THE LABOUR WORLD.

Southland Times, Issue 14581, 23 November 1910, Page 2

THE LABOUR WORLD.

RSOBXiJBMS AHm DISCUSSIONS. (By ‘‘Worker.") (Brief contributions on matters concerning the Labour Movement are invited ; local Items ace particularly welcome). ■ —Meetings.— ‘ To-Night —General Labourers. Thursday—Mr MacMunus. of Engineers. Friday—Mr MacManus and Society of Engineers. Saturday—N.Z. Labour Parly (Execu-. Hive). , , The death of Tolstoy removes from this vale of tears one of the most remarkable men that have ever been known. Tolstoy was 82 years of age. He may.be read in every European language, and in Japanese and Hindustani. What is the secret of the extraordinary influence which Leo Tolstoy is exercising and is destined to exercise on the innermost consciousness of the Human Family? It has not hitherto been the world's wont to go to Muscovy for Us soothsayers and spiritual teachers. And Tolstoy's writings have been described by friendly critics as lacking the splendour of. imagination or of diction of, say, a Victor Hugo or a Thomas Carlyle—a writer, in truth, with an unornamented, almost threadbare style who has yet laid- u more potent spell upon mankind than either of these two illustrious Princes of the Pen. What Is the secret of It? In Ills "Overthrow of Hell and its Restoration,” it Is related how a good magician, in order to save a man from a wicked magician, turned him into a little grain of wlieat. Thereupon the bad magician turned himself Into a cock, and was about to peck this little grain. So the good magician emptied a sack of grain over the little grain, so that the bad magician could not eat up all the grains, nor yet find the one he wanted. Well, Tolstoy is himself the “good magician,” and his grand achievement consists In this that be has rescued for us the precious wheat of the Nazarene’s Teaching from beneath mountains of superimposed chaff, heaped upon it almost from the first by the hands of ignorant reporters, incompetent and, peradventure, even dishonest scribes, designing clergymen and politicians. Heresiarchs we have had before from the earliest times, many and capable, to those of Voltaire and Gibbon, and from the days of the latter to those of Ingersoll ami Bradiaugh, none has dealt half so effectually with the corruptions of Christianity. Christ did not Intend . His Word to be for Sunday consumption merely. He was, in point of fact, the most fundamental Revolutionist that ever breathed. His sayings are shattering explosives from which the churches, one and all. have been at the greatest care to abstract the charges. But Tolstoy replaces them, one by one, with unerring eye and steady hand, and one consequently need not wonder at his excommunication by the Holy Synod. Rather Is It a marvel how, in such a country as Russia has latterly become, the venerable apostle of the Slavs, had escaped so long with life and limb intact. For Tolstoy’s was no ordinary heresy. He repudiated the “eye for an eye. and a tooth for a tooth" on which all Governments rest down to the minutest details. > The State based on force, disappears and the Commune, based on love, takes its place. In a word, Tolstoy’s system is one of applied Christianity, in a far truer sense than ever Reformers Luther, Calvin, or Knox were able to grasp. "And they (the earliest, Christians) had &II things In common,” as we learn in the Acts, and were evidently sound Anarachist Communists without knowing it. It will not be Tolstoy’s fault if the “Communion of the Saints,” of” ■ which we read and are made not to' understand, is not revivified once more, ax this weary and heavy-laden age. In the concluding chapter of his 'Slavery of Our Times, this great spiritual force of our day asks and answers the momentous question. And whatever may be thought of Tolstoy’s propositions by persons habituated to Governments and their pernicious influences. it cannot be pretended for a moment that they present any feature if novelty. They are one and all at east as old as the Sermon on the Mount, which the late brilliant Archbishop Magee frankly admitted made it impossible, unless taken in a Pickwickian lense. to “run any State" whatever. He 3id not add. “So much the worse for the State,” but if he hfid not been a Pagan, xe would undoubtedly have done so. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear!” A branch of the New Zealand Labour party has been formed in Christchurch. Mr W. Ensom is President, Messrs 1). G. Sullivan, G. Simpson, and Millar, Vicepresidents, and Mr J. Young, Secreary. ;■ • ■' • I would ask all my readers to roll up In force to hear the gospel according to . Labour preached by Mr MacManus from the Band Rotunda on to-morrow and Friday evenings. I would like to see some of our Liberal-Labour friends accepting the challenge of Mr MacManus to debate the question of direct Labour representation with him. On Monday evening his challenge went unheeded, although one irate individual from •mong the crowd had something to say concerning “agitators." It was a pity that he did not remain to receive his “gruel.” That the General Labourers’ Union nas been justified in bringing Mr Mac-’ Manus down has been amply proved by the increa.se that has already been made to the membership roll. Since the formition of the Union I have persistently igltated in this direction, and one mav be pardoned for mentioning the fact seeing that the results have exceeded expectations to such an extent as they rave done. The Plasterers’. Grocers’ and Stonemasons’ Unions are the latest that-have leclded in favour of federation. Itnlus:rial Unionism Is will)out a doubt rapidly coming into vogue in this Dominion.’ Mr J. Young, Secretary of the Canterbury Trades and Labour Council, has :he following to say regarding a ques- ( .lon which was raised in this column recently by Mr H. J. Farrant:—“The New Zealand Government has at last srought in a Bill to make holidays uniform throughout the Dominion. Donbt*ess this will be hailed with satisfaction, but I think it would be much better if the Bill made Labour Uav come early in the.-year instead of in October as at present. The weather is too unsettled at that time of the year, as witness the last Labour Day when it was raining nearly all over the Dominion, and as a matter of fact, as far as Christchurch is concerned, it is too near Show Day. However, I suppose that . there is not much chance of it becoming law' this session.” The following is from an article on the women chainmakers of Coadley Pleath who. recently struck for an increase in their wages to 2(6d per hour:— ■’Chainmakers! These are they of whom we. write to-day. The women cliain--nakers —ungrateful females!—are out sn strike. in one particular branch of the gentle and womanly art of chainmaking there are.loo women employed at Cradley Heath. Tt is amongst these the strike lies. Christian England refuses the vote to women lost It, should unsex them —say the principal opponents of the Suffrage—hut she allows them to make chains. Nice light work, Isn’t It? Suggests sitting down with a crochet hook and having a quiet and perfectly feminine time, doesn’t it. The finer kinds of chains are made by men, the rougher by women. Presumably- the work is too tedious and laborious for men. It consists of heating rod iron (which means so much bellows work): bending it on “the hardy.” twisting the link, slipping it into the last link made on the chain, and welding and closing It with repeated blows of the band hammer and the Oliver worked by a treadle. To earn 3s a woman must “work-in” (fi rods of iron, each 9 feet long, and out of these 3s she must pay for her gleeds end fuel. To earn 4s a woman often nas to work up 1 cwt of iron. The Oliver is a frightful menace to health. To work it a woman has to Junto with all her force with both feet on it. The whole body 1s jarred throneii and •brough every jump. Sometimes n, voman will be working at: this with a young baby hanging in a shawl from the roof of her shed, sometimes (ill within a few hours of the birth of (ho next. This is England—England the virtuous, the moral, the considerate! Tt is little -wonder that under such circumstances a woman only bears one child alive out of three, five and seven; tiiat the physique of those born is low end the death-rate high. The details of one woman’s work and earnings for three days run as follows: —She had forged 72S heavy links In the three da v«, and for this had received 2s 2d. She had paid 7(6d for firing and for the nurse. The net earn loirs for the thirty-six hours were 6(6d ” Verily. Uie competitive system is a hoop rind a •dossing. Women and little children sacrificed on the altar of the God of Profits. Who said Socialism? The Wellington branch of the New Zealand Labour party is moving along nicely. At the last meeting the Secretary reported returns from lit) memoors. One enthusiast was responsible for the enrolment of GO members during ‘he fortnight. The engineers of the New South Wales Railway Department claim that a feat n bricklaying that has probably never jccn beaten In the world was accomplished In one of the tunnels on the Sig-Zag deviation works in Now South Wales. A tunnel 6ti chains Jong, covering two lines, was bricked In twelve weeks. The walls varied from four

