Labour Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 13, 13 January 1893, Page 5

Labour Notes.

Mr Joseph Chambeklain publishes, in tbe Nineteenth Century for November,an article on the labour question. Mr Chamberlain expresses doubts as to the Labour party. It is doubtful, he says, as to whether any of the various groups have definite and fixed ideas. Their objects overlap and are intermingled co that any representative leader may be, at the same time, on Anarchist in posse, a Socialist in ssse, a Collectivist in theory, and a Trades Unionist in fact. There are, bowever, he explains, six groups, each professing to have the interests of labour at heart, but seeking these interests by methods which differ. They are the following :—(I: — (I ) The Individualists, who demand freedom in everything. Individual responsibility, they claim, is the one thing to be cultivated and protected. The State which represents the majority is the common ecemy. (2.) The Old Trades Unionist?, having leanings towards the Individualists, although denounced by them. They are suspicious of State interference, and

resent State control. Their efforts were to remove restrictions and secure freedom of combination. Their record is creditable. They bare gained their object, and, in several ways, improved the condition of the working classes. (3 ) The New Unionists. These have a more militant and aggressive spirit. The New Unionism is, io it« conception, national, and even international, but it is intolerant towards those who rejeot its advances. The non-Unionist is to be forced out of existence. It, besides, admits the value of State assistance* Recognising that Trades Unionism, if alone, is powerless to emancipate labour, its main object is to control the action of government. Its objects, at present, embrace all the ordinary demands of labour agitation, with the addition of a legislative eight-hours' day. But the leaders— as we bad already ourselves perceived ani stated in these notes — are careful to guard themselves against any idea of finality in the present proposals. (4.) The Collectivists, whose motto, the direct opposite to that of the Individualists is — " The best government is that which governs most." Collectivism, we may explain, is the Socialism of Karl Marx, involving the abolition of private property, and the common labour of all. Until human nature, says Mr Chamberlain, has been radically altered— a scheme which, like this, ignores selflove and the love of friends and kindred, the strongest inducement which has yet been found to the strenuous exercise of all human faculties, is bound to fail. (5.) The Anarchists— foreigners whose views have obtained no hold on the English working classes. (6 ) The State or Municipal Socialists, a wide term wbich covers many members of the other groups mentioned, except the ex'remes of Individualists and Anarchists. While the Trade Unionists, old and new, and the Collectives are all State Socialists, a man may be a moderate State Socialist without accepting any of the distinctive views of the other three groups.

Bur, of the labour provisions proposed, Mr Chamberlain accepts the following :—(1): — (1) Legislative enforcement of proposals for shortening the hours of work for miners and others engaged in dangerous and specially laborious employments. (2) Local enforcement of trade regulations for the earlier closing of shops. (3) Establishment

of tribunals of arbitration in trade disputes. Th 9 wrier would not, however, have the decision made compulsory, but would trust its fulfilment to the force of public opinion. (4) Compensation for injuries received in the course of employment, and to widows and children in case of death, whenever such injuries or death are not caused by the fault of the person killed or injured. The cost of proTiding for such compensation, Mr Chamberlain thinks, should be made a charge on production. (5) Old age pensiors for the deserving poor, the stimulation of voluntary thrift being the project the writer approves of. (6) Limitation and control of pauper immigration. (7) Increased powers and facilities to local authorities to make towa improvements and prepare for the better housing uf the working classes. (8) Power to local authorities to alvanca money and to afford facilities to the work ins: claeses to become tre owners of their own dwellings. Mr Chamberlain believes that this provision would have the additional advantage of hindering the designs of the Oollectivißts.

In dealing with the question of arbitration, Mr Chamberla n rejects the proposal to make the matter compulsory, chit fly, he says, b cause the decision must apply to tha future, for which exact regulations could not be male. He thinks that public opinion sbould suffice for all that is needed. "If oither pir yto a trade disoute," he savfl, "refused arbitration or, having accepted it, r< fused to bj bound by the decision, the public feeling wou'd be strongly oppos-d to it, and success would be almost impossible " Bu. has not Mr Chambtrliin'd opinion on this point received soma cjn'r td.cnon, fur example, from the circumstances attendant on the late htrike at Broken Hill. Arbitration in that instanca was peremptorily refusid — nay, was not admitted hs to be thought about at all, even a onference being refused by thrf directois. Yet the men were defeated. Public opii ion, it ia to be feared, sometimes leans towards the stronger side, or, at leas', may be attracted in that direc ion.

A passage deserving of particular attention ia Mr Chamberlaiti'd argument if (hat ia which he treats of the provision of work for the

unemployed. The Liverpool Trades Congress he tells as, passed a resolution affirming that every municipal body or County Council should have power to establish workshops and factories for the unemployed. But, if the demand for the articles so manufactured were limited, and the supply sufficient, for every one employed by the corporation a person in private employment would be thrown out of work. The evil, says the writer, exists in the want of demand. The working classes should press on the Government the necessity of promoting the commercial interests of the country — of seeking new markets and developing and protecting old ones. It is to be desired, he adds, that the workingmen should devote more attention to foreign affairs. If they would consider all that is included in the colonial relations of the country, in the maintenance of the hold on India, or English influence in Egypt, and in the efforts Englishmen are making to develope African resources; they would perhaps feel that the future condition of labour was more dependent on the success of foreign enterprise than on an artificial attempt to stimulate production. There is in this opinion, it seems to as, a good deal that deserves consideration also among the working classes of the colonies.

