WORK AND WORKERS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16552, 16 May 1914, Page 16

WORK AND WORKERS.

♦■ TRADES AND LABOUR COUNCILS HALL. Tho following is a list o? mosttnga for the week ending l&iday, May 22, 1914: — Saturday, May lfl—Typograpbical ABBOcJutim Board rr.eotinir. Monday, May lO—Paintwa' Union: Amalgamuted Society of Engh3fl?2B' Union; Mota] Workers Assistants' Union, Tuesday, May IB—Plumbers' Fodßrated Coun' oil. Wednesday, May 20~Cantorbiiry Carpenters Union; Furniture Trade Oommitiee. Thursday, May 21—Timbnr and Coal Yards Employees' Union; Bisoaits and Confeo tionorv Workers' Union; Trades Councils ...j finrnmittoe.

] the men who had struck reluctantly re- | sumed work, but only on the definite j promise that the mattershould be dealt | with by means of a national campaign. I It was decided that a deputation should urge upon the President of tho Board ': of Traoo tho necessity of rigidly en- ; forcing tho language tests on Asiatics ) s;nd lasears, and that other deputations .should wait on managers of docks and , harbours. I A deputation has waited on Mr John 1 Buroa, aJid a national campaign has | been commenced. _ The deputation in- \ eluded representatives of all tho waterside shore-workers and district repre- , sontatives of the Seamen's Union, and I a reoresonfcfttiv© of the Labour Party I (Mr iJ. Parker).

I NOTES FROM NEAR AND PAR, j THE MARCH OF EVENTS. j (By Labobo.) What unkind fate pursues Labour in ( all its attempts to secure unity? Fromj Auckland to the Blufi dissension is more j ior less in evidence. In Wellington re-1 cently, two Labour candidates faced a j | single nominoe of all the opposing in-, terests and, of course, suffered man- j table disaster. In Christchurch South , Mr Thorn and Mr Whiting are prepar-; mc to indulge in a similar piece of ab- | surdity, and will suffer a similar tate, j whereas if one only stood he could pro- . bably win the seat. In Southland, if s my information is correct, the iratn- | cidal struggle that ensued between the ; seotions immediately after the J uly-Con- ; o-ross last year was followed by tne exhaustion of both sides and a period of apathy and inaction that left the , field clear to the enemies of Labour, i However, Mr D. G. Sullivan, who has recently been in Invercargill, telto me that a promising branch of thebocial Democratic Party was formed m the southern town last Wednesday week. It has the advantage of being under the guidance of two able officers, Mr A. Glass, president, and Mr W. Price, secretary. That splendid old warhorse of the Labour movement, Mr J. A. M'Cullough, and Mr Sullivan were both present to lend a helping hand. In Dunedin things are badly mixed. There the Trades and Labour Council, , under the direction, more or less { pr i the Hon J. T. Paul, is bringing into! existence an organisation built upon the lines of the old Workers' Political Association, which many years ago returned to Parliament the Hon J. A. Millar and, I think, the late Mrßarolay. The Social Democrats, too, are taking the necessary steps to put' their ; organisation upon a sound footing. A ; conference of trade Unions called for the purpose, was held on May 7. Twenty-three Unions were represented by forty-three delegates, and the gathering, which was a somewhat stormy one, was addressed by Messrs W. Parry and J. Thorn. The chief opponent' of the movement appears to have been Mr W. E. J. Maguire, who is not unknown in this city. The meeting decided that a district council of the Social Democratic Party should, be formed, and Mr Thorn will remain to do some organising work, after which he will proceed to Invercargill. Since the conference, there has been a great deal of correspondence in the newspapers of the southern city, some of the comments being very bitter. In an interview in the Otago Daily Times'' the Hon J. T. Paul, in giving expression to his opinions concerning the conference, said that the duty of those who disagreed with the action of the Otago Trades Council was hot to { build a rival organisation, but to get j in the Trades Council movement and make it what they thought it ought to be. But, surely, if Mr Paul's logic is o-ood in the application which he gives it, it can be used with increased force by the Social Democrats. The Social Democratic Party is a national organisation, and its members might justly say to Mr Paul, "If you disagree with the Social Democratic Party your duty j is not to form a rival tin-pot local or- j ganisation, but to come in and make the movement what it ought to be.

