LINES ABOUT LABOR.

Evening Star, Issue 12926, 24 September 1906, Page 3

LINES ABOUT LABOR.

The Government offices throughout New Zealand will be closed on Labor Day (October 10). J *

The Minister of Mines has decided to leave in abeyance for the present the opening of a State coal depot at Masterton. The State law of New York restricting the labor of women and children in a factory to ten hours a day and sixty hours a week lias been declare'd by Mr Justice Olmstead an "unwarrantable invasion of constitutional right." The Premier of Tasmania has promised to establish a State Labor Bureau, with the object of giving the employers and unemployed a better chance of coming together.

A miner at the Corrrmal-Balgowrie colliery, .N.S.W., was fined 2s 6d and costs of court for having tobacco in his possession while employed in and about the colliery;

■ It is stated, on the authority of the 'Labor News,' that oue wage-earner out of five is a woman, while fifty years ago only one woman in every eleven wageworkers was employed. The women are now getting the jobs, and the men are tramping. Up in Northern Minnesota-, on the western extension of the Mesaba range, Colerain, a " model" town is being built. The Corporation will own every foot of ground in the place, and even the schools over which the Stars and Stripes will wave the signal of freedom and equality. In the Victorian Assembly recently the unemployed question was raised by Labor Member Solly, and discussed at length. Premier Bent stated that the Government had found work for over 2,000 men. Great Britain will be represented at the International Congress to be held at Milan in October to discuss the problem of the unemployed.

According to the Japanese Year Book, the daily wages paid in Japan for skilled labor are equivalent to the following-rates : —Plasterers, 14£ d; harness-makers, 13d ; blacksmiths, shoemakers, and carpenters, 12|d ; coopers, llfd ; printers, 7£d ; typosetters, 7^d; paperhangers, 7d; farm laborers, 6£d (men and 4d (women); weavers, 7d tmen) and 4d (women). A Wharf laborer at Cairns recovered £ll7 10s from the Howard Smith Company for injuries received through the negligence of defendants' agents on the s.s. Buninyong. The plaintiff (Martin Tierney) claimed £SOO. '

The Westlaod Trades and Labor Council, wfoo represent miners almost exclusively, are dissatisfied with their treatment at the hands of other delegates at the annual Trades Conference, and propose to secede, with the idea of forming a miners' federaation, -which, it is stated, will bo the largest body of organised labor in the colony. They put a statement to this effect before the Minister of Labor on Friday, and stated that they proposed to hold an annual conference of their own, and asked that tihe Government should pay the travelling expenses of the delegates, as was don© in the case of the delegates to the ordinary Trades Conference. The Minister, in reply, pointed out that there were obvious objections to the suggested arrangement. A similar concession was asked for a gum-diggers' union in Auckland, and if assistance was given to that body and tl>e miners towards holding an annual conference, . other branches of labor might secede from the Trades Conference, set up conferences of their own, and ask for free travelling for their delegates. The concession granted to the Trades Conferenoe was one granted to organised labor representing the whole of the colony. Each district was restricted to three delegates, so that the Government could not be called upon to pay the travelling expenses of more than twenty-one delegates. Mr Millar finally promised to consider a written statement of t'he deputation's request, and to forward a, definite reply. After the late earthquake in San Francisco the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners ..paid away no less than £3,000 to members who' had lost their tools in the disaster. The American Brotherhood .of Labor have no tool benefit fund, and the contrast was so striking that | the Amalgamated Society immediately gained 250 meribero I. At a meeting of domestic servants«Jb«]fl

