The Evening Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2275, 22 August 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1870.

However difficult the question now at issue between, the Government and the unemployed, we should like it to be treated on both sides in such a spirit as is likely to settle it in the most satisfactory manner. It is a very difficult matter to convince hungry men, but even they are usually open to reason. The danger is that their necessities are such that they will listen to any, quack, -who pi-escribes his own evilwbrkihg.nostrurps as a remedy, for his advantage. As the case stands we do not think the resolutions passed at the meeting on Saturday the mo&t .judicious that could have been framed. It is Constitutional and unavoidable - when masses of men feel aggrigveclj that they should meet together to consider the grievance. It is the only mode in which unitedly they can make themselves heard ; and where those who state their grievances confine themselves to their definition, they are acting fairly and legitimately. This unfortunately is seldom done. . .The

more or those most deeply^affelled, apt to go beyond•vtfhgt tlm^ and very ;p|j|iv \s£tso‘ to advocate. #6 do not kri%'wbo framed the resolutions passed at. the meeting on Saturday, and published in the Broun;/ Star; but we ask those who adopted them to consider their spirit and tendency. The meeting passed a resolution affirming “ that the work given out by “ the Government to the unemployed “ is not suited to many who require “ work,” and that other sort of work should be provided for certain persons unable to perform that offered to them. Now had they stopped there, and appointed a deputation to wait upon the Executive to confer with them, and to learn whether it was in their power to give employment suitable to those who wore unable to execute that offered, there would have been good common sense as well as courtesy in the pro-

ceeding. Everybody in the Province must know that the Government, as employers of labor, are restricted to certain classes of public works, and that therefore those who need work must as well as they can adapt themselves to those employments if they seek for wages under Government. We do not know what else can be offered ; and unless it is proved that the Government have it in their power to frame suitable employment, everyone present at the meeting will confess that the second resolution is not in accordance with an Englishman’s notion of fair play, for it condemns the Government unheard. As for the third resolution, we must leave our friends to form their own conclusions. We do not think it would be a wise or politic step to write Home, as resolved, especially as in all probability before the letters reach their destination the present pressure will be passed, and the statements will be incorrect. What we really want is co-operation between the Government and the people. This will never be attained by the one looking upon the other as enemies. The Province has been passing through a most severe ordeal. Men who once held thriving positions in it have been reduced in circumstances. Those who were at one time large employers of labor are obliged to curtail their establishments. Those who live by the work of their hands must not suppose that they alone have suffered. Many who were rich have become poor, and throughout the Colony high and low have alike had to struggle for existence. This difficulty, which no foresight could have avoided—for it has arisen from causes outside the Colony —has been aggravated by a long, wet, dreary winter. In the interests of truth, if those who write Home state the truth, these circumstances will have to be told, and the working classes at Home will know that some of the same causes which have reduced them to poverty and destitution have extended their baneful influence to the antipodes. The rational conclusion would bo that in every country, old and young, there are of necessity fluctuations in the labor market, and further, that no civilised country can suffer alone. But since these sinister influences are from their very nature only temporary, what we want is not to waste our energies in vain grumblings and revilings, but for Government and people to pull together to the same end. The power of a Government to mitigate suffering is not unlimited, and in an emergency like the present cannot meet every man’s wishes. After the Executive have done their best, if the unemployed will adopt the maxim, “ If wc cannot have “ the work we want, we will take what “ we can get,” they and the Government will be pulling the same way, and they may depend upon it they will by that means easily pull through.