WORK AND WORKERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16493, 7 March 1914, Page 16

WORK AND WORKERS.

TRADES AND LABOUR COUNCIL’S HALL. The following aro the meetings for tho week onding Friday, March 13, 1914: Saturday. March 7—Trades Council Exeoutivo Committee; Slaughtermen's Union; Church Socialist League. Monday, March 9—Painters’ Union; Amalgamated Society of .Engineers’ Union; Aerated Water Workers’ Union; Tinsmiths’ and Sheet Metal Workers’ Union. Tuesday, March 10—Grocers’ Executive Committee. Wednesday, March 11—Canterbury Carpenters' Union; Bootmakers’ Committee; Brick, Tile and Clay Workers’ Union. Thursday, March 12—Printers’ Machinists’ and Bookbinders’ Union, quarterly summoned meeting; Plumbers’ and Gasfitters' Union: Biscuit and Confectionery Workers' Union; Canterbury Drivers' Union. NOTES FROM NEAR AND FAR. THE MARCH OF EVENTS. (By Laboro.) When the Hon W. A. Holman, head of tho Labour Administration in Now South Wales, visited these shores you may ho suro that he meant t-o eee what ho could of the Labour movement. A shrewd politician and deep student, wo have had few visitors of recent years moro fitted to express an opinion on what tho movement has done or advise as to its future line of action. In tho brief message which ho gave prior to his departure Mr Holman, to my mindj struck the right note —patience. "We must not expect to reap before we sow; we must not look for any great upheaval in our favour; what we must do is to move steadily along, making our aims and objects known. At this particular period in the live of this movement of the useful people nothing but quiet earnest work can be of any use." Even under great provocation we must remain quiet. Should injustice be done to any section in tho industrial world there must be no violence—not even a strike, becauso in fighting to right that minor wrong we may bring down on the cause a smashing blow. What is our main object, you ask. Well, to my way of thinking it is just this — to establish the Social Democrat Party as a vital force in the public life of this dominion. And that cannot be done in a hurry. I look upon the accomplishment of that aim as being of far more importance than the winning of a dozen seats in Parliament. I would rather see the party poll 100,000 votes and, under our miserable electoral laws, only get three men into the House than poll 50,000 and, by vote-splitting, get six members returned. Poll every vote wo can, stand out as a clean-cut party working for definite aims and victory must be ours, perhaps not to-day, certainly at no far distant date. For this reason I am very anxious that the leaders of the movement should not lose their sense of perspective. The coming general election is beginning to loom largely in the public eye, but the election is not our harvest time. It can, and should, be our time of sowing. Let us do that and not bo over-anxious about the results. Let us extend our organisation, increase the number of workers for the cause, enlist the aid and sympathy of all progressive thinkers in the community. Let the polling date be our starting point for a more strenuous round, not the end of the struggle. Now this requires patience—it is a matter of growth—and I cannot help thinking that our recent visitor had that in his mind when lie counselled patience. In this country, fortunately, public opinion still counts. To educate the public must be our aim, and the winning of seats must and will follow later. Mr Holman’s reference to the evolutionary process is apt. At the present time tilings- aro in a sort of melee. The Reform Party claims to- be truly Liberal, the Liberals claim to be truly Radical, and so on. Out of all this will evolve a truly progressive party, and if we aro true to ourselves the Social Democrat Party will be “ it,” How do I arrive at that conclusion 1* Well, in this way. Political writers have often pointed out that the electors always incline to support a party with a definite platform. If the platform is there before their very eyes somo plank or other will rivet their attention and soon you have their support. This is a fact known to politicians. Now, what are the planks in tho 'Government’s platform. No one knows. What arc the planks in the Opposition’s platform? We haven’t been told. Only one real platform is before the electors and that is tho Social Democrat platform. In the whirl of parties that stands firm and out of the struggle the party will evolve stronger than ever. During the last few days even a Reform writer has enlarged on the danger his party is running in this connection. Two words in Mr Holman’s brief telegram to Mr H. Hunter sum up our