World of Work.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 11, 19 May 1911, Page 10

World of Work.

Notes on Labour at Home and Abroad Collated by "BLOCHAIRN." " THE MINER." "Get up!" the caller calls; "Get up!" And, in the dead of mynt, To win. the bairns their bite and. sup, I rise, a weary wight. My flannel chidden tlonn'-d, thrice e'er My birds are kissed, and i hen I with a whistle, shut the door, I m;vv not ope again. JOS- STyIFSEY. 4r *Jr "ft Some time ago Mr E. J. Carey made the statement that the Western Fedoration of Miners were giving up tJi© principles of industrial unionism in order to join the American Federation of Labour. The miners have joined vJie Federation., but in no way have ■obey departed from the principles of industrial unionism. It was the A.F. of L. that departed from its principles of "trade autonomy" in oraer to admit \;he Ivliners' Federation, which claims every man working in or around a jnino, irrespective of his trade. In spite -of Gompers and Mitchell, the American workers arc organis ng industrially., and once they get a-going no power on earth will stop them. * * * The Brewery Workers' iJnion 5s another American organisation that continually defies the trade autonomy precepts of the A.F. of L.., r.nd seems xo wax fat over the kiduappmg of the Teamsters especially, wluoh has result&cl in the .Brewery \Vorkers asBurning the mastery in an industry that the workers reruse to have divided and ciaopped to pieces. 'ilia carpenters also are considering whether or not the time is ripe for tJie absorption of two or three subsidiary crafts. So Industrial Unionism grows. Gompers and his fellow orucials see it, and xiiey are accepting the new order, whi-te covering their retreat by thundering j about "trade autonomy. '"' ' vr -» « Despite the agitation for its ending or mending, there are those who dt>clare the ±iouse of Lords, has done more for progress than the iso-caUea great illiberal party itself. And there are a sufficient number of Acts upon the Statute .Book to give substance to the statement- It would seem as if before passing into the limbo of things that have been, the noble Lords are desirous of adding one mo-re Act to the credit side of their ledger. A couple of weeks ago it was recorded in this column that the City of Glasgow, ticed of the Government's delay in bringing down a JBill dealing wiuti children trading in the street, had passed a by-law of its own to regulate "the same. Now the cable announces that the House of Lords is about to take the matter up, and arrangements have been made for introducing a Bill providing that no boys under fifteen, and no girls under eighteen, years of age shall be allowed to trade in. the streets. -x- ■» -xSorae sxiperior Democrats may sniff at the information, and declare the Bill won't be much good coming from where it does. Such should recollect thatj among other things, we owe our first Factory Acts to a member of the House of Lords. A poor Highland widow, left without a crust of bread in the house, and no money to buy any, knelt down and prayed earnestly that the Lord would send her just one loaf. A member of a pasting picnic party knocked at the door to enquire the way to their proposed destination, but the old woman was too deep in her devotions to hear him. He, however, heard her fervent appeal for bread, and going to one of the hampers on the waiting waggonette, lie extracted a loaf, put iv a sack, and, climbing the "thack" roof, he di-oppcd his parcel down the wide chininey and returned to the door. The old lady, considerably startled, opened the sack and, overjoyed to see therein what she had just prayed for. £he turned to the door as if to seek some one to whom to relate her good fortune. Seeing the stranger, she proceeded volubly to tell to him "what the Lord had done for her." The profane visitor laughed and said it was lie and not the Lord who had sent the loaf down the chimney. With her faith unshaken, the old lady replied : "It was the Lord that sent it, though he maybe had the deevil for a messenger." •x- ->:- * The British Labour Party are pro- ( nioting a measure to amend the Trades Union Act so as to clear the way for thiß adoj>tion of Industrial Unionism without the, at present, legal necessity of dissolution of existing Un ons. The measure provides that any two or more trades unions may become amalgamated together as one organisation with or without any dissolution or division of the funds of such trades

unions, or either or any of them, provided that no such amalgamation shall take place except with the consent of two-thirds of the members of all unions concerned. -* * «• Old Country carpenters and joiners are to make a bid for a forty-four hours' week. A proposal has been laid before the whole of the branches of the Union suggesting that all their members employed in the federated shipbuilding yards should move simultaneously in the direction of obtaining a reduction in the hours of labour and the abolition of overtime. The sug-. gested new working hours are from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with two hours for meals), the first five days of the week, and from 7 a.m. to noon (with one hour for breakfast) on Saturdays. ■x- * * New Zealand miners will watch with interest for the full draft of the British Coal Mines Regulation Act Amendment Bill. This is the Bill the Liberals promised a year ago, and it is expected to deal with compulsory rescue provisions about pits, and to require the formation of trained rescue bands, the use of electrical machinery, and with ether matters touching the safety of miners. The startling revelations made in the Home Oince report upon the Whitehaven disaster shows how very urgent is the need for more mine inspectors. Mr Adamson, the Socialist M.P. representative of the Fife miners., will seek Parliament's approval of the principle of elective in-, spectors, a question that is being pressed to the front in New Zealand by the Federation of Labour. * * # A Sign of the Times. —At the Adelaide Civil Court the other day. Mr. Arthur Haseil admitted having brought 1000 tons of coal to Adelaide as a speculation during the Newcastle strike, and that he still had it lying in the sheds. "How is it you have not sold it?" queried Sir Josiali Svmon. "I got rid of about 200 tons," said Mr. Hascll, "but the people would not touch the rest because the story had got abroad that it was 'scab' coal. . . . Burford's told mc that their men wouldn't work if they bought this particular coal that I was offering. At any rate, no one would buy it, and there it remains still unsold." -x- -x- ■* In. Britain 498,260 people lest 8,451,000 working days through Labour disputes in 1910. Despite this unemployment, more goods were produced in Britain last year than ever before. This seems to support the contention that employers force strikes upon their workers to prevent attention being called to the causes of unemployment. ■X- *- * Produced too miicli.-—The manager of the Portland Cement Works in New South Wales has informed the employees that the cement mill must be closed down, as the storage capacity was full. Since February over 900 tons of cement per week has been made in excess of that required.