Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1891. The Labour Question.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 13 August 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 1891. The Labour Question.

For the past twelve months we have heard a great deal about what a seotion of the community declare to be the labour question. The excitement has all been raised by those possessed of muscle power, and no thought given to the higher labour which directs the energy whereby those possessing muscle alone oan find remunerative employment. What good luck caused Mr John Ogilvy, the Secretary of the Dundee Radical Association, to write to the Duke of Argyle regarding the desirability of labour representation in Parliament, and the necessity for the reduction ol the hours of labour, we know not; but it has produced a most satisfactory answer, that 9hould cause food for thought to all those who have been mistaking labour to be, in fact, the least important of its many branches. The Duke says : — Allow me to point out, in the first place, that the phrase "The Labour Question " is one so vague and wide that it may mean anything or every.

thing connected with the constitution of human society. We must define ' what we mean by " Labour " before we can solve any question concern- ! ing it, Do we mean " manual " labour alone, or principally? Powe mean to exclude from " labour " all brain work and all '* brain workers ?" If we do we are imposing an artificial meaning on the word "labour," Hence comes the notion commonly impressed upon the wage-earning olasses by the " politicians " you .efer to that they are the " creators of all wealth," This is not true of " labour " even ia its proper sense---of all •« human energies." But still less is it true of labour when under- ■■ stand to mean muscle power alone, Mind is the prime mover in all work and wealth. This is a fact not an opinion. Let it be fully understood, and really "taken in," and then much light will Gome. "Capital" is the " storage of labour," and is purely the work of mind in the past, . and is a great weapon in the future, Let this also be taken &s a fact not as an opinion, It is so, and no politician ought to be allowed to obscure these all'important facts. The common antithesis^-a fallacy of the worst kind. Every " labourer " is only a " capitalist " when he saves a sixpence, and still more a capitalist wben he uses it as a means of getting another sixpence. Every capitalist is also a labourer when he exercises forethought in storing income, and still more a labourer when he risks his savings, or his storages, in any commercial enterprise. When the musole labourer is asleep minds around him are constantly saving and planning for the employment of savings upon services useful to the world. When the muscle labourer awakes he may find some "great work " projected or begun on which his speoial kind of labour can find a very highly paid employment. I have confidence in the ultimate' rationality or reasonableness of the human race. But are all liable to " strong delusions that we should believe in lies," and such delusions have been often lasting and often disastrous; hence the immense responsibility of the " politicians " who do not speak in a spirit of absolute loyalty to facts, and to truth.