LINES ABOUT LABOR

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 102, 16 April 1907, Page 6

LINES ABOUT LABOR

At the annual general conference of I the United Government Workers' Federation, England, a resolution was passed requesting the Postmaster-General to reinstate the secretary of the Fawcett Association (Mr W. B. Cheeseman), who was dismissed for asking, on behalt of his trade union, members of Parliament to support a motion to appoint a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the pay and condition of Post Office servants, which had since been appointed. It /was also decided to urge the Government to issue an order prohibiting any official from interfering with, intimidating, or causing unnecessary suffering to any worker because of his connection with any trade organisation. Further resolutions were passed m favor of direct parliamentary representation, and of a Government bonus being paid to " widows of hired men who die m service after having been employed seven years." The report of the Census Bureau on the employment of children, showing that there were m the United States m 1900 1,750,178 children between ten and fifteen years of age engaged m wage-earning occupations, has produced a great sensation all over the States ; but a closer examination of the report has revealed the fact that by far the greater proportion of them —namely, 1,054,446 — are employed m agriculture, an occupation not open to most of the objections usually urged against child labor. Moreover, it has turned out that by far the larger proportion of children engaged m wage-earning pursuits are foreign-born. Nevertheless Congress has passed a Bill ordering a thorough investigation of the conditions of child and woman labor m the United States, of which Mr Straus, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, will take charge. The Lord Chief Justice heard a claim m the King's Bench Division recently by Mr James Macdonald, secretary of the London Trades Council, for damages for alleged libel against Messrs Taylor, Garnett, Evans, and Co., printers, of Salford, and the trustees of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses, of Oxford street, Manchester. Mr Cohen, for the plaintiff, said the libel complained of arose out of the dispute between the parent branch of the amalgamated society and a branch m the West End of London. The London Trades Council were asked to intervene, and certain reports of committees were published m the ' Trade and Labor Gazette,' the journal of the Council. Referring to these reports, the paper said: "Messrs Madden and Rowlerson further reported that, angry and disgusted with the contemptible trickery of 'the Executive of the London Trades Council, together with the false and garbled and entirely misleading minute published by the secretary of the London Trades Council, it was decided," etc., etc. The plaintiff denied that he had ever published garbled or misleading minutes, and Mr Harry Quelch, a delegate to the London Trades Council, said he was the chairman of the sub-committee that dealt with the dispute. He drew up the report, and the plaintiff m no way influenced it. Similar evidence was given by Messrs William Cooper and Charles Calder. The defence was a plea of justification, and that the words complained of were fair comment on matters of public interest. The jury returned a verdict for, the defendants, and the Judge remarked that he should have told the jury that this was a matter of public interest, and that the defendants were entitled to publish the report. Judgment for the defendants was entered, with costs. A few weeks ago, when it was found that the action of a number of the female operators on the Melbourne Telephone Exchange, who refused to work on Sunday, made it impossible to carry on the service that day, the Secretary of the department (Mr R. T. Scott), m accordance with the legulatiohs, issued an instruction that a " case of necessity " had arisen such as empowered him to order any employee to perform Sunday work. He gave a direction that the names of all the female operating staff should be submitted to a ballot, and that they should be called upon to do Sunday work m the order m which they were drawn. Two of the attendants whose names were called -for the first Sunday declined to take tip duty on that day. A report was made on the case, and Lieu-tenant-colonel Outtrim, the Deputy Post-master-General, recommended them for punishment. The matter was under consideration for some time, and eventually it was decided that each of the employees who objected should be fined a small amount.

Giving evidence on behalf of the coalowners before the Parliamentary Committee set up to inquire into the probable economic effect, of a miners' eight-hour bank-to-bank day on wages, employment, production, and other matters connected frith the , coal trade (Mr Russell Rae, M.P., An the chan*), Mr J. B. Smith, who spoke on behalf of the coal-owners m the Leen Valley, Derbyshire, stated that the declared policy of the Nottinghamshire

Miners' Union, which included Derbyshire, and the habits of the men themselves, were against double shifting. He thought* one reason for their attitude was that they were anxious not to have the output very largly increased, for fear of bringing wages down. If they were to adopt the double-shift system throughout the Derbyshire district they would require 6,000 additional men. The proposed limitation of hours would lead, m his opinion, to hurry and bustle, and consequently to accidents. He did not believe that it would have any beneficial effect on the health of the men. He remembered the time when the colliers' hours were from six o'clock m the morning to five o'clock m the evening, with intervals of half an hour for breakfast and dinner, and he was certain the physique of the men who were at the coal face m those years was much better than it was to-day. He had only to refer, m proof of this, to the physique of the miners' leaders, who were all brought up under those conditions. — The Chairman : " You do not advocate, I suppose, a return to the long hours which were worked when Mr Burt and Mr Fenwick were m the mines?" — Mr Smith: "No; but what I want to say is that the extra leisure which has been given by the shorter hours is not employed m perhaps the best way." In reply to further questions, the witness said that there was a considerable percentage of absenteeism at the Derbyshire collieries. The women were able to obtain work easily m the county, and this was a great inducement to the men not to come to the pits more than was necessary to get just what pocket-money they wanted. He did not think a legally limited day would tend to discourage absenteeism, unless the absentees were penalised by Act of Parliament. — Mr T. Greensmith, representing the Midland Counties coalowners, gave it as his opinion that the limitation of hours would not have much adverse effect on the employment of the older men. They were the most trustworthy for certain purposes. They might not turn out the most work, but they would turn out the best. He held much {he same opinion m regard to disabled and , maimed men. He had never been m a colliery m which there was not a man with a wooden leg, and he worked with the best. The existing labor m his district was being worked at full stretch. Fresh supplies had generally been found among the farm laborers, but they did not come so freely into the pits now as they used to do. He supposed this was largely due to the fact that the farmers made it worth their while to stay with them. Sixty per cent, of the so-called unemployed would make good colliers.— The Chairman : " Have you seen those who compose the unemployed processions m London?" — Mr Greensmith: "I have, and some of them look like thick-legged men who would, I believe, make good colliers. It is all a question of organisation and supervision.'' Continuing, the witness said his experience led him to the conclusion ithat two-thirds of the colliers were doing all they could m the way of production. As to the remaining one-third, neither he nor anyone else, nor any law, could make them do anything except what they were pleased to do. His opinion was that once a fixed working day was established for all districts the Miners' Federation would insist on a minimum day's wage for all underground workers. The coal-owners would agree to it rather than let their pits stand idle. — By Sir A. Agnew: If there jvas a legal eight-hours day it should be a, pit, as distinguished from a, bank-to-bank, day, and it should be confined to colliers and fillers. '

