Labour Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 33, 3 June 1892, Page 2

Labour Notes.

The great Labour Associations of the United States are the American Federation and the Knights of Labour. A report recently issued by the Federation gives the bodies united with it as follows :— " 65,000 carpenters, 41,000 iron and steel workers, 35,000 bricklayers and stone masons, 30,000 locomotive engineets, 28,000 printer*, 27,000 cigarmakers, 23,000 locomotive firemen, 20,000 miners, 20,000 granitecutters, 17,600 bakers, 17,000 tailors, 16,000 trainmen, 16,000 painters and decorators, and other miscellaneous trades with a membership of 340,000, making a total membership of 675,000. " The members of the Association of the Knights of Labour may be reckoned at about 300,000, which added to the total of the Federation would give over a million of men belonging to the unions. Such a body must necessarily exercise a strong political influence, though, owing to the system of States Legislation, their power is divided. In Great Britain the nniens own a membership of something over 871,000 ; the coalminers numbering 128,000 ; the dock-labourers, 57,000 ; the shipbuilders, 33,000 ; and the railroad employees of all kinds, 32,000. Much still remains to be done in either country before the whole working population is organised. Meantime, the unions complain that the free-labourers, without being bound by their rules, assisting their efforts, or contributing towards their support or success, share fully in the advantages gained by them. The temptation is, of conrse, that the uniom should try to force the free labourers into association with them. It is, however, to certain soeistiet of continental Europe that

we may especially take m applicable thete words of the Pope'i Encyclical :— " Bat there is a good deal of evidence which goet to prove that many of these societies are in the hands of invisible leaders, and are managed on principles far from compatible with Christianity and the public well being ; and that they do their best to get into their bands the whole fiald of labotr, and to force men either to join them or to starve." To escape from these designs the Pope recommends Christian workmen to form their own associations— to " unite their forces and courageously shake off the yoke of an unjust and intolerable oppression." In legitimate union lies the workingman'a strength, and it is well to see that, although much still remains to be done, it is making such fail progress in America and Great Britain.

The unemployed of London remain on the gui vive. Alarm has been spread among the dockers owing to a report that an unloading machine bad been invented, and was about to be employed in discharging ships. The men are naturally inquiring what is to become of them if the means, already not over-abundant, of earning their living be entirely taken from them. Numerous meetings have been held representative generally of the labourers and artisans out of work. At some of them violent speeches, seeming to justify the presence of strong forces of tha police, were made. The well known leaders, Burnß and Tillett, in some instances, came in for hard knocks as not having exerted themselves to aid the Buffering masses. A demand was made for permanent work. But in making this demand the men are decidedly within their rights. " Tbe preservation of life," says the Pope in his Encyclical, "is the bounden duty of each and all, and to tail therein is a crime. It follows that each one has a right to procure what is required in order to live, and the poor can procure it in no other way than by work and wages." The agitation of tbe London unemployed, therefore, is one with which every Catholic must sympathise.

An agitation against the truck system is going on in the United States. Laws have from time to time been passed by several of tbe States' legislatures against the system. They have, however, been constantly evaded. The evils complained of in connection with the system, and the insistence made that some effectual stop must be put to it, show us, for example, the wisdom of the preventive Bill* introduced into Parliament by Sir Patrick Buckley, and which is now tbe law of the colony.

The sweating system has recently been the subject of an inquiry in several of the cities of the United States. In New York the Factory Inspectors are said to have done fair work, but still a good deal remains to do, and vigilance must be maintained. In Boston, also, reform has made some progress, but in Chicago matters are reported as very bad. A committee of Congress which has recently visited tbe city to inquire into the abuse in question, express themselves as surprised and Bhocked at what they have witnessed.

