THE WORKING CLASSES AND LABOUR DAY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 38, 26 June 1891, Page 19

THE WORKING CLASSES AND LABOUR DAY.

(Liverpool Catholic 'limes, May 8.) The working classes on the whole signalised Labour Day by orderly and creditable demonstrations. Tbe principal manifestations in these countries took place on Sunday, and throughout England and Ireland the toilers gave proof of their power to organise and their desire to advocate their cause without disturbing the public peace or haviog recourse to deeds of violence. In London. Dublin, and other parts of the United Kingdom where public meetings were held, no need whatever arose for the intervention of the police, the thousands who assembled together being all animated by the common feeling that to commit any breach of the peace would argue ..little zeal for the interests of labour. The manly, dign fied conduct of the mass s whist thus uni'ng in bringing their claims and grievances before thepublic reflects bomur upon them, and cannot but prove immensely servicable to their cause. The views proclaimed by the speakers at Sunday's g<v Lenngs were in some few cases, it is true, of an advance 1 character, but the tree discussion even of chimerical schemes is of advantage, for it tends to brin.; out clearly their uasoundness. The workmg-clneses in these countries may be sifely assumed to be capable of estimati g at their proper value public addresses on a subject wita the phases of which their daily duties render them familiar an 1 they may bi trusted to separate the wheat from the chaff. It is by the exercise of cUm judgment on tbe part of the people that the free British Constitution was built up. Boldness of expression and the assertion of advanced ideas have never beea feared ; the principle that the citizens are safe guardians of the true interests of a free State h is been acted upon, aad therefore it is that a lovd of order is almost invariably exhibited at our great labour demonstration-. The contrast to our Labour Day processions and meetings displayed by Continental nations on the occasion of similar demonstrations is remarkable and instructive. Whilst working-men are here allowed to combine in serried columns, to match with banaera flying, and generaLy to comport themselves like a vast army, in various pirts of the Continent such assemblages are looked upon with busjjicion and dread, aad if not prohibited altogether, are hold f.urly within range of the guns of arrays of military forces. No doubt, the precautions on tje part of the authorities are often necessary, a 9 propagators of Communism and anarchy make no secret of their intention to avail themsaivjs of such oppjrtunities, if p S3ible, to foment disaffection. But it appears to us that this anarcbial disposition amongst certain sections of the woikin? classes is the punishment of State despjtum and governmental incapacity. For instance, whilst the toilers of Switzerland, which is ruled on the whole well and wisely, celebrated Labour Day as peacefully as our own working classes, serious collisions with the military are associated with tbe memories of the day in Italy and France. In Rome a soldier and a civilian were killed, and thirtyseven persons were woundel. At Fourmies, in France, fourteen persons were killed and forty wouDded. There were a number of riots and skirmishes in other towns of both these countries. Now, Italy and France may not be despotically governed, but they certainly do not enjoy the fullest measure of freedom. They are under

the sway of men who are too much amenable to the pressure of cliques and classes and who do not take a broad statesmanlike rieir of the rights of the people as a whole. It assuredly behoves the nations of Europe to be alive to the movements and aims of the working classes, for if we may judge by the signs of the times, the toiling multitudes are working towards changes which will affect the government of more than one State. They are, indeed, beginning to recognise that they hold Governments, so to speak, in the palm of their hands, and the unrest of which they are giving proof in some of the Continental nations is not a very happy augury for the present regimes in those countries. In Italy and Germany socialistic propagandism has been carried on so successfully amongßt the working population, that the day is probably not far distant when they will consider themselves strong enough to attempt the abolition of the monarchial and the substitution of a republican form of government. Increased prosperity may retard the progress of the revolutionary movement, but it seems m if such results were merely a question of time. In Belgium, likewise, the action of the labouring classes is a source of grave anxiety to tbe authorities, and just now the country is the theatre of ft gigantic mioing strike which paralyses almost every industry. A conspiracy against the Government may exist to some extent in that country ; yet it is not probable that the spirit of republicanism has made headway in any notable measure amongst the Belgians, for they are governed judiciously and with a wise regard for the rights of every class. Of the Labour Day speeches, both at home and abroad, the key note baa beon tbe neceisity of legally enacting and tnforcing an Eight Hours' day. The project may be feasible enough in regard to certain occupations. To secure an eight hours' limitation for all sorts of toil will, however, be »n utter impossibility unMl an international agreement to that effect is arranged, an event which may be expected at tbe Greek Kalends. To us the chief benefits of the Labour Day demonstrations are these : that the working classes are the better enabled to realise their strength and their responsibilities, and that their unity, so remarkably manifested, must impress upon employers the danger of quarrelling with a force so well-organised and powerful. In a word, the working classes show by such displays how capable they are of safeguarding their rights and contending against the efforts of capitalists who may endeavour to Bubject them to injustice.