LECTURE ON CAPITAL AND LABOR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XV, Issue 4743, 11 August 1890, Page 1

LECTURE ON CAPITAL AND LABOR.

(Napier News.) A discourse of a rather interesting character was delivered on the labor question by the Rev. Oliver Dean at St. Andrew's Church last night. It was the opinion of a great many thoughtful men, who gave social and political subjects their undivided attention, that we were almost standing on an era of modified Boolalißm, The great gull which had hitherto existed between capital and labor had now grown narrower, and .this, was due to the efforts of the working olasaea themselves, who had. of late made strenuous efforts to better their condition, and with what success hia hearers knew. The labor question had been given a great deal of attention lately, the great dook strike at Home having aroused the laborers throughout the civilised world to the necessity that existed for Improving their status; The victory aohleyedjby the strikers on the occasion referred to was of immense iriiportance to the labor oauae, and the great good whloh the result would effect could not be over-estimated. He waa speaking to an English gentleman a ihort time ago, who expressed the opinion that trade unionism and co-operation of labor was coming to an end. The speaker did not agree with-that, view ~at all, believing that if was only just coming 0n../It was now obvious to the most disinterested observer that trades unionism and co-opera-tion was a thing which was inevitable. The first factor—and a potent factor—in the sum of trades unionism was that.of the cheap newspapers. There was no greater meanß of education in the world than the cheap Press, and the enormous amount of good It effected could not be over, estimated. Their newspapers had; without doubt, a great influence on the public. Many yeara ago questions .affecting the community at large were taken up by the pulpit, but the Press now took up everything under the 5un..... That waa the first step which led to the present order of things, and the next was cheap books and then the franchise. Benevolent sooieties and worklngmen's clubs of a social character might also be. mentioned, and the next thing was trade unionism, whiob showed very clearly that the working men . could not ,only co-operate locally but universally. Nihilism in Russia and Socialism In Germany were teaching the laboring classes that there might be a national co-operation of labor. Monopolies were then referred to by,,the r,ev. gentleman. He idid not ( view them' in a very favorable light, and remarked that the best of ub could noi be ; trusted with a monopoly. The evils of the sweating system were next alluded to, the speaker reoommending his hearers to ■■ read the novel written by Charley Kingaley on the subject. The views set forth by Kingsley did not find favor at the outaet, but the writer wbb rewarded by seeing them reoognised as the truth by the English public who were now aware of the faot that a worse state of things had existed, oaused by sweating, than it was possible to imagine. They often read accounts in the European newspapers of the miseries the poor suffered in consequence of the sweating system, but the worst portion of it remained untold and unrecorded. There had been a tendenoy even in the colonies to Inaugurate the system, which ho oould only characterise as a devilish and obnoxious one, but It had been nipped in the bud. There were some who Inclined to the opinion that the pulpit Bhould not take up suoh matters as these, but he thought otherwise. Why people had not come to worship waß that the pulpit had been hitherto so remote. The politics of New Zealand had needed to be elevated by the pulpit of New Zealand. He thought it waa a duty on their part to bring capital and labor more together. There should be no enmity between the two classes, and a spirit of conciliation should exist. They Bhould remember that employers had a great deal of worry, had a great many oareß, and ran a number of risks to whloh the laborer was a comparative stranger. Allusion was made by the speaker to the capabilities of different men, and be said that some got oq better than others. Even if everybody made a fresh Btart, and all received a good education, there were bound to be some who, by their energy would out. distance the rest. An M.P. onoe said that if some men were to be thrown into the sea, they would come up again with a fish in each hand. That was a very clever way of putting It. He was o democrat, but he did not think demooraoy should be mobooracy. Passing that by. he said that one of the grandest countries on the face of the earth in many respects was the United States of Amerloa. And why the grandest 1 Because it taught the world how to deal with the working men. In England they had a cultured class, and the difference between man and man waa greater, but in no country in the world was the intelligence of the people bo high as In America. And why? Because the working man there was a demoorat. The Rev. Mr Dean made a number of other remarks, closing his addresß by expressing a hope that the amelioration of the working classes would soon be brought about, and that not only In the oolonles, but all over the olvillßed world their condition would be bettered.