THE GREAT STRIKE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 501, 25 September 1890, Page 2

THE GREAT STRIKE.

NO CHANGE TO REPORT. Telegrams report that there is practically no change in tho aituation. At preaeat thingß arc quiet throughout the colonies. PROFIT SHARING. At Sydney recently Mr John Hornsby addressed a crowded meeting on tha suj»*ai of strike?, in th” Course •'_f which hn said : — The great trouble which was now Mt was that there was no finality to strikes—there was no definite programme, a difficulty might be settled to-day, bu’ there was no guarantee it would not be revived «hree months hetio*. Finality was wanted. Piofi’-sbaring was a scheme which gave this; and if adopted as a programme would tend greatly to allay lha present irritation. It could be brought into force by legislation, but the people required educating upon this subject. The present struggle had all the e enjents of war. The;e was the opposition of contending force-*. Those forcis were acting upon the piinctpal that all is fair in love and war and ugly business was likely to arise out of it, though he did not anticipate any breach of tbe ptace. (Cheers.) It a effected to-day there would still be but an armed peace. What was wanted .was sime-hing which would setlie the minds of men and make them feel thvt there was indeed pfiac fl . (Applause.) Tho sp?aker ih?n went on to cite instances where the principle of pirtio - pation in prrfi s had b ;en tried with undeniable sneers’. Le Uaire, a housepainter of Paris, shared his profiis wi h bis numerous workmen.for years; so did Jean Edmund Roche, a paper, manufacturer in France, and so had numerous other firm*.

There was a notable instance of thia system on the Paris and Orleans railway line, in which company, after 8 per o j nt. having been given to the shareholders, 15 per cent, of th* surplus went to the workmen. By this means tha salaries of the men have b*en largely increased, the b mus 7 to 40 per cent, on their wages. Two per cant, of lhe profits earned on tbe Sues; Qanal went to the workmen and in 1888.600,000 francs were dirtribaled among them. Perhaps one of lhe most successful experiments was that at Henry Briggs, Son and Go.’e colliery in England. There (ho man were in a chronic state of di affection, th’ master was a tyrant and ihe workmen suffered great misery through the constant strugg'os. At length the system of panicipation in pr<-fltg was tried with remarkable results, both employer and men ben»-fi ing Jby it in a wonderful degree. In America during the last fnw rears, while capital h<d gained by £400.000 000. labor h»d only benefi ed to the «x ent of £10.000.000, The reason for all this was th it a wrong principle underlay wh it bad been done in th 3 past—-in regarding labor as a oommodity, rush as com, fl iur, Ac , co ba bought in >ha cheapest and sold in the dear st market. Now that principle must die. * (Lnui cheers. I It was at tha root of everything th it was bad in connection with these labor troubles. It led the way to sweating and the direst poverty. (Cheers.) Trades-unioni-m w*s an exis ing fact which must be recognised. A great deal had been heard about boards of conciliation and arbitration, but the best* thing to adopt way the scheme he had Un loved forth.

THE LABORERS’ SIDE.

Sneaking at Sydney recently Mr Davies, secretary of the Srame-i’s Uni-»n, sal I: —A number of people were eangoine enough to look forward to the time when capital onl labor will shake handn. He candidly confessed that he did not expect to see that d"»y, He looked back to try and discover a single shipowner who studied the interests of his employAi as well as those of himself, and the only one whom he could find was Noah. The man to-day could only look forward to receiving the bettor tream“nt which their unions could enforce. The shipowners in tin past were the inveterate enemies of labor ti 1 legislation was introduced to fores thsra to recognise their responsibilities, and that legislation was brought not to save the sh : ps, because the owners would rather that they had been destroyed, but to protect the interests c f the insurance companies and to Rave the seamen's lives. Tbe whole course of legislation during the last 100 years had been M'pie direction nf improving the condition of lhe workers, and even the Garmin Emperor had had to interfere in Germany tn prevent the laborer from bting ridden over by the canitalist. Still they could not expect ■he Legislature to do everything, and therefore they mus* combine, and by a combination nf labor organisations endeavor to secure what they were justly, entitled to. By being true to ea<oh other they would be able to eff ct such great reforma in the near future as would place labor throughout the world in a far better and far higher position than that which it occupied to day. They had been twitted with a desire to obtain parliamentary positions. There was not the slightest doubt that in tlie near future they must have better representation in the Leginlature of the country. And no matter what might be su'd ag dnst them ai to what they had not been able to effect, and no matter how long the strike might laat, or how soon it might terminate, it was after all the best educator for the masses. The lessons which were to be learned and which had been learned even up to the p r esent time, were a better educator for the masses of labor right thr ughout Australia, who had to earn their living by the sweat of their brow, than all the books they could read. In the past the shipowners bad built up Vast fortunes whi'e the men w«*re paid the most miserable remuneration, and if it had not been that they had combined they would never have obtained the concessions which they had. They were iq the battle now and were determined to fight, and up to the present moment they had shown the completeness of their organisation. This had been demonstrated to a greater extent than ever before was known throughout the whole world. It was far above the minds of the defence committee, or those whom they represent, to do any injury to the land of their birth or the peop’e in it, and they wou’d struggle to avoid this as far as was compatible, with honor They were unwilling also. to cause any inconvenience to the putfio. That was the position they took up, and yet th y bad been condemncl bv the press and had i|>r|r operations and aims placed in a false light si that the public opinion be diverted tn the side of the capitalist. [A voice i Why don’t you stop Un press He hoped the time would shortly come when the pre<B would have i*s wings clipped. (Cheers.) They did not expect to receive a fair and rqmre treatment from the nre««. A certs in newspaper that had sidel with labor on the oceation of the Newcastle coal, strike was bow against them because it happened sjnee then to be In a position to pay a dividend. That paper would find before many mon hs passed away that tha action it now took would be rewarded by a tapidly decreasing circulation. The ranks of labor had foimed themselves into squares that would not be broken, no matter how often the enemy attacked them. Their desire was not to inflict an injury upon anyone, but protect themselves and he ihrjght that anyone reviewing their poailbn impartitfllg would not impute blame to thum. Th»4r reason for coming out was to secure justice for the«r fellow*. To rhow the sori cf rn n tt|Oy were provision had been ibemnoihit residents in the river districts should not suffer for lack of communication to supply 1 heir wants, and they wete prepared now io a man io man vessels ho* of thirge to do a service for theaa people. (Load oh-wra j The newspapers, however, were against the unions and would be against them to tbe end of lime. He trusted thsl the exporisnes cf lhe past few days would tend «hs mors speedily to bring about the time when iha State would have direct control of the transport of Ml vessels. (Cheers )