TRADES UNION CONGRESS.

Evening Star, Issue 7411, 5 January 1888, Page 1

TRADES UNION CONGRESS.

Political matters of immediate Interest have so engrossed attention daring the last few months that we have omitted to refer to many subjects which are well worthy of notice, and which it has indeed been our custom on occasion to deal with. Prominent among these is the annual Trades Union Congress of the United Kingdom—a body fairly representative of the operative classes, the proceedings of whicbV«onsequently cannot, in these times, be otherwise than significantly suggestive.

The Congress met in September at Swansea, and on the first day Mr Bboadhurst, M.P., who, it may be recollected, held office in the last Gladstone Ministry as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs, read the report of the Parliamentary Committee, a docu ment of formidable length, the gist of which, however, may be given in a comparatively few words. The Committee state that no great demand for labor has arisen in any industry, but that, on the contrary, the men engaged in them have been by no means fully employed. There has been, however, no general attempt to reduce wage 3in any part of the country. They express the opinion that one of the chief causes of the want of employment is the tremendous development of the power of production—such an increase having a tendency to lessen profits. One of the redeeming features of the present time is, they think, the enormous supply of food for the people. "Of course, however cheap " a loaf may be, it is outside the range of "purchase of a penniless man; bat if " bread and the other necessaries of " life were much dearer, they could not "be obtained by large numbers of "people who can and do purchase them " now." We commend this quotation to our Protectionist friendp, who would apply their nostrum of restriction as a remedy for the depression. The Committee proceed to say that they, are fully persuaded that some solution of the agricultural depression mus shortly be found by freeing land from its ancient laws and conditions of tenure, so as to encourage the cultivation of many thousands of acres that are now producing weeds instead of food for the people. It is in this direction, they assert, that they hopefully look for the means of freeing the great towns from their congested population and creating fresh markets in the rural districts for manufactures. This congestion of population in the towns is the great mischief everywhere; in thecolonies, as in the Home Country; but the colonies, fortunately, have the remedy in their hand, if they use to the best advantage rural lands at their disposal, with a view to close occupation. The president of the year was Mr W. Bevan, who, in his opening address, discussed with more or less prolixity the

various questions likely to come before the Congress. He considered the primary cause of the depression to be the great changes brought about of late years in the land system. The land, he thought, was cultivated by a too limited number of people. The amount of capital embarked in agriculture and the number of persons employed in it were thereby diminished; laborers flocked into the towns, to be huddled together in already overcrowded centres of industry, and to compete with those who had preceded them for a living. There were other causes, he alleged, such as excessive charges in the way of royalty, rents, foreign competition, railway rates, foreign bounties, and the false marking of goods by Home manufacturers. Those causes of depression could only be removed by legislation, but there were other causes which came within the power of trade societies. "First, the disorganisation of "labor brought about by the improved and "extensive use of labor-saving machines; " secondly, the excessive overtime worked in " nearly all trades." Piecework, Mr Bbvan also declared, tended very much to cheapen labor and to produce an inferior class of goods. This By stem, he said, robbed the superior man of his legitimate rights, tended to defraud the buyer and consumer, degraded the workman, defamed the character of the country, and introduced into trades something much akin to commercial gambling. It also tended to throw a good workman out of employment. " Every men " should take his position according to merit " from the highest to the lowest, and, in spite "of the assertion of their enemies, trades " unionists were ever striving for this. He " had unbounded faith in the old method " that what is worth doing at all is worth "doing well, but piecework tended in the " opposite directior." The leading idea of the president of the Congress, no doubt, was that piecework is objectionable as enabling work to be done at a cheaper rate than by day wages, and thus indirectly affecting the rate which it is the main object of all trades unions to maintain. Mr Bkvan, curiously enough, expressed very

decided objections to emigration. " Emigration," he said, " wae not the proper remedy " for their troubles. When their best men " settled in other countries, their skill and " ability were employed in such a way that " it led to their not oaly becoming indepen"dent of Home manufacturers, but also to " their successfully competing with those of " their native land. Those who emigrated " should be those ' who toil not, neither do " they spin !'" This idea of enforcing a monopoly in favor of the Home manufacturer by not allowing skilled hands to emigrate is a delightfully refreshing idea, and takes the shine completely out of the Otago Protection League. : The resolutions of the Congress, as might reasonably be expected, wero all ranch on the same lines as the brief extracts we have

given in substance from the report of the Parliamentary Committee, which means Mr Hknbt Bboadhurst and the address of the president. The interests of no class except their own appeared to receive the slightest consideration at the hands of the delegates; and there was an evident disposition shown to bring labor of all kinds within certain fixed rules, ignoring the right of indepndent action. It was, for instance, resolved —" That the working of systematical over- " time in the various trades of the country " is an evil to those who work, an injustice "to the unemployed, and a serious pre- " vention to the more equal distribution of "the means of life; and that the Parliamentary Committee be instructed to "recommend all trades unions to frame "their rules in such a manner as shall "prevent the working of overtime by " insisting upon employers of labor paying a

" prohibitive price for every hour, or frac- " tion of an hour, worked after, the com"pletion of the ordinary day." A resolution was also carried to the effect that " the " time has arrived when it is absolutely " necessary that the workmen of this country "should be called upon to express their "wishes for or against an eight-hour day " and a full Saturday holiday; and that the " Parliamentary Committee be therefore "instructed during the year to obtain a " plebiscite of the members of the Various " trade unions of the country on this im"portant question; and whether, if ap- " proved, such reduction shall be brought " about by the trade unions themselves, or " by means of an Eight Hours' Labor Bill." It is only right to say that Mr Henby Beoadhdrst, M.P., gave no sanction to the absurd doctrines we have quoted ; doctrines which, if carried into effect, would most injuriously affect the interests of those intended to be benefited.