Labour Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 45, 26 August 1892, Page 2

Labour Notes.

The Bishop of Wilcannia preached a sermon on the Pope's Labour Encyclical at Broken Hill on Sunday evening, July 31. We take the following passages from the report given by the Barrier Miner :— " Dr Dnnne maintained that the aims of the socialist leaders generally were anti-Ohristian, and especially denied any right on the part of the State to interfere with the family as regarded marriage and the education of the children. He also condemned land nationalisation and other socialist projects, which would ultimately tend to the injury of the workers. The Labour Encyclical, in dealing with strikes, regards them as often brought ahout by just causes, such as a demand for shorter hoars and more reasonable wages ; and maintains that in the interests of other portions of the community, the State should interfere to prevent such paralyses of industry. Dr Dunne strongly urged this view, and declared that experience was teaching us that the sooner the State interfered to pat an end to such a condition of things the better. The Bishop then referred to those portions of the encyclical which point out that the hours of labour should be proportioned to the conditions, such as the climate, character of the work, etc. ; and said that happily in Australia eight hourß was recognised as a day's work, and was amply sufficient in a climate such as ours. After referring to »he duties of the workers, Dr Dunne passed to the duties of the employers. He denounced the idea, derived from infidel and materialistic doctrines, that men were to bo treated as mere machines oat of which so much work was to be got for so much money, and that the relation between the employer and the employed was merely a monetary onp. He showed that the Church bad very different views, and maintained that the employer had a right to see to the moral as well as material welfare of bis workmen. The encyclical, referring to the general assumption that wages are " fixed by free consent," showed that this is a fallacy so far as one side— the worker—is concerned, he often being compelled by necessity to accept what is less than fair and] just. The Pope then laid down the principle that every man should be paid a sufflaient wage to keep him and his family in reasonable and frugal comfort, Dwelling on this principle, Dr Dunne said that if such wages were paid, the workman could acquire his little plot of ground and render it productive, thus making him more independent of the employer and doing away w.th the injurious idea of land nationalisation. This would also tend to establish homes in the country, where children could be reared happily and virtuously, aud prevent the injurious crowding into cities and the restless and wandering habits which were characteristic

of Australia. Dr Dunne concluded an impressive sermon bj complimenting the men on strike on the good order maintained, and urging them on no account to break the law. He also asked the prayers of the congregation for a speedy and satisfactory settlement of the strike."

A sensation has been^caused by an assault committed on Mr Sleath, district secretary of the A.M.A. at Broken Hill, by Mr Cotton, manager of the local branch of the Australian Joint Stock Bank. The details alleged are to the effect that a dispute had occurred between the secretary and the manager relative to the pay* ment of a draft for £1000 subscribed at Newcastle in aid of the strikers. In the course of the altercation Mr Sleath called Mr Cotton a liar and Mr Cotton replied by striking Mr Sleath a severe blow on the bead with a heavy ruler. The event gave rise to a good deal of discussion, more or less hot in its nature. As it formed a case for the police court, however, and the report has not yet reaaked us, we are unable to pronounce an opinion on it.

The leaders at Broken Hill deny that their employment of pickets implies a breach of the law. One of them explains the matter as follows :— " It has been said that the pickets are to prevent men from going on to the mine ; and Mr Johnson, P.M., said to-day that we bad told them to do so. We have told yon nothing of the kind. If pickets prevent men by force or by menace from going on to the mine, they exceed their duty. What we have said, and what I am sure you understand, is this : that the pickets, when they see anyone approaching the mine, are to tell him civilly that the mine is on strike, to tell him why, and to endeavour by the exercise of argument, of moral suasion, to get him to keep off the mine. If be still determines to go on, then ask him his name, as you have a right to do, and as he has also a right to refuse. That is what the pickets are for."

The MrtJiern, Territory Times complains that naarly all the gold obtained around Port Darwtn belongs to the Chinese :— " Goldgetting here i 9 becoming co entirely a Chinese transaction that it hardy matters to us whether the yield is one ounce or one million. A local mercantile firm, witb its head office in Queensland, has, it is said, caught the retrenchment fever, and is about to export all its general stock and do away with two hands. Another five years of John Chinamen and there will be no need for European warehouses at all. We are teaching the industrious pagan to wipe us out and ha is making good use of bis lesaons."

The United States Department of Labour ia now engaged in making an inquiry into the working of the co-operative building and loan associations, by which the working-classes are provided on easy terms with homes. The result is confidently looked forward to as to throw additional light on the benefits to be derived from cooperation.