bricks at the sides to other thicknesses. The work was 1 done by the men —about 40 —setting to the task on the understanding that each had to lay 1000 bricks per shift. And there was not one who came short. One thousand bricks n day is bard going evep in Australia, where bricklayers ( ure accustomed to look upon the 300 or so laid in England In a day as beneath contempt. Mr McOowen. of New South Wales, was chosen leader of the Labour Party chiefly because he was neither a pronounced Protectionist nor a fanatical Freetrader. Though not generally credited with abnormal political foresight. Mr McGowen was one of the first Labourites in Australia to recognise that Hscailsni, of either brand, was not going to help the workers very much while the land and capital of the country were m tile hands of monopolists. Both fiscal factions in the party knew him to be thoroughly trustworthy: a citizen of unimpeachable character al whom nobody could cast a contumelious stone. All knew that tie could be depended upon to fearlessly carry out the definitely expressed wishes of the majority or the pur tv. Not n genius; incapable ot any blinding flashes of oratorical or administrative brilliance; but a man to be trusted; a ‘safe’ spokesman. A boilermaker by trade, his handiwork, is all thorough and his acts necessarily ttauulight, ‘ Lifelong abstainer, earnest temperance advocate, Sunday school teacher, Ini t uo ‘wowser.’ Almost every man who lias had Hie good fortune to be successful in life lias been blessed with the possession or great faith in himself and the result of bis own efforts. This fact ought to be strongly impressed on every workingman, and especially Union men in their fight for industrial justice. No discouragement should be allowed to deviate ttie course of any Union man from that which ts intended for (lie highest degree of happiness for himself and those dependent on him. Union men who have not the proper confidence and grit to carry out their part of the fight of all their organisation stands for are unworthy of being recognised as Union men. Above everything, let ns, determine those things that are best for Union men ami their families, and each carry out his part of the programme towards the realisation of them. Lose not your faith in the enjoyment of great tilings, and sustain your convictions ns to the best means of attaining them. Better things are in store for you if you do your full part. Have faith in yourself and your Union. ' He must have been a poor student of social questions who lias not perceived that neither one fiscal system nor the oilier has yet given working men. and women in any country a security against being thrown out of work at ’ any moment, nor has it prevented any country from always having a large army of unemployed men begging at its doors." —Co-operative News.