LINES ABOUT LABOR

Evening Star, Issue 13013, 7 January 1907, Page 3

LINES ABOUT LABOR

" America (says a cable message to ilie London 'Express' from New York) is suffering from too much prosperity. There are not enough men to cope with the enormous volume of business, and a labor famine exists in varying degrees from NewYork to San Francisco. So great is the industrial Txiom that newly-arrived immigrants practically command their own prioes in the -western States, where the crops ate unharvested, and railway extension delayed for lack of skilled laborers and farm' hands. The famine has affected New York severely. Employment agencies arc inundated with appeals for cooks, porfars, carmen, page-boys, and waiters for betels, and high-class mechanics. Many of i he big department stores arc paying boys men's wages. There is even a dearth of clerks in the Wall street- district. Contracting firms arc greatly hampered in executing large improvements. The labor " bosses," who supply alien laborers for tunnel construction, bridge building, and road making, at a certain price per hundred, have raised their rates, and are still unable to get all the men they require. Employment agcn<6 wait at the Ellis Inland ferries to capture newly-arrived immigrants who have just been " passed" by the immigration authorities. The demand for labor is certain to result in increased immigration within the next few weeks, especially from Ireland. Hundreds of Irishmen employed in New York are Bending for their relatives and friends, and it is even alleged that certain employment agencies havo furnished fundi? for the importation of "desirable" workmen. At the same time New York has its unemployed question. are thousands of '* unemployables" in the streets.

iii tho Civil Court, Adelaide. Samuel Alexander Farmer, coastal pilot and stevedore, brought an action against the South Arstralian Stevedoring Company for £I,OOO damages, for injuries sustained while working a& the unloading of the steamer Medic at the Semaphore on 20th June last. The claim set out that plaintiff was permanently disabled. He stated that his duties were to receive cargo from the steamer arid stow it an ay in a lighter. While he was at work in a trooping position the sling came down and drove him with his head on to a case. A verdict was given for £I.OOO and costs. In the District Court, Queensland, last month, tho case was concluded in which Catherine Chalmers sued the Australian United Steam Navigation Company under the Employers' Liability Act for £430 damages for the death of her husband, James Chalmers, through alleged defective machinery. Judge Miller found for defendants on the ground that-plaintiff had not proved that the machinery was defective. Plaintiff then sued under the Workmen's Compensation Act, and was awarded £SOO damages, less the costs of the former case. Miss Constance Smith, speaking at the New Reform Club, said that tho treaty which was signed last September at Berne did not attempt to regulate the rules of commerce and trade, but attempted to regulate labor internationally from tho point of view of the conditions and interests of labor and the interests of the weakest and most helpless section of labor. Humanitarian considerations and a growing belief in the solidarity of human interests produced that treaty, which, among other subjects, dealt with women's night work, and which had been adopted by fifteen Governments. At the Geneva Conference home work, a maximum working day, industrial poisons, international insurance, and the night work of young persons were considered. The figures for Germany showed that homo work there was even more appalling -tbaji in Eu{-l»o<i. wwncn yn various, parts of the country being paid Id an hour for tailoring, and lid and 2jd an hour being considered high pay. Speaking at tho annual meeting of the Mansion House Council on the Dwellings of the Poor, Mr Herbert- Samuel, M-P-, Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs, said it used to be hoped that manufacturers would leave the towns, plant their industries in rural districts, and take their workpeople with them. That movement, however, had made small progress, and the economic disadvantages of the idea were sufficient to make it improbable that- its progress would ever be rapid. All that could be done, he thought, was to give inducements in the shape of better and more adequate housing to working people to move into the outer districts. M. Viviani, tho French Minister of Labor, in the course of a recent speech, said that he was, a Socialist, and entered the Ministry with the same ideas that he had adyo:ated for the past sixteen years. Conflicts af the old political order were, he said, vanishing, and giving place to conflicts between misery and wealth, but the dispossessed classes, now free of religious superstition, must avoid economic superstition. The new Minister's business was not to solve the social question, but to enlighten and help the laboring classes, with the object of redressing wrongs. Citizens had duties as well as rights. The working classes must not despair of acquiring a just share of the wealth they create, an<l of making human life happier. The new democratic movement, in spite of_its exaggerations and occasional violence, was tending towards the great ideal, and continued tho impulse given by tlie French Revolution. At a recent meeting of the Truck Acts Committee, presided over bv Mr T. Shaw, K.C.. M.P.. Lord Advocate. Miss Tuckwell, chairwoman of the Women's Trade Unions League, gave evidence, and produced what is described as a startling list of cases of excessive fines by many largo firms upon employees for frivolous offences. The witness expressed her opinion that no remedy could be found for the evils of the existing system except a complete repeal of all legislative sanction for fining in any shape or form. In view of the importance of the evidence, it is understood to bo not unlikelv that, altliough tho names of tho firms mentioned will hot be communicated to the public, they may be privately communicated with by the Committee, and asked whether they desire to offer any rebut ticz evidence. For the purpose of examining into the condition of the children in attendance at a public elementary school in one of the poorer parts of Edinburgh, a few interested citizens, as a result of the publication of the report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland), formed themselves into a committee of investigation. They selected a school that had on its rolls not only children from the poorest parts of the city, but an admixture of children of the substantially comfortable and thoronghly respectable -working class. Their report on the physical rendition of fourteen hundred boys and girls has recently been published. Evory child in the school was weighed, measured, and thoroughly examined by medical exports, and at the same time volunteer visitors, carefully selected far their fitness for the -work, visited the home of every child. Of the 781 families visited (with 1.589 children attending the school) 262 mothers were wage-earners—lß6 of these were from families where drinking was a noticeable feature, and only twenty-nine of all the -working mothers were from sober and respectable homes -where the father -was also at work. Of the families attending the school, 151 live in oneroomed houses, 426 in two-roomed houses, 160 in three-roomed houses, 57 in foorroomed houses, and 6 in five-roomed booses. The book is full of mournful interest to the social reformer. So far as could be ascertained,' 449 of the cases investigated were in receipt of charitable aid. Of the families thus both parents were drunk in 114 cases, father only drank in 114 cases, mother only drank in twenty-nine cases, widows drank in twenty-five cases, widows were sober in thirty cases, drink was suspected in twenty-five cases, both parents sober (father ill) .in thirteen cases, both parents sober and -well in ninety-two cases, people doubtful in other ways in seven cases. In the records of the investigation such entries as " decent and sober" are comparatively infrequent, and in too many cases the report "both parents drunken" or '' father drunken " appears. From the bulk of the reports -which bear upon them the impress of impartiality, here is one sample : —" A filthy, foul-smelling room, the only one they have, -with things littered all over, and a pair of drunken parents, who fight each other from time to time. She is Roman Catholic, as are all the girls; he yad Jtho., bqys _. The chil : [,

