed tbst it Waß impossible to bring about that end. He was pleased to see that now they had organised, and congratulated them;' The mere fact of going for 6d a day more 111 wages was not the only thing' {hat the working classes would have to consider. So long as tho condition of society reigned which enabled those who uo'kod the hardest to live in the poorest houses and dress in the poorest clothes and to eat the poorest food, and generally to live tho poorest live*, while those who did rto social productive work were enabled to enjoy alt the pleasures and luxuries of wealth, the uorttfcig classes would have to turn their attention to solid genuine reform. Air. Tillett pointed out the condition of labour in the Old Country, and instanced that at Swansea the chairman and (several members of the Harbour Board were dock workers. This class of mcii, who had generally been looked down npon. had shown that in intellect, in manliness,' and in nobility they were the equals of any other class of society. The wharf labourers must consider that they were human beings, and as human beings and workers they were entitled to tho best, and only tho best, lliat could bo produced in tho country. He urged them to fight to secure- larger representation on all public bodies and on all public institutions. ~ * "