Under the English Workmen's Compensation Act, which comes into force on July 1, insurances may be effected at the following rates :— The top place is held by the chauffeur. Indemnification for liability m his case costs 15s per annum. The gamekeeper, the stud groom, and the engineer are the next m cost — half a sovereign per year per man. The steward, gardener, coachman, and groom can be insured' at 5s each. Half that sum suffices for each domestic, who m this matter is on the same footing with the private secretary, the typist, and the clerk. Proprietors of businesses will be surprised to find that assistants of bakers and m shops for the sale of butter and eggs and ironmongery cost twice the premium demanded for waiters and waitresses and the assistants of confectioners, drapers, milliners, photographers, stationers, and tailors. The corn-chandler pays 7s 6d per head — thrice as much as the confectioner — but the grengrocer's seems as desperate a calling as that of the pork butcher, and cannot be dealt with except upon a 12s 6d basis. The new Act may make it necessary (says 'Golfing') to insure the caddie. If the caddie is injured m the course of a round the professional seems to be liable to pay a weekly sum not exceeding one-half of the caddie's earnings until the latter is able to carry again. No liability rests on the golfer who may cause th<» injury, as the caddie's employment is m the nature of casual labor. Of course, if the caddie is employed by the club at a regular wage the club are responsible for any injury.

Canada is not the only country requiring laborers by the thousand. High wages and free transportation are going a-begging m the Western States of America, where the railroad companies are doing all m their power to induce men to take work at the rate of, m some cases, two dollars and a-half per day and board. In fact, it is a matter of great difficulty for railroads all over the country to get sufficient laborers to carry on the enormous enterprises of new roads and improvement of old ones which they are undertaking. Railroad building and improving was nevei: so active an industry m the history of the continent as it is at the present time, and men who are willing to undertake the hard work' involved can command the best of remuneration. In the West alone it is estimated that fifty thousand men are wanted on the various great schemes now under way. The Western Pacific wants eight thousand, the Milwaukee six thousand, the Southern Pacific over five thousand, as does the Northern Pacific, and the new North Coast-line is engaging men as fast as they pour m. The roads are losing far more money through lack of facilities to handle the traffic than would be expended m hiring a full complement at the highest wages. Vast and important work is being delayed, and everywhere the cry of the companies is for workers. The situation (says the 'Railroad Man's Magazine') is complicated. The country wants more railroads. The railroads want more men, and there were never so few men wanting work as at the present time.

A bricklayer, writing to a London paper from iShawingham Falls, 100 miles north of Montreal, describes the difficulties of work m the winter m Canada. One day it was 48deg below zero, ' ' and that stopped the job. We had furnaces on the scaffolding, and the mortar was made with boiling water. The bricks had a steam jet playing on them, and by the time you lay three bricks they were all frozen. Then you have to poke jour trowel into the fire to melt the frozen mortar before you oan lay any more."

Prompted by the disclosures at a recent Poplar inquest, a question was addressed to Mr Gladstone (the Home Secretary)

by Mr C. J. O'Donnell, M.P., asking him if he proposed taking measures to make impossible the working of excessive horn's m shops on starvation wages. At the inquest it was stated that the dead man, George Watts, worked for ninety hours a week at twopence an hour as a shop assistant.

A meeting of the Conciliation Board m the Durham coal trade was held on February 16 m Newcastle-on-Tyne, to fix the wages of the miners for tne ensuing three months. Mr Robert Hansom presided, m the absence of the president (Sir Lindsay Wood) through indisposition. The workmen's representatives put forth a claim for 5 per cent, advance. The owners could not agree to recognise that any case had been made out for an advance beyond 1^ per cent., but m consideration of the present state of trade and advancing prices, which will probably be shown m th© next ascertainment, they were prepared to grant for the next three months a- special advance of 2£ per cent., making 3| per cent. m. all, leaving the wages of underground workmen and banksmen 36£ per cent, above the standard of 1879, and of other classes 33-| per cent, above the standard. This was agreed to, and it was arranged that the advance should take effect on pays beginning February 4 and 11. In February, 1906, the miners received an advance of li per cent. ; m August, 2_ ; and m November, 1£ ; making 5 per cent, advance during 1906. Lord Davey was unanimously reappointed umpire, Sir Lindsay Wood chairman, and Mr R. Hansom vicechairman of the Conciliation Board.