The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, Saturday Morning. Tuesday, September 3, 1889. THE LABOR REVOLT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 346, 3 September 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY, Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, September 3, 1889. THE LABOR REVOLT.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at bo thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The deep interest which is taken in all intelligence concerning the strikes in London is indicative of the seriousness of the position, and we believe that every lover of what is right and just will fully sympathise with the dockmen in their unfortunate position. It is impossible for us at this distance from the scene to tell which side is likely to ultimately gain the victory, but that the workmen are just in their demands no one can truthfully deny. The inequality of the fight causes us to shudder for the cause of labor. A collision of this kind, when there is no board of arbitration or conciliation in existence, is a grave trouble for both employer and employee, but the advantage is so much in favor of capital that the result is often a foregone conclusion. The employer may have his property interest representing thousands of pounds, together with a good balance at his bankers, and he can live on in luxury and ease, tiding over any temporary difficulty with his workman with no further discomfort than the monetary loss. The position of the workman is vastly different. He may, so to speak, represent an equal amount of capital in brains, skill, and strength; but a few weeks of ths conflict will reduce him and his family almost to the verge of starvation. True the trades unions are now a vast power in the land—sometimes, unfortunately, a power not wisely directed —but how long can the strongest of these bodies exist in a struggle of this nature? Sometimes they achieve great results by working on the selfishness of the capitalist, who knows it will be more to his own interest to give way to the demands pf the men than to sacrifice the trade in which his capital is invested. But it is not by spasmodic efforts that the conditions of labor can be improved : it is just twelve months ago when the question of strikes was much discussed in England, and Mt Howard Vincent, M.P., in ajludlng to )he smbjggt, wrote: — " Strikes are, unfortunately, the order of the day, Every strike drives a long nail into the eoffin of falling national industry. It forces contracts and capital out of the country. The strikers juffer, their wives ana children often starve, homes are broken up, debts incurred, and ail the vices waiting on idleness take deep foot. Jn the end, the workpeople find themselves compelled to give way. They are powerless. If they hold out, the course of the masters is simple. The doors can be locked, jron-works taken to Spain, wood-works to Norway, woollen and leather factories to Germany or France. I want to prevent strikes by obtaining for working men and women the opportunity of obtaining a fair examination of grievances without severing ijiemaelyes from their employment, 'Ailjhovablo court of arbitration, with a

labor representative upon it, would secure this. If the friendly offices of a small body, having no personal interest to advance, could be invoked, the greatest advantage would ensue, unpleasant friction would be avoided, a great deal of misery saved, and the industrial cause much advanced.’’ Of coarse it may be urged that in this case there is no other course open ; that if the dockmen had not struck they would continue to be ground down, that they would still be forced to live on in the hope of earning an occasional fivepence an hour. We deeply sympathise with the men, but to our minds the only redeeming feature of the strike is the probability of success. And the strike having once taken place should be the signal for offering all the support that can be accorded by those who sympathise with a struggle for a right which there should be no need to struggle for. Those who know the modus operand! of the employees in the docks will have a good idea of what the workmen have to suffer. The labor is of a very hard description, and a great deal of lost time has to be submitted to, the outcome of which is that a man has most wretched pay for the hardest of manual labor.

For the sake of the workmen themselves the strike is a deplorable thing. We know how in the colonies, when the men were much better prepared to hold out and even gained their point, at what a cost it was done, In England, we are told that " there are, beyond ail question, something like 900,000 able-bodied men out of work in this country —with their dependants, 3.500,000 souls—to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of poor men, women, and children who have been forced and ground down by what is known as the sweating system, which in its incidents is worse than any American orWestlndianblack slavery?” Certainly there has since that period been a revival of trade, and it is assumed that this has hastened the crisis between employees and workmen; but if some settlement is not soon arrived at the blow that will be struck at trade itself will be a great disaster, the effect of which will be mainly felt by the laborers. Therefore, as we have said, what will most recommend the extreme steps that have been taken will be the probability of success. It is to be presumed that the men had fairly guaged that point before matters were allowed to go so far, and with men like Mr Burns to control them and restrain the inclinations of lawless spirits, the employees ought to be brought to terms. In one respect the crisis which has been reached must have a permanent effect for good. It will weld into a bond of sympathy the interests of labor in the colonies and inthe-old country. From all quarters of Australasia support is being offered, and this fact will bring home to English politicians, in a most remarkable way, the increasing importance of the colonies, and the large influence which they can even now indirectly bring to bear on matters which may or may not concern the nation as a whole.