INDUSTRIAL UNREST

New Zealand Tablet, 11 October 1917, Page 34

INDUSTRIAL UNREST

HISTORICAL SURVEY OF ORGANISED LABOR. ! The fourth of the series of winter lectures at the Adelaide Catholic Club was delivered on Monday evening (says ; the Southern Cross of August 31) by Rev. Brother D. G. Purton, 8.A., of the Christian Brothers' College*. His subject, "Industrial Unrest: An Historical Survey of Organised Labor," always an interesting one, : was doubly so at the present time, and it drew the largest audience yet witnessed at the lectures, many being ladies. His Grace the Archbishop presided, and among those" present were Rev. Fathers Gatzemeyer (president), O'Connell, F. Connell, S.J., Ronayne, 0.C.C., and Candler, 0.P., and Lieut.-Colonel Senator J. V. O'Loghlin. . '" - The Archbishop, in introducing the lecturer, said he had selected a subject of interest to all Australians at present. He did not know whether the subject had been selected before the strike in Sydney; but it looked as if Brother Purton had some foreknowledge of it. J (Applause.) " Brother Purton, who was received with loud applause, then gave a short sketch of the position of Labor before and after the Christian era. He pointed out that the very difficulties that beset modern statesmen -had to be faced by the politicians of Greece and Rome.; An eminent Egyptologist had said that it would be possible to write a history of the labor troubles that arose during the building of the Pyramids, and they'knew of one strike as far back as the time of Moses, when the ; Hebrew laborers refused to make bricks for their Egyptian taskmasters without straw. When the Apostles began to fulfil their divine commission the prevailing condition of the worker was that of slavery. As Mommsen truly said, the more recent horrors of negro slavery were but as a drop of water when compared to that ocean of —Roman slavery. Sometimes the wretched slaves broke into revolts that threatened the very existence of the empire, but ultimately punishment fell unpityingly. After a rising in 111 8.C., 3000 slaves were crucified along the roads that led from Rome to Capua. The Church in dealing with this gigantic evil, did not preach revolt even to the slave it did not appear as a revolutionary force at all. Its method was sure, for it was founded on ' the immutable principles of right. The first slavery the poor were to be freed from was that- of passion and sin. The haughty Roman noble had to bow his head in the Christian Church ■'■ beside the meanest slave in his household; for in the Church of God there was neither bond nor free. Slavery, in fact, automatically ceased as Christianity increased more and more its power over the people, and as its principles sank deeper into the political and social organisations. When the Roman Empire was smashed by Teutonic invasions the Church was faced with other difficulties. A grand league of all Christian nations, with the Pope as universal arbitrator, was the dream of Gregory VII., Innocent 111., and other great Pontiffs; but it was never realised, and finally came the great Protestant revolt, which shattered any lingering hopes of a united Christendom. : uu;The lecturer then passed to the Middle Ages, and . gave a very interesting account of the guilds and the principles on which they were founded and administered. The medieval system was based on the theory of -a*" compulsory maintenance of the standard of living. The towns were small and 'self-centred, and : therefore : organisation of the -trades' - was not difficult. There was no : working class in the modedn sense, and journeymen and masters worked side bv side in almost perfect amity and ygoodwill: "The old disagreements," says Dr. v Brentano, '"are not with; the system, but ■ seem merely 1 like family disputes between' parents and : their children." The craft guilds regulated wages and - hours of took care of the spiritual ; as well )' as the temporal affairs of their |members/ The journeyman r of the Middle ; Ages was better off than many of his