Mr Havciocfc ."Wilson, in the presence of Mr Burns, made a strong attack on .soino of the subordinate officials in Mr Burne'a department, and said that, while "crimping" by Europeans had boen rigorously stamped ont by reason of tho seamen s agitation, "crimping" by Asiatics was carried on under the very nos© of the Board of Trade. "We desire," commented Mr Williams, "to impress upon our fellowworkers that this threat upon the standard of life obtained for the western races, after generations of trade union effort, is not confined to the seaman and firemen. If it is to remain possible for these nimble-fingered Orientals, who can subsist on the water in which rice has been boiled, to replace British seamen and firemen, can they not also displace mine, textile and other workers P The increase in the employment of cheap Eastern labour is having a very damaging effect upon shore workers, because, as English seamen and firemen are prevented from finding their customary employment on the ships, they are offering themselves as dockers and waterside workers, thereby increasing the pressure upon the available amount of employment in these occupations."

WOMEN SOCIALISTS. Frau Clara Zetkin, the international secretary of the Socialist Women's Federations, has addressed a manifesto ito all the national sections of wompn federations, in preparation for the International Socialist Women > Congress, which will take place at Vienna this year prior to the General Socialist International Congress. The special topics Frau Zetkin suggests for the agenda are: (1) Women's right to vote. (2) Legal protection and care tor mother and child. (3) The increasing cost of living. She especially points out that it is now proved in countries where women have limited property suffrage that thi3 only makes the position of wageearning women worse, and that the fight for universal suffrage is necesThe administrative committee appointed four years ago at Copenhagen will assemble at latest early next month to draw up the final agenda.

00-OPERATION. Writing to the " Daily Herald" from Ruskin College, Violet 0. Slater says: In pondering upon the tragio warfare of Capitalism versus Labour one a ] mind' is always trying to find a way, out of it all. Strikes and lock-outs place the workers, their wives and children in such terribly painful and unnatural conditions—conditions in whion. it is quite impossible to live, and which must be demoralising. And when one thinks of the forcea in the hands of Capitalism, the fight of Labour against it seema almost like self-annihilation, unless we can at the same time have a constructive policy which we can use at once.' Co-opera-tion seema to me to be the way out. # The Rochdale pioneers started thenstore to raise capital to build' a mill, because the millownere then existing offered such scandalously unfair terms to the people. They got then- own store and their own mill, and from that small beginning the co-operative movement sorang. it may not have developed upon quite as ideal lines as one could have wished, but surely the co-operative system of wholesale manufacture and retail distribution is essentially good. . I am very Interested in Miss Delia Larkin's suggestion of a co-operative biscuit factory. The Co-operative Wholesale Society at the beginning cf the look-out did much to help the locked-out labourers. Why could they not start a co-operative biscuit factory in Dublin, and use the labour there waiting? Would it not be worthwhile to try to bring about such a thing, and to encourage all the workers to become co-operatora, and strengthen the co-operative movement ? The goods manufactured must be so good that they can compete with others in the open market. Co-operative societies have been started' again and again in connection with strikes and look-outs, but in these circumstances they have invariably failed. But societies at work exist in Dublin, and almost everywhere in Great Britain, and every trade unionist who joins them has an equal vote in their control with all the existing members. Every trade unionist should be a cooperator, every co-operator should be a trade unionist.

LOST BY IGNORANCE. Fall benefits of Labour legislation can be secured only when there exist powerful Labour organisations to enforce the operation of the laws in the interests of the working classes. This is particularly evident in France, where tho backward state of Labour organisation renders such Labour protection laws as exist largely inefficient. This fact was emphasised In the French Chamber in tho debate on a proposal to extend to Algerian workpeople the advantages of the law enforcing upon employers liability for accidents. „■ ~. x 1 A " Colly, one of the Socialist deputies, an ex-railway man, referred to the deficient enforcement of this law in France itself, and to the need for better Trade Union organisation in this regard. " The fact is," he said, ' that the working classes do not know anything about the Employers' Liability Act. Every day wo are visited by women who have suffered from accidents and who ask us what they ought to do. If the working man and working woman were organised they would merely have to apply to their Trade Unions for the necessary information..