As to the payment 3f Members, Mr Chamberlain gives it a modified approval, tie would have those who conld not afford to give their services for nothing authorised to claim a moderate salary. Those possessed of a sufficient independent income, he would invite* to serve for the honour of doing so. But would not this, we may ask. place the poorer candidate somewhat at a disadvantage with the oon stituents ?

The point of a lady's letter, say thoße who pretend to understand the sex, is to be found in the postscript. " Joe " reserves the point of his article for the concluding passages. "No scheme of social reform, however well devised and intended," he writes, "has the slightest chance of realisation if it is to be sandwiched in between vast projects of constitutional change." — Aa a necessary conclusion, it is a matter of life and death for the working classes to turn their back on Home Rule and to lend their aid to cast it oat from the

sphere of practical politics — a thing, we may add, that has never yet been done io the case of any question that had obtained a firm footing there. All thit working men have ever gained, explains "Joe," has been won from the Tories, and in the Unionists now lies their only hope. " Joe" has argued io favour of the working men, and argued ably and well — but he has spoken one word for them and two for himself. He has appealed to their self-love to gain for him and his party their support. Homi Rule, however, let "Joe" say what he likes, does block the way, and labour, even if it be foolinn enough to try, cannot displace it.

A writer in the London Graphic, who gives a sketch of Sir Samuel Wilson's great Ercildoune stition in Victoria, has a word to say also thit beais a little on the labour question in the colonies. " With the growth of the wool industry in Australia," he says, " the elements of romance are swiftly disappearing. The shepherd has found his occupation gone since the introduction of the wire-fence and the boundaryrider, and the pictumque bullock teams and their drivers are now only employed to carry the wool to the nearest railway station. The shearer still thrives when not ' striking,' as he dearly loves to do, with the regularity of an eight-day clock ; but the shearing-machines and the combinations of the pastoralists together with the imposition of all kinds of penalties for breach of contract, have knocked all the poetry out of the business, and the days of the ' big cheques ' and the attendant ' big sprees ' are gone for ever."— Something, nevertheless, besides romance is affected by the changes alluded to, and interests more important than those of "big sprees " are compromised. We B-f, meantime, an instance of how lightly the vicissitudes of labour are regarded in higher quarters.

Some complaining representatives of labour (says the Illustrated London Neivs) were recently told by ona of her Majesty's Ministers that pauperism had greatly declined ; and to prove it he adduced workhouse Statistics uniruptacbably correct. But as often as these figures are used to show the dtoline of pauperism, just as otten should

it be repeated that they are no measure of poverty. Lessened distress may account for them in some degree, and, no <*onbt, does ; but, speaking broadly, the true explanation of the difference between the pauper statistics of to-day and of twenty-five years since is the abolition or extreme limitation of out-door relief. Under any circumstancsß, that would have reduced the number of '■ paupers " ; bnt, meantime, there has been an advance of education, and therewith of self-respect, which has vastly increased the common hatred of " going into the house." In short, a far greater number of poor people prefer to starve out of " the house " ; and it is obvious that, though that fact allows anyone to Bay that pauperism has diminished, it does not permit him to assume that poverty has declined.

Mr Chamberlain all too truly warns the English working men that their interests are largely bound up with foreign affairs. We learn, for example, bow much they were concerned in an event, apparently so far removed from them, as the recent Presidential election in America. The defeat of Protection thus brought about concerned them nearly. "It ia in the manufacturing centres of Yorkshire and Lancashire," says the Illustrated Nens, " that the M'Kinley tariff has made most havoc. Half-a-dozen great provincial indus ries —the Sheffield trade, the silk trade, the trade in woollen goods, for example — have been very hardly hit ; and the thousands of artisans who have been thrown out of work by the operation of the tariff know that they can scarcely better themselves by coming to London, where the employment they are accustomed to ia not to be found. The decline of trade will be felt in the capital, of course ; but not as it will be felt in more than one, or two, or three provincial cities."

The British Consul at Chicago gives a bad account of the condition of labour in the United States. He quotes from the Labour Commissioner of lowa to show that the increase of child-labour, the use of machinery, the influx of immigrants, and other causes have made it difficult for men to obtain constant work, and have added largely to the number of the tramps.

The Wellington correspondent of the Lyttelton Times ia responsible for the statement that the Government intends to establish four State far oaa — respectively in Otago, Canterbury, Wellington and Auckland. The same authority states that the Premier has returned a favourable anßwer to an application made by the Christchurch Knights of Labour, that a co-operative settlement should be made on the recently-purchased Cheviot estate,

The co-operative works on the Mount Cook road have been closed, and the parties paid off. The average pay was about 8s a day. One party of good working men averaged 9a 9d all through. For the £400 voted two miles were made good over the worst part of the road. An additional sum haß been granted, but is held over till after harvest.

In speaking of a meeting held at Lambeth to consider the establishment of a system of pensions for the aged poor, under the auspices of the Church, the Saturday Hevieiv has the following :—": — " Until the wholesale plunder which accompanied the dissolution of the monasteries, it is agreed by competent historians of all shades, that the Church practically took the problem of pauperism into her own hands, and dealt very well with it." This, of course, refers to the Catholic Church — not to that of the Lambeth meeting.