Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1886.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1518, 5 February 1886, Page 2

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1886.

Snt Jn.Ts Vocr.L having been requested to attend the meeting nf the Trades and Labor Congress now iii session at Auckland, tonk til.* opportunity -in replying, that he was unable to du so in his ores -lit invalid state—to ske'eli out I)i>. views on the conditions which labor should enjoy in a new country*. !ht* welfare and happiness of a community, he mtv tru'y .said, dep.-nd upon its members being o'.ri.'pied and employed. "The community is happy whose members arc well occi; i- d and well paid for their lal*>r." One C'lidition of happiness, he avers, is thus attained in a g-'ie-ral distribution of wealth a disl; il'iiticin, the resultant of w.dl-paid labor, hj!.• 11 enjoys a su;p!us over and above the expenses of living; the way being thus , op.'ii to the employed of to-day becoming the ; employer of to-morrow. Starting with this general proposition, Sir .11 Ll l s proceeds to descant upon the relations between labor and capital. Labor cannot lliurish unless there is capital to support it, ( and to be \ve.:l paid requires the aid of capital, I. ut the crucial question he assumes to l>e w l.etli T labor profits as much as it should do The contention on behalf of the working classes in Kugland is that they do not receive ' a fair portion- -or, in other words, that profits ha\e I siillicieiitly large to have enabled 1 employers to pay more for labor and retain ; ! less on iceount of capital supplied. If labor, 1 I argii'.'. Sir.) iiiis, is subjected to the universal j competition of all climates and countries, it ! is dear that capital must be dominant, and I that the condi"ion of well-paid labor set forth above must be wholly wanting. But an j J exact balance is evidently, he admits, impossible of long continuancf, and " we have to face the question of whether it is better i for the lnppitiess of a community that capital j or labor .should have greater political power." j I If capital is dominant, it is utter nonsense, 1 ! he ndinns, to assert that it will not look after / ! what suits it best -the general tendency will/ j be to s ek for capital excessive advantages j in the shape of cheap label and the mouo■ j policing of wealth in a few hands. Hut if [ labor is dominant, it may 1m: as unreasonable ' 1 and hard on capitalists as in the other ease 1 ! capitalists would be on laborers. "'lhere is no reason to expect more moderation fro n on" than from the other, but self-intereit forces moderation on the laboring cla.sses.l' i Capital, Sir Jtmis maintains, can better afford to wait than labor, and therein lie»' the whole secret. If capital is in the ascenA thint it fixes th" rate of wages, and more or ■ less compels their acceptance. If labor is in ' the ascendant and demands persistently a ' higher rate of wages than capitalists can > a fiord to pay, it drives away capital, and veritably kills "the goose that lays the golden I eggs." Presuming the probability that anyone who examined his argument would desire to know w hat he meant by capital or labor being in the ascendant or dominant, Sir , •Jt'Lii'B explains this by practical illustrations. The influence of capital, he says, may 1 reduce the rate of import duties, and throw thousands of men out of employment to compete with ordi ;ary laborers. Again, it may i stop public woiks, and by doing so increase | the number of persons who will be compelled , 1 to accept any wages they can obtain. "Again, • , it may confine itself to the pursuit of indus- I j tries which require little aid from human labor. And, lastly, it may take the most ! mischievous shape of driving out small J capitalists, who, depending on the local i market, are confronted with an impoverished j • people unable to buy." Small farmers, he | ' goes on to say, must be ruined if they have j p depend on a market 13,000 miles distant. ' ]

" Their support and safeguard is a prosperous artisan class of local consumers." All this is evidently a bid for support in his Protectionist fallacies, to which having succeeded in converting or rather perverting his colleagues, he seems now determined to force upon the country. In regard to labor in the ascendant, he expresses the opinion that this might impose many restrictions on capitalists, but "it may use its power no further than to see that the conditions are maintained that will leave capital profitable employment, but forbid it from placing unfair exactions on the laboring classes." The tendency, he sensibly enough observes, to excessively use power is equally like to follow the dominance of either capital or lal>or, but self-interest most powerfully restrains licmse on the part of the laboring classes, Wause if they are unfair to capital theydiive it away and prevent its introduction from abroad. "I know (he goes on to say) that I am liable to be told that this is not a sufficiently restraining influence, and all I have to say in reply is that it must prove so, unless the world is to liecome very unhappy. The balance of political power is more or less rapidly everywhere passing into the hands of laboring classes and small capitalists. Simultaneously these classes are becoming more thoughtful and better educated. Radicalism is l>eing divided into two schools—the Conservative and the unbridled. In iny opinion, Conservative Radicalism will carry the day, and employers of laliour will find that a sufficiently powerful section of the employed will prevent undue advantage being taken of the larger political power that labour will enjoy. In short, capital restrained from being too exacting, should find its best ally in the moderate views of the thoughtful portion of laboring classes."