in Wellington last week, it was decided to form a Domestic Workers' Union, with Mrs Tasker as president. Sirs T, W. Hislop (wife of the Mayor of Wellington) took an- active pari in the proceedings, and advocated a, registry office where mistresses''; references and cbuaraeters:could be obtained' 5 as well as servants. She got into hotwater, liowever, by remarking that there should be a place for the training of girls. " Yes, aixl for mistresses, too," snapped out the nurse—a veritable champion of the downtrodden. Mrs His4op averred that she did hot like the word "mistress.". The Nurse: "Well, you have used it often enough to-night." Prebendary Carlile, founder of the Church Army, recently said that the greatest weight on his mind at the present time was how to solve the problem of the industrious unemployed. Under existing conditions emigration seemed the only hope, and if the Church Army had but the funds (at least (£100,000) "much might be done to relieve the country of the heart-rending distress which recurred in emphasised form each winter, and was manifest, indeed, in lesser degree throughout the year. A General Workers' Political Association has been formed at Maritzburg, Natal. '' The present deplorable condition of Natal," the promoters say, "is owing largely to a succession of bad Governments and worse legislation. Direct taxation in the form of a poll tax levied equally on the worker and on the wealthy is a monstrous injustice. Indirect taxation which is placed on all the necessaries of life, including food and clothing, while property, estates, and wealth are free, is a certain evidence of the necessity for direct and effective representation of labor in the Legislature. The public service of the colony should entail no political disability, but every civil servant and railway employee should be as free as any other citizen to exercise his civil and political rights." A ten-hours working day as the legal maximum for adult laborers is the ideal proposed by M. Doumergue, French Minister of Commerce, in a Bill which he intends to defend during the next parliamentary session. This measure would modify a law of 1848 fixing the working day for adults at twelve hours, and another of 1900 establishing a ten-hours day for women and dhildnen. The London County Council have just passed a new code of by-laws under the Employment of Children Act, 1903, for regulating the employment of children and street trading by persons under the age of sixteen within the County of London, exclusive of the City of London. The new by-laws, if conarmed by the Secretary of State, will prohibit the employment of any child under the age of eleven years, and will limit the employment in industrial work of children liable to attend school. No child under the a*e of twelve is to be employed as a lather boy or m any similar capacity in any barbers or hairdresser's shop, and no child is to be employed in or in connection with the sale or delivery of intoxicating liquors, except on premises where I such, liquors are exclusively sold in sealed ! vessels. With regard to street trading, the,by-laws prohibit any girl under the I age of sixteen being employed in or i carrying on street trading except in company of her parent and guardian, no child , between the ages of fourteen and sixteen is.to trade m the streets before 6 a.m. and after. 9 p.m., and no child under sixteen | engaged m street trading is permitted to [ enter any premises licensed for public I entertainment or for the sale of intoxicating liquor for consumption on the premises for the purpose of trading. Every | boy between.the ages of eleven and sixteen must while engaged in street trading wear a badge provided by the London County Council on the upper part of the right arm in a manner to be conspicuous. The organisation of French agricultural laborers into trade unions has made rej markable progress lately, the Paris correspondent of 'The Times' says. Wandermg'bands of from 200 to 300 strikers, now with a; red flag at their head, now with I the tricolor and with drum, trumpet, and accordion, have been scouring the countryside, and forcing the laborers still at work to join them. These bands are escorted b- the local gendarmes, with whom they. Joke along : the way. Carters and

cowherds who receive £44 a year, shepherds who have a wage of £4 8s a'month, day laborers who receive 2s Bd, have all combined; The receipts of the average peasant are at the maximum, year in and Jf fear out, £36. His ..expenses are half as 'nificb. again, and so he runs" steadily into debt until the children are old enough to work. He then begins to pay off his debts until the boys have to go to the regiment. When they return they marry and are no longer able to help the old people. The father and mother, therefore, have once more to begin to put their hand to the plough. Something 'like a crisis has 'arisen under the West Australian Arbitration Act. At the last meeting of the Trades and Labor Council a resolution was carried in respect to the non-registration by the Registrar of Friendly Societies of the rules of the Timber Merchant Employees' Union, on the ground that some of its objects wero political The secretary was directed to notify the Tegisbrar that unless their application of the union in question for registration was given effect to within five days, it was the intention of-the Council to move the Arbitration Court. A letter was written and acknowledged. On Saturday the secretary of the Trades and La'bor Council received a further rommunication from the Registrar, notifying his intention of cancelling the. registration of tho Council itself, on the ground of the existence in the registration rales of the Council of the following ns one of its objects, namely:—" That which interests the laboring classes and all matters tending to their political advancement." Mr Owen (the Registrar) admits that the rule to which he now objects formed portion of the rules registered by him in January last, but he now declares that he has reconsidered the question of the legality of political objects in the rules of bodies registered tinder the Arbitration Aot. A similar rule formed the ground of his objection to register the Timber Merchant Employees' Union, and as there are a number of bodies registered already under the Act whose rules declare in, various terms that their objects are more or less of a political character, Mr Owen has taken iha step of cancelling the Trades and Labor Council registration, with a view to test the case. Ho remarks: "I propose that your Council shall stand as a test case. I shall refrain from taking action, against other registered bodies whose rules contain similar objects until this case is determined. If the saad object can bo legally included in the rules, the funds can 'be legally applied in accordance therewith, otherwise such application of funds may be regarded as a misappropriation for illegal purposes of the contributions ■and savings of members of industrial unions,"

A YEAR'S STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS.

