The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, August 8, 1891. PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 644, 8 August 1891, Page 2

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

Saturday, August 8, 1891. PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION.

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

The very mention of such a term as “progressive legislation” in connection with such Bills as that dealing with the subject of shop hours is enough to make some people step back in amazement, or begin with a turgid flow of language, more or less choice, on the “interference with the liberty of the people.” AU the Bills of this class have been freely denounced as tyrannical measures, and this antagonistic attitude has even been adopted by some who profess themselves in favor of any measure of a progressive character. They would have us believe that such Acts mean a retrogression of a very serious nature. Parliament; we are told, should not interfere in these matters —they should either be left to voluntary arrangement, or And their own level by some unexplained means. But what does history teach us ?—that where there is no means of restraining the rapacity of cruel employers, there area few who will go to any extent that is possible, and with them to a degree must be dragged the reasonable employers. If the latter wish to hold their own in the competition they must be exacting upon their employees. In judging of Bills of this class men are apt to look around them, and if in the locality in which they reside therejdoes not appear to be any employers of the tyrannical order they qt once conclude that there is no need for the legislation, and they are always able to point to some cases of individual hardship. But there is no way of judging when a mere happy locality is considered, and as to the individual cases, the principle of the greatest good to the greatest number must prevail. Certainly the State ought in such matters to act with ) great caution, and not allow a curse where a blessing is lijju- | dicious restrictions would be a serious . thing to all classes of a community) but | the right ol the Stale to interfere for the 1

general good cannot in these days be denied. The Auckland Star this week has an able article on the subject, and in dealing with the special principle remarks:—“ The good, kind owners of cotton mills and similar factories ninety years ago, were not too kind to herd children of tender years in workshops and dwellings of such a filthy and unsanitary condition that they died like flies, their poor, illnourished frames, worn by fourteen and sixteen hours of almost continuous daily toil, offering but feeble resistance to the poisonous elements to which they were exposed. It was the first Factory Act of 1802 that won a twelve hours’ working day for thousands of poor little slaves in Great Britain, and prohibited grasping men from employing them earlier than six o’clock in the morning, or later than nine o’clock at night. , . . A man must either be blind, grossly ignorant of the elementary facts of the history of industrial movements, or absolutely dishonest, who professes to believe that humane instincts, unaided by legislation, would ever put an end to the oppressions of grasping men over the unfortunate creatures who are compelled by circumstances to supplicate for * leave to toil.’ We are willing to believe that a majority of employers would be willing to deal with justice and liberality by workers in the industrial hive, but employers are not free agents ; they are subject to a competition in which the most unscrupulous possesses an advantage, and the revelations of the Sweating Commissions in England, and the reports of the official Labor Bureaus in the United States, furnish evidence of the most appalling and sickening character of the extremities to which unrestricted competition has reduced human beings. No picture of negro bondage in the pages of' Uncle Tom's Cabin ’is more pitiable than these official records of white slavery existing in so-called free and Christian countries.” This of course is mainly stated in reference to the Factories Bill. Regarding the Shop Hours Bill, there is no denying that it will, if passed, cause individual hardships, but that must not be allowed to prejudice a person when reviewing the measure. The Star, which can be taken as an authority on the condition of things in the larger towns, states: — “If the shopkeepers who are now incensed against the Shop Hours Bill had all acted wisely, and delivered their assistants from the thraldom of unconscionably long hours, they would have avoided the agitation which has provoked legislative interference. But the overwork of assistants, particularly young girls who are compelled to serve in stuffy shops for from ten to twelve hours a day for a few shillings a week, has aroused public sympathy, and employers may count upon this, that if such practices cannot be stopped by combination and voluntary action, they will certainly be put an end to by legislative interference.” It is far better that these evils should be dealt with by legislation than that communities should be frequently plunged into a state of chaos—by which all are made to suffer, innocent and offending people like. In some localities there may be no apparent necessity for action, but it will usually follow in those cases that restrictive legislation will only make compulsory what is now done in a voluntary way.