THE New Zealand Herald. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER l4, 1903. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. AUCKLAND'S LABOUR DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12401, 14 October 1903, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1903. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. AUCKLAND'S LABOUR DAY.

The success which, last year attended the revival, in the form of a Labour Day procession, of the old Eight Hours demonstration of the organised city trades, has encouraged those directly interested to continue this rightly popular celebration. The result we shall see this morning. And although the trades unions do not embrace in their membership the whole, or even the majority of the community, notwithstanding the fostering influence of preference to unionists, they receive, in all legitimate and ennobling aspirations, the sympathy and approval of all. For the pride which every capable and conscientious craftsman feels in his craft is recognised as one, of the highest of the qualities which go to make up our national spirit. ' In an age. when pretence is subverting and destroying much that is most important in our national character, there is something wholesome and invigorating in the display of men who so far from being ashamed of honourable industry are proud of their trades and of their trade affiliations. Nor is this pride lacking either in material or in sentimental foundation. The insight of Carlyle was not at fault when he singled out the craftsman as " the aristocrat of labour," whose standing has been won _by self-control and self-denial, whose skill is the result of patient and thoughtful application, and whose comfortable . wage is the reward given to a man whose work is essential to specialised society and can only be performed by those specially trained. And if we come to sentiments there are crafts which are inseparably: associated with the upward struggle of humanity itself and which share, with the land-industries the honour due to phases of action to which.our rise to place among the nations is mainly Members of such crafts can boast an industrial heredity more ancient, more profitable and more honourable than the peer whose ancestor " came over with the Conqueror," drawn by the worth of that England which her free craftsmen had. helped to build and loyally strove to defend. Nor are the less ancient crafts, including the many ' new specialisations that have been caused by modern industrial processes, wanting in that which makes legitimate craft pride. That pride finds expression in Labour. Day processions. The sense of its worth wins for them a very general public approval. The Eight Hours movement, with which a Labour Day procession is always to be associated, is of colonial origin,- as far as it is modern. It is one of the products of which no colonial need be ashamed. For the expansion of Greater Britain would have been of much less historic importance than it has been were it not foi the increased leisure which it has brought to the great mass of city workers. Human society is necessarily imperfect, and we do not think that the full consideration which is due has been extended by the craftsmen of our colony to their kinsmen who are settled on the land. Ignorance of land-settlement conditions often makes the townsman an unintentionally unjust judge when agricultural problems are forward. But this misunderstanding should not and need not cause us to be unjust to the craftsman in retaliation. The men of the trades have a right to a reasonable share in the prosperity of o civilisation in which they have taken commendable part, and to secure that share in the form which will most alleviate the particular presures it exerts upon them. This cannot be questioned. Nor will it be questioned that the demands of city life, the strain" of that "speedingup" which is a feature of the machine age, the concentration of attention made necessary by ever-increasing specialisation, exhaust human energy sooner than the less monotonous and more varied industries carried on in what we commonly term " countrylife." The Eight Hows movement entered our social life as a great regenerative effort. However unconscious the public may have been at the time of its real meaning, however mu'qh its true issues may have been obscured oy catch-words and superficial arguments, it was inspired by the broad and liberal determination

to : give ;to industry, capacity [and merit sufficient relaxation from york which completely separated the workman from his home and temporarily absorbed all his enemies. That we are nationally free from the blind social hatreds upon which Continental anarchy feeds and battels, and that, in spite of many differences as to means and methods, we not in our colonial cities any bitter feeling between class and class is due in a very great 'measure to ,the triumph of .'the.. Eight Hour?, movement. j It has made the industrial conditions of cities humane and even advantageous, and is helping to still further humanise and alleviate them. This has been largely brought about by trade associations .whose members will parade to-day and constitutes a title to goodwill which none would wish to withhold from them. We speak thus of the craftsman at his best, of the craft unions at their best, because days of rejoicing are no fitting time for criticism when praise can be heartily and unequivocally bestowed. That all who pose as tradesmen are not properly entitled to that honourable distinction the true tradesman knows better than any of us. That trades unions often make grievous mistakes and sometimes pursue unfortunate policies' will be admitted as freely, on friendly occasion, by 'their partisans as by their opponents. And that the Eight Hours can only be justly claimed and securely possessed by workmen who are, on the average, capable enough and conscientious , enough to do "a fair day's work" in the time will not be disputed by any thoughtful "aristocrat of labour." For when all is said and done, Capital and Labour are co-partners. Their concord can make prosperity still more prosperous as their discord can bring the' most secure prosperity to ruin and confusion. It is not the passing disputes between them which do great harm, as we all know, but that chronic social disease which may prevent an employe* from dealing justly and honourably with workmen as it may prevent workmen from dealing justly and honourably with an employer. And the more pride a man takes in his trade, the more confident he is in his skill, the more versed he is in its technical mysteries and historic development, the! more likely he is to do to the best of his aoiiity his duty as a craftsman. And the more humane his conditions; the more congenial his life, if he knows his position to be justly his and freely conceded to him in recognition of his industrial services—not wrung by force from an industry which cannot permanently bear the load imposed on it—the more reason he has for pride in a craft which rewards conscientious industry in such a manner. Permanently good conditions imply good workmen as short hours, to be permanent, involve conscientious work. Though, this may be sometimes forgotten, it cannot be altogether forgotten as long as Labour Day processions remain something more than meaningless survivals of dead and forgotten ideals. •■.. .