THE TYRANNY OF TRADESMEN.

Dunstan Times, Issue 774, 16 February 1877, Page 3

THE TYRANNY OF TRADESMEN.

The tyranny of Trades Unions has been often and justly condemned, but it is to be feared the spirit they sometimes display towards workmen who do not ‘recognise their right to dictate is spreading to other classes. A peculiarly offensive instance has been commented on this week. Great complaints have recently been made with respect to the exorbitant prices charged for butcher’s meat. An enterprising tradesman in the West End, already carrying on an enormous business, resolved to respond to the demand for cheaper meat, and added to his premises a large provision department. The public took full advantage of the opportunity offered them, and the result is that the daring innovator is now a victim of the most shameful 'persecution. His wife receives letters warning her that if she does not induce her husband to withdraw from his new undertaking she will soon be a widow. On the evening of Guy Fawke’s Day his effigy was tw-ice burned amid the plaudits of a noisy crowd, and both his place of business and his private house had to be guarded by the police. He has been warned not to go out after dark, and the warning was so seriously given that lie undoubtedly disregards it at his peril. It seems almost incredible that such a state of things should be reported in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The meaning of those manifestations simply is that a certain class of tradesmen consider they have a monopoly in one branch of commerce, and that if any one ventures to compete with them to the advantage of the public they are not to be condemned for putting their rival down by force. No Trades Union ever advanced more audacious pretensions, and we hope the cowardly intimidators will discover to their cost that they ate adopting a line which can be approved by no section of the community. Whatever may be their notion ot their rights, it really is that consumers are justified in going to the cheapest market, and that the law will protect a person who is content to obtain from the sale of commodities ii smaller profit than his neighbor, no pains should be spared to track one or two of the chief offenders, for every one is interested in the suppression of such outrageous injustice. Graphic.

The other day a wealthy French countryman, whose son was studying law in Paris, paid a visit to his hopeful scion at the capital. After dinner, father and son took a stroll through the streets, looking at the various fine buildings. Finally, they stood in front of a very remarkable and characteristic building. “ What building is this, my son?” inquired the father. “ I don't know, papa,” replied the son; “but I will ask the policCWian, who is standing behind us.” The policeman informed them that it was the law school, where tho young man Was believed to have attended lectures for a year past,