LABOUR UNREST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14923, 22 February 1912, Page 4

LABOUR UNREST.

I'.: Sir,—There appears to bo a 7,.- ' deal cf Sir,—There appears to bo a great "deil ef I surprise at labour unrest. To roe it atctci ! most strange that the unrest has not occurj red sooner. For there is no doubt the ctttt, is more enlightenment of - worldly affaitt. 9 • is not well to decry it, or try to stop it, for it is a struggle upwards. It lies on the »ma 1 plane as Chinese, Persian, or Turkish rovola- j" tions, and should be welcomed by aU;loreri'4ft\y of humanity. Certainly the:*o will bo ft £te*t" ■ deal of : hardship and misery to endure, and 1 many people will, like the princes, have to find some other 1 occupation. Bo most changes Cause dislocation of existing " conditions, but well-wishers of humanity, ,;I! •' stead of trying to repress, will join in, and 7 I endeavour , to direct. to a good issue the j seemingly senseless movements. « They aw !* I only senseless to thoso who merely look on, ' but to those endeavouring to guide they an , " » j very real and systematic steps to a goal, j Quite likely there will bo many mistaken , . ; and ill-directed thoughts and actions. Poor [humanity is liable to these errors; but mort■ . *\ of the labouring classes, and many educated people, are convinced that the world's wealth . ' is not i fairly spread out each year. Thepoorer classes feel this keenly, and'the rancour enters their souls when the wages in- ■ come and the food outgo are compared. They see the idle rich and the toiling poor; the world's shirkers living well and the world'* workers living poorly. And so the changej should come. Nothing is done without wotk. The British Empire was built up by the:' • workers, not the shirkers. There aw < too ■■ • many idl© unduly rich, too many toiling _ . unduly poor. Our present commercial W'; cumstances—one cannot call them methodsare too haphazard, senseless, unenduring. . ■ The remedy, I consider, is to make ft , i responsibility for work done.', A fine public g, 1 j patriotic spirit. Not repress the worker*. i hut uplift them- Make all men co-partner ; capitalists in our State, our Empire,' our - ! ' world. Both sides will have to unlearn, ami, ; |j j Jenrn. But it is not impossiblein fact, be- | ' , ginnings have been made in various plac* ' and ways. In Italy cortain trades have Rone into the co-operated workers' hands, just as . farming is in farmers' hands. Let the farmers join in one grand full co-operate® guild, doing their trade through an elected / 1 trade board, as an example. Then all other trades (ran follow in their lines. But the : j colonial workers will have to give up the luxuries of drinking and gambling, to pet l ", l ""' the capital to buy out the tools from the present capitalists. They must not expect anything for nothing, nor expect improved, 1 conditions along with self-indulgence and in- ■'* dolenoe. . What is worth having is worth , working for, and will not be get without v being worked for. Getting bigger : wages - without, progress to definite improved M methods is like baling out the sea at one place and being unable to prevent it Tunning back somewhere else. Money is made • v to go round, and all should do a fur . whack " for what' they get. But no on» should get what he does not earn—either worker or shirker. Sam. A. BnowXJS. Clevedon. ' ... ; I. ■