THE LABOR MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 16950, 24 January 1919, Page 8

THE LABOR MOVEMENT

[By Vetkean.]

Brief contributions on matters with reference to the Labor Movement are invited.

.LABOR MEN 1 WHO HAVE SUCCEEDED Most people ore familiar with the story [‘From Lop Cabin to White House.’ There is material for many such stories in the lives of the Labor "M.P s :n Great Britain. Tho Last few rears have brought about, changes in the "lives of many humble men that were undreamt of u few ; years ago. Who would have believed, say ’lO years ago, that working men would be j translated from the factory, tho mine, | and the workshop to high places m tho | British Government—to seats which were ' cnce occupied by such men at Pitt, Glad- , stone, Disraeli, and Canning? But this has taken place. It deserves to be known throughout the world, ns showing what brains and grit can accomplish. Tako the case of Mr George Barnes, who 60 yea-» ago, at the age of 11. was toiling early and late in a Middlesex jute mill. Who would have thought that 50 years later he would be in the Inner circle of the British Cabinet, one of the ablest an-d most trusted of King George’s Ministers? Tho son of a roving father, ho had, as he says, “'a hard life of it ag a boy. ali though,” ho adds. “ I don’t thnk I was I any the worse for that.” After two years ! in "tho Middlesex mill the embryo Cabinet 1 Minister was apprenticed to a firm of eni (vineers in London, and completed his training at Glasgow. Then followed years : of wandering—bf work ,in Scotland and ; Lancashire, at Woolwich Arsenal and tho i "V ictoria Docks, punctuator] by spells <»f I enforced id knees and weary, fruitless : searches fo v a job. And all the lime, I whether in or out of employment, ho was ! educating himself by attending evening : classes ana night schools, working nidusi triuusly at It’s buok-i until the neo sina Lours” of ’he mrfVning Mr Barnes attributes the turn in his lifc to the reading of ‘ ami ] ovevtv,’ liv Heniy George, widen reveal'd "a new wmld to him. and made such an impression on him Hat it attiaeted him into the get-oral movement for social reform. Hr did a lot oi agitating work ni the- Labor me vomont. which at that time was not the power in the land that it '? today. He soon became a marked man in the world of Labor Ilk;,success as -in agitator bioneht him the post assistant secretary to tho Amalgamated Soc ely >f F-nginvors Three years later lie necame see’rrtarv, and in 1906 he was , loci<-d to represent Hie Bliekfriara ])ivi i n of (Glasgow in the British Parliament. He had now tho bad at his feet; ard lo such excellent use did he turn his ah:.iters mid c.pporf unities that within 11 roars he was j p. Minister of lire (Town, ami a little Inter 1 wu,-. translated to the elect circle of the War Cabinet If you a k Mr flames the secret of his wonderful career he win modestly tell you that he _ has boon “pushed on.” "1 was pushed into i filet,ii life am! into parliament. T had no personal ambition to enter Parliament ; but at the same time, once my jellows nominated me I throsv myself heart and soul into the work. That lias been mv rule: not to seek office. hut, having nr.epted it. 1 to work my very hardest. Had_ 1 Tdmvvd I mv own inclination 1 should stdl lie workinf'’ in the -* shops.’ All I can claim for ! nivself is that 1 lave alwa'.s tried ray I bod,, and that I have been • independent.’ ■ fighting to.,th and nail lor rclorm. and ;i’lowing nothing to turn mo from my i purpose.” i'lio earliest recollection of Mr Stephen i Walsh, who rose to the p s tain of Par- : liamontary Secretary to the Board of j 'Trade, is that when he was an oiphan waif, lost in the street * of _ Liverpool, a kindly policeman picked him up and i hoisted him on hi? shoulders. U was that ! incident, he saws, that e-aily dev-ds ped h;s j intense, sympathy with all who wore young ;and helphns, and implanted in him a 1 strong desire to do something to help ; others. At 15 he left, an industrial school j to commence work hj; a mine, toiling 10 1 hours daily for the miserable pittance of j a-penny an hour. “ Less than a pound a month,” he says, “was not a great deal to keep body and soul together on. but I struggled along somehow.” And in spite of his long hours of labor, tho boy found time for stndv. He read e-mnivorously ; ho cultivated his speaking powers by discussing politics with and “delivering little expositions or lectures ” to his mates deep down in the bowels of tho earth ; and at ‘2O became secretary of a local trade union. “That union grew, and I grew with it,” is his modest explanation of his later career. “As to why I have got on, I am at a loss to say. I suppose I was born with a good deal of natural energy- and determination. Then it has always been a pleasure to me to work for others ; and, ] like all my fellow-members of the Labor ! party, I have never sought offico for its own paltry take.” Mr William Brace, another working man who reached Ministerial rank, entered a coal iniu-o as a pit boy tho day after his 12th birthday, and worked in tho mines until he was 25, when ho was elected miners’ agent for tho Western Valievs district. As a lad ho stored his mind with a wide range of reading, from Henry George and Rnskin to Carlyle and John Stuart Mill, and by the time he was 20 he had won local fame as an eloquent lay preacher and a lecturer on trade unionism. He proved himself such a donahty champion of his fellow-workmen that he was promoted from one post to another until he. reached the vice-presidoncy of the South Wales Miners’ Federation, and at 40 found himself translated to Westminster. His success he attributes to his teototalism, his habits of study, his good health, and his determination to succeed. “ I have endured many reverses and hardships,” ha savs, “ but I have, always need my failures as stepping ntnuos to better things.” Mr Arthur Henderson, who was originally a message boy in Glasgow, was at the age of 40 aleeied to Parliament. He also gained Cabinet rank. When asked “why ho had got on," ho answered: “I look on my tectotalism and gospel work as important factors in my career. But. so far as any persona] characteristic is concerned. I think I have succeeded by being thorough. . . . Then I have tried to bo consistent. And finally, mv watchword as a politician has been and is ‘lndependence.’ ” Mr G. H. Roberts, who has done good work during the war as Parliamentary Secretary to tho Board of Trade and Minister of Labor, was the son of poor parents, one of nine children, and delifate as a boy. Being precluded from joining in sports and games, he was thrown much on the companionship of nooks, and read such authors as Dickens, Darwin, William Morris, and Russell Lowell. After serving his apprenticeship to a Norwich printer, Roberts threw himself heart and soul into the task of reorganising tho printing trade. He became widely known as a trade union and Socialist lecturer; and after two defeats graduated as a member of Parliament for Norwich in 1905. With characteristic modesty ho says: “Such success as I have achieved has been mainly duo to my being pushed on. All that I can claim credit for is that bv patience and systematic exercise I have succeeded in converting a, naturally weak voice into a strong one.” Mr G. T. Wardle, who succeeded Mr Roberts on the Board of Trade, was one of eight children of a father who “never earned more than 23s a weok.”_ At 10 he was adding a few weekly shillings to the family .purse by working as half-timer in a Keighley woollen factory. Then followed clerk’s work for the Midland Railway Company, a situation which gave him time for his beloved bocks. “Books,” he says. “ have always had a great influence over me, and among the authors who shaped my youthful mind were Russell Lowell, Henry George, Carlyle, and Rnskin.” In early manhood ho started and edited a Labor paper; a few years later he succeeded to the editorship of the ‘ Railway Review,’ and at 40 was returned to Parliament by the electors of Stockport. “1 think,” he says, “I have got on, in the first place, because I have been content to plod ; and, in the second place, because I have never, as our American friends say, ‘ bitten off more than I could chew.’ Then ! I have tried through life to follow grand I old Carlyle’s advice: ‘ Do the duty near- , est you ’; but I would mainly ascribe such (success as 1 have achieved to books, j Books are tho best friends a man can •have; for they never ‘go back’ on you.”

