The Ensign. GORE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 20. LABOR IN AUSTRALIA.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1138, 20 January 1903, Page 2

The Ensign. GORE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 20. LABOR IN AUSTRALIA.

|| PaoFiinta by the experience of labor organisations in New Zealand, the unions in New South Wales promise to afford ample scope f O -_T the professional agitators before very long. Since" the Arbitration Act was passed into law in ibat State labor anions have sprung up like m.'tshiooms, the atmosphere of prospective gainS being raoat conducive to their sudden and v^onms' growth. As in New Zealand, so in V.iw South £he hand of the stipendiary or£ al " ser is visible .above and below the movement. This is a type,©' parasite of latter-day evolution. The continuance of his tenure of office depends entirely upon the amount and quality of strife he is enabled to engender betwee"** employer and employed, and.the nature of his occupation calling for the continual provocation of hostilities between capital and labor renders | him at once an abnormal unit in the economy of civilisation and a plague spot upon the body politic. Despite the extravagant demands made upon the products of the manufacturing industries by organised combinations of labor, and finally acceded to after much litigation, cost, and all-round inoon-. venience, it is doubtfutfte the highest degree : whether the position of the working classes in this colony has been improved materially by the spoon-feeding available under the operation of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act. Two of the most noticeable results have been the restriction of the output of manufactured goods and the increased cost of living. Of necessity the working classes are the worst prepared to bear the pinch that naturally ensues upon the manifestation of such conditions, and ibe general verdict will be that whatever extra concessions the labor unions have squeezed from the employers by the pressure brought to bear through the Arbitration Courts, these have been more than fully paid for by the masses of working people.' And for all this thanks are due to the professional agitators who are enabled to live a life of pampered ease on the fruits secured to them by setting members of every community by the ears ; by breeding discord between class and class and by widening appreciably the gulf fixed between capital and labor. With its larger population, and greater range of industrial pursuits, New South Wales offers a splendid field of enterprise to individuals of the dubious proclivities we have indicated. That they have speedily settled down to thoroughly exploit the undertaking is made abundantly clear by the late reports to hand. It is stated

that in New South Wales nearly every conceivable type of worker has been converted into a union by the Sydney Trades Hall organisers. The latest, and in some rcspeots the most remarkable union, is the Sydney Street Workers' Association. Its scope may be realised from the following organising committee:—President, Mr A. Howell (fruitseller) ; secretarl, Mr F. Hornblower, organising secretary for the Trades and Labor Council; Messrs Lpnghurst and Scott (newsvendors), Mrs Williams (dealer), Messrs Byrnes and Ducforth (flower-sellers). Baker and Bedmond (boot-blacks), Buchanan and W. Clements (racebook-sellers), J. Alexandria (alee arid studsellers), T. Blake (emergency man). At the initial meeting a cordial communication was received from the Melbourne Hawkers' and Dealers' Association. The Secretary of that Society pointed out the many advantages gained by the street workers of Melbourne since their organisation two years ago. Stands have heen procured for those who require them in several of the leading thoroughfares, and the Government was contemplating granting a piece of ground in the heart of the city for- their members' sole use and benefit. He congratulated the Sydney Street Workers' Association on the steady progress it was making, and hoped the time would soon come when they had a Federated Australian Street Worker's Association, with branches throughout the whole of Australia. By and by perhaps capitalists, heads of large industries, and farmers in New South Wales will awaken to the realisation of the fact that the laborer is not the down-trodden serf his richly paid aivooate makes him to appear, and then no doubt unions of employers will be called into being to adjust matters and to place the relations between capital and labor upon a more equitable footing. But not until the paid agitator has been abolished or extinguished will industrial peace and harmony be restored.