LINES ABOUT LABOR.

Evening Star, Issue 13003, 24 December 1906, Page 2

LINES ABOUT LABOR.

Unionism is going ahead in Auckland. A Bricklavets Union and a- Stonemasons' Union have recvntlv been registered. The membership of the Amalgamated J=oc : ctv <if Kn'-ineers at the eontmoucomenfc of October is officially stated to have been 102.202. Between January and July between 14,000 and 15,000 men received a rise of wages amounting in the aggregate, to r.earlv £40.000 per annum. The Newport branch of tho Amalgamated Societv of Locomotive Knginemeu and Fircnif.li lia.; adopted tho following resolution- —'• That we condemn the practice of gentleman apprentices being employed on the footplates of our locomotives without a fuliv qualified fireman being also-, there, and" arc of opinion that if this, practice had not been in force tie deplorable accident at Grantham would not have occurred."

'" The wagon which enable any workman to live are necessarily higher if his work is liable to intermission than if it is assured and continuous; and however severe the struggle for work may become, the gt mrnil law will always hold that men must get more daily pay if, on tho average, they can only c-alcuiata «n work three days a week than they would require if they were sure of work six days a week."— John Raskin. New London Gountv Council by-laws ro-

; 'ting to the employment of childrea have just come into force. No child under <Uv«t years of ago can be employed at all, and a child liable to attend school i-honjd not be employed except between' 5 p.m. -and 8 p.m., when tie school is open, or on other days between 9 ajn. and 12 noon and 5 p.m. and S p.m. On days when tho school is open a child liable "to attend full time most not be employed incco than three and a-iutlf hours per day. No child liable to full attendance at selnxil is to bo employed mope than twenty hours in oco week. On Sundays no child can be ■worked except between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.. and not for more than, three hours on a:;v one Sunday. The by-laws ako deal with street trading by children under sixteen years of age. They- prohibit the employmerit of a girl under .sixteen in tlii- occupation, except in tho company of licr parent or guardian. A bov betwi en the vgo of eleven and sixteen," while engaged in strtft. trading, must war an arm badge issued by th.j"L.C.C. Children bet w. oil me ag" o: tfjiuttjeji and ei is teen ale not :.> ":•• .•nipioyo,! -u x bo atr«t. after 9 p.m. Mr 'a:o/.;a M., !:e y. M.P.. says that ■■' •!.'-;-r.-/!i?, in- writes him aw follows: "A - . ;::t' i.:i|ii[>i •': the-drivers, borseketpers, va:d::i.;j. : -ui nrlicts associated with the. c-vLcii!;'.;- ii.'|.aitiiwut of the Aerated Bread . omiieay. •;.- Maicii. -who is general sccre:'i;y i-.i :::»■ I.o!:iiu:i Carmen's Union, has fninnilat.'d tho grievances and demands of t;n- , utpli.Yi- • .-• :■- follows:—'The. men alii-.::' ::i;it !!iv ?ii: iium time to rime given .i great deal of oxtia work to do. for which '.ii'.v receive only a couple of shillings or r '' t - : -"- at all. Jn some cases, it is stated, mily 2s was paid for about twenty hours' ■extra w,,i-k. It is also declared that, the ■:■ ri-' carineu only receivo from 18s to 24s :•■ v.c-k. liic hours' averaging fifteen tai.h ■■•.ci-k day. with lour hours i.XTta on Sunday-. When t:ukd upon tit iit up with a s..:k Lets:; dming riie night only 2- i< al!i> vcd. The yardmen and wa.-hci.»- arc .-a; i tn receive from 26* to 28s a mvl;. bur ai-> frequently called upon to do addiuu;;.;i work without payment. Bread at:d [u.-;:v carmen receive 26s and 27- pi w.v!;. anil are supposed n> work only an cigln-i;..;,;-day. They assert, however, that after doing their own. work thev arc imprtiv called upon tit do parcel work iimu ,;f: stores in Wbitecross street to vi'ii.ats depnta. The- demands fonnulat-jd on b- half i>f the men, which have been furwatih-d to the chairman of the company, an? :.» follow: Van-driverx, 28s per week of fmsystght hours, with extra for overtime : hup-o-keepers. yardmen, and washers. 30s a work of forty-eight hours, with extra for overtime, payment for Sunday work, and o< when calhxl upcm to sit up ail night. Agents on commission 12s per week driving money. Is per ICO half-quartern loaves, and 5 per cent, commission on ail pastry and tea sold. At present they receive 10s driving money. lOd per 100 loaves, and nothing for tea and pastry. The men susrgest that if the company cannot sen their way to concede thesf advantages at once. tliu whole matter might well be referred to the Conciliation and Arbitration Board of the London Chamber of Commerce.'" —How ilachini-'ry Benefits Workmen.— A striking illustration of what the United States gains from the readiness of its employes, no less than ita employers, to make fall use of every possible contrivance for relieving human labor has been extracted l.y tha 'New York Outlook' from statistics recently issued by the Director of the Census at Washington. The statistics appealed in n repoit of the American iron and steel industry for the five years 19CO-05. In 2900 there were 343 blast furnaces, with a daily output of about 55,000 tons. Tn 1905 there were 344 furnaces, but the output hail risen to 78,000 tons a day. To turn out the 55,000 tons in 1900 about 39,000 men, most'y day laborers, were employed, but to turn out the 78,000 tens in 1535 only 35,000 were required. But for !•:<• improved machinery there must have .... v. at least 50,000 men at tho furnaces in

