THE World of Labour

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 593, 4 January 1916, Page 12

THE World of Labour

Conducted by D. G. SULLIVAN

LABOUR IN AMERICA. A VIVID REVIEW. One of the main reasons of the industrial unrest at present existing ' in the United States (says Francis Ahern, in the "Australian Worker") is what can be shortly termed the Denial of Justice to the Workers. The workers of that country are, to-day, unable to secure legislation to protect them against grievous wrongs except after exhaustive struggles against overwhelming odds and against insidious influences. Even when necessary laws are passed they are largely nullified by the courts upon technicalities of a ] character to the interest of the Capitalistic class, or thrown out on the broad ground of unconstitutionalism. Then, again, it is proved that the law is administered one way for the poor, and another way for the rich. The discrimination arises, not only from the economical disabilities of the poor, but also out of actual bias on the part of the judges in favour of the wealthy. While the courts have not only neglected or refused to protect the workers in the rights guaranteed them under the Constitution of their country, laws framed solely to protect human rights have been perverted to protect property rights only, thus depriving the workers of the protection guaranteed them by statute. Law and the Workers. I make here a bold statement, but it is nevertheless true in every detail. The workers of the U.S. can get no proper redress for wrongs inflicted upon them through non-payment of) wages, or excessive charges in any j direction. j The losses sustained by the work-| iers from these sources run into millions of dollars yearly, and entails untold hardships on a class who can ill-afford to lose even a penny of their hard-won wages. Then, again, by a system of injunctions, the courts have not only injured the workers individually and collectively, but have also, by the contempt procedure consequent upon the disobedience of such injunctions, deprived the workers of erven the right of a trial by jury. Laws specially enacted to protect labour in the factories, mines, and railways have not been effectively enforced except in a very few eases. Added to this is the fact that in many parts of the country the workers are denied the right of jury representation by such qualifications as a property tax.

When strikes have taken place, innocent men have heen arrested without just cause, charged under fictitious crimes, held under excessive bail, and treated often with great brutality for the purpose of injuring the strikers and breaking the strike. During such times, not only is one "of the greatest functions of the State, that of policing, turned virtually over to the employers, or arrogantly used by them, but criminals employed as strike-breakers arc clothed with arbitrary powers, and relieved of criminal liability of their acts. This has been proved over and over again in the strikes of recent years in the U.S. During strikes many localities have suspended the entire system of civil government, and in its place there has been set up a military despotism, well-nigh outrivalling Russia. Again, in many localities, the control of the Capitalistic system of the entire machinery of government has been so great thai lawless acts on the part of agents of the Capitalists have gone unheeded, while vindictive action against the leaders of the strikes have been accomplished by methods unparalleled in history. Ibis latter charge is amply substantiated by the strike that occurred in Colorado last year. These charges are not made at random, for each and every one of them has been proved conclusively before the United States Commission of Industrial Relations. Industrial Feudalism.

There are in the United Stales today over 25,000,000 persons who are wage-earners. Their welfare is the

welfare of the Slate in particular, and#ttLC nation in general. Yet by the —"gigantic conspiracy controlled bv Capitalism these 2,"),000,000 workers are living under a system of industrial feudalism! To them, democratic government is denied, except in name. Instead they live in industrial communities which are really principalities, oppressive to those depending on them for a livelihood. By this means not only is the industrial position determined, .but Capitalism decrees what the worker shall eat, what he shall wear, how his children shall be educated, how he shall speak, act, and even what religion he shall embrace. By what means has Capitalism got this strangle-hold on the workers? When I say that 44 families in the U.S. possess an aggregate income of pver £10,000,000 yearly, it may be

A Column for Workers

understood. What this means is a matter that does not call for an overabundance of intelligence to imagine. These "monarchs of industry," as they are termed, are really feudal lords, and such is their power that J they control the fate of more human beings than lived in England in the 18th century. Their kingdoms are scattered, and intermixed one with the other, for the simple reason that they can thus overlord the workers, and side-track | the law better than they could were itheir interests consolidated in one ! particular State. Not only are the financial rnagnates of the U.S. welded together by commercial alliances, but by a network of inter-marriage, which can only be compared to the matrimonial tangle of the great European royalties. By this means, harmonious action is assured whenever the common interests of U.S. Capitalism is threatened. Because their influence invisibly permeates and controls every phase of life and industry, the work of pinning them down is wellnigh hopeless. Such is the gigantic conspiracy of power that is confronting ttie worker in the U.S. to-day, and which, if not dirottled, will prevail throughout the entire world. Think what this means—6 Capitalists control the destinies of no less than 2,651,700 workers in the U.S.! One man controls no less than 785,000 workers—by perverted juslice, corrupt government, strikebreakers, thuggery; aided by clubs, revolvers, and repeating rifles. Ami what is the sworn fact in the U.S. may be the fate of the Australian workers in the future unless we have adequate laws to control the destinies of the Trust. The Class War.

I h.we made some huge assertions against Capitalism in the U.S. it will l>c seen. What are the proofs? Let me give you a very few:— ' 11 w;« proved by the U.S. Courts of .Justice that in the recent Bayonnc strike the Standard Oil Co. obtained the co-operation of public officials to drive strikers back into submission; that it employed a private army of thugs, armed them, and actually conducted a bloody war with numerous casualties, against the strikers, who were not permitted to voice their grievances. It drove the men hack to work. Strikebreakers were rushed in to take the strikers' places, 500 armed men were hired through the detective agency of Berghoff Bros, and Waddell to protect them. They were armed with clubs, repeating rifles, and revolvers, from the armoury of the Standard Oil Co. (For the benefit of the readers, it must be stated that the Standard Oil Co. has a complete armoury, and special trains to rush strike-breakers to any point necessary). In the battle that followed between the strikers and the armed men, several strikers were killed, and many wounded. Take the strike at the Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, where a man with a family sometimes makes £2 15/- per week ,on contract work; where labourers work 10 hours a day for G/3. These men have continually struck for the right to form union organisations, only to see their strike broken by private deled ives, armed guards, and the aid of the militia.

