CAPITAL AND LABOR.

Evening Star, Issue 12868, 18 July 1906, Page 5

CAPITAL AND LABOR.

Mil ARNOLD AND THE WORKERS. [Special to the Stab.] GHRISTUHUIICH, July 18. During ah. address to tb* Southbridge /iandi3 6i trie Farmworkers' Union on Monday evening, Mr J. F. Arnold, M.H.R., laid he wished to eotae in contact 'with than, not to tell them what to do, bat to indicate this sympathy the city member had for the country. It was a great mistake to think that the Labor cause was antagonistic to Capital or employers. The interests of the workers were the interests of the employers, and they most- efcer recognise that their interests ran concurrently. If they recognised that they would be sible to see> that the two patties eduld work together for the good of the whole. Each would be able to have that which rightly belonged to it, and there would be a happy and contented community. They all believed in Labor legislation, and lie wished to prove it, so that when they spoke of one inember in the House as a Labor representative and another as not a Labor representative they made a big mistake. Whether a man wdrked by the sweat of hia brow or reprejDented Capital hs Irelieved in labor, but represented only how far his party -was prepared lb go. The reason why there were so rrtany df the fallen class in the cities of the Old Wdfld was that the girls could not BVe respectably bit the wages paid to them. ■\Yhen New Zealand, with its magnificent resources, had increased its population fourfold, the Same fallen classes would prevail I unless some legislation were provided to protect the female Worker. A Woman twenty-one years of age could riot live re- j 6pectably for less than £1 a week. Mr Arnold urged the necessity for the provision by the Government of workmen's horned id the country. There was no reason why a worker hi the country should be under any obligation to his employer, and there should be «o difficulty for the Governmerifc to go into the country with a scheme of ! workmen's homes at a very low refltAl; indeed, they should provide homes, and' charee not within Is or 2fi df the private landlord's rental, but not more than 5s tc 7s a week. If the Government oould hot do that .thev should leave the matter to tie private landlord. Referring to the lot of many country children, who had to work hard before and after school hours, Mr Arnold said that if the child Tvas? to be protected in the city it must he protected in the cotintty.—(Applause,) If the factory in the, city could not. be run at. a profit without 1 - child labor, it should be"c!osed If dairying would not pay in the country' un. | *—. *h*. x&Jldrfctt were to be- jnade Jftfc}e

whitfe Slaved it.ishVtila be left to some other bountry. He. believed Hhat the day would come wlien the t-egistotunv would have' to provide a Mhtmtiih wage hot only for the children but for the whole'of the farming coftiiriilbityt He alsb believed that a fcertain number of hours' work should be fixed for each employee. 11l his opinion legislation would ultimately have to be posited to give preference 0 Hl tioiiisis-. . ~ The 'Lytteltou Times,' referring to Mr Arnold's address, says: "Tho member for Dbhediri South is serving Uvo purposes by his addresses to tlie country workers, find wo wish that all voting Radicals Would fblldfr his example. * Me is lthfirOvtig his owli knowledge ol tlfe country and the cbUrttry people, and is heljpiug the tural wbrkets to a proper appreciation of political (Questions."