Working-Man!

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 39, 1 December 1911, Page 14

Working-Man!

You are told by some special pleaders that 11,000 breadwinners, earning two millions annually, will be thrown out of work if Dominion Prohibition is carried. This statement is 75 per cent, or thereabouts false, as is easily, shown. V, "'(I) The total number of persons employed in the hotel business, wine and spirit business, brewing, malting, Avinemaking, bottling and cordial-making businesses is given in the "advance sheets" of the Dominion Year Book for 1911—absolutely the latest information available—as 9109. Thus there is a direct overstatement in the Trade's figures of nearly 2000—18 per cent, too big. (2) You are asked and expected to believe that the whole of the 11,000 —I mean, 9109—would be unemployed immediately the licenses lapsed. Let us see how far this is .true. Under Nolicense, as so far in operation in New Zealand, in most cases the hotels have been carried on as boarding-houses, either under the same or other management, and therefore needed a guiding mmd —a manager. So that if one man is out of employment because being debarred by law from the onerous labour of working the beer-pump, he looks, upon the "running of a legitimate . boarding-house as beneath his dignity; yet there will snrely be someone found willing to step into his vacated shoes. We will, however, admit, for the sake of argument, that "no sioh person" is to be found. ' What will that mean? Just this: that boarding-house keepwill not be a paying venture, for if it PAYS, then men and women will be found to take it up as sure as you live. But in the No-liceiiise districts bbard- ' ing-houses are paying handsomely, and even being enlarged in many cases. Now; Mr. Worker, if one man steps out and another in, the sum total of employment is not altered. Suppose Mr. Publican steps out and Mr. Gorse Grubber from a neighbouring No-license district, having saved money when he couldn't spend it in drink, steps in-, with a thrifty wife to tack him'up, isn't Mr. Gorse Grubber's billet open in which Mr. P. may work off some of his superfluous tissue? "I have five miles of "gorse fences," said a farmer, meaningly, the other day, when asked what there was for the ■unemployed hotel man to do. Considering &he probabilities (a) that manual labour would probably distress Mr. P. too much, and (b) Mr. P. knows some decent trade at. which he laboured before joining the ranks of the "Trade," it is likely that he will either prefer to become a mere boarding-house keeper or go back to his trade. But, you say, suppose that there is no room for him in his trade. In reply, I say that unless his trade is an extraordinarily nncommon one, such as that of Town Crier or Court Jester, the enormous extension of all legitimate industries will assuredly provide for Mr. P. Remember that the Dominion's drink bill is over £5,000,000 per annum. We shall, under Dominion Prohibition, have to find about £1,000,7 000 (Liquor Party's figures) in increased taxation. That, if correct, will leave over £4,000,000 to be diverted into other channels,- -I -don't want to insult your intelligence by trying to indicate to-you the result of- such a diversion of capital; for savings largely become re-dnvested capital, and such capital will, in the outlay of it, be devoted to the payment of wages, in which Mr. P. will have a chance to share,"it being presupposed that he is looking for work. • We may safely, say that'the hotelkeepers will, by the threp-fifths major- , ity they are —at present—so enamoured of, stay on as boarding-house keepers, or- boarders to their wives, or go back to their trade, where, as I have shown, there is certain soon to be an opening. 'The total of licensees is at the present moment 1257. There will then possibly be thrown upon a cold world as unemployed, perhaps unemployable— Hotelkeepers *. 503 To these we add barmen and barmaids -totalling 703 Wine and spirit merchants and. . their satellites 168 growers, malsters and their satellites 798 Making a total of 2170 Hut, after a glance at the figures on page 194 of the "advance sheets" before quoted, you say: "Why leave out , the 4118 hotel servants, to say nothing of the managers, clerks and relatives assisting, to the number of 11C3 r" I a'ljswpr that the boardinghouses of Gore and Invercargill under JNo-liconse employ no fewer servants How than were employed in. . License times. Managers and clerks will still be needed." "Reiativos assisting" were there in lieu of servants, aficl will still be able to "assist," though not at the beer-DumD...

