THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 22

THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD

NEWS AND NOTES. By J. T. Paul. THE PASSING OF MR P. H. HICKEY. Mr P. Hickey, who at the all-too-early age of 48 died in the Melbourne General Hospital last week, was a man (writes R. J. Cassidy in the Australian Worker) who in various spheres of activity did much for the Labour movement. When a comparatively young man he was appointed to the position of organiser of the Miners’ Federation of New Zealand, and did much livq-wired work as an official of the Australian Railways Union. In the realms of politics he never hesitated when he was asked to fight against heavy odds. Consequently nobody was surprised when, some years ago he opposed Sir Joseph Ward for the Invercargill sdat. It was a hopeless fight, but it provided a chance for Labour propaganda—and that was a quite sufficient lure for Hickey. Besides being an eloquent speaker he was a fine journalist, and demonstrated his ability on the Inky Way during hie many years’ editorial and managerial control of the Maoriland Worker. INSURANCE AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS. The National Social Insurance Fund of Italy has published the results of six months’ working of the system of compulsory insurance against tuberculosis, which came into operation on January 1, 1929. During this period the number of persons assisted was 4760, of whom 1170 were treated in their homes, 2650 jn sanatoria, and 940 in dispensaries. At the end of June the total number of days of treatment was 268,000, of which 113,000 represented days spent in institutions. The organisation of the medical services of insurance against tuberculosis is being carried on.according to the plan drawn up by the Special Committee of Compulsory Insurance against Tuberculosis, in agreement with the Managing Committee of the National Social Insurance Fund, the municipalities and the provincial bodies concerned in the campaign against tuberculosis. THE LABOUR DEPARTMENT. Mr W. A. . Veitch (Minister of Labour) recently declared that “ the safest and surest way to .industrial peace will be found on the lines of economic justice, as embodied in sound Labour laws and the equitable administration of them.” Continuing, Mr Veitch said: “Believing, as I do, that when the Department of Labour was established by an earlier Liberal Government, it was intended to administer Labour laws in the interests of the wage earners, I intend, as far as it is reasonable, to restore that characteristic of the administration of the de-,.’ partment, and also to improve and strengthen, the Labour laws on sound and reasonable lines.” ■. .Commenting on this pronouncement, “ Industrial Tramp,” writing in the Auckland Star, says: ' -‘fin making this announcement the Minister has the support and endorsement of the members of the Labour Party over the whole ,of the' Dominion, It 1 has long been the expressed opinion of the union officals that ;we have already a plenteous supply of Labour laws, if these laws were only administered fairly ,and reasonably, but with the Reform Party for 16 years in power the administration of the Labour Department has been] sadly lacking in fairness. Let me hasten to say that this is not necessarily the‘fault of the officers of the department, who but act in conformity with instructions received from ' the head of the department. When the Labour Department . was instituted under the Act of 1894 by Mr Edward Tregear, under the supervision of such Ministers for Labour as Mr W. P. Reeves and the late Mr R, 'J. Seddoiij it was the List portfolio of Labour m the world, with no precedents to guide them. The principle* laid down were equitably carried out and gave satisfaction to everyone, except, of course, to .those who , were not prepared to .work according to the law. . . , Mr Veitch, iin his declaration, as quoted above,'in using tbe word “restore,” shows that he has not been unaware of the departure from first principles laid down by Seddon, and Tregear, and ’ intimates his intention to alter the administration of the Arbitration Act to what it was under Liberal < principles. Already . the effect of a. change of Government has been seen, and more complaints are being dealt with locally by the departmental officers without reference to Wellington for advice. This overhaul has been long overdue, and the Minister will have the- approval. of all unionists in his declaration.” THE TRADE UNION.MOVEMENT IN INDIA. Considerable interest tinged with some anxiety is ■ being shown towjards events in India. At the last meeting of c* the All-India Trade Union Congress,- held at Nagpur, a conflict arose between the moderates and the extremists on several questions.. The Executive Committee passed a resolution in favour of an absolute boycott of the Whitley Royal Commission on Labour by 53 votes to 41 ■ The moderates then seceded from the congress, stating in a letter to the Chairman that they were completely in disagreement with the congress on the following questions:— (1) Boycott of the Whitley Commission; (2) affiliation to the league against Imperialism; (3) affiliation to the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat; (4) rejection of tfie proposal to hold an Asiatic Labour Congress; and (5) refusal to nominate a delegation m behalf of Indian workers’ to the International Labour Conference at Geneva, They challenged the membership figures of the Great Indian Peninsula Railwaymen’s Union and the Girni Kamgar (generally known as Red Flag) Union, which together claimed 350 votes out of a total voting strength of . 930 members -in the congress. After the withdrawal of the moderates, the extremists passed most of the resolutions objected to. Affiliation to the Pan-Pacific Trade Union Secretariat was dropped. Mr Subhas Bose, the Swarajist leader of Bengal, was elected president. • The moderates, under the leadership of Diwan Chaman Lai, have already taken steps to form a new .organisation, and claim the support of 24 trade unions. ADULTS IDLE AS CHILDREN LABOUR. f “ Two million men and women are standing along the highways of our industrial procession to watch 2,000,000 child labourers give a new significance to the fact of : unemployment.” This dramatic coincidence was driven home by Mr Owen R. Lovejoy, secretary of the Children’s Aid Society, at the twenty-fifth annual conference of the National Child Labour Committee held recently in New York City (says an exchange) . The conference heard addresses outlining the gains the committee has made for the protection of children, and the great need that.still exists for further efforts in this field, and applauded a vigorous attack by, Governor Roosevelt, of New York State, on those Northern manufacturers who remove their mills and factories to the South to take advantage of the less-rigid child-labour laws of the Southern States.

