THE LABOUR MOVEMENT.

Southland Times, Issue 14580, 22 November 1910, Page 6

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT.

ADDRESS BT MB MacMAHUS. Mr J. E. MacManus, who has been lent by the Otago Trades and Labour Council to do organising work in Invercargill, addressed a meeting from the Band Rotunda last evening. There were about 200 people present, and Mr '£• O’Byrne introduced tlie speaker. . Mr MacManus, in the course, of his address, touched on a variety of subjects concerning the Labour movement, Out he made It quite clear that the mam abject of his present visit is to organise the general labourers of Invercargill. He touched on tlie conditions of working ami the wages of general labourers, and the Improvements that were . noticeable since a General Labourers’ Union hud been formed in that city. He dwelt at some length on tlie evils of unemployment. and incidentally characterised the Immigration schemes of Sir George Reid and others as being instigated by the desire that there should always be two men waiting for work that was sufficient to keep only one going. Unemployment was in this way used instead of the lash as a means to keep the workers in a State of submission, and by organising only could the workers hope to deal with such attempts to keep them in abject subjection. He mentioned a case that had come under his notice in Dunedin, where the bread-winner became incapacitated, debts began to accumulate, and the family was threatened with eviction. In Invercargill, he was told, it was no uncommon sight to see fifty or sixty men hanging about the grain and wool and railway sheds looking for work. It workers went out on strike there was a cry from one end of New Zealand to the other, but nothing was said against the conditions which caused unemployment. The past year in the Dominion had been the most prosperous on record as far as wealth production was concerned, but what share of this' wealth were the workers receiving? Wool, for instance, bad realised £3 Is 5d for each GOlb. and When the shearers asked for a one-forti-eth part of the increased value, the capitalistic newspapers raised a chorus of disapproval from one end of the Dominion to the other. Rents in New Zealand had increased in a few years, according to Coghlan, by £10,000,00(1. The man who owned the land owned the people also. He mentioned the case of a man who had bought a .suction in Sydney for £lO. Shortly afterwards this mail was sent to gaol for twenty years for a criminal offence, and when the time arrived for his release tlie property hip I Increased in value to £20.000. Who created the extra value on that property? Mr MadManus asked. The speaker then referred to piecework and subletting of work by contractors, and stated that he had known instances where men kept cutting prices until eventually it was possible fdr even the most; efficient to: make not more than 5s per day. He said that the effect of tlie Arbitration Ant was to divide the workers by causfflrß them to form small unlQns, and Mr Millar’s amendments, rea tape, and an unsympathetic judge had added to the troubles of the workers in obtaining justice from the Court. He referred to the borrowing policy of the Government, and stated that New Zealand was a goldproducing country, and yet it borrowed from England—a country which did not produce gold. A cable would be received that a loan had beep,successfully floated, but no money was received in this country on account of tlie floating of that loan. The credit of the community bolstered up the banks and money-len-ders. The purchase of a Dreadnought Mr MacManus referred to in scathing terms. He said that the effect of such an action, would be to cripple the country.) And we were so vastly rich that Sir Joseph Ward was justified in saying that if necessary lie would throw away another two millions or so in a similar direction? Tlie danger of poverty was a greater danger than that of war. Tlie Guernsey State note system was referred to by tbe speaker, and also the. formation of trusts, which,, he said,, were helped by protective tariffs, if capitalism was a good thing let it stand on its own, but he'maintained that it could not; that it was always being bolstered lip at the expense of the community; even the farmer had to obtain assistance from the State in the matter of breeding his cattle. New Zealand was sometimes called “God’s Own .Country,”, but tlie majority of the workers bad no country. They were simply on earth to make wealth for the landowner and tlie capitalist. At tlie present time they had social production and social distribution, but they had private ownership and pri-. vate managership. The ’workers had become so used to this sort of thing—and the preaching of parsons and priests helped to foster it —that they had come to believe that it had been ordained that things, should remain in that state. Deople went to church and prayed “Thy Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.” In Heaven there was supposed to be equality, but when asked to apply the principle to the earth, these holy people could not see their way to do it. For all the grievances which were enumerated by Mr MacManus, he prescribed organisation as the cure, and made a spirited appeal to tbe workers in all branches of industry to band together and form themselves into unions. Later, —and they were working in that dlrec- 1 tion now then labour leaders hoped to have Industrial Unionism in vogue throughout the Dominion. In conclusion Mr MacManus challenged any person In the audience to mount the rotunda and combat tlie statements he had made. Questions were invited, but as no- one seemed disposed to ask any, the meeting was. closed by Mr O’Byrne thanking those present for their attendance, and It was announced that to-night Mr MacManus will deliver another address, when the planks of the platform of tlie New Zealand Labour Party will be dealt with. .