THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15445, 4 May 1912, Page 7

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

Br the Hon. J. T. Paul, M.LC.

Itoius of information and brief comments on questions ooming under this howling, are always welcome Hooks, pamphlots, etc, sent to tho author of this column will also ho noticed,

MEETINGS FOR THE WEEK. To-night (Saturday).-—Sliipwrights. (Monday,—Tailors; Brickluyoxß. Tuesday.—Tinsmiths. Thursday.—Furniture Trades. Friday.—Engineers. Saturday.—llakors.

THE UNITED LABOUR PARTY. Everything points towards a successful career for tiie new party. Tho secretarytreasurer of tile now organisation lias received letters from all parts of tho Dominion commending tho wisdom of tho recent conferenco in tho platform and constitution agreed 10. In inoro than ono caso financial support has comn unsolicited. In mar.y cases, of courso, tho correspondents aro after information. Tlw constitution and platform Jias been printed in pamphlet form and tho demand is consideniblc. The first edition of 7000 is likely to bo quickly exhausted. Tho ratification meeting in Auckland, which was called to confirm tho work of tlio Unity conference, was successful, despite) tho presenco of a small band of oppouonU Among the party's riowost adherents nro' lite lion. George Fowkls (ex-iMinist-or of I'/lucntion), and Mr H. D. Bedford, of our city.' From information I havo received somo other well-known public men aro considering tho question of joining tbo party.

"PEACE IN THE STREET AND PLENTY IN T THE HOME." With this dQublo-barrolled inllying cry tho Liborai party in Queensland dissolved tin; Parliament and challenged tho Labour liarty to combat. Tho contest took plsico last Saturday. So fur aw can bo gathered from tho cablegrams tho Labour party has just about held its own,. Tho contest. I'M been tho keenest even in Queensland for many years Tho northern State lias been well dmoiibed as the political storm-centre of Auslinlia. It was from Queensland that iho famous and ill-starred Now Australia movement to Paraguay took place. In QuccmJand tho Labour party in its early days put up tho motto " Socialism in our time.'" In Queensland tho most ferocious struggles between Ldbour and Capital havo taken placo. Queensland, too, furnished some of tho most umvholosomo political scandals in tlio history of tho Commonwealth. So for various reasons an election in Queensland means a contest of moro than ordjnary intorost. Tho Liberal Government choso what it believed tho opportuno moment (or its own fortune*. lt« wisdom has been justified. Tho Government argued tliat so many people hud been hardly hit by tlw recent slriko tlr.it there would bo a larger number of anti-Labour voters than wciild bo likely at any other time. Under ordinary cirruntrianras tho chances of the Labour party were good. Prior to tho strl'ko it was assumed, and there was much reason lor the assumption, titat Labour would gain at least a dozen seals. But the Government played its cards well. Tho electorates havo been MiUlivided and tho Government -,tocd lo gain generally by tho subdivision. And tho strike brought tlio climax.' Already we have had the opinion of Mr Arthur Griffiths. Minister of Works in thp Now South Labour Government. Mr Griffith ha.i previously condemned the general strike as "a nieo blend of imbecility and barbarifin," and Iho cable this week reports him to havo said that " he was not Mirpriscd at Lilxmr's failuro! If a section of tho oommtinilv declares war against the general public'and tries to starve it out. it is only natural to expect that tho public will hit back. That is what hnppenod in Sontb Australia, and now in Queensland. If a general strike woro organised in Sydney just prior to Ihe elections, their party would gel rubbed opt." I Tlw turbulent political spirit of Queensland Is apparent in tho' fortunes of llie Labour nartv ilsolf. There have lieen more splits and defections within tlio Lalxmr party in Queensland than in any other Australian Slate—perhaps a greater number than in nl: the other Stales put together. Qu.-etvlatid was the first State to make a bid for independent Labour ropi csonta.l ion in Parliament, and the bid had geod reason behind it. Its first attempt was made at a bye election in 1836. but tlio singto candidate Wit.i handsomely defeated. Two members declared themselves for Inlependent Labour alter tho elections, however, and the story of direct Lalnur representation in Parliament lakes this form in figures:—

