The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, September 30,1890. THE PROPOSED CONFERENCE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 512, 30 September 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, September 30,1890. THE PROPOSED CONFERENCE.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’s! at be thy country’s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

A new development in connection with the labor troubles is the stiff, unbending attitude of some of the employers. The Government have gone so far as to invite a conference of both sides to the dispute. From that conference much gdod or none may be derived : some thickheads cry out that such a conference is the production of folly, but men of thought affirm that it may do good, and certainly can do no harm, and they, go further and say that Patriotism should in this matter outweigh all petty political disputes, and that the action of the Government should be loyally supported. An inconvenienced public anxiously awaits the slow progress of the efforts towards a settlement, but immediately the employers are approached in a conciliatory way, many of them mount the high horse, assume an autocratic and domineering tone, and say that if the Labor party fail to do this, that, and the other, they (the said employers) will give no countenance to the conference. We say nothing as to the concessions required by these employers. They may be perfectly just, but they are not advanced at a proper time. Reasonable men never object to listen to the arguments set forth by those who may differ in opinion, and for business men to become sticklers to empty formality in such a crisis savors much of obstinacy It must be plainly discernible to the meanest capacity that the Unionists are gradually getting beaten all along the line, but if the employers think that the time has arrived when they can dictate their own terms before they even consent to a conference with the men, a woful mistake will have been

made. Upon them, therefore, will the responsibility rest. They will find that by this stiffness they are just playing into the hands of Socialistic agitators, to whose voices the men will be induced to give ear, when they find that capitalists resenttheattemptthathasbeen made in the direction of conciliation. Sensible men should see thatacomplete defeat of the Unions on the questionsnow uppermost does not by any means dispose of the difficulty. By increasing freights and paying high wages it is being found possible to carry on the shipping of the country, but the point cannot be overlooked that the larger proportion of the men who have been drawn into the service are of that class who have been kept down at wretchedly low wages—men who have been almost entirely ignorant of the change that has been going on around them. They will not care to go back to such unremnnerative work, and they -will soon learn that it is only by binding themselves into Unions that they will be able to protect themselves from being again ground down. The public will revolt against the high charges that are being made so as to assist in fighting the men, and if the worst comes for the Unionists the Capitalists will have a very serious difficulty to face. It is costing an enormous sum now to maintain the peace of the country, during a period when the thoughtful members of the

Unions-.have been straining themselves to keep all quarrelsome spirits in check. Then what is likely to be the case if the Unionists are beaten, if they use up all their funds, and the towns are filled with hungry men ? If such a state of things is brought about there are very troublous times in store for the future, and capitalists Who refuse to meet the men, so as to try and bring about a settlement, will possibly discover, when it is too late, that they have gone the right way to bring ruin on themselves. Or if the troubles hinted at are happily prevented, the men will not be slow to make use of their political power, for once Labor combines for such a purpose its majority will be overwhelming. We do not say that the employers are wrong in being firm on the points they have raised, but they are entirely wrong in requiring that the men should give way even before the holding of the conference. When two parties to a dispute meet and dispassionately argue out the matter, each side calmly discussing the points raised, the way may at once be paved for an honorable settlement, but if there is to be a hitch over formalities, if “ issues ” must first be decided upon, and tight-lacing is in Other ways to rule the preliminaries, there is certainly no hope offered by the proposed conference, and those who stand in the way will possibly find that they have undertaken a very serious responsibility, - ■