brothers of modern times when the purchasing power of money was taken into consideration In proof of this Thorold Rogers was quoted. Brother Purton here remarked : It was the custom, as Rogers points out, to regulate prices by authority. Nowadays we regulate wages by' Arbitration Courts, but in ordinary times there is no check on prices of commodities; hence every rise in wages is followed by a rise in prices of foodstuffs and wearables. The Arbitration Court, after much learned argument and many and costly investigations, raises the worker's wage, and immediately the employer passes on the increase to the consumer. The good man who drives the butcher's cart tells his wife with a tone of triumph, "The court has given us that rise of 5s a week." But the good wife finds that the butcher has put up the price of meat a pound and that the butter and eggs have also gone up in sympathy with the meat. And thus the poor driver is no better off than before-in most cases he is worse off. Though since the war broke out we have had, I think, 28 laws passed in the Commonwealth for the control of prices, including that all-embracing Act, the Commonwealth War Precautions Act, yet prices have steadily mounted. Mr. Knibbs' £1 worth of goods cost in Adelaide in in 1914 26s 7d, in 1915 30s 6d, and in 1916 31s 6d. That is, the cost of living has risen 5s in the pound in Adelaide; but it rose 9s lOd in Brisbane and 8s Id in Sydney, so we must not complain. I have read Mr. Wilkinson's recent book on Price Fixing in Australia in War Time, but I am unconvinced. "There is something rotten in the State of Denmark." But let us return to the craft unions of the Middle Ages. The underlying principle of these unions was Christian. Their socio-economic system was based on the surest of all ethical foundations—the Ten Commandmentsand no reform that does not make these Commandments its principle can ever hope to succeed. It is interesting to note how all reformers seek to crystallise their schemes in some resonant phrase which will catch on with the masses. With one it is Collectivism, with another Socialism, with another Syndicalism, and the I.W.W.'s one big union. Let us add another, but one which will receive but a cold welcome—restore the Seventh Commandment, "Thou shalt not steal." Let the capitalist and employer restore it to the principles which guide their business, and let them give the laborer the just fruit of his labor. Let the worker restore that Commandment to the rules which guide his daily life, and let him in accordance therewith give a fair day's work for a fair and honest day's wage, and then there would be but little industrial unrest. After further references to the guilds,: which reached the summit of their power in the fourteenth and fifteenth' centuries, the lecturer summarised the most important principles for which they stood, as follows:—(1) Well-trained craftsmen secured by careful provisions regarding apprentices. (2) Use of good and honest tools and materials— -production of honest work. Minute regulations may - be found in the guild manuals prohibiting the sale of any inferior or adulterated article. .'•' (3) Hours of labor. The statutes always ordain that no one shall- work longer than from the beginning of the day till curfew v nor at night by candle Holidays were provided for on a scale' that would ' commend itself to every Australian. No weaver, for instance, was to work from Christmas to the Feast of the Purification. The cutlers' of Sheffield had holidays ' : for ! 28 days, beginning on the -Bth [" of August; and another month at Christmas. Work was prohibited on Sundays and. on Saturdays V after ' the noonday Angelus had rung. This regulation.'was common throughout Europe, but of course was swept away at the Reformation, and lit was only, within quite recent years that the English working man got back his Saturday half-holiday, which he had lost when his country - was robbed. of the faith. ~'. -.-_;■■■ ._. i; - :^"-, .,;■-,.,..,.,-"; v .!,'j,- ; :*'He proceeded : It is just four hundred years ago * since the-great catastrophe occurred which split ChrisI; tendom in twain and plunged the movement o|jsoc.ial i and industrial reform back into ver^^n^S^ldifflS < I use both words advisedly: So often is dinned

into our ears that Protestantism “made in Germany”broke the - shackles from ; the poor human race that at' times we are tempted perhaps to think there is some measure of truth in the statement. When I came to read history, apart from the wretched compilations miscalled histories that are in use perforce in our schools, I remember how surprised I was that books could be written on, as most English compilations are, such an utterly false basis. But nowhere does the English historian lie so patently nor so shamelessly as when he strives to show that the Protestantism of Luther, Melancthon, Zwinglius, Calvin, Knox, and company stood for freedom. If it were not that the trade brand “made in Germany” was so decidedly out of favor just now we would be hearing much already of the four-hundredth anniversary of Luther’s revolt against authority. It was on October 31, 1517, that Luther nailed his thesis to the door of the University of Wittenburg. Now the consequences of Luther’s action have a very intimate bearing on our subject, and therefore it is ' worth while noting what were his ideas on the relation of the people to the State. I wish some of our non-Catholic friends would study the real Luther but for one half-hour. How they would stand abashed and ashamed at their own gullibility when they would see the pedestal on which their hero the “saintly and heroic" Dr. Martin stood crumbling away before the searchlight of truth—for it was a pedestal of lies, lies, lies. Perhaps they would come to see that that horrid thing of which they have so loyal a hatred, Prussian militarism, was born of Protestantism. Scherr, a writer with a strong anti-Cath-olic bias, in his book on “German Culture’’ admits that Luther was the originator of the doctrine of unconditional surrender to the civil power. Please note that admission, for we are approaching that period in our survey of labor when that civil power is arrayed with all its forces against the toiler. Luther held out the plunder of monasteries and churches as the bait for new convertshe hoped to acquire thus funds to spread the new gospel. The monasteries were pillaged, the patrimony of the poor was robbed and plundered, but the loot found its way into the hands of the princes and nobles who joined Luther for no other purpose. The pockets of new reformers, and humanity uplifters of that class have always a strange power of attraction. Even Luther was forced to admit that the conditions of the people under the old Catholic system were infinitely better than that under the new gospel. Father Husslem, S.J., in recent timely articles in America, has many apt quotations from Luther’s own works. It is sufficient for us to notice that 1 Luther is “the father of the worst form of political despotism, despotism over the consciences of men.” And how eagerly were his principles seized on by the Tudors in England, who had their hearts set on just such a despotism. Of German Lutheranism was born English Protestantism, and of English Protestantism was born the gross and evil materialism and the dismal political economy that kept the workers crushed beneath a galling tyranny over 200 years. The lecturer then described developments in trades unionism in more recent times, and the new spirit which showed itself in the great strikes of 1888-1890 in England. The London dockers’ strike, in which the late Cardinal Manning, John Burns, and Ben Tillett figured so prominently, was dealt with. The influence of these strikes on the Labor movement in Australia and the maritime and shearers’ strikes of 1890 were also touched upon. Their failure led the unions to realise the importance of taking a more active part in politics, and 26 Labor members were returned to the New South Wales Assembly and the Labor Party formed. Conciliation and Arbitration Courts cam© as a consequence, but they had not been a success owing to so many' different awards operating in the same industry under the old craft union system and the legal delays. The big unions of America and England would have nothing to do with compulsory,Arbitration Courts