lOCS, in-tcad of 4,000 less than in 1900. A-,;-.r '! : ,tn or British working men would 1 ol.ii.ly ;:rguc that though employers, and ] -.-:b".y consumers, too, bad reaped ad\ar.ta:;tr, yet- the wage-earners had suffered because machinery had been substituted for a large number of them. A more careful analysis of the statistics of the industry shows, however, that tho employes in it "have been great gainers too—possibly the greatest of aIL Though the number at, the furnaces has been reduced, the number engaged in subsequent stages of manufacture, such as the making of stce' rails and structural stefcL has notably increase.l. In 1900 there were only 183,000 men !<> employed, whereas in "1905 there were 207,000. Improved machinery has cheapswl pigiron, and so enlarged the market for it and for tho things made of it. Though it has displaced men at the furnaces, it- has provided employment in tho steel and iron industry for many more than tho displaced. "For the men still at work at the blast furnaces in this country," says tho 'Outlook,* "work to-day is infinitely less exhausting than it was ten years ago. Most of the men are in charge'of tho mechanical equipment for handling the coke, ore, and limestone, and the pig metal which results from the furnace treatment of these minerals; and to-day the pulling of a lever or tho turning on of an electrical current does practically all the work about a blast furnace which a few years ago had to be done amid imoke and fumes by mere human strength." One of the most striking results) of the new movement in France for securing a weekly day of rest by legal enactment has been tho voluntary agreement of half a dozen railway companies to grant fifty-two davs" holiday a year to their employees. This arrangement will benefit a quarter of a. million men who have hitherto nad very Uttlo rest from year's endj to year's end. 'lhe companies will try as far as possiblo to let the holidays coincide with Sunday, "but in any case there, will not bo less thin fifty-two days each year of rest. This is a great step in advance, and will <. induce to the well-being and happiness of an enormous number of people, and also to the greater safety of the travelling public "There are more children under fifteen years of age working in the mills of free America than in Germany, England, and Italc combined," said Secretary A. J. M'&lvev, of the "National Child Labor Committee, in an address in Philadelphia recently. "There are more children under sixteen in the mills of Pennslyvania than there are in all tho Southern States put together. It is estimated that 80,000 children are working in the cotton mills in the South, empkrved on twerre-ho«ir shifts. In the industrial States there are over 1.700,000 children under sixteen at work. In the South six times as many children are working now as there wcro twenty vears ago." " A Labor party has just been formed in Tokio, and a strong manifesto was issued,

declaring that tho existing labor •conditions arc deplorable. The new jHirty'o programme includes opposition to monopolies, .universal mole ' and fenialo: aiuCrag*, a general increase of wages and, reduction of "'hours, tho abolition of capital nijiushroent and: of- titular distinctions, fundr-HJien-tal.Teform in taxation, and arbitrateMJ in all international questions. Tho rnovoroent is significant in view of tho recent increase, in. labor troubles and the .Socialist disitarbances. concerning tho raising of tranrway fares. Tho Socialists have been shoeing much activity lately at tho capital.