MR McLEAN AGAIN SPEAKS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4936, 8 September 1890, Page 4

MR McLEAN AGAIN SPEAKS.

Interest m Wedne.day'e debate m the Legißlative Council on the Employers Liability Bill oentred m the speech made by the Hon G M'Lean (chairman of tho Union Steamship Company), as it dealt with the strike matter. . ... After making a few oriticisms on tho BUI, Mr K'Lean proceeded :— We know that for years past there has been conßtaiit wrangling between the seamen and the engineers, and between all other employees on the steamers, and whether this condition is to go on or not, things at any rate are now going m a different way from what they were when m the different steamers the men were quarrelling one with another. Take the state of things on tho other side, where all the difficulty has arisen through a seaman quarrelling with a steward, and where the employers had considored the seaman to be m the wrong and had dismissed him. It wa» all through two unionists fighting each other, and through one of the unions stating that this man should be put back m his employment- But the employers declined to put him book, holding that he wa» m the wrong. Then the Seamen s Union threatened to withdraw every savor from every steamer m the company s service, and to stop the service. This has been the kind of quarrelling that has been going on m tho ehipi, and through which one's life has not been bearable. Whatever may come out of all this talk about unionism, there is at any rate one danger. We want unionism by which men will try and ameliorate the condition of their fellow men, and not to bring them into the condition m which they are now. where you have people walking out from good employment and good wagea at the command of anyone, m order to starve their wiveß and children. We are having that experience now, for, as you know, we are engaged m fighting a battle. They try to get up a cry of " Labour agams Capital." Now what is there m such a cry as that ? Where is labor to be paid from, if fiave put their money into these cooperative societies, intJ thete limited liability companies, which is practically Co-operation. Now the order is sent up to knock to pieces all the earnings they have put into these things. This is what is called fighting againat capital. Where is the acquired wealth m New Zealand ? I would like to know what there is to fight about ? I have no quarrel with our people. I have never had any quarrel with them ; I deoline to quarrel. We have never taken the men out of our ships. They declare that they ore ready to say that we are good masters ; that we pay them well and feed them well, and that we do everything one can desire. I have been asked over and over again to ask the directors to punish the seamen who walked a nay and who have left us m the lurch as. they have done. Is it not punishment enough to see these poor deluded men walking down the steps from good employment, with their faces down to the ground, deploring their having to do this thing at the bidJing oE any one man or section of men ? r ihey say that they are leaving good employment, but they do not know what it is for, but that they must go out and must stick to their colleagnes. But when the time comes to consider the position they have been getting themselves into ; when tbey have time to discuss it with their wives and their families ; when trouble is already at the 4oor through their breaking a cog-wheel of an industry the stoppage of which has set .everything out of gear throughout the .colony ; when these a;cn come to think of nil this, and begin to think of what their leaders have led them into, what will be the condition of those leaders ? We have seen and read many a time, of people turning round on their loaders and taking extreme action against them. I would warn those leaders who arc doing this now to be caraful iha£ their own peoplo do not turn round an Hum. They will suffer much more at their hands than we shall suffer at thura. I have nothing to say against the men at the head of affairs who have been creating all this commotion. 'Xbey are respectable and honest I have no douht m their desire, but tos art of government is not learned m a year, nor perhaps m a lifetime. I» it to be supposed that these men are able to handle the whole of the industries of the colony, to gather the unions together, and to hand ova* to them— all men who have no experience m government or m combining — all the trades for good. They have lost their hoads, bave called this and the other ont, and they will hare the country m a pretty state presently. But the people will begin to settle down again ; and although it may put New Zealand back a few years, out of all this good will come. lam not a prophet but I venture to say that it will not be long before we shall Bee every industry going as hitherto. But what will be the difference : that these men m the unions and corporations, though hiving to pay £3 for an entrance fee, will be short of employment. All these will vanish, and then tho other people who have bean left out m the cold will bave their innings. Ido hope that these men will earneatly think of the position they have placed themselves m, and will take an opportunity of retiring from the position tbey have" taken up. I am snre that there are symptoms now. observable which lead one to think that the end is not far off. McD have been led to think that their employers have all been making money ; that they have a mint behind them with which tbey coin sovereiogs to band out ; but it will be brought home to them that every industry will stand so much according to its value id tne world, and if they keep raisin;; tho w»geo till they oat everything np there will be nothing left to pay them with. What, then, i« the good of wagea being raised to ruin tbe employer f They have got to understand this, and they are beginning to understand it now. Perhaps I am travelling a little outside of the Employers' Liability Bill, but there are times m which it ii necessary to speak a little wholesome trutb. I believe that there is hardly a man who, if left to himself, would not be back at hie employment to-morrow, if he could get back.