LINES ABOUT LABOR.

Evening Star, Issue 14039, 21 April 1909, Page 2

LINES ABOUT LABOR.

[Secretaries of unions and others are inS'ted to forward notes on matters of general terest for this column. Correspondence, etc., addressed up to Saturday, at noon, ,to " Worker," care of ' Star' Office, will be received and given every,consideration.] CURRENT TOPICS. The cables hava announced the resignation of Mr J. Ramsay Macdonald as secretary of the British Labor party. Mr Macdonald is the chief whip of the party in Parliament, and is an' eloquent, speaker, as those who were privileged to hear him in New Zealand can testify. Mr Macdonald has had experience as a schoolteacher, as a clerk, as a journalist, and as an author. His intention is to devote more energy to propaganda literature on behalf of Labor, and the- dnties as secretary to the party have prevented him from pressing forward in this more congenial work... **** • * * * Mr John H. Schofield, publisher of the 'Butchers and Packers' Gazette,' of St.' Louis, Mo., estimates the number of retail butchers, in. the. United .States at 160,000, exclusive of grocers who handle fresh meat products.. *'** * * * * Fifteen aged farm laborers at Henham, Essex, were recently the recipients of a new overcoat each. Many years ago an Essex agriculturist named' Henry Sinith left a farm at Tolleshunt, the rent of which was to be applied each year in providing overcoats for aged and' respectable farm laborers in several parishes which ho named. ****** * The Victorian Shop Assistants' Union ■Till, on May 1, carry through a monster demonstration to mark the inauguration of the Saturday halt-holiday. ******* Those whose necessities have lain in the direction of house-hunting will appreciate Uie following experience., which,' although it comes from America, could quite titrtinenlly apply to New Zealand :~ Mrs Fisher, a wealthy lady of Des Moines, lowa, recently appeared in the Juvenile Court of that town, and made a dramatic denunciation of '• race suicide" landlords. In all parts of America, particularly in the largo to wis, a growing percentage of house-owners decline to lease houses to married couples who have children. Mrs Fisher, ignorant of the cruelty of the landlords, adopted some time ago a pretty ten-weeks-old baby. Carrying the baby in her arms, she appeared before Judge Miller with tears in her eyes, and exclaimed : '• It cannot be, your Honor, that a landlord can make orders forbidding us _to keep such sweet little mites as this in our own rented apartments, and that the law will sustain lnm. ' The Judge gazed at the blueeyed, golden-haired babv, seized a lawbook, and studied the 'code for a few moments. " I cannot find anvthing here that says landlords may not"bar babies from their property if they so desire" he said. Dramatically *Mrs Fisher moved forward, placed the baby on the Judges lap, and precipitately Jeft the court "Stop! Stop!"' cried the astonished Judge. But. defying arrest for contempt ot court, the woman tied downstairs into the streets. The Judge then announced that he would take the baby home until lie could place her with a family who do not reside in a "race suicide " flat. ******* Mr Arthur Henderson, who has been e-elected chairman of the British Labor arty, is a moulder bv profession. His mairrnanship has been most successful, and Ins experience in union matters and municipal politics has been a factor in us training for the important position he holds.

******* One of the greatest events in the history •« co-partnership is being arranged by the pat scapmakmg firm of Lever Bros The inr. is merely following the example set >y a number of British firms in admitting Jieir employees into a co-partnership. The Mid-np capital, of .Messrs Lever Bros i onn IS £ , a ' 025 .000. "and there are nearly S.COO employees in Port Sunlight alone, is well as workers in Australia. Canada, Vmenca, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerard. Ihe firm have already successful v n.ved ihe problem of housing their wor'iivs, and have converted that which was a ilum district into a beautiful and healthy suburb, with environments making for noral well-being. * ***** * . The claim to be the oldest trade unionist in South Wales has been made bv M>- James Cook, of Enfield, Svdney. and it would seem by the record he has that .here is little likelihood that his claim ran as successfully disputed. Mr Cook is seventy years of age, and first joined a mion in Manchester when he was twelve , Thus he has seen fifty-eight vears of unionstic progress. He came to Australia fifty-:-hree years ago, and was one of the pioneer seventeen who met in the old Albion Hotel Sydney, to initiata the eight-hours' reform and fl to , forrn the Trades and Labor Council of .Sydney, of which he was one of the first members. He has every reason to be proud of his splendid record, which should Bland as a noteworthy example to present fci>s unionists.