There are others who have gone from the workshop or factory to Parliament, and in some cases readied Cabinet rank; hut I have only space to mention _ one more, and that must bo the lad David Shackleton, who 45 years ago was toiling as a half-timer in an Accrington mill, and now wears the star of a Knight Commander of the Bath and is a Cabinet Minister. In his boyhood ho saw no prospects beyond the walls of a factory, but he set to work to educate himsolf in his spare hours. He attended night schools, trained himself as a speaker by lecturing on temperance, and, by way of variety, took a_ keen and practical interest in trade union work. “Suddenly,” ho tells us, “I was discharged from the mill without rhyme or reason, although I shrewdly suspect that ray trade unionism was at the bottom of it. For 17 long, weary months I was out of work, and had to live on my wifo|s earnings as a mill hand. However, this cruel experience was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. So far from being discouraged, I was strengthened in my determination to get on.” How splendidly he “ got on ” those who are familiar with his career know. That long spell of unemployment, he says, “ was a great influence for good upon my career. I finally got work ; and, bringing redoubled energies to Labor propaganda, I gradually rose from one_ position to another.” Sir David attributes bis success in life to his good health, his books, and his teetotal principles; for, he says, “to be teetotaler is halt the battle towards securing the confidence and respect of the working man.' His advice to the young man who wishes to succeed in life Is: “Use your opportunities. Don’t waste time and breath in crying for the moon. When you have got a certain amount of (power, don't bother your head about how you are to get more. If you rightly use the power you have, more will come to you at the proper time. In Australia we have a few men who have gone from the mine and the workshop and who have attained Cabinet rank. Mr W. M. Hughes was at one time a travelling umbrella mender, then a wharf laborer. When I first met him in 1900 be was secretary of the Sydney Wharf Laborers* Union. Ho has now been for some years Prime Minister of the Australian Commonwealth. Then there is Watson, Fisher, Spence, and others. ******* I

