THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 14631, 29 July 1911, Page 2

THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

[By XJ’.AO Brief contributions on matters with reference to the Labor movement are invited. PROFESSOR MILLS ENGAGED TILL AFTER THE ELECTION. When Professor W. T. Mills was in Dunedin he was approached by leading laborites with a view of securing his services on behalf of New Zealand until after the General Election. The Professor gave us to understand that he would consider the matter favorably if there was a probability of being able to consolidaate the Labor factions. As he has travelled from place to place, workers have been consulted, and an arrangement was completed last week by which the Professor will stay and fight the cause of Labor. A meeting took place, in Wellington, the deliberations lasting all one afternoon. Mr E. Tregear, late head of the Labor Department, was present, and gave valuable aid and advice. It was decided to begin the campaign at once, and a cable was sent to Mrs Mills, who is in Melbourne, asking her to come across and assist her husband in the undertaking. At the close of his Sunday evening lecture the Professor, speaking of what had been done in New Zealand for the betterment of social conditions, said that he believed the Dominion had a better opportunity before it than any other country in the world. Each man’s responsibilities must be measured by his opportunities, so that if citizens of New Zealand had great opportunities they also had great and serious obligations resting upon them. Thus when he had been asked to stay here longer he had gladly taken advantage of the offer, because of the opportunity it would afford. He would be here for some five or six months more—but not as the spokesman of any one group as against any other. His main effort would be to get into one great Dominion organisation the whole industrial, economic, and political activity of the useful people of New Zealand, in order that the joint power of all might be brought to bear on every side of every problem affecting the welfare of them all. ******* FEMALE Y. MALE LABOR. It is alleged on good authority ibat there are not now, in the whole Melbourne metropolitan area, eight firms employing more than five journeymen tailors each, and that of the firms which used to employ from 12 to 40 tailors, not 25 per cent, now employ more than 3. The firms turn out more work, but women do it—for less wages. The Board that fixed the minimum wage failed to discover the relative value of tailors’ and tailoresses’ work, and, after giving the men, in most classes, a wage of £2 15s a week, blundered badly in fixing the pay of a competent adult tailoress at only £1 Is a week. A disastrous result of "this anomaly is that the employers are training no new tailors. Instead, they are crying aloud for the importation of more female labor, which is a futile remedy anyhow. Female labor is, or should be, a temporary thing at best. The State wants mothers in its homes, not middle-aged spinsters in its factories : and Parliament should insist that the ratio between men’s and women's wages be so adjusted that the woman shall not only get' equal pay for equal work, but that her minimum wage shall be so high as to discourage her employment, and encourage her to become the wife of the man who will displace her. ******* WATERSIDE WORKERS. The, Bluff Waterside Workers’ Union now has a membership of about 225. Recently an agreement has been made between the union and Ihe shipping companies. The preference clause was the strong point with the men, but as the companies threw no obstacles in the way the matter was soon settled, and while the present good feeling prevails there is no danger of any unpleasantness aiising. Indeed, the man themselves were Hie greatest barrier to a settlement being rorno to. These who had remained outside the union until the preference clause was enforced tried by every possible means to frustrate the union, and escape from having to join. A meeting was held, and there was somo talk ot forming a nonunionists’ union, but this did not eventuate. A solicitor was then consulted, but he advised that he could do nothing in the matter. The men then communicated with Judge Sim, president, of tho Arbitration Court. However, finding that nothing could be done, they have submitted to the inevitable, and agreed to go into the union fold. The union is now the third (strongest in Southland. ******* AX OUTSIDE OPINION. Charles Edward Russell. the well-known author and magazine writer on political topics, has been lecturing in San Francisco on iho Dominion. Mr Russell was the Labor candidate for Governor of New York at the election last November, and recently visited Now Zealand, chiefly to gather “ammunition” for the American movement. In this lie would appear to have been somewhat disappointed, the Dominion not having advanced along Socialistic lines to the extent lie had expected from a. former visit fig?. yearn ago. But iho condition of the woiiSng people of New Zealand is much hotter than that of America, Mr Russell asserts. With some disappointment ho cal is the Government conservative—“ though not- when viewed from the standpoint of the United States,” ho hastens to add. " Five years ago the Government wus Radical,’’ be said. “ It lias not progressed since, then. There is a new Labor movement starting, and that is the mot>i, encouraging thing about iho country.” ******* ■ BABY LABOR. A baby, aged two and a-half years, who “works” for his living by hooking; eyes on a. card for his poor working mother. lias been discovered m Loudon. This iitUc victim of sweated child labor is mentioned by a. writer in the ‘Empire Review ’ in connection with ’The Piobiem of ib. Child’:—“l have seen a babv of two and a-half yea~.s hooking eyes,” says the writer, "-.so unchildlii.o at work as wo talked with his mother.” .Some .striking facts regarding tiie work and wages of child borne workers are given as follows: A mother and child earn Is 6d a week at i hooks and even, working all day until 11 p.m. A girl of 10 years works a!! evening with her moihcM, who cards pens. They earn about 4d in one night. A bov o{ 12 chops and sells wood ; liy“working ail day he- makes 5s per week. What a scoop the middleman must have under eon I ditions like those. | ■X* * £ -?r -ff & - ■£. * THE WORKERS OF NEW ZEALAND. | The following is the kind of leading ; often eerved up to the workers of England? I No wonder that the average emigrant one meets expresses disappointment at the working conditions he finds on arrival here. 1 cull this from ‘Fry’s' Magazine,’ and it, was written by a New Zealander : —“There is no poverty in New Zealand as that word i« understood here. There the working man always looks forward to being something else. Here he generally feels' that hs i will have to continue to bo a working man. j In New Zealand many a. working man ; keeps htf, horse and trap, or maybe his [ yacht-, or perhaps a few will combine and 1 own a yacht, between them. ! do not! want to cause a rush of raihrav employes to the ether end/ of the world, but I re- j member two guards on a Him that I fr - ! qucntly used. (hie was a genii ■man rider j over country, and would frequently get an afternoon off to ride in a steeplechase ; the | oilier was a noted shot, and generally gut j his holidays by a turiour. coincidence about I the lime pheasant shooting*began.” ******* BRIEF NOTES. j There is a probability of Mr A. A. Paapp, | who stood as a Labor candidate for the I Invercargill seat at the last election, again contesting the scat. Sbopmate ; Paap-o is a clicker by trade, and was for •■‘>”’o yei'iv splayed in a Dvi/i/iln boot factmr (s' r