A demand for shorter hours among the labourers and artisans of the United States seems now pretty general. Several unions— notably for instance, the carpenters in Baltimore, Cincinnati, Denver, Salt Lake, and Decatur, are atking for a day of eight hours. A Bill is before the legislature of Rhode Island providing for the reduction of the day of 10 hours to 9 hours. What, however, reada somewhat strange, is the fact that a similar Bill in favour of women and children is before the legislature of Massachusetts. It must needs be a small mercy thit would concede to a child tbe privilege of working in a factory for 9 hours a day — including Saturday. "Daily labour," says the Encyclical, " must be so regulated that it may not be protracted daring longer hours than strength admits." The Holy Father forbids tbe employment of children in workshops and factories until their bodies and minds are sufficiently mature." " Women, again," he says, "are not suited to certain trades, for a woman is by nature fitted for home work, and it is that which is best adapted at once to preserve her modesty and to promote tLe good bringing up of children and the well being of tbe family." "As a general principle," concludes tbe clause, "it may be laid down that a workman onght to have leisure and rest in proportion to the wear and tear of his strength ; for tbe waste of strength must be repaired by the cessation of work." But eight hours' labour a day is amply sufficient even for a strong man.

The woollen industry has made notable progress in the United S ates during the ten years ending 1890. The number of bands employed in it has increased by 60,000. The number of woollen factories, meantime, has largely decreased — which shows a concentration of the industry, Tbia is attributed to an improvement in machinery. The wages paid have increased by an annual Bum of 30,000,000 do!s.

A report, apparently founded on fact, that the Companies at Broken Hill were about to work their mines on the contract system, has caused much discussion and some indignation in the locality con* cerned. " Argentnm," wbo writes in the Barrier Miner, condemns the system ai increasing the danger already existing in an undetir-

Able degree from the employment of unskilled labour. Writing, evidently as one who knows, he denounces this as dangerous to life and limb. A leader in the same paper commenting on a coarse statement made in a contemporary that the miners lived in " undeserved fatness " gives some particulars as to the relative profits of shareholders and workers. The holders of Block 10, he says, last year, on a payment of £30 to Government, were permitted to extract from their mine £200,000 worth of ore, of which £1,50,000 went in dividends and £19,000 in wages. " Wages, we are told, are fixed by free consent," says the Pope, " and, therefore, the employer, when he pays what was agreed upon, has done his part and is not called upon for anything further. . . , This mode of reasoning is by no means convincing to fair minded men, for there are important considerations which it leaves out of view altogether." " Argentum " tells U9 that the wages at Broken Hill are 10s per shift, a sum which, owing to the desrness of necessaries, he equals to from 7s to 7s 6d in other centres, We may add to this, as we are also told, unhealthy conditions, exceptionally hazardous works, and a want of water. It may be doubted, therefore, if even tbe 10s per shift comes up to the requirement of tbe Papal decree that the remuneration must be enough to support the wage-earner in reasonable and frugal comfort. The proposal to under-buy him is one of those things that make the capitalist stink in the nostrils of the people. Working by contract, we may add, is included in the Pope's Encyclical among the causes that contribute towards the evil plight of the poor*

At a meeting of representatives of the amalgamated districts of the Queensland Shearers and Labourers' Unions, which recently took place at Charleville, a resolution was paseed expressing sympathy with the prisoners convicted of outrages in the late shearers' riots, and demanding their release. To explain such a step the innocence of the men imprisoned should be apparent. Now that the doings, or the attempted doings, of Anarchists throughout the world tend to bring discredit on the cause of the masses, caution is very necessary. Labour has not yet gained the day, and its destiny remains uncertain. It should certainly refrain from any steps that might bring it in'o suspicion with the better disposed claeses of soci :ty. Military despotism, which is quite possible as an alternative to its success, is much to be deprecated, but anything is preferable to anarchy. Sympathy with outrage-mongers or disorderly criminals, therefore, on the part of labour representatives is to be deprecated. The meeting also drew up a constitution for their association, in which several of the rules seem wise and moderate.

