THE LABOUR MOVEMENT AT HOME.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12734, 1 April 1909, Page 4

THE LABOUR MOVEMENT AT HOME.

The other clay we referred to tho particulars given by the London correspondent of the Sydney Telegraph of the advance of Socialism and Labour in the Old Country. He expressed the opinion that Labour in. fluence would continue to advance until it had a political representation strong enough to hold the balance of power between the Liberals and the Unionists. Mr Arthur Henderson, a well-known Labour member of the House of Commons, is not quite so optimistic as the correspondent above referred to, and in a review of the Labour movement in 1908, published in the Oldham Chronicle, he paints a rather doleful picture. The past year he pronounces as the most disappointing period which Labour has experienced for a long time past. He says that exceptional trade 'depression, involving much distress and suffering, long and serious struggles between Capital and Labour, the defeat^ of Labour and Socialist candidates in Parlia~ mentary and local elections, together with the evidence of disunion in the ranks of Labour have been the means of produciug a most disquieting and disastrous effect upon the spirit and prospects of the organised workers. He points out that in March the percentage of unemployed was higher than it had been for any time for over two years, and the depression deepened as the months went by. While 61,591 people gained a net increase amounting to .£4379 per week, no less than 461,295 suffered reductions representing ,£60,892 per week. This lowering of the purchasing power of so many people decreased to a like extent the demand for commodities; hence British trade fell considerably during last year as compared with the years immediately preceding. Mr Henderson, continuing his gloomy summing up, says it would be difficult to find in the history of organised Labour a • period more replete with failure on the part of the workers in their conflicts with capital than that associated with 1908. Compared with the same period of the j.revious year, there were less disputes, though 561,647 workers were involved, as ng-ainst 124,682, and 9,777,800 working days were lost, as compared with 1,738,400 in 1907.' The textile dispute alone cost the operatives j>1,000,000 sterling, and the shipbuilding trades and the engineers of the North-East Coast failed to prevent reductions which they had long previously resisted. One outstanding feature of the year has been the decided advance towards conciliation and arbitration, and Mr Henderson speaks hopefully of the benefits likely to accrue from the setting up of arbitrators by the Board of Trade. What the writer describes as "Labour's Tragedies," are on the increase, "each succeeding year showing a rich harvest of lives sacrificed, while if we enter the domain of non-fatal injuries we at once encounter an equally serious state of affairs — over 1,000,000 accidents to life and limb in ten years." A easeful analysis of the results of the Parliamentary and municipal contests for the year shows them to be marked by more than one disquieting and discouraging feature from the point of view of Labour. In six b^relections, in all of which Labour was rep-

resented, only one was won by the latter, although the contests were in great industrial constituencies. Further, in no less than three of the contests there was open revolt against the executive of Loth the Labour Party and the Independent Liberal Party, and much recrimination followed. The municipal contests were even wors?, and evidence was supplied of a decided revolt; of public opinion against the too aggressive tactics adopted on some local authorities. Concluding, Mr Henderson warns the workers, and there is in his warning a leseon for the workers of New Zealand, that they cannot go far in advance of public opinion, otherwise re-ac-tion will assuredly follow.