LABOUR ITEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 6063, 24 September 1894, Page 3

LABOUR ITEMS.

I ■ "I- » '" (PlB BtEOTMO TilEaaAPH— GoPYRIBBT.) (PSR FbSSS ASSOCIATION.) Received 0.50 p.m., September 22nd. Adelaide, September 22. The smelters' strike baa collapsed, the men resuming work at lower rates than those ruling before the strike. Received 0.50 a.m., September 24th. Sydney, September 23. There is likely to be a strike over the reduction of printers' wagea. Tha Typo, graphical Association has requested the men not to enter upon an agreement with the masters without consulting the society. The masters are not likely to submit the matter m dispute to a conference because the men refused such a course some time ago. Between 500 and 600 men are affected. MrWTSfcesd has written a book about the recent labour war m America. He wai at well qualified for tbe task perhaps ai anyone, for he visited tha States last year and spoke to mo*t of the leaders on both sides m the labour war since started and ended. The immediate cause of tbe Chicago strike was the dogged refusal of Mr Pullman to permit aoy reference whatever of the dispute to arbitration, but its real root lies deeper :— *' It is to be found m the rooted distrust which is tbe canker o! American civilisation. In busineis, men have forgotten God, they have lost faith m man, and they are reaping the penalty. Ifijom of old was it not written : ' if ye be trilling and obedient, ye shall eat of the fit of the lend, but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord bath spoken it ?' . . . In every direction, wberevor we tarn, we are confronted with the same phenomenon. In place of cooperation^ confidence, there is everywhere the fiercest rivalry of cut-throat competition, «ating confidence out of the heart of man. " Capitalism m America is, Mr Stead thinks, quite SO years behind the times ac represented by England : — " Ifc it like going baok to the middle of the oentury to visit the American Bepublio. In moat matters pertaining to social evolution; io. things industrial, and, indeed, m many other things, they are about 60 years behind us. Their trades unions sre •till regarded with tbe same suspicion, ' reientment, and distrust that they were looked upon m the Old Osuntry before the repeal of tha combination law. Labour, on its part, raliei more npon violence than upon organisation, ana wh»n a striVe ooeurs, slaughter, on one side or the other, is regarded as an ordinary and unavoidable incident." The origin of Gox«yism is to bs found m the existence of bu immense number of unemployed m the Unittd States. Mr Stead quotes euoh unimpeachable authorities as ' Dunn ' and ' Bradstreet's ' that last winter thiro wera from three to four million worklew workws in the American Bepublio:— 'lf 'BraditreetV be right;, the Americans had An army of unemployed last winter as numer out aa tbe soldiers under the colours m all the standing armies of Europe. The political economist who waxes eloquent over the waste of wealth occasioned by the bloated armaments of the present century always reckons the cost of the withdrawal of to many ablebodied men from productive industry as a heavier tax than the mere expense of their maintenance. The United States has no •landing army of soldiers to epeak of, but its army of unemployed is indirectly almost ts expensive ss our European soldiery.' Yet Amerioa is the land of millionaires. In his concluding chapter Mr Stead deals ' with the labour outlook m the United States, flrbioh be regard* as deoidedly stormy. He thinks it is with themselves that tba work of the "ng enpration of the working classes must fcsgin i—" Tbe worst vampire that preys upon labour m America is not capitalism, but the feral laok of that spirit of loyal brotherhood <wfeioh is the iodisp«neable foundation of all \efieotive co-operation. Ihe workers Bre numerous enough to control everything, if they oared to do so. But they care mora for party ".shibboleths «nd sectarian feuds than for the weightier matter of the law which governs their lives and the lives of their children." The chief hope that lies m the future seems to be that tbe obstaoles and evils at present oppressing the labouring daises will by their ve?y weight route the American dtople fco deal with the problem with the'eame heroio thoroughness and devotion that they displayed m crushing out slavery* " But ithafc hope is not for to-day, or evon for to. ■morrow." ____________