BRANDED AS CRIMINALS. It is stated that the South African exiles are being advised to return to South Africa for the purpose of bringing a libel action against Sir George Alba, chairman and managing director of the General Mining and Finance Corporation, who, at a meeting of the Transvaal Chamber of Mines, referred to them as criminals.

BUILDING SOCIETY MEMBERS. According to the annual report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies concerning building. societies there remained on the agister on December 81, 1912, 1684 societies (1480 in England and Wales, 126 in Scotland and 78 inTeland). 'Of these 144 were m process of dissolution and 23 windingud. Fifty were unincorporated, ino membership of building societies was 608 787 against 605,209 in the previous vear and the total receipt were IIMSo, against £22,045,359. The advances on mortgage were, however, less, being £8,438,256, against £9,004,093,

WOMAN INSPECTOR-GENERAL. Significant of the increasing part taken by women in the affairs of tne community is the appointment of Mdlle Gautier to be InsneAtor-General to the French Ministry ot the Interior. All the administrative services controlled bv the Ministry—which correspond to the British Home Office-wdl now come under the supervision of Mdlle Gautier. Hospitals and asylums will bo a special charge, but her powers are very wide, and she will bo able to propose the appointment or removal of a vast army of publio officials.

"YELLQW PERIL" IN ENGLAND. Against the " yellow peril "—the increasing invasion by Chinamen of the British Labour market—a great national campaign is to be set on foot immediately by the National Transport Workers' Federation. Workingclass and general public opinion is to be focussed upon the modern evil of employing Chinese and lascars on British ships. It is stated that 58,000 are now employed and that they are increasing by 7000 a year, displacing British workmen and lowering the conditions of labour. " We desire to make it unmistakably clear to the Board of Trade and to the shipowners," said Mr Robert Williams, general secretary of the Federation to a representative of "The Daily Citizen' 1 recently, "that it is our 'intention to arouse pubho feeling to such an extent that we shall rid oursolves completely of this new peril, which to us is far more serious than any threats of a German invasion." Mr Williams said he was acting in co-operation with Mr Havcloek Wilson, of the Bailors and Firemen's Union, in arranging demonstrations in all largo seaport areas. At a meeting a few weeks ago of the executive of the Federation "it was brought to notice that trouble was imminent in the Bristol Channel by reason of the rapid increase in the employment of Asiatic labour .on British ships. At their suggestion

NOTES. One of the discoveries of the Red Week in Germany has been that in the village of Alexander Nutte (Ober Franken) every one of the 105 adult inhabitants is a member of the Social Democratic Party, and seventy copies of the Socialist organ, one for each family, are sold daily. > In the general elections for the Argentine the Socialists have practically everywhere increased their numbers, and in Buenos Ayres they won a complete victory over the other parties. This is the more noteworthy as only a few years ago the Socialists were a, negligible quantity and exerted no influence in Parliament. The " Times" calls attention to the horrors of child labour when babies of three and four years are engaged in the bead trade. It says that if these extreme cases are not very common, still " there are thousands of children but a few years older than this in Birmingham, Nottingham and the East End of London who are regular wage-earners in many a poverty-stricken family." From about 100 German election districts comes an increase in membership of the Social Democratic Party of 66,300 new members. This does not include 10,000 new members who joined the movement in Hamburg, the first day of the Red Week. The party paper, "Vorwarts," has gained 53,100 new members. At a meeting in London Mr G. B. Shaw concluded a great speech on a note that rang absolutely true. His words are worth giving in full:—" The workers must keep up their industrial organisation. There must be no going back on trade unionism for one moment. The time is coming, you will find, sooner or later, when there must be one Labour body to do the work of trade unionism and another Labour i body to do political work."