THE LABOUR OUTLOOK.

Timaru Herald, Volume LII, Issue 5157, 2 June 1891, Page 4

THE LABOUR OUTLOOK.

IMPORTANT DISCUSSION. At tho annual meeting of the East London Group of tho Fabian Sooiety, Mr Tom Mann delivered an address upon "The Labour Outlook." Mr Mann Jsaid he did not think it possible to say anything very favourablo about hia aubjeot. Borne little good bad been done by labour organiaation m the poat yoar, but it was so little that ho did not feel inolinod to make much of it. In spite of all they could do, the great mass of squalor and misery remained always with tbem. He had had great hopos that this year would ccc an improvement m East London life, but it seemed further off than ever, whatever might be tho disciplinary result of the newly- / formed organisations. In the immediate neighbourhood of their meeting there wero thousands of men who had not earned 5a - per week for months past, and he might say there wore hundreds who had earned nothing daring the same period. No reduotion of hours would meet the caße, for trade m Kaat London wa3 intermittent m its activity. The only way m wbich he could aeo any remedy was m the direction of municipal workshops where at any rato a man might get work if he wanted it at some sort of wogea. But this seemed a long way off, and ao did a BBtiafactory settlement of the land queetion, whereby the continual ircfl-ix- of agricultural labourer* iuto the towi,. viuld be checked, and alao "cans for n't^uc. -' baok again aome of tii.oe who li.. I already left. Ro turning to tho hours iiueslion, Mr Mann aaid he could not i:g,-.-e' with a universal, compulsory eight h mra law all round, nor again oould ho agree lo the old trade unionists, who were opposed to any legal acti.m whatever. Tbe Fabian Eight Hours Bill came aa nearly aa possible up to his ideae, but he thought their Bill might be amended by the introduction of local trade option. Iv some towns trade unionists were much more ready to adopt this system than m others, and he did not eeo why they ehould be oalled upon to wait for their laggard brethren. Replying to the commercial objectiona to hia proposal, the epeaker aaid that great anomalies existed at tbo prosent time. But thia would not remedy tho aeaaon trades, like the tea-trade, for inetance. All their work hitherto hud been merely a skimming of the surface ; they had aa yet not touched, nut even realised, the great masa of misery which over-shadowed the unskilled labour of tho country, and cooperation and trade unionism only benefited the higheat class of labour. (Hear, hear.) Mr Bernard Shaw, referring to the question of the establishment of municipal workshops, aaid there would be no faith m the municipal organiaation of labour unless ta»re was ou the one hand a demand for work, and on the other a demand for publio services. All efforts m this direction m the paat bad been the eetting of men to digging holeß and then filling them up again. They werealwayeconfronted with the failure of tho experiment when made m Paris m 1848, and he thought it better to make a beginning m tho municipaitisation of railways, tramways, harbours, and docks, &c. He must confeaa to a sneaking fondness for a compulsory eight hours law for all tradea and induatriea, and ho thought the commercial arguments against tbis course had been very much over-rated.