The Laboi’ Representation Council have asked the onions, and hr-anches of the New, Zealand Labor party affiliated thereto, to submit names for selection as candidates for Parliament at the election in December. Dunedin North, Central, and South are the seats to be contested. It will be about two month i before the selection is completed. * * * The price of batter was discussed at the last meeting of the Auckland branch of tbs Labor party, and it was decided that the executive should confer with the executive of the Employees’ Federation, to discuss the question of holding a mass meeting, to enter a strong protest against the raising of the price of butler, and to urge the Minister for Customs io repeal the tariff on Australian butter. * * * The growing custom in Paris of inserting in obituary notices the request “ No flowers or wreaths” is hitting very hard an industry on which some. 12,000 persons depend for their livelihood in Paris alone, the bulk of the, wreaths purcha-sed by the poorer ckisaco being artificial. Of these workers fully a half arc at present unemployed, and nearly a thousand little, shops are being closed. A meeting of the various trade unions concerned has not been able to suggest any practical remedy, beyond that of appealing to the Press, to the archbishop, and the chief Rabbi. The unanimity with which the Premiere at the Imperial Conference have rejected as impracticable the proposal of Sir Joseph Ward for the establishment of what he terms an ” Imperial Parliament of Defence ” is evidence that they have a deeper comprehension of the problems connected with Imperial relations than the Premier of the New Zealand Dominion.—Tho ‘Labor Leader.' » * * The ‘ Osservalorc,’ of Rome, for May 5 came out with a paragraph headed: ‘The Australian Mission in Rome,’ and conveying the following lovely- announcement in mixed-pickle form:—“ His Excellency the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr Fisher) arrives to-night in Rome with bin suite, which: is composed of 17 people, en route for the Coronation of King George of England. Apartments have been engaged for His Excellency at the Hotel Regina, Rome.” * « * The sixtieth annual report- of the Amalgamated .Society of Engineers gives the membership as 110,733. The value of funds at the end of the year stood at £598,257. which leaves it. the financial premier of the world's trade, organisations. * * * Mrs Fisher and Mm M'Gowen walked in the suffragette procession in London. And what a procession it. was! Mrs Drummond on horseback, like a modem Joan of Arc. leading 40,000 women walking seven abreast and 70 bands. * * * Tho reclassification of tho Victorian State railway employees moans another £115,000 per annum, but whether for wages or salaries of those higher up is not stated. *" * * Anglican Bishop Mercer has consented to be the chairman of Tasmania’s first Wages Board. It will deal with tho boot trade. Tho ‘Loco Record’ says;—“ The, New Zealand railways are. managed on tho most conservative system in vogue in the whole of Australasia. Class distinction is rampant, and everything is done to make the men feel as if’ they" are merely machines. Smoke that!” * r * A Mr" Wright, u Boston millionaire, left £14,000 for the enro of his favorite horse and dogs, and £5,000 among his household servants.