NOTES AMD COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13399, 30 January 1907, Page 4

NOTES AMD COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

[BY artisan.]

West AiJSTBALU is the first State to elect all its Federal Senators from the Labour party. It is estimated that if the working children of Pennsylvania, were placed shoulder to shoulder they would make a line 22 miles long. Employees in the navy yards, naval .stations, arsenals, and gun factories have formed a national organisation at NewYork, and elected officers. Labour's difficulty (says the Brisbane Worker) is not to get candidates, but fit and proper persons. Failure to make the two synonymous is tfie cause of all tho troubles that afflict us. It is estimated by the Technical World | Magazine that fully 6,000,000 women, or one out of every live, are working for a ! living in the United States. Another au- ! thority declares that one-half that number ■ are employed in shops, factories and I stores. Union meetings for the current week: ! Political Labour League, January 30; ; Bootmakers', February 4. Carters', February 4; Tailors', February 4; Painters', I February 4: Carpenters', February 5; Enj gineers', February 5; Trades and Labour j Council, February 6. i The Coopers' Union recently approached the employers, and endeavoured to secure a reduction of one hour per week as a basis of a new agreement, but were unsuccessful. The union now intends to appeal to the Court to obtain an increase in both wages and holidays. The circulation of the balance-sheet of the last Labour Day celebration has been hung up, owing to the auditor refusing to affix his signature until the balance-sheet of the previous year has been submitted to him. The surplus profit accruing from the 1905 display has not yet been transferred to the trustees. The regulations governing the Scaffolding . Inspection Act are being unfavourably commented on by all who are affected. The Master Painters' Guild are making representations to the authorities, and the regulations are to be considered at the next meeting of the House Painters'" Union. The non-inclusion of a local Labour re- | presentative in the list of appointments I to the Legislative Council was a keen disappointment to one or two interested parties, but on the whole the local unionists are satisfied with the two gentlemen who were favoured, although they belong to the South. There can bo no cavilling at their selection on the score of ability. A ballot is being taken by the Tramway Employees' Union.as to whether the recent conditions submitted by the company shall be accepted. Should the ballot result in favour of acceptance, the. concessions will be considered by the Federated Tramways Unions, it being a condition of the federation that no agreement shall be entered into by a.'.y union without- the approval of the federation. Work is very plentiful. Carpenters are fully employed, plumbers are busy, with hardly any union men out. Bricklayers and builders' labourers are fully employed. Painters are slightly easier this week, though very few men are on the books. Furniture trades are fairly busy. Engineers, boilermakers, and moulders are still busy. Boot factories are busy. Clothing factories are busy. Order tailors are slackening a bit. Work is plentiful on the wharves. The American Society of Equity, the recently organised farmers' union, has practically affiliated with the American Federation of Labour. The society is credited with a membership of 1,000,000, and claims to represent one-seventh of the population of the United States. Federation committees recommended a plan whereby the federation and its affiliated bodies will demand union farm, garden, and orchard products, V while the farmers specifically agree to buy nothing but union made goods. The Switchtenders' Union, the first organisation of this class of railroad employees in the country, has been perfected in Chicago. The new union starts out with a membership of nearly 600. A unique feature of the organisation, which has gained for it the name of the "Cripples'- Union," is the fact that a large percentage of the' members are minus a leg or an arm, or have suffered some other serious bodily injury while employed in various capacities on railroads. The purpose of the union, in addition to establishing an insurance feature, is to secure from the railroad companies better wages and hours. A London paper (writes the Westminster Gazette) has been expressing its disappointment at the deportment of the Socialist members in Parliament. They have shown too great a readiness to fall into the social ways of the Commons. The. proper manner for a Labour representative to adopt in the House is a nice point in etiquette. Apparently, th" expectation is that it should be a combination of truculence and contempt, but these are wide phrases, which require exact definition. There would seem to be scope, for one of those manuals of deportment which are believed to be popular with the suburban young man. That not all the men and women willing to work in Boston, United States, are given the opportunity was shown conclusively at the opening of the State employment bureau. To that place flocked a perfect army of the unemployed of all classes, ages, and previous conditions of servitude, overflowing the space, overwhelming the office force, and over-demanding the vacant situations at the State's disposal by ten to one. Many of the men had been out of employment for months, and there were present in the throng old women, begging for the chance to labour, against the terrible handicap of age. There were boys of 14 and veterans of 70, all eager to join the ranks of those who toil.

The air in cutlery factories is charged with invisible metal dust, and this being carried into the lungs, causes asthma and consumption. The steel-grinders, bending over their work, inhale such quantities of metal dust that they rarely live beyond the age of 40. All metal trades are hazardous. and phthisis or tubercular affections and respiratory diseases are the frequent penalties of those pursuits. The rate of mortality among brewers is 50 per cent. greater than that among men of ordinary callings. Gout is an enemy which makes itself sorely felt in this occupation. Bakers, too, are more than normally subject to premature death. In the flour there is a very small microbe, which has its effect on the teeth, and attacks the drums of the ears, causing deafness.