dren are said to be washed twice a week, and the gaps in their clothes showed clean skin." A pitiful story of the. struggles of the genuine uiicmjploycd was recently related at St Pancras Coroner's Court, London. The widow of Edwin Reed, a ship's cook. who died in St. Pancras Infirmary, and ■who cried bitterly during her evidence, stated that' sinoo "last April the deceased had not had a stroke of work to do. Prior to Easter their home had been sold up in consequence of their inability to pay renL "I wanted him to go to the worknou«j." she said, " but he would not. We haven't wanted for food. Friends have been \-er3' kind to us, but ho (meaning deceased) has not slept in a proper bed fcr months." The widow went on to say that on the previous Monday deceased walked to the Victoria Docks and back about a job of work. They slept near a watchman's fire that night, walked about the streets on Tuesday, slept near a watchman's fire at Chalk Farm on Tuesday, night, and walked about in the rain all Wednesday. Suddenly, whilst in Greenland place, deceased complained of weakness, and she called a constable, who took them to the workhouse. Deceased was at once admitted to the infirmary, where he died soon after admission. At that, time they possessed only thrc-e-half-ponce.—The Coroner: Why didn't you go to the Poor Law authorities?—l begged of him to got, but he would not. He was always going up and down to tho docks after work which ho was promised, out which he did not get. He used to say : '' We have managed so far. Try and buck up, and don't go there. I shall soon get work." He had a dread of going in.—Death, said a doctor, was due to ;in affection of the lungs, Eet up by exposure and want.—The jury returned a verdict that " Death was duo to self-neglect." and the Foreman said there was self-respect as well. Mr P. Currau writes as follows to tho 'Daily news':—l have read wiih some degree of amesed interest the exploits of the alleged philantropist. now known as Mr Yates, who has been giving away bank notes and sovereigns to all and sundry in Covent Garden and other parts of London. Some six years ago I had occasion to negotiate on behalf of a body of about 250 fcundry laborers who were employed at the firm ol Messrs Yates and Thorn, of Blackburn. That, of course, was prior to the firm being floated as a limited liability enmpar.r. Consequ-ently Air Yiitef* was then senior partner in tlie firm. The men were members of the Gaswcrkers' and G-enera.l Laborers' Society, and for about twelve months we had been endeavoring by amicable and peaceful methods to persuade the firm to increase the wages of the men who were then receiving 17s per week up to 18s. and those who were receiving IBs up to 19s. This was for a wechrs work of fifty-six hours. All peaceful methods failed, and eventually the men decided to strike. In my capacity as organiser 1 was present in Blackburn to look after the men's interests. During the dispute, which lasted about three weeks, I hud several interviews with the representative of the firm, but my pleas on behalf of the men had no effect- At> the end of three weeks we agreed that the points in dispute should be submitted to an impartial arbitrator, and the men immediately returned to work, of course on the old terms. A well-known local gentleman was selected :is arbitrator, and the employers put their case with great force, pointing out that in the neighboring towns in Lancashire (where, by the way, the men were not organised) the employers weic paying no more for this class 'of - work. Now, most of tho men in question were married and had f.-imilies, and owing to the low wages their wives had to go out to tho weaving-mill, and their little children were dxiven iix as Half-timorp. «o that the combined income would just keep the root over their heads. Ido not by any means grudge the market, porters or the street waifs their little windfalls, but I think tho facts I have mentioned are not without pertinence.