FEMALE LABOR.

NZ Truth, Issue 309, 27 May 1911, Page 4

FEMALE LABOR.

A Capitalist Complaint.

In Canterbury, as m other districts, there are complaints of shortage of labor m the factories, whilst m Christchurch alone 258 applications were received last month from employers m search of domestic servants. It is a significant fact that m all centres the shortage is of female labor, a circumstance that inclines the ordinary person to look down his nose and think with more than usual concentration. Woman labor is cheaper than its male equivalent, and when manufacturers and other capitalists complain about the absence of female labor and agitate for a fresh supply of young ladies from the aged country, it is pertinent to ask if they have exhausted the male labor .at their disposal. The I wail of the capitalist is dishevelled and disjointed, and is evidence of extreme alarm, his consternation being the more marked because he has every reason to be terrified. Wages m this Dominion have not reached >that standard which ensures absolute comfort for the toiler or removal of the fear of what might happen if he loses his job, and where they have been raised the gentleman known as Fat has taken it out of his hide by raising his rent and the price of his commodities ; but things are a darned sight better than they used to be some years ago, and more people than ever before are able to put a shilling or two away and take a rest instead, of toiling continually till the hospital yawns t 0 receive them. Some even get a few pounds and "give it a fly" m speculation, thereby competing with .the ordinary capitalist, whose position is considerably prejudiced thereby. The more producers there are the better it is for the capitalistic loafer, and when a large number annually knock off only for a little while and become merely temporary capitalists, capital loses its value and labor becomes dear. The capitalist, with, the assistance of labor, produces large supplies of goods, and when the supply exceeds the demand, labor is discharged for a time, and starves, and then accepts toil at lower rates than formerly on account of the market glut, and the capitalist lives luxuriously on the goods he has m stock ; but when labor takes a voluntary rest occasionally, and the demand exceeds the supply, the capitalist hasn't got his warehouses full of goods to gamble with, he is at the mercy of labor, he is enraged, and lie agitates for the importation of cheap female labor. In reality this sort of thing is poetic justice of a kind ; it would be m full measure if the capitalist and the capitalist's son had to turn to and do some work. There is something appalling about a capitalist having to work.