■£• # --1 -•• x. ' According to the Litest Board of Trade returns the number of cases in Great Britain where profit-sharing in ordinary business is in effect is eighty-two. The"oldest oi these is Fox Brothers, Limited, woollen manufacturers, of Wellington, wh«re the scheme goes back to 1866. Others are J T. and T. Taylor. Batlev; Hazell. Watson and Viney: William Thomson and .Sons lluddersfield ; Clarke Niefcolls, and Combs • and Sir•W. G. Armstrong. Whitworth, and to. Sir Christopher Furness hopes to strengthen -the shipbuilding trade bv his new copartnership experiment. " Only hist week," he said recently, "my representatives reported to me that, "for the first time in the history of the shipbuilding industry. British shipowners are negotiating lor the building of ships in foreicn yard! for employment abroad, and I am simply astounded at the prices that have been quoted. T implore evervone in all ranks of the industry to make up his mind that a stop shall be put to all the wastage that at present adds so greatly to the cost of production and hampers enterprise at every turn, and especially that there shall be no more oi those industrial earthquakes that strikes produce." ******* Mr Will Crooks recently delivered an iddress on the unemployment question, in which he said: "The Labor candidate did not always win at election times, did not always top the poll; but why feel sore over it? Defeats were sometimes glorious wins The numerically small Labor party in the House—hardly a decent minoritymay possibly have done no good, but certainly they have prevented a deal of misphiel With reference to the passing of me Old Age Pensions Bill, objection had >een made to it by honorable members .hat recipients might take the money out )t the country. Well, of course, it was jossible that they might go for a trip on she Continent, or a gamble at Monte Lark) when they got that ss, and had reached the age of seventy, but he, personally, always thought it wanted a lot of money for that sort of thing. By pegging away, the Labor party had forced the nrS imployment question into the realm of iractical polities. The working man knew ■hat the trouble was not always that the ••hoc pinched, but that very often there veve no shoes to do the pinching. It was •.bsolutely necessary that some system be irougnt forward whereby work could be ;ound for both the wfllmg-to-work and the umvilling-to-work, for the latter should not be allowed to be a drag on his fellows while the unable-to-work oucdit to De tended an our hospitals or infirmaries all sufficient strength had been gained to sender them competent- The fact of the natter was, the country was ruled by permanent officials, and it was lack of initiative on the part of these and the responsible Ministers that the country was now Buffering from."

The Amalgamated: Association of Tram-' way.and Vehicle Workers, was established in London in 1889, and now have branches all over England. The eociety have paid in sick, funeral, accident, and strike pay benefits over £BB,OOO, and have a reserve fund.of £27,000. The' "membership is estimated at 16,000 'workers, and the contributions pour in at the rate of £SOO per week/ ■ * * * * # ..'* # The report of the Parliamentary Com- 1 mifctee on Fair Wages has just been' presented to the House of Commons. The Committee recommend that the present working of the "fair wages'' clause which obliges the contractor to pay the current rate of wages for competent men in the particular district where the work is carrier! out, shall be retained. They think that where persons are employed at pieca rates of wages on work for which a current time rate exists the general principle that :he piecework earnings for a given period fchculd exceed tl>e standard time wages for the same period on similar work should lie recognised, and they recommend that contractors should be enjoined to keep proper records of the time worked by the work-' people in all cases of this kind. 'The Committeo cannot recommend that Government j contracts should be restricted to what are ' known technically as "fair houses," but they think that great care should continue, to ha taken in selecting firms to be placed on the bst of contractors, so as to ensure tk.t only good .employers should he admitted. 'They also think that every effort should ho made to ensure all pctsible cooperation among the different contracting departments in such matters as inspection/ the investigation of complaints, and the interpretation of the "fair wages" clausesin difficult cases. With a view to furthering this object, they suggest that a committee should be formed of representatives of the different contracting departments, who should meet from time to time for the discussion of matters of common interest and the settlement of disputed questions. ****** * COST £70,000 TO TRADE UNIONS. In the annual report of the General Federation of Trade Unions Mr W. A. Appleton (the secretary) furnishes a financial statement showing that the" Federation is beginning to recover from the.effects of the great dispute in the cotton trade last year. This involved an expenditure on dispute benefits of about £70,000. At the beginning of the quarter, owing to the heavy drain on the resources of the Federation on account of the engineering disoute on the North-East Coast, the funds of the federation had fallen to something like £130,000. Deducting the cost of the cotton dispute, this brought, down the balance in hand to £60.000, roughly speaking. During the quarter "the federation lias received about £IO,OOO in contributions from the constituent societies. This brings the balance back to, about £70,000 with which to commence the new year. It is hoped that by the end of the year the funds will again reach £IOO,OOO. ******* DEFYING THE COURT. Considerable discontent exists in the ranks of the London Society of Compositors (says the Central News) by the decision of the Executive Commit- j tee to enforce the compulsory levy for] the maintenance of the society's parliamentary representative. The last quarterly levy of 3d per member fell | due on December 31, and a large number of. members paid it under protest. A considerable minority still refuse to pay, and they are being threatened by the Committee with disciplinary action, tantamount to expulsion. Representations have been made to the Committee on the subject, and it lias been pointed out that the Committee's action is a clear defiance of the recent judgment of the Master of the Rolls and two justices, given in the Court of Appeal, to the effect that it was illegal to collect any levy, or apply any funds so collected, for Labor representation in Parliament. The minority of the compositors who have not yet yielded to the coercive measures of the Committee may, it is reported, appeal to the courts for protection, and legal opinion has been given to the effect that any moneys paid out of the parliamentary representation fund to any trade union since the decision of the Court of Appeal can be recovered from the members of the Committee sanctioning such payment.