Wellington Indepent TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1872.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVII, Issue 3456, 26 March 1872, Page 2

Wellington Indepent TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1872.

Successive mails from England have informed us of the progress of a great and general struggle on the part of the working classes to better their condition and to acquire for LaW a greater share of the wealth it creates. The movement is not confined to England. The same feeling is being manifested by the artisans of Russia, of Germany, of Italy, of France and Belgium, aud by the manufacturing classes of America, and there is no doubt that this coincidence is not accidental, but is the evidence of the existence of a strong organisation which has' extended its influence over the greater part of the civilised world. In England the struggle that is going on between employers and their workmen differs widely from the old " strike." Until latterly the Trades Unions did not profess to aim at much more than securing for their members the highest rate of wages obtainable. The time of "strikes" was generally made to lit the circumstances of trade ; if business happened to be brisk and the masters were making profits proportionate to the losses they had sustained during the period of .depression, the workpeople knew they held the key of the position, and that by combination they could compel the masters to give them a temporary increase of wages rather than allowr their works to stand idle. But the present movement amongst the industrial classes is undoubtedly of a much higher standard, and for that reason is not only to be regarded with respect and attention, but it may be justly considered as a movement fraught with the most important influences on the future history of mankind, In forms varying considerably in their designation and system, and in the objects arrived at, the working classes of Europe have commenced a crusade i against those conditions of social and industrial economy which have produced the greatest anomaly the world ever saw — that whilst nations are collectively increasing in wealth, whilst trade and commerce of every kind are increasing at a rate never before witnessed, the rich are becoming richer, and the poor, poorer — that pauperism and misery were never so wide spread and general, and that the working classes whose labor has produced the vast profits and development of every branch of trade seem never to get even a glint of the rays of the sun of prosperity. It is not mere higher wages that the present movement is striving for. It is for raising the whole social status of the laboring population, and for securing a fair equivalent of profit, comfort, and advancoment, to that which capital may be entitled to. There is much that is visionary and Utopian in the details of the organisation — as witness the impracticable proposalb made through Mr Scott Russell a short time ago ; but there can be no doubt in thoughtful minds that such societies as the " International" do but herald some enor-

mous social revolution ; not perhaps a revolution of cannon and barricades, but a revolution wrought out by the organisation of the undeniable strength of the working classes. As Karl Marx, the great oracle of the International, told the first deputation «*the first projectors of a world-wide combination of the laboring classes : " The laborer must be redeemed by himself; no other power can rescue him, for all the classes higher in the scale are leagued against him ; not by conscious bonds and forms, but by their special interests in the stored-up capital of the world. They are his enemies even though they call themselves his friends. The best of them could not save him if they would ; the worst of them would not save him if they could." It was with this view that the International Society was first formed, and although the original intention, and the one most likely to be carried out, has been mixed up with political revolutionism on the Continent, now that the war is over and there is not so much temptation to rush into political agitation, the organization is making its way chiefly in the direction of the ameliora tion of the working classes. The effect of the combination has already been so great ihat the wages of the coal and iron workers of Belguim are so closely approximating the rate paid in England that the difference of the price of labor can hardly enter into the competition between the manufacturers of the two countries. In England, at the present time, a struggle for shorter hours of labor is being sustained with apersistence and courage which merits success. The last Reform Bill gave enormous political power to the people, and when they get the Ballot we may expect to see some remarkable changes in the constitution [of society in Great Britain. And these I changes will not be confined to England ; they are being already quietly worked out all over the world. The " International" numbers its millions of members ; in some places they are revolutionary and violent, but there they are weakest ; but its majority are simply men pledged to sustain the rights of labor and to raise the condition of the working classes. Whether these noble ends may not be wrecked upon violence and crime is a problem 'that time alone can solve. At any rate, there is no doubting the fact that one of the most powerful organizations of our time exists, and that it is now influencing, and will continue to influence, very considerably the social and political interests of the civilized world.