needs—valour and discipline. We want the valour to push on right into the camp of the enemy and organise to the last vote. Valour to raise our standard and fight for it. Discipline, is a necessity in any party. The individual must bo ready to bow to the desire of tho many, to lead if called upon to do so, to step back to the ranks if needs be. We must become a disciplined organised force. I have noticed of late some kites in the air evidently testing the upper atmosphere for any current likely to bring the Social Democrats into lino with the Liberals and others. Some people have even gone so far as to indicate a basis for agreement, but not for me. thank you. If I happen to dwell in an electorate where no Social Democrat stands, I shall vote for the most progressive candidate offering, and ask for no bargains or congratulations for so doing. What have we to bargain about? We need not lean pn anybody’s arni, and alliances are not within the range of practical politics. At least not on our side of the fence. Those farmers in Australia who interrupted their business meeting to cheer General Botha for deporting the strike leaders must be feeling uncomfortable those days. Since the cheering. members of the South African Union Cabinet have admitted that the Act of deportation was illegal, so that the cheerers approved of something that was quite the reverse of “law and order ” —a serious offence. Mr G. Lansbury, ex-M.P., who cabled to South Africa offering tho services of Tom Mann. Ben Tillett and Jim Larkin as organisers, is now editor of the “ Daily Herald,” a very live Labour daily published in London. Will Dyson, of Australian fame, i 6 the cartoonist on the staff, and does some very hard hitting. WHY THEY STRUCK. Attempts to explain why railwaymen and harbour workers in South Africa have decided to withhold their labour from the State will be plentiful, if not varied to any great degree, says a writer in the “Daily Citizen” of January 12. Some have been made already, and, epitomiseu they are to the effect that the dispute is due to the working classes’ inherent love of industrial strife. Of course, the opinion is that of tho capitalist Press. The facts are these: South Africa has a tariff wall, largely for the benefit of tho farmers who keep the Botha Government in power. Tho country is one of trusts and rings, and is capable of giving America hints upon tho spoliation of the masses by means of combines. Then, money is cheap, which men U 3 high prices for commodities. The purchasing power of an English sovereign is equivalent to that of 8s 4d in that country. Bent is from 800 in 400 per cent greater.

Probably if Mr W. W. Hoy, the general manager of the railways, had his way, lie would be anxious to employ efficient ivorkors at reasonable wages. But be has to work under a hoard whose members fear to pay a sufficient wage to railwaymen, because, if they do, the board will be asked why .they and their political supporters do not pay their own employees at rates similar to those paid to railwaymon. This explains why in a country whero 20s is worth 8s 4d, white men are working upon tho railway at 3s 4d a day. Tho hours are twelve daily, and the weekly wage is equivalent to 8s 4d in this country! Does one wonder now why the rnilwaymen have organised? But, there is a greater reason than this. Bomo of these 3s 4d a day men have been marked out for dismissal. Why? Oh, working expenses are top high. Farmers must get their agricultural machinery and havbed wire carried for hundreds of miles at 100 per cent less; otherwise, protected as they are, tlieir profits would fall. Then, their products must be carried for next to nothing. __ Coal, too, must go down to the coast at cheap rates, and the long strings of trucks that return empty cannot he run without somebody paying. And, who is likely to pay with less protest than poorly-paid Government workers P LABOUR EDITOR’S EXPULSION. In protest against the expulsion f rom Morocco of M. Gibert, editor of “ L’Emancipation ” at Casablanca, the League of the Rights of Man has issued a manifesto. Ho was arrested on December 3 and after a brief stay in prison was deported to Marseilles by administrative order. Permission was refused to him even to visit his house to secure a necessary change of clothing. The published reason for this arbitrary measure is that, “Frederic Gilbert, by his behaviour and his intrigues, is an undesirable person and one whose presence in Morocco is injurious to the commonweal and to the good relations between the French Government and the local authorities.” The real reason for the expulsion appears to have been that the offender was taking steps