Even to-day 'child labor prevailed to a scandalous extent in some of the southern States of America. The - growth of the American movement, the I.W.W. -in i Australia would depend entirely upon the amount of industrial unrest that obtained. If industrial peace reigned there would be little heard of the I.W.W. It was absurd and futile to attribute the present industrial unrest in Australia to the 1.W.W.; it was equally as absurd to attribute it to German gold and proGermanism. The trouble was the outcome ‘of the growing opposition to a system and a spirit pf-dis-appointment on the part of the workmen. Everything tended to show that the workmen were not going to take the rise in prices lying down. Was it any wonder that men refused to load ships to send food to foreign countries when it rose to famine prices at home? The Arbitration Court system in Australia seemed ,to have got clogged, and one of the worst features was the interminable delays, due to red tape and the pure “cussedness” of the law. The highly complex awards of some courts, particularly of the Commonwealth Court, did not tend to soothe the nerves of the working man. Hence we had now the inevitable split between the industrialist section and the old craft union section, which was bound to come in the long run. * ; : Brother Purton concluded as follows: —Is there any remedy for the social unrest With remedies we cannot deal now but it would be satisfactory if we could make a right diagnosis of the disease. That would be one step onward. Father Ryan, a distinguished American professor of economics, in his recent work on Distributive Justice , lays his finger, on the pulse of the industrial world, and says;—“The fundamental cause of the industrial strife is the false conception of life that prevails among both rich and poor.” Later on in the same volume he says: “The achievement of social justice requires not merely changes in the social mechanism, but a change in the social spirit, a reformation in men’s hearts." . Indeed, the roots of our industrial unrest lie deep. ' . The remedy lies deep, too, but our politicians are . too , busy filling Hansard with declarations of loyalty and denunciations of the enemy to delve so deep. They once had the remedy at hand, but they scorned it—turned it away and buried it over with the wastage of political and religious animosity. Education, based on Christian principles, which would teach honesty to employers and working men— at least was an effective safeguard, but the politicians of. the last generation and the politicians of this will not have. it. Not that they are so blind as not to see the harm of irreligious education, but bigotry and prejudice, Freemasonry ~ and Orangeism, all combine to prevent the adoption of the remedy. The Anglican Synod in, Sydney a few days ago discussed the strike, and came to . the conclusion that the present state of society springs from a decay of morals and religion. And what, we i might fairly ask the reverend Synodists, is the cause thereof? ' It is none other than the secular education system, which was introduced with the avowed intention of splitting the Catholic Church asunder, but has merely resulted in the bringing up of two generations of children., to whom moral convictions are almost unknown. , Now note this phenomenon. The I.W.W. is of course an active opponent of religious education, and would claim the present system as its best recruiter, but .. ranged side by side with the I.W.W. in active opposition to denominational education we see the leading politicians and the Protestant Churches. ' The Fathers of A the Synod of Baltimore in 1884 in , their . Pastoral« Letter told their people that “education in order to be sound, and to produce beneficent results must develop what is best in man and make him not only clever but good. A one-sided education will develop a one-sided life, and such a life will surely topple over, and so will every social system* built up of such lives.’’’^* There is no doubt that we are face to face; with bigger/.'problems than ever faced the world before, and we may live ’to see changes of great importance.;