The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, August 28, 1890. THE GREAT LABOR STRUGGLE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 499, 28 August 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, August 28, 1890. THE GREAT LABOR STRUGGLE.

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

Everything else is over-shadowed in importance by the great struggle between capital and labor that is now going on in the colonies. Viewing the struggle dispassionately from a distance we are afraid that the members of the labor , organisations are over-stepping themselves. A willing ear is being given to the advice of reckless individuals who have got placed at the head of affairs, and a state of chaos is the result. Even a victory at the price that must be paid for it is not worth the having, when it might be gained without loss at all, if there were less recklessness in the management of affairs. Why should thousands of innocent people be dragged into-this affair, and ruin brought upon hundreds who have in the past been the laborer’s best friends ? The great dock strike in London is often cited as a comparison, but it is an utterly ridiculous one. Colonial workmen have never as a body known what >t is to lead such a wretched life as must have been the lot of the London dock laborer. For years things were drifting in that downward direction, but no speedy regeneration, no wildly spasmodic effort was required to place labor on its proper level. Hundreds of pounds were subscribed to the London dock strike fund by those capitalists who are now being principally affected. Everything in the colonies should have been done gradually, and capitalists themselves would soon have seen that the elevation of Labor is a most desirable thing. In Australia, we are told, ship-owners have been going in for ruinous competition, the natural result of which is that the wage-earners are made to suffer. Now, such evils might easily have been combatted by setting about the thing in a wise manner, and avoiding madly plunging into a strife such as is disorganising everything in Australia, and which has spread to New Zealand. This struggle cannot possibly last long, but it will cause intense misery to hundreds of innocent persons who have no voice in the matter in any way. This is now being keenly brought home to us in Gisborne, which will severely feel the effects of the paralysing of the shipping trade. Workmen will bis the worst punished in the matter, for the capitalist can afford to wait, and even if capital does not gain victory in the long run, individual workers must get all the worst of.the fight. The great advance that has, through the strikes, taken place in breadstuff's and fuel in Australia would mean a big harvest far New Zealand producers for a short time, but the interruption of intercolonial trade prevents the shipping of any large supplies, and the produce cannot be exported—it must rot in New Zealand. Who will feel more keenly than the strikers the large increase in the price of food in Australia? The capitalist can always pay for what he wants, and he can well afford to lose perhaps hundreds of pounds where half-a-crown may be a large sum to a working man;

In the interest of workmen themselves we cannot speak too strongly of the recklessness of those who have precipitated this great crisis. They can gain nothing that they would not have gained by acting with moderation. The spread of education has given an entirely new life to the cause of Labor. The workman has now loftier aspirations than he had a few years ago. He plainly sees that he must himself be active if there is to b« a .fairer distribution of the good things of the world, and a removal of some of the great social disadvantages under which work men suffer. But moderation should prevail. As a proof of the reckless advice that is given to workmen in Australia the words of a member of Parliament may be given. The recent floods in New South Wales made it necessary for a large number of additional hands to be employed on the railways, in making repairs, etc. The necessary work having been got through a month’s notice was given to 600 men, 250 of which were to be re-engaged as emergency men. A meeting of the men’s association was held, and the Commissioners were denounced as brutal tyrants. Mr Willis, a member of Parliament, made a wild, declamatory address, from which the following paragraph may be quoted :— “ He expressed sympathy with the men, but could not, as Mr Slattery had done, counsel moderation. They had to rememher they were dealing with an English aristocrat, who thought the men were ten times better oft than they ought to be. In dealing with such a man strong measures must be taken. They should take him by the throat and strangle him. Who put Mr Eddy [an English expert] in his position ? The Government, whom the people put into power. The people had the power to displace the Government and Mr Eddy. If they could not do that now they should band themselves together and stop the railways. No doubt his friends were horrified. He had risen from the people and.would stick to the people. If 600 men were to be treated in the way proposed, it was a sacred duty to stop every engine running. They had been ridden to death by this tyrant imported from England, who knew nothing

of the rules of propriety in dealing with men.” Mr Willis went on to give examples of the “tyranny” of the man whose strangling he advised. The tyrant had refused to allow hundreds of men a a half-holiday and to place the mail train attheir disposal so that they might attend a “political dinner” to be given to Mr Willis by the people of a place named Byrock. Most laborers would immediately cease to have respect for a politician who was making the arrangements for a dinner to be given to himself, and directly the man—member of Parlia ment though he be—talked about strangling an official for daring to do his duly, the workmen ought to have hooted such a bletherskite from the town. If such an incident had occurred in New Zealand the intelligence of the laborers would have permitted Mr Willis a very short shrift.

As to Unionism itself, it has worked a great deal of good for Labor and will continue to have an elevating influence so long as it is conducted with wisdom, but every mistake its leaders make will be a temporary blow to its progress. Such a grave mistake, we believe, is now being made.