to promote Juabour organisation in Casablanca. As so often happens in the case of arbitrary proceedings of this character, the legal warrant for the deportation is based upon an obsolete statute, dating from a time ten years prior to the French Revolution. I.L.P. MAJORITY. Under the auspices of tho Independent Labour Party, Mr Philip Snowden, M.P., addressed a mass meeting at Swansea reoently. Speaking of the Labour and Socialist unrest, Mr Snowden said the Independent Labour Party would reach twenty-one years of age in a few days’ time. The I.L.P. came into existence to make the industrial and social condition of tho people the dominating question of tho time and force the attention of that principle upon the political parties of tho na--tion. (Applause.) The wage-earning classes stood most in need of political education. _ They had no need to send missionaries to the middle and upper classes or the aristocracy to tell them to look after their own interests. The wage-earners’ industrial condition stood most in need of reform, and most legislation in future would have to concern itself with the condition of the wage-earning classes. Tho time had come for statesmen to be bold and courageous, to stop their weak and timorous policy, and go in for bold reforms. If Mr Lloyd Georgo wero to come out with a real reform programme, demanding the abolition of landlordism root and branch, he would rally to his support, a larger measure of public approval than was ever given bo any proposal brought forward by any responsible statesman. ; ’ RIGHTS IN DANGER, The Reichstag will resume its sittings this week, writes a Hamburg correspondent early ill the year, and the reactionaries have already shown that a determined attempt is to be made to rob the working classes of tile right of combination. The Trade Unions aro preparing to fight for this elementary right. The local Unions have organised no fewer than thirty-five public meetings in Hamburg and district to protest against this new move of the capitalists. At the same time opportunity is to be taken to protest against the acquittal of the guilty officers involved in the Zabcrn scandal. “ Vorwaerts.” the central organ of the German Social Democratic Party, has just published the results of its investigation of the persecution of the Labour Press in Germany, by the governing authorities during the year 1913. In the unscrupulous methods which the authorities employ in their efforts to check and crush the Labour movement, increasing hatred and fear of the working classes is clearly seen. During 1913 there were no fewer than 178 Court prosecutions of Labour newspapers. In twelve cases the defendants were acquitted ; the others were all found guilty. Terms of imprisonment. amounting in all to sixty months and one week were inflicted on these heroic leaders of the people, as well as fines amounting to £1234. BLIND ALLEY MILLENNIUMS. An appeal to workers to look upon Labour as a unit was the keynote of a recent speech by Air G. N._ Barnes, M.P. Forty years ago, he said, engineers in Scotland were working fifty-one hours per week. That forty years had been characterised by greater efficiency and productivity in their labour, blit to-day engineers in Scotland were working fiftv-four hours per week. Therefore he was not surprised that there was industrial unrest. Ho hoped it would grow. It showed that the spirit of freedom was still alive. When the Labour Party was formed in the House of Commons a good many people expected the social revolution on their doorsteps tho next morning. Within the last few years well-inten-tioned persons lacking mental balance had been advising working people on . all sorts of short-cuts to the millennium, which had simply resulted in leading into so many cul-de-sacs. He wanted to plead with workers still to regard Labour as a unit, to come back into the ways laid down by Keir Hardie and others twenty-five years ago, which wore best calculated to give the bottom dog a better chance. EDITOR OF “JUSTICE.” Mr H. W. Lee has been appointed editor of “Justice,” the Socialist organ, by the board of the Twentieth Century Press, to fill the vacancy caused last September by the death of Mr Harry Quelch. Mr Lee has been long known as the secretary of the Social Democratic Federation. He continued to fill the secretaryship when tho combination of the Social Democratic Federation with other bodies formed the British Socialist Party at the end of 1911. Last Juno lie resigned the secretaryship of the partv. Last month “Justice” completed the thirtieth year, of its existence. It was founded by Messrs H. M. Hyndman, William Morris, and Jonathan Taylor, of Sheffield.