On several occasions the city police have stood in the middle of the street, shooting the strikers through the windows of the factories. On one occasion the men wanted to make a demonstration inarch through the city, but none were plucky enough to lead it. An Italian woman, speaking broken English, said she would lead the men. "They will not harm me," she said (for she was pregnant). That hapless woman was clubbed on the head, and felled in the roadway like a stone. Capitalism broke that strike—a glorious achievement, indeed. Who does not know the history of the cold-blooded murder on the Colorado coalfields? If ever the master hand of the criminal Capitalist was shown up in the limelight it was in Colorado. John 1). Rockefeller is' given a great advertisement for his deeds in that unhappy happening. His work at Ludlow is announced in the U.S. Commission dealing with it as "the crowning infamy of all the infamous record of Rockefeller's life." licvo is the man who donated large sums for health in China, a refuge for birds in Louisiana, food for the Belgians, pensions for the New York widows—the man who leads his Bible with fingers dripping the blood of innocent children—the man who robbed wives of their husbands, children of their fathers—the man who starved, over 10 years, 12,000 men and their families into submission. How they wish that they were the unfortunate Belgians, how they wish for the refuge given to the birds of Louisiana. This is the man who has crushed strikes by the bold violation of every known constitutional right possessed by citizens, who

openly paid militia men, who herded men in bull-pens like cattle, who shattered homes, who suspended the writ of habeas corpus, who loaded hundreds of men on freight cars, guarded by armed soldiers, and dumped them in the foodless and waterless deserts, who drove thousands more, with their wives and children, over the mountain ranges in midwinter snow.

Australians, Beware! His money was able to unseal a (Governor elected by a 15,000 majority, and put in his place a man I never voted on for Governor. His money black-listed 6000 miners, I when "peace" came, and drove them into exile. The Conspiracy of Capitalism is to-day responsible for 21,508 men, women, and children, by actual count, being supported by various unions for their daily bread in Colorado. And the same gang drove 12,000 men, women, and children into wind-swept tents in midwinter, hired soldiers to lire on the unfortunate victims in the Valley of Ludlow in April, 1014. And now that public opinion is howding against the master criminal; of the Standard Oil Company, this canting Bible-reader has formulated | a "union educational, campaign," to tour the U.S., aided by college prol'es-j sors, bitterly denouncing trades' unions, for the purpose of "ameliorating or removing the unfavourable criticism on Mr Bockefeller which I has arisen throughout the country." I have shown you, in some form,! the power that the Criminal Capital- J ist exercises over the unfortunate workers of the U.S. Much more could be said, but space does not al-! low for a further exposition of the! case. ; But the main point to remember is this: What is the Hell of the U.S.worker to-day may be the fate of the Australian working man, if Capitalism is allowed to get iis way. To-day we find the various finan-1 cial and commercial interests being; linked up in the self-same way as' they have been linked up in the U.S. The Trusts are growing bold-, er, Capitalism is getting more arrogant. We want a process of law] that will keep Australia free of thisl domination. We, have the means; before us in the coming Referendum.: It is our dutv to "Vote Yes."

Labourites Honoured. Two men are included in the New Year Honours List. They are the Right Hon. William Crooks and the Right Hon. Geo. N. Barnes, who have been appointed to the Privy Council. Mr Crooks is member for Woolwich, having occupied the seat with only a short interval when he was in retirement. Will Crooks was born in a workhouse, and makes no secret of the fact. He is not only of the people, but of the slum people also. To them he has been as a father. He visited New Zealand a year or two ago, when the writer had the pleasure of meeting him, and of moving a vote of appreciation of his work at a great meeting in His Majesty's Theatre, Crooks makes a great human appeal to his audience, of whatever class it might be composed. At the present juncture he is an ardent patriot, and when he recently visited the British lines in France he

received a great ovation from the Tommies.

George Barnes is member for the Blackfriars Division of Glasgow, and for many years has been general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, lie is a hardheaded Scotchman, lacking the appealing qualities of Crooks, but capable in elucidating facts. The writer heard him on the platform in London at the time of King Edward's Coronation, when, in conjunction with our own late Premier, Mr Scddon, and the late Right Hon. William Booth, he and Will Crooks made an appeal on behalf of pensions for the aged people of Britain. That reform has long since been realised.

BACKACHE AND KIDNEY TROUBLE. "MY KIDNEYS WOULD THROB, AND SOME NlfiHTSn COULD NOT SLEEP AT ALL." "I suffered terribly from Backache and Kidney Trouble; for about six years, and at times the pain was so bad that I would groan with it," writes Mrs H. Burmeister, 12 Channel Street, Ballarat E., Vic. "At times my Kidneys would throb, for they were the weakest part of my body. I was so bad at times that I could not lie on my back, and some nights 1 could not sleep at all, 1 felt so weak. I tried all kirds of advertised remedies, and pills, but none seemed to help me in the least, and I was really run down. A kind friend recommended me to try I)r Sheldon's Gin Pills, which I did, and after the, first few doses i felt they were going to do me good. I have only taken a small course of them, and feel excellent. I can sleep well, eat well, and do my household duties without a bit of trouble or pain, and I feel as happy as the days are lons." l)r Sheldon's Gin Pills are sold at 1/0 and 2/C. Obtainable everywhere.