LABOR PREPARATIONS. “Industrial Tramp.” in the Auckland ‘Star,’ says.: “With the holidays over, the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Labor party are taking steps to prepare for the elections that will take place during the present year. The municipal elections eventuate in April, while the parliamentary elections take place in December next. Circulars have been received by the local unions from the Auckland branch, inviting the various executives to a meeting at the Trades Hall on next , Thursday evening, the 23rd' inst.. to discuses and prepare a plan of campaign. No declaration has yet been made' as to what number of candidates the party proposes to run, for the municipal The Auckland City Council now consist of 21 members, or, to he correct, that is the number that will require to bo elected in April, and the meeting next Thursday will be asked to decide whether the party will run the full ticket, or a partial ticket. If the party decide to run a ticket of less than the total number of seats, it is likely that support will be gained for the selected candidates from other candidates who are standing, and, seeing that at present Auckland has no accredited Labor men in the Municipal Council, it would be a wiser plan to devote all energies to the duty of getting a footing in the council rather, than spread those energies over a larger ticket of 21 candidates, many of

whom would be milking their appearance before the electors for the first time, and would have to be advertised in a huge electorate like Auckland City. However, it will be for the combined meeting to decide that question. r ’ Ido not hear of anything being done in Dunedin towards electing Labor members on the Municipal Council, nor of any preparations being made for the parliamentary elections.

******* GAB EMPLOYEES’ AGREEMENT. In the early part of this month the Auckland Gas Employees’ Union arrived at an agreement with the Gas Company -under tho Labor Disputes investigation Act, Mr E. 0. Outten, ■S.M., acting os chairman. Ho evidently did not look upon the pod' tion in the earn© light as .Mr Bartholomew did in tho case of tho Dunedin tramways disputes Tills ia the second settlement reached under this Act so far as Auckland is concerned, the other being the tramway settlement under the chairmanship of the Hon. G. Fowlds last year. _ The Gas Employees’ Union was not satisfied with the results arrived at by appearance before the Arbitration Court, so before their existing award had expired they cancelled their registration under the Arbitration Act and took proceedings mider the Act mentioned, with the result that in one section the wages have been increased from £2 14s to £3 5s per week. The retort-house workers have boon advanced Is per day, while the laborers, who previously had no settled iate. have 'had' their wages fixed at Is 4id per hour for permanent men., and Is 5d per hour for casuals. In tho case of tho re-tort-house workers, the agreement runs side by side with the existing award, which expires on August 31, 1919, but os the shilling a day increase is for 12 months, tho union have agreed not to file any application for a new agreement under the Labor Disputes Investigation Act, until November, 1919, so long as the existing rates are continued to be paid by the company. By their action in de-registenng the union under the Arbitration Act, the gas employees are debarred irom suing un any broach of this agreement or of the award still existing, so it is left to the honor of the two parties to observe the conditions arrived at. ***. * * * *

LOCAL BODIES’ EMPLOYEES. On January 16 a sitting of the Conciliation Council was held before Mr J. Ila lie Gli'les (Commissioner) to <kal with a dispute tiled by the Local Bodies’ Laborers’ Union for the northern district, wh.ch covers tho whole of the Auckland industrial district (excepting Auckland and suburbs). Twelve borough councils, 29 council councils, 25 drainage boards, 8 harbor boards, river boards, 36 road boards, 17 town boards, and tire Paeioa Water S .pply Board were cited. Tho union asked lor a 44-hour week instead of 47, as at pro. ent. The wages asked were : —Quarirymoii, Is 8d per hour; rock drillers, popper and machine drills, Is 101.d; casual laborers, Is 81 per hour; tool sharpeners, Is 9d ; sanitary drain layers, 2t ; men in sliafU, trenches, or tunnels, Is 9d; gas stokers. Is 9d ; yardmen, Is 8d ; sewers, Is 10£ d ; sanitary* carters, 2s ; permanent hand , £4 2s 6d per week; permanent drivers (one horse:, £5 16a per week; two hois.es, £4. Overtime was asked at the rate of time and a-q nailer for the first two hours and time and a-half up to 10 p.m., with double time theroarter. It, was also asked that all tools he provided by the employer's. The usual dan..is re holidays, preference, etc., were also included, The employers, as a counter-proposal, submitted the old award. After a short discussion the council went into committee, and I have not seen any account of a settlement being arrived at.