The facts attendant on the fight at Carnegie's works, Homestead - Pennsylvania, are lamentable in tha extreme. The dispute arose' from a proposal to reduce the minimum of a sliding scale of wages from 25 do!s a ton to 22 dols a ton. A conference was accordingly held between the representatives of the Amalgamated Association and the manager, Mr Frick, into whose hands the whole control of the business had been given by Mr Carnegie. A concession of a dollar had been made on each side when Mr Frick pat an end to the discussion by abruptly quitting the room. The next thing was a notice posted up to the effect that the men, not having accepted the terms offered, were discharged— and this two days before the expiry of the existing agreement. The conclusion was at once arrived at by the employees that it was not so much a reduction of wages that was in question as a determination to destroy the union, Mr Frick having already earned some notoriety for himielf by similar proceedings elsewhere. This perception, besides, threw a fresh light on certain preparations that had been made. Tha works had been transformed into a fortress ; a high palisade had beeu erected around them, pipes for spouting out cold or scalding water had been set, barbed wire with electric connections had been placed in position, a covered bridge had been provided for the safe introduction of " blacklegs," and other measures had been taken. Then, in a few days, there appeared on the river two barges containing a force of Pinkerton guards from New York, armed with repeating Winchester rifles, and being tugged by a steamboat up from Pittsbnrg. On this the men — the employees numbering about 4000 — hastenad to the yards, broke through the palisade surrounding the works, took up their position among the heaps of steel billets and awaited developments. When the barges approached close enough, the leader, a man named Hugh O'Donnell, warned the Pinkertona that they were not wanted. Neither life nor property, he saiJ, was in danger, and he advised them not to land. A difnnt answer was returned, with a warning to the men to leave the yard immediately. O'Donnell, nevertheless, counselled moderate action, but, while he was speaking, the captuin of the Pinkertons, in landing, accidentally,

with an oar he held in bis band, knocked down a Hungarian workman, and a thoughtless fellow, who stood on the verge of the water, fired his revolver. The Pinkertons replied with a deadly volley, and the fight began. The blood of the workmen was thoroughly roused, and they took every means they could to destroy the barges and their occupants. At last, under a showtr of dynamite bombs, the Pinkertons surrendered and begged for their lives. But, although their prayer was granted and everything possible was done to protect them, they were obliged to run the gauntlet painfully, a number of the rougher men kicking and cuffing them as they passed, and a contingent of women and children afterwards taking up the sport. Eleven of the workingmen and nine of the Pinkertons were killed, and there were, on both sides, large numbers wounded. Mr Prick's seal against the unions, in short, has made a memorable mark on the annals of the country.

Congress hag warmly taken up this struggle at Carnegie's. The Plakerton system has come in for some plain talk, at has also Mr Carnegie. One of the Members, Senator Palmer, spoke a few words relative to the rights of workingmen generally, which are worthy of record.—" He maintained," he said, " that those citissns of Homestead were right. He maintained that, according to the principles of law which should hereafter be applied to the solution of those troubles, they had the right to be there. That made it necesiary for htm to assert that those men had a right to employment there. They had earned the right to live there. Those large manufacturing establishments would have to be hereafter regarded as political establishments in a modified sense, and tbeir owners would have to be regarded as holding their property subject to the co-relative rights of those without whose services tbeir property would be utterly valueless. That only conceded to them a right to a reasonable profit on the capital invested in their enterprise. He maintained, furthermore, that those workingmen, having spent their lives in that peculiar line of service, had the right to insist on the permanency of their employment, and also on a reasonable compensation for their services. He asserted that there was a law broader than that which gave to those men who were employed in special pursuits, such as railroads and manufactures, the right to demand employment. That was a right which could only be defeated by misconduct on their part. He maintained, therefore, that at the time of the assault on those people at Homestead they were where they had a right to be. They were on the ground which they had a right to defend. The militia of Pennsylvania might be called ont and the inhabitants of Homestead might be exterminated, but the labouring men of the country were co conscious of the existence of the right to continuous employment during good behaviour that they would continue to resist. The social war would be still on ; and it would become the duty of Christian statesmen to find some road out of the difficulty."

In preaching the funeral sermon of one of the victims at Carnegie's, the Eev Father Bullin, of St Francis Church, the pastor of a German congregation spoke as follows — testifying solemnly to the outrage committed, and sustaining the proposal of Senator Palmer : — " It is strange to me," he said, " that these differences could not be adjusted in some other way than by deeds of violence such as we have witnessed during the past few days, when apparently it has become necessary in the eyes of the firm to send to this peaceable town men who are called Pinkertoa detectives, but whom I would rather call Pinkerton rowdies, in order to murder these people, the honest toilers who have taken possession of the property in order to defend it. To this property they have a certain right. As Senator Palmer said ia his remaikf on this question :— ' The workingman has a certain right on account of length of time he has been employed in a certain place. He has acquired by his faithfulness not a deed to the property, but a certain claim, and that when he defends this he is doing only what is his right, and as long as be does nothing that is wrong in regard to his employer, he has a right to expect from him permanent employ, ment.' Hence it is wrong for any organised mob to come here and endeavour to deprive that honest labouring man of that right which he has prior to any other outside, The men here who have laboured for years have acquired a certain right to permanent employment as long as they condact themselves properly. We hope the time will come when laws will be formulated accordingly, so that there will never again be occasion for the riotous couduct that has been witnessed here in Homestead during the last few days."

