THE BOOT AND SHOE TRADE.

Evening Star, Issue 12067, 12 December 1903, Page 2

THE BOOT AND SHOE TRADE.

' to rnr. jcditor. Sir, —There has been a lot of correspon- ■ dence in your columns lately on the state f of the shoe trade. If you will permit me, - I would like to have a word or two ou the l matter. "Union," one of your correspon- - dents, in his last letter reckons that we are - receiving the sympathy of the public, and i I would like to let that public know of a i few things which we have to put up with. : Will it be believed that in some of the i boot factories in Dunedin, if a man stops his work for a few minutes now and then to - have a word with a shopmate, he will be ' pounced upon by some tyrant in authority - as if he was doing something dreadful? We work ei':ht hours and a-quarter every i day, with a break of only thirty minutes - for lunch; and I know of a case where a > man who was having a bit of a snack at ' fonr o'clock was held up for it, and told . not to do it again, or it would be dangerous. '•■ If we dare to have u bit of a discussion - on the latest cricket event or some important horse race, and the bos-s or foreman comes 1 near, we have to shut up like a lot of - school children. The few minutes we take to prepare our » tea, ready to pour out as soon as the lunch > hoar arrives, we have to consider a privi- ; | It'f.e. In some factories we are not allowed L to smoke (I chaw Mr Seddon's attention ' to this), while hi others, where we are allowed to do it, if we linger over the fillin" and lighting of cur pipe. l -', as all lovers ■ of the weed delight in doing, we are frowned upon severely. ' I know your readers will be astonished > at these _ disclosures, and will understand how galling it is to any body of men in • this free Seddonian colony to be treated ' like this, and to be in the humiliating posi- ■ tion where they have to consider these L things as privileges. We want the public 1 to help us to turn these so-called favor l ; into > rights. Surely grown men, especially a ; body of level-headed men, as we are known • to be, are quite capable of knowing when they are overstepping the mark, without . being interfered with by men who have no r soul for liberty. Some ume ago there w;:s a lot of fuss > in the papers about limiting the output, . but I fail to see why it should be thought I almost a crime to do so, for this reason : if (en men rush through a fortnight's work in a week, they have kept another ten men , | out of a M-eek"s employment, besides injur- ; j ing themselves physically. Why, sir. often : j and often my day's work has. taken so much ; j out of me that, after having my dinner, an ; I hour or two at cricket, a spin "on my bike, ! | a game of billiards, and not more than three , or four beers (T believe in Temperance, rot , Prohibition), I have gone home—before • twelve, mind von—so "tired that I have . tumbled into bed without even gl»n*e?i;g . at the sporting news in the 'Star.' We . have been told that if we applied our minds more to our work we could earn more ! wages-. Isn't it bad enough to have to , slave for over eight hours a day. without ' knping your mind on the disagreeable fact? Why, if it wan" not for the buoying up our i love of sport gives us, we could not stand the strain very long. Wasn't it " Bobs" who said that the Transvaal War was won on the football ; fields of Maoriland. I know I have read something like that somewhere. What would have been the condition of the Empire to-day if we had all neglected the ' j noble snort? I shudder to think of it. Tf the Empire had been wrecked, so would have been the shoe trade, and this is what ; ! grasping employers would bring us to ' j if they could. | I look with contempt on the man who i cannot be a good tradesman without de- ; j votmc ail his thought to his trade. Why. i sir.tlu'Te aie plenty of us quite capable of giving our employers points on running their factories if we were allowed, but we have to stifle out talent or be told to mind ' j our own business. These are a few of the things we have to ' j put up with. 1 could write much more, • | but will refr-iin. I think I can say that I . j echo the feelings of about 80 per cent, of ] my fellow-workers, although some may pro- : | test .owing to modesty. Excessive modesty ; | has been the rain of the workers in the i j trade: we are, nil victims of it, and it is i ] that which, compels me to sign myself : | _ MuDWACKKit. December 10.