1892 2 1904 35 R-93 ... ... 16 1906 ,18 1896 20 1903 22 1899 23 1909 27 1901 21 1912 26 CHURCHMEN AND THE COAL STRIKE. Tho English files now arriving aro full of the coal striko and tho unrest in Britain. Many striking declarations aro being -niado, some of which aro unquestionably an index lo great changes' of tho future. Threo remarkable pronouncements of leading-church-men aro among tlio number, two by bishop* and ono by a vioar. Tlio Bishop of Hull spoke as follows to tlio visitois at a Manchester meeting of the Christian Social Union:— "Can we say that tho railwaymcn and tho miners aro ai) unscrupulous and unworthy set of pcoplo, likely to bo carried away by tho first Anarchist orator thoy meet at tlio street corner? Those of us who are travelling ovory day of our lives are woll aworo that wo owo moro to tho steadiness and trustworthiness of railwaynien than wo can tell; wo know they aro not tho kind of people to bo carried away bv street agitators. Tho miners have their faults, of courso—l daresay sonio of their amusements would not apnoal to most of us—but, i 'tor all, wo know what the miner can do in cases of misfortune. Wo know that when tlicro is a disaster practically every man is ready to go to tho rescue. Men made of that etuff aro not men wo can lightly condemn as being unreasonable and predatory Anarchists. As a matter of fact, tihey are nothing of tho kind. " As men arc becoming moro fully educated they cannot be content to sit down in a condition of affairs which seems to them to be mdically unjust; they feel that the present distribution of tho products of industry is not a fair distribution. It is not only out-and-out Socialists who feel that; it is a very widespread feeling, and to a great extent it is justified. "Tho contrast between prodigal, senseless luxury at ono end of tho scale and misorablo, sordid poverty at the other titill oxisfs, and tho Church ought lo make her voico quite clearly heard in saying that sordid poverty ought not to exist; that it can bo provonted, and 1 that it ought to be prevented." Tlio Rev. Meredith Morris, M.A., spoke thus in tho heart of tho Welsh coalfields:—

" Workmen wanted to realise flieir organic unity, that all men were brothers, and that, when ono man was injured in the Rhomlda his brother in London was injured. "There wore thousands upon thousands connected with difficult trades and professions up and down the country who diil not get a living wage. Capitalists were utterly selfish—yes, devilishly selfish. Thoro was enough wealth in Cardiff to buy up Glamorgan; yet they could not keep up an infirmary without asking assistance from the working classes. Within a stone's throw of the infirmary there lived 10 millionaires, and he (the speaker) said they wore selfish devils. The infirmary was going begging round the country while these millionaires were wallowing in wealth."

And tho Bishop of Durham wroto as fol lows to the London Times:—

" The daily press records often in parallels here the lalxjur troubles, there a long wries of scoial events, danoos. and the like. I still hold to it that a visible manifestation of sympathetic restraint just now would be lwtli right in itself and salutary in tho highest degree in viow of common feeling.

" I hear from those who know lliat many people arc nlanning to go abroad, I suppose to lta.lv or Egypt, where they can be ' warm without coal.' sending their servants to their homes, to add. of course, by their presence to tlio need of needing families. Such action would ho a grave disservice U> the community, sheer selfishncs witlmut a veil. "Tlio working people nolo all thceo things well."

TOO OLD AT —. Ono of tho most serious impeachments of the present system of society is that it refuses to find opportunities for wealthproducers who cannot find an employer. Tho fact that there is no employer offering who aw make a profit out of anothor man's labour is not a permanent excuse for unemployed nwn. In addition to tho general difficulty there is tln> special cuso of mon who are getting past their prime and who have, greater difficulty to find work than tho younger men. Such a caso is brought under my noiioo by a correspondent, "J. R." Ho stresses the point, that some epecial oflort should bo mado to afford facilities for men with "signs of tho yellow leaf appearing." Ho refers approvingly to roruarltß of tho Minister of

Labour at tho recent Trades and Labour Confcrenoo, arid proceeds.:—

"I will givo an instanco of my own oxporionco that, has jiist happened. I havo been a fow wooks out of town, becauso I was sick to tho heart of being told ' You're too old.' I wont to tho country and got « job picking potatoes. I worked lor several days, when two young lads camo along looking for work, and, of course, got it; but when night eamo, after my tea I was culled on one sido and told that I had finished. I asked what was tip, and was courteously told that I was too slow, and now 1 am idlo again. I am just 58 years of age, but, of course, showing tlio yellow loaf. I shall watch your column."

I have mndo inquiries.as to tho capacity of my correspondent, 1 am informed that despite his ago ho can do a) good day's work. His caso is typical of many, 1 am afraid, and they dctorvo consideration. I know tho partisan will say that this arisen from having a fixed minimum wugo, but. tho casu against such a contention is complete. A sympathetic Government might well tax its capacity, in finding a remedy for a slate of things which is as discreditable as it is injurious to any country. I thank my correspondent for bringing the matter forward.

In ono of tho latest Knglish papers to hand 1 find somo ronuurks of Mr Paton, high master of tho Manchester Grammar School. They throw a j>oculiar sidelight on the caso brought under notlco by my correspondent. Though they refer to British conditions thoro is somo reason for sounding a waniiug concerning our Dominion conditions. In part Mr Paton said: —

' Up to tho ago of 14 years, or, moro strictly speaking, up to tho ago of 13, ho said, money was lavished on tho education of English boys and girls to tho tune of £35,000,000 per annum. After that, tho children wcro told in olFoct that they had been given tho knifo and fork, but wcro responsihlo for finding tho dinnor themselves. They wcro consoled by tho reflection that there wero 6omo fino workhouses andhnatio asylums gutting ready lor them. "Tho youth of tho country was systematically exploited for tho purposo of prolitcarning industry, and when it camo to what ought to bo tho prime of its manhood it was thrown on to tho labour markot ready to do anything, but really able to <lo nothing woll. Tho rosuk was that one third of the country's unemployed wero lUldor 30 years of a«o. and 67 per cent in somo of tho groat centres was under 40 years. In faoo of such facts it was no good saying that it was tho heightened paco of modorn industry that was telling against tho working man. Thoro was, in tact, very little truth in tho cry of • Too old at 40!' Tho real peril to bo faoal was ' No uso at 25.' "

JOTTINGS. TJio Auckland Tramway Union wants ono days rest in seven. At present t'ho tramwny nion in the norlJicrn city Imvtf not even allorroito Sundays olf duty. Lalxmr lina Avon a notable victory in South African politics, Mr W. 11. Andrews do/eating both DutcJi and British parties for tho Cicorgotown seat. His success has caused a sensation. Mr Fislior, Labour l'rimo Minister of tho Commonwealth, declared the other day.thnt though arbitration was not tho ultimate goal of tho Labour or Socialist movement, it was tho bc«t method nvjiilnblo at pre 1 - sent for getting justice for tho worker. Tho famous airman M. Vodrincs, who met with a serious accident (his week whilst noronlnining, stood for tho Limoux (France) division as an independent Sooinlist recently. Ho was defeated by 650 votes, a Socialist Radical winning tho seat. The earliest use-of the. word "strike" in the sense of stopping work, occurs in tho London Chronicle for September, 1765, in connection with a coal strike. This publication reports a great suspension of labour in the Northumberland coalfields, and the colliers are staled to hnvo "struck out" for a higher bounty before entering into their usual yearly " bond."

If any member of tho idle classes, fondly I rusting that when tho miners strike is settled a period.of calm will ensue, happens to rend these linos, wo are afraid wo can offer him no, word of consolation (sii.vs the latest British Labour Leader lo hand), Another industrial upheaval is threatened in May. Tho national shipyard agreement, embracing the shipwrights and boilermakers, and the national engineering trade agreement will then tormiwtlo, and neither b to 1* renewed. A coml)inrd movement is to be set on foot by the Shipyard and Engineering Federations lo secure better conditions, the principal demand being an eight-hour working day. Tho railwaymcn also intend to put-forward a now national programme in May, and an extensive strike is exacted in the building trado in London.