LABOUR NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10191, 27 October 1894, Page 6

LABOUR NOTES.

(COStPILED AND CONTKIBOTKD.)

NOW AND, SBVEN YEARS AGO.

In M« W. T. Stead's book,;" Chicago To-day ;t tar, the Labour War in America," the writer, fcfter giving an account of the march-of Coxey'n jrmy towards Washington, with the object of presenting a petition to the Government of the .United States asking them to do something to afford relief to the working classes out of employment, goes on to say.—"We ore nob nnfaaiiliar with similar petitions iv boots in sLondon. Lazarus showed hi 3 sores in Trafal. 'gar-square and the unemployed tramped their Bhoeß ofE their feet in 1886-87, demonstrating !their desire for work. London newspapers,, troth one or two exceptions, scoffed and flouted", [the agitators. The metropolitan police broko Jnp the processions and cleared the squart Wmid the cheers of Dives and his myrmi- ■ dons. John Burns and Carmingharue Graham were flung into prison, and for a time there was peace, the peace and sileuca of the grave. :But in two short years Londou elected its first? 'county council, and John Burns, fresh from prison, becamo the most influential member of .the new governing body. The men ofTrafalgar square becamo the rulers of Spring Gardens, and the greatest movement of our time-in the direction of municipal socialism is bsiug conducted 'at thin moment in the name- of the London Council by the representatives o£ the army of discontent which, bivouacked at the taseof Nelson's column only seven yeaig ago." THE LiBO'JB WAX IN AMERICA. Hr Stead, after observing that Coxey-a army were in reality more or less aimlessly endeavouring to force on a crisis, points out how it ■was clearly shown that industrial armies-could place whole districts in a state of siege. " The seizure," he say 3, " of railway trains, the suspension of the traffic along whole linea ofcrail, the calling out of the militia, the parading of galling guns, the pursuit and capture of trains, by United States cavalry,—all this may be regarded as but playful, somewhat tragically playful, reminders that even in a free republic the condition of the Government going on is that men must somehow or othsr be fed. What will be the end of- it all, who-caa-say ? J£o prophecy can be made with any degree of certainty, excepting this, that the end is not yet. A revival of trade may postpone further developments at present, but if all the lesscna drawn from past history are not mistakes, Coxeyism will in future assume- much more. meaning dimensions, unless, forestalling the; evil betimes, the Americans decide upon adopting a policy which will give the workless something better to. do thnn the organising of petitions in boots." , OUE LABOUKACTS. - , District Judge Kettle was. very outspoken concerning labour legislation in giving judgment in a case at New Plymouth. Acounty ' council contractor became insolvent, owing eoneiderable sums for wages. The judge insisted . upon all the workmen proving their claims, and then made,an order directing the official assignee, out of moneys due from the county council, to pay the workmen whose claims iove. been passed tad have been proved in bankruptcy, up to the amount allewed to them *by the Bankruptcy Act, so far. as the money will go, after deducting the assignee's commission. • In making this order Judge Kettle, according to the Eltham paper, commented very severely on the-various Labour Acts passed by the present Government;. He characterised thorn all as being solemn |arces, and only calculated to puS money iv 9 the pockets of the lawyers. There <was neithosrhyme nor reason in any af them. - They shoulxt jail, be repealed, and one comprehensive acts liaised, drawn up by someone thoroughly coiiversant with labour conditions and requirements. The Workmen's Wages Act was cleai; on the point that a contractor must pay every sev«n days, and he condemned, very severely,* the action of the workmen in allowing such large sums to accumulate.' In any case brought; before him in flw» future he would direct thai; the coniractor he prosecuted for a breach of this Jaw. ." '■■■-. ' ■ V ■ - : A^UOEWAY BOYCOTT. _, A-graphic. description of the* widespread inconvenience caused by the railway blockade. Vhich resulted from the great .railway strike in ;,ihß United States is given-by Mr-Stead.' He ' jwitesWT.be blockade of the railways was threatening to.reduce Chicago toastste of priva- , fion like to thst of besieged Earis. iWhea the boycott was .declared the rail-J . fwajs on the south side alone had received . for delivery in Chicago no less> than 30,000 tons of ice. In the course of a weekthey had only been able to deliver 500 tons of-this immense consignment. The price of ice in the city went up from 12s to 40s a ton, and a veritable ice famine was threatened. The strike occurred in the midst of the fruit harvest. Every day in ordinary times Chicago consumes ,60 carloads of Calif omita frnit. When the boycott was declared not another carload was delivered. The fruit retted in the carg. In Illinois the tomatoes were ripening and the blackberries /were ripe. Ripe fruit perishes fast, and the fruitgrowers found with dismay,that;, their crops were of no value owing to the impossibility. ,of getting them to mßrkot. Union .county, in •Illinois,-estimated the losses to its fruit arid vegetable growers st no less than £6000 a-day ' 'while the strike lasted. The onpplies of fish from the Gulf of Mexico-were cut off, so were the consignments of shell: fish from the East coast) Ice, fruit, and fish, though perishable, are not absolutely indispensable. The city had tread enough in its granaries, but it was in imminent peril of running short of beef and coal. Chicago is the greatest butcher's shop on the planet. In ordinary times, a procession of 6000 cattle wend their way with unvarying punctuality to the slaughtering houses, whefo they are despatched with almost automatic precision, and converted into dressed beef with amazing celerity. The railroads hava always thousands of cattle in transit; when the lines were blocked the Rock Island had ?0,000 animals on its hand*, the North-Western 8000, and the Burlington 6000. All these had to Vie taken out of the trucks and pastured on the nearest farms. Often the unfortunate animals Buffered tortures of hunger and thirst before any relief could be obtained. The Union stockyards were practically closed, and the 'cessation of the leading industry of the city sent '6000 butchers and packers to join the ranks of ,the unemployed, In Chicago the average daily consumption of coal is 35,000 tons of haid and 50,t)00 tons of soft. When the strike broke out there was hardly a tan of soft coal in Chicago after the first weak. Factories were closed down for want of coal, nor was there any prospect of fresh supplies being forthcoming until the strike was over. Everywhere there was the same story of privation and dis- ,' comfort. Chicago, in short, was experiencing in a time of profound peace something of the miseries of a leaguered town in time of war. The inconvenience to citizens, so far as their own locomotion was concerned, was almost inconceivable. At the beginning of the strike the suburban traffic was discontinued. As Chicago lives on its suburbs more even than London some idea can be formed as to what that involves. . . . The passenger traffic ■ was least interfered with, but many trains were blocked. Trains full of women and children were sometimes blocked for days, and in one case, .at least, a whole hundred of suffering passengers were compelled to lie blistering in the midsammer sun, with scanty food and no water. This was the canditiou of things in Chicago on July 2: All freight trains were practically stopped; the suburban traffic was very irregular; the pauseuger traffic was blocked on several lines; the city was suffering acute inconvenienca for want of ice, food, and coal; scores of thousands were thrown out of work owing to the dead calm of industry ; the strikers were jubilant. The reign of terror seemed as if it were about to bear the fruits of victory. But the very extent of their terrorism brought about the reaction, which, finding expression in the appearance of Federal end State troops, ultimately killed the strike." FISHING VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS. Speaking at the annual meeting held at Sydney in connection wita the Labour Home inaugurated by the Eev. J. D. Langley, Mr Carruthers, Minister for Lands, suggested that village settlements should in future be established only on the shores of coastal inlets, such as Jervis- Bay, where the settlers would have an opportunity of supplying themselves by a single day's fishing with food enough to last for a whole month. Settlements of that kind, he thought, would stand a mnch better chance of being successful than farms in Hie country districts. Alluding to the matter subsequently, Sir Robert Doff said that he once interviewed the late Lord Derby in connection with the Scotch herring industry. He assured •tis Lordship that the money value of the herrings caught off the coast of Scotland exceeded by about £50,000 c, year the value extracted frem the soil in the shape of agricultural produce. Lord Derby was hardly prepared to credit the statement, but upon referring to the figures subsequently he found that it was absolutely brae. Indeed, whilst the herring industry represented an annual value of about a million 3terling,the farm produce of Scotland was valued »t onlysometbiDg over £900,000.

— For the manufacturers of bird organs and musical automata, with bird reeds, it will be intaresting to learn that Dr Voigt, of Leipzig, has succeeded in reducing all the notes of wild birda to musical notation,-so that it is now possible to reproduce in musical automata a perfectly accurate imitation of the song of any bird. It is said that so much farm land in England has lately been allowed to lapse from cultivation that wild animals, which 10 years ago were in danger of extinction, are now flourishing and increasing. The badger and the otter, for instance, are reported to be thriving greatly on the present agricultural depression.

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