NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13482, 8 May 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON LABOUR QUESTIONS.

| ••...■ ' '. BY .-ARTISAN. . ' One of the largest cab companies in Paris . has refused to , engage two women * cab- . drivers who recently qualified, because the .cabmen threaten to go on strike immediately if any women are employed. .'..". ; As a result of a continuous agitation the 1 New York State Parliament has passed a Bill which provides that female school- ', teachers shall receive same pay as male school-teachers. Equal pay for equal work. j Union meetings for current week:, ! Waterside Workers, Bth; Boilermakers, i 9th; Seamen, 10th; Shipwrights, 10th ; Butchers, 13th Carpenters, 14th; Engineers, 14th; Trades and Labour Council, '. 15th. ■-■ ' ;■;-.:■ - r L-f, The Arbitration Court is still sitting.in j ; Auckland, ; and is making good headway in ~dealir:g with the business set. down for its ...'consideration. Several cases are likely.to be settled by agreement, thereby further facilitating the despatch of business. 1 ■ 't ■ The price of coal in Auckland -is gradu- ' ally going up, through; among other causes, the failure of the ': Government ,to provide sufficient trucks to bring the coal. into : the market. The cost of firing is, relatively ; speaking, heavier on the workers than on 1 any other class, and the workers should ; bring pressure on the Government to pro-" vide sufficient trucks, so that the coal can !be brought in sufficient quantities to supply the' demand., ' ■■ '" ""'...-' '■-•C ' The making of glass bricks for buildings as well as paving, has become ; a recognised : European industry. The Germans have carried.the invention further than anybody .else."; In Hamburg glass walls are erected '.where'light is needed, yet where, by police regulations, walls must, be both window- • lesS and fireproof. ; Three firms make such bricks in eastern/ Germany. These bricks 'are translucent; admitting light, but permitting no view the interior. . • At" Chicago in the recent street railway 5 strike, the first attempt at violence had some of the features of opera-bouffe about it. As the ;street car, emerged from the barn a six-year-old girl slipped through the line of policemen, and, taking up a position in. the centre of the track, she stamped her little foot and cried out to the motorman, "You naughty : man! You took my papa's job away." Refusing to move even i when the car came up to her, she hurled a stone at '• the car window, but it fell short of its mark. A 6ft policeman seized the little girl, and amid, the shouts of the crowd, picked her up" in his arms. Gently chiding the infantile "rioter," the "smiling guardian pushed ''through the police line and bade the child hurry home. ...-•;

"If there is anything in. this world of ours that "needs your serious thought and earnest solicitude;(says the Bricklayer and Mason in an appeal to , the members of the International Union of Bricklayers and Masons of America),' it is the evil result- , ing from- the employment of the child dining the years, when .he ought to be at ' school, and after school romping and playing in the open air", with shouts of merry 'laughter, .in place of being imprisoned in 'a. mill or: factory to ; toil the long day through, amid insanitary surroundings, for -a mere pittance— enough to keep body and soul" together. Have you ever stopped to consider the future of the.girl-child from a ; maternal standpoint, dragging its little immature body through long and constant hours of toil? How can'nations help but become vastly inferior, both physically and intellectually, • under the evils of child, labour? . . ~. There is nothing to be expected in the upbuilding of our nation in tho future to come, of those women .who, in childhood, have been - the slaves of mills and factories. Child labour is a cowardly shame, and a blot on our boasted civilisation.' The stockholders in control of many of the northern and southern ,cotton mills and other industries in which child labour is exploited to a greater degree, are men of high social standing, and professedly big churchmen. They have much to answer for, however, :in their acceptance of the dividends that come to them wrung from the careworn, tired bodies of women: and little children. These highly-cultured gentlemen have no conscience when it comes to dividends. The ; "pound of flesh" is demanded of their overseer. If he fails to : make it good, he gets his walking papers, and another overseer, more. exacting and tyrannical, takes his place, and the sacrifice of the little ones on the altar of greed and avarice becomes greater than ever. We appeal to each brother to not forget his; own little children, and how he would feel if they were brought to such a deplorable condition, but ,to resolve henceforth to leave no stone unturned' in seeking to abate the evils; of child labour, and give comfort . and encouragement to those of our . public men who have the moral courage to attack, one of the most shocking crimes of our modern industrial life." •