The strike of the coal-miners of Durham, which has how continned for some time, is a cause of great distress in other quarters. This is particularly the case with regard to the iron-workers of Yorkshire, of whom many thousands ate said to be reduced to starvation. It was possibly in reference to this strike and its consequences that Lord Salisbury, as reported, declared it impossible for the Government to legislate. The case, nevertheless, seems to be included among those against which the Holy Father declares the law should provide. He gives the common causes of a strike as too long hours, too hard work, or insufficient wages. " The laws should be beforehand," he says, "and prevent these troubles from arising. They should lend their influence and authority to the removal in good time of the causes which lead to conflicts between masters and those whom they employ " The remedy employed by Lord Salisbury, nevertheless, and his Tory colleagues, if they had their way, would be that of the aristocratic old lady described by Dickens — that is, a charge of cavalry.

It is not, however, only from etrikes that distress has arisen among the workers— 7o,ooo operators have been locked out by tbe Federation of Master Spinnere. The reason assigned is losses from the fall of silver and a decrease in profits on goods exported to India,

Among the details of sweating in Auckland brought out by the investigation undertaken by Miss Morrison, of Dunedin, we find it stated that in some instances tailoresses work 14 hours a day to earn 123 a week. It also appears that numbers of girls have been intimidated by their employers from joining the unions. Is not this a case for the interference of the law ? In Adelaide, meantime, a Government inquiry has revealed the fact that seamstresses have been making shirts from 3s 6d to 43 per dozen,

A United Press Association telegram, under date, Wellington, May 27, gives the following details of the co-operative contract work on the N. Z. railways. Whangarei-Kamo — 100 men averaged 7s 7^d per day ; Grahamstcwn-Te Arona — 205 men averaged 7s 6^d ; North Island Trunk— l9s men averaged Bs2|l; Wellington-Woodville — 120 men averaged 7a 9i ; Greymouth-Hokitika— Bß men averaged 8a lid Seaward Bush (Southland) — 86 men averaged 83 3£J. In all, 589 men were employed. This is somethirg very different from the old-time regulation of 4s 6d a day. It must be placed to the credit of the present Government.

The Paris Gaulou states that the number of people in France who died of hanger daring the year 1891 was 97,000, the number who went mad in consequence of misery and privations of various kinds was 71,000, and the number of Crimea committed was 247,000.

A proposal made in Sydney to introduce Italian labour into the colonies is creating some alarm. Bat according to the Hon Mr Webber, U. S. Immigration Commissioner, each relay of foreign immigrants introduced into the States raised the position of the immigrants who had preceded them, replaciag them in the lower callings and advancing their status. Bat, with the names of 8,000 men registered at the Sydney labour bureau, the market in New South Wales must be regarded as pretty well stocked.

The agitation for 8 hoars a day going on just now in some parts of the United States and elsewhere may seem to some people undesirable. There might possibly be inconveniences attached to having the matter fixed by legislation. The barbarity of the longer ho urs, however, is worse than inconvenient, and of tw3 evils we must choose the lesser. It is interesting to remember that in the golden age of the English labourer, placed by Professor Thorold Rogers in tbe fifteenth century and the beginning of the sixteenth, when food was cheap and wages high — the working day was of eight boars. The shorter hours, then, evidently did not interfere with production — one of the arguments now employed by opponents of the claim. The agitation seems most deserving of sympathy and support.

We have drawn largely in these notes on the Pope's Encyclical. We have done so for two reasons ; and whenever we return to the subject of labour we shall continue to do so : — First, because all Catholics are bound in duty to take the Encyclical as their practical guide in every question of the kind, and not to treat it as a document to be admire dand praised, but then laid respectfully aside in an honourable placa on a book-shelf ;— Secondly, the teaching of the Holy Father is bo comprehensive that no point can be found to which it is not applicable, and it is impossible to find anywhere better informed, more direct, or more practical instruction. The exhaustive wisdom of the Pope and his all-embracing insight are wonderfully manifeited in this document.