The proposals of Senator Parker with respect to the insurance of permanency to employees is deserving of general consideration. Kf cry man should ha?e a right to keep his place, so long as he is able to discharge its duties, and bo long as a man ia needed there. No such thing should be permitted, even to private employers, as arbitrary dismissal. Nor would such a regulation be without precedent. A rule of the Established Church in Ireland for instance— and the same rule probably still exists in England— waß that the incumbent of a pariah could dismiss his curate only under certain conditions. If he no longer nsaded a curate's services be might dispense with them, but then he must perform the duties of his parish without assia-

tance. He could not dismiss one curate and cn gagd another in bis stead, unless be showed some sufficient moral or physical disqualification to justify the act. Why should not such a rule be made general? It would impose no hardship on employers, and the boon to employees would be great.

A report presented to the House of Representatives by Congressman O'Neill of Missouri on the risk run by railway servants, has caused some dismay. Official returns are cited to prove that in 1890 the number of men killed, while engaged in coupling and uncoupling freight cars and in handling the brakes for such cars, was 2,4sl— the number of those wounded while so engaged being 22,396. The remedy recommended for the sanction of Congress is the application of driving- wheel brakes to locomotives, train brakes for freight cars, automatic couplers, uniform height of draw-bar, and hand holds.

Industrial training schools are receiving increased attention throughout the United States. Exhibitions recently held in three of these institutions in Philadelphia gave evidence of rery admirable progress. Bach institutions are calculated very considerably to raise the status of labour.

The lock-out of the miners of the Cceur d'Alene district, Idaho which occurred last December, owing to a refusal of the men to accept a reduction of pay and an increase of night work, still continues. It was charged, meantime, that agents of the mtne-owws were going about with the intention of stirring up an outbreak, Things, however, reached a climax on Monday, July 11 — when an attempt to introduce " black-legs " resulted in a fight, in which nine men were killed.

The condition of labour in America continnss much disturbed. The cable brings news of fighting in many places — mentioning particularly the miners and the railway employees. No very definite or conclusive information, however, is furnished by the massages alluded to.

A deputation of workingmen waited on the Mayor of Dnnedin on Wednesday the 17th inst, and complained that the wages earned at road-making in the Catlins district were not sufficient for their support and that of their families. The men stated that their desire was to obtain employment on the Otago Central railway.

Mr Farnie of the Dnnedin labour bureau reports an order for men to fell bush at Glenomaru. As no labour could be obtained for the purpose in this city, ten men were brought from Oamarn,

11 The American Press assert that labour is losing confidence in the Government."— This may well be the case towards a Government that permits of the employment of such bravos as the Pinkerton man. Indeed there seems to be little doubt that the action of these ruffians at Carnegie's has led to much of the tumult now reported from various places. In Beveral instances, in fact, workingmen had threatened to organise armed forces for their own protection against capitalists — claiming the same privilege as that possessed by the patrons of the Piokertonß. If they snspect the good will of the Government, therefore, they may plead some excuse.

The mineis in America have been finally routed by a military force under General Carnes. Ten more of them have been killed and 400 prisoners remain to be dealt with by the law. Full details, when they, reach us, should prove interesting. Possibly they may be less unfavourable to the men than we are led to suppose, as has been the case with regard to Carnegie's employees.

Mr Farnie of the Dnnedin labour bureau sends away to-day (Wednesday) twenty-eight men to work on the Central Otago line. He gives the number of the unemployed in this city as 100. Mr Farnie reportß favourably of the wages earned by men fit for tb« work at Catlins.

Cablegrams under date London, August 22, run as follows :— " Messrs Bnrt and Davitt are supporting Mr Keir-Hardie in his demands on behalf of labour. They urge that if the labour problems are left legally unsolved the example of the men in the United States will be followed and the classes may choose their own course to adopt."—" Mr John Burns formally thanks the Australian Trades Unions for the interest they showed in the general election."

The result of the trial in the case of Sleath versus Cotton was that Mr Cotton was fined £3 or, in default, fonr months' imprisonment. Nothing, however, transpired to show ihat the defendant, although the son-in-law of a mine manager, had any animus against the plaintiff as a leader of the men on strike. It was such an assumption, nevertheless, that gave to the case its particular interest. We may agree with the Police Magistrate that a man who is called a liar receives extreme provocation.