Work and Wages.
The distress among the working classes at Home is being intensified by strikes. The cable messages elsewhere give particulars t>f several fresh strikes among colliers, ironworkers, and railway hands, and the . men are being supported by the funds of aft the London Trades Unions and by : special contributions. This indicates a determined and united struggle against the reduction of wages to starvation. ! j)oint, and the men are doubtless' sup- ; by writers of the stamp of Mr JTobley, in the belief that capital is endeavouring to reap unfair advantages -jx&n the depressed state of trade, and to Haw on the working classes the whole "burden. It may seem at first sight a suicidal policy, aa the chances seem much against the working men being able %o hold out long enough to reap substaniiafc as#antages. But it may be that I -things have come to such a pass that mothing/but a determined and obstinate will prevent millions from falliug into a -state of hopeless misery from insufficient tfages ; and if strikes become general oil, this ground, a large amount of public sympathy will be secured for ike men. Of course, if the men have taken I *' wrongestimate of what it is pos- • Bible for the mabters to pay, they must in ta^Tend suffer for it. But they have a -right .to make a fight for a rate of pay that will give them something more than a bare subsistence, and for hours of labour that will not intensify the evil by Aicreasing the over-supply. It cannot be, supposed that' the masters are always " xight and the men always wrong.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 1417, 18 January 1879, Page 20
Word Count
270Work and Wages. Otago Witness, Issue 1417, 18 January 1879, Page 20
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