Summarising the report on strikes and lock-outs and on Conciliation and Arbitration Boards in 1905, Mr A. Wilson Pox,of the Labor Department of the British Board of Trade, states that the number of disputes recorded in 1905 was 358, practically the same as .in the previous year. The number of workpeople affected was .93,503, a slight increase on the figures for 1904, but a decrease on the number in any other year. Judging by the best test of tho magnitude of disputes—the amount of working time lostr—l9os. showed a loss of nearly 2£ million working days—a much higher figure than in 1904, when the number was the lowest on record. The number, however, was below the average of 2,913,000 working days lost for the five years 1900-04.. In the same period the average number of disputes was 495, affecting 166,000 workpeople. In the previous 'five- years the average was 793 disputes annually, affecting 225,000 workpeople for an aggregate duration of 7,524,000 days. About half of the time lost last year, was accounted for by the mining and quarrying trades, and although the number of days appears- large, it amounts to only about one-quarter of a day per head when spread over the whole industrial population of "the country. Wages were the chief causes of the disputes. The number of persons affected by disputes arising out of refusals to work with non-union men, and other questions of trade union principle, was higher than in 1904, o™? <>oror>rised about one-fifth of the total.

—Results Against Workers.— The results of the disputes of the year were, on the whole, in favor of the employers. Most of the disputes were settled by. the parties themselves or their representatives. During the year twenty-live strikes and lock-outs, directly involving 6,978 workers, were settled by' conciliation or arbitration. The various boards settled m all 839 cases, in very few of which a cessation of work took place. The following table shows the improvement that has been effected in the last five years :

Considerably less industrial disturbance was experienced in these.live years than in the preceding live, which included the coal miners' dispute in the federated districts (1893), the Scottish miners' dispute (1894), the engineers' dispute (1897), and tho Welsh miners' dispute of 1898. Coal mining has been responsible for over half o, tho number of -workers affected in evoiv year since 1901, except last year. —Miners Mainly Responsible.— Tho number of persons affected bv disputes in any ono year forms but a' small percentage of tho total workers of the United Kingdom. Last year tho percentage amounted to 1.5, but taking miners alone the percentage was 11.3. The aggregate number of working days available for the whole industrial population is roughly estimated at about 3,000,000,000, consequently the aggregate duration of disputes in working days last year—2,470,189 —was less than one thousandth of the total. Of last year's disputes 124, affecting 37,243 workers, lasted less than a week, and sixty others, in which 13,927 were involved, loss than a fortnight. In sixteen instances, where the workers numbered 7,826, the dispute lasted for more than twenty-five weeks. As a result these wore responsible for nearly half the days 105t—1,064,572. Eight of'the sixteen disputes occurred in the mining industry. In all, miners lost 1,129,167 davs last year out of the total of 2,470,000: builders came next with 412,653. followed by engineers with 539,972. The "following'table shows how the disputes of 1905 arising out of the various causes were settled. ' The figures are those of workers directed affected only :

Grand total ... 16,702 22,943 27,464 111 addition, 487 wages disputes and 57 in the "other" class were left unsettled or indefinite. —Hours of Labor Improved.— Of the 38,737 workers engaged in wages disputes, 16 per cent, were successful, 29 per cent-, unsuccessful, and 54 per cent, arranged compromises. On questions of hours of labor, the balance of success was' with the workers; in trade union disputes (nearly the whole of the workpeople were successful. On all other questions the employers had the better of the arugment. In all, 24.7 per cent, of the workers were successful. Beth the workers and employers show a falling off in their percentage of successes, while the percentage of compromises has increased over that of previous years. No fewer than 220 disputes were settled by direct negotiation, and these settlements embraced 77 per cent, of the w«riau«. In ihiitv cases

directly involving 10,546 workers media tion led to a settlement. During the last five years there has been a greater resort to conciliatory agencies in the mining and quarrying industries than in any other group of trades. In disputes in which there was no stoppage of work 66 permanent Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration considered 1,726 cases last year, as against 1,418 by 65 boards in 1904. Of the 1.726 cases, 834 were withdrawn, referred back, or settled independently, and 53 were under consideration at the end of the year. The remaining 859 cases were settled—6l4 by the boards or committees n.nd 225 by arbitrators or umpires appointed by them. Ono case involved the wages of about 230,000 workpeople.

W orbors Disputes. affected. Davs lost. 1901 ... 642 ... 179,546 . .. 142,287 1902 ... 442 ... 256.667 . ... 3.479.255 1903 ... 587 ... 116,901 . ... 2,338.668 1904 ... 355 ... 87.208 . ... 1,484.220 1905 ... 558 ... 93,505 . .. 2,470.189

Principal Cause. s-< u 0) 3.2 0 u c Wages : h-1 o U For increase Against decrease... Other „ 2.517 1.696 1,942 4,038 4.264 2:835 6.693 5,462 8,803 Total wages Hours of labor Employment of particular classes or 6.155 11.137 20,958 1,307 629 1,209 persons Working arrangements Trade unionism 1.052 319 7,869 2,553 3,026 1,358 2,746 2,201 150 Other causes — 4.240 200