In tlfo "Trade's" 11,000 will have* to "extend their businesses under Dominion Prohibition, so I don't add in the 492 persons employed in their factories, and, I think you will agree, rightly. It appears likely, therefore, Mr. Worker, that only something over 200p persons will be thrown out of employment; but let it be 3000 if you like, even 4000. Last year about 10,000 emigrants reached our shores, and were absorbed without much difficulty. Do you candidly think that we shall not be able to absorb those two, three, or even four thousand that work may be needed for? Remember, those millions of diverted and saved capital awaiting re-invest-ment. I contend that they will be easily absorbed unless they prove to be — .as some possibly will be—unemployable. (3) Is this Dominion, Mr. Worker, to continue to saddle itself with the Liquor Trade, in order to keep these comparatively few persons at work in what you know is a demoralising business, more dangerous to its employees than, other ? I'his word dangerous is hardly strong enough when I tell you that the Regis-trar-General of England and Wales, Dr. rat-ham, in the 55th Annual Report, issued a supplement dealing with the death-rates prevailing in 100 trades and occupations. I have not the space to quote all his figures, but he shows that the innkeepers in the industrial districts die off three times as fast as agricultural laborers, and nearly four times as fast as Christian ministers, while even seamen and ooalminers have a lower death-rate, only half as high as innkeepers' servants. To sum up, if all the males of the country were innkeepers, there would be 2030 deaths where there are now IOOp. It is only a misdirected sentimentality that would prompt you to let them remain in this deadliest of all occupations.. (4) Did you say that some of the hotels do not re-open as boardinghouses, and quote Newtown and Masr terton as examples? Have you considered what are the probable reasons for those empty hotels? Two reasons suggest themselves at once. (a) Before the carrying of No-license such hotels were existing on their profits from the sale of liquor, and were not making anything, neither did their proprietors desire to make anything, from the accommodation part of their premises. Not to beat about the bush, icy were mere drink-shops, although their licenses were obtained, in the first place by showing that accommodation was needed for "the travelling public. The fact that now the public will not use the accommodation merely shows that in the first place theiy received their licenses under false pretences; (b) The other reason reason is that the owners of the closed hotels are designedly "keeping them shut with a view to enlisting your sympathy with them in their "great monetary loss." The worker has a proverbially kind heart. Mr. Brewer-Owner knows this, and hopes that some hearts' will be touched and some votes retained by the sad picture of drawn blinds and dirty windows. But when you remember, Mr. Worker, that "Charity begins at home"-, —your horne —and as long as that now empty bar remains empty _ your boy cannot learn to drink within it, you will steel your heart at the sight and record your vote for your boy every time. (5) You, Mr. Worker, hate the very name of monopoly. You detest the organisation which exploits you for its I own private gain. You are fully determined that nothing like the American Trusts shall, octopus-like, fasten upon our beautiful Maoriland. Yet if you think a moment, I shall hardly need to point out to you ,that in its' every department the Liquor Trade. spells monopoly in its most detestable form. Even Standard Oil is "not more unblushing in its despicable methods of stifling opposition than the brewing interests. Let mc give you some verj T recent instances: (a) Last year the Waihi Miners' Union..was approached by the Auckland liquor men with an offer of the .whole >i the retail profits accruing from the sale of liquor in Waihi in the event of the overthrow of Ni-license in the coming poll. The president of that Union was himself offered a bribe of £100 to use his influence quietly for restoration. The secretary was to receive £50 under the same conditions. To their honour, and to the confusion of the "Trade," .the whole of these scandalous attempts were made public and frustrated by the public-spirited officials of the Union. (l>) Only to-day "The Worker," your paper, probably, Mr. Worker, was told point blank by an agent of the Wellington liquor men to remove that innocent little voting paper at the head of the first page of reading matter, under penalty of withdrawal of the "Trade's" charming and truthful advertisements. You will appreciate the wonderful strategy of this move when next you read your paper, for you will see that the place of those delightful and disinterested effusions has been taken by matter supplied by the Trade's deadliest too—the New Zealand Alliance. You will notice also that the innocent little voting paper still stands there in its , lamb-like innocence. These are only two out of numerous instances that could be quoted of the tactics employed by a disreputable monopoly Fighting For its Life. Will 3'ou, Mr.Worker, support this Liquor Trust? J think not, if you arc- more interested in a