Urging _ the resumption of efforts for the adoption of a Federal amendment, Mr Lovejoy, we read, “indicted ohild labour as one of the most serious liabilities against future American prosperity,” and then declared;

“ It seems a curious contradiction that at the very moment when science is giving such intensive study to the culture of the individual child, industry, commerce, and agriculture should continue to feed children wholesale into the hoppers of our wage-earning national expansion.

“Mr Love joy,” says the New York Herald Tribune, "predicted that child labour would be the one controversial issue at the approaching White House 'conference on child welfare, describing it as ‘the only subject on which there will be an array of interests opposed to practical measures designed to protect children/ He blamed the American public, and not the parents- or the employers, for ‘ this dark blot on our national respectability."’ Factories have been led to move South by the laws governing child labour, workmen’s. compensation, and other protective measures, reported Governor Roosevelt. speaking at the anniversary dinner of the committee. Then he added: “ I said simply from the bottom of my heart, and some will say that it is treason, that I would rather have the factories go. “I have seen Northern mills that have gone South, and I have seen the conditions of employment that they have

set up in those mills not just for children, but for nren and women, grown, as well, and I want to tell you that the time will come when public opinion in the South, with the growth of education of the average citizen, is going to bring the laws of the South and the standards of the South on a par with the laws and the standards of the North, “ And then, perhaps, some of them may move back to the Mohawk Valley. 5 ' A dark picture of child employment was drawn by Miss Grace' Abbott, chief of the Children’s Bureau of the United States Department of Labour, who said; "Jo. some parts of the South boys and girls of 14 and 15 are permitted by law to' work 10 or 11 hours a day, or even longer.” Many newspapers, in commending the work of the National Child Labour Committee, take occasion to praise the stand of■_Governor Roosevelt. “The nation which rears its children in the sweatshop and mill,” warns the New York Telegram, “is breeding a race of weaklings which will destroy it,” and the New York Herald Tribune declares “ the childlabour issu’e is first and last profoundly moral—it is simply a test J 'of the innate fairness of the American people.” Says the Philadelphia Record: “ Several influences help to perpetrate the system which" medical science condemns. There are parents who need, or feel that they need, the earnings of their children to keep the family going. There are, manufacturers who find the employment of children profitable. There are persons who argue that putting children to work keeps them out of mischief, and makes them self-reliant. ‘ But self-reliance thus bought may be costly for the child and for society as well. To the Washington Post "the right of Protecting children from employment which impairs their health and interferes with their education belongs to the States." Continuing; “Rj failing to ratify the proposed child-labour amendment to the Constitutioh the States accepted this responsibuity. It is their duty .to enact such -.legislation as will satisfy their- local needs. -

The progress that has been made since the National Child. Labour Committee was organised gives hope that the problem can be fially solved in this way.”