HERE IS THE WAY OUT

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8179, 22 July 1912, Page 4

HERE IS THE WAY OUT

Mr McCarthy, the national secretary of the United Labor Party, addressed a wed attended meeting of the Dunedin Boot Jperatives’ Union on Tuesday n:ght last, Having been requested to put the caso ot the U.L.P. before the bootmakers. In evening his address ho congratulated the men on the very satisfactory terms of their ;ie\v award, but, strange to say, he found that the members of the union themselves were not aware of the stale of the .case in their own union. When he was giving addresses in Port Chalmers he had comx»lained bitterly of the old award, and of the wage being onlv ss, when ho was twitted by a mnni/facturer with misrepresenting the case, the manufacturer stating that he did not pay a man, less than 7s 6d. and that only to one, and that most of them were getting over £3. As a matter of face most of tho employers were already paying tho increased wages before the new award came into force.

Tho matter of real importance, however, is the great change that is taking place in social life in regard to the relations of the employer and the employee. The men who are now tho employers are those who in the early days worked harder and longer, were more saving and more ambitious than their fellow workers, and so gradually got ahead of thenu There was no monopoly to speak of in those days; but owing to the attention of the land monopolised under employers feet, and the money monopolist oyer his head, and the commercial monopolists ail around him, in most cases the employer is now nearly as bloodless as the workers; and neither a strike nor the Arbitration Court can get blood out of a stone. Mr McCarthy then proceeded to show how by political action through the United Labor Party the workers could future get a big share, if not all, of nineteen millions annually accumulated or annually paid for the use of unimproved land values previously accumulated. He showed how in a great many cases those who were now getting these millions could not be attacked, because they had paid for' the land with their hard earned wages, and that the man .who had stolen it was novy away; but during the next twenty years land values would probably increase two or three hundred millions.

If during the last twenty years the workers had paid more attention to Parliamentary matters, they could have had Labor representatives in Parliament, and these hundred millions in land values could then have been divided among the real workers. Suppose that would make, say, .£IOO per head to the bootmakers," it would make .£SOO for a bootmaker’s family of five; that £SOO would pay for a nice cottage. How many bootmakers to-day owned a cottage and section worth £500?

Advantages like that could be got and would be got by the United Labor Party sooner or later—sooner if the Unionists take it up universally and loyally, later if -they procrastinate. • • » • , “ '•

Mr McCarthy then spoke of the Sydney "Bulletin’’ commenting on the foolishness of the people of New Zealand in backing up the Bank of New Zealand with State money to the amount of half a million, and State credit to the amount of a million or more, the-result being that during the last six years the shareholders, who were said to be ruined, have been getting 30 per cent, on their shares, which possibly have not yet been fully paid up, while the State, which saved the- bank from ruin in (is time of its trouble, was, with the preference shares and the 4 per cent, stock combined, getting only about 6 per cent. The people having thus rescued a moribund monopoly, nursed it back to life, health and strength to bleed them as badly as could any American monopoly. This could not be rectified by a. strike, because the employer suffered more directly from this monopoly than did the employee; Neither was it possible to remedy this in the Arbitration Court. These two monopolies meant more than any rise in wages the workers had ever yet received or were ever likely to receive. There was no way of rectifying these matters except by political action through tho United Labor •,'• • • «

Then with regard to the State coal mine, it was not employing half the men it was capable of employing; '.while at the same time there was a big demand for coal, and hundreds of thousands of tons of coal of a similar quality were being imported from other - countries. This state of things could not possibly exist if the Government of the country were in the hands of the Labor Party instead of in the hands of the monopolists, whether under the name of "Liberals” or "Reformed Conservatives/' Here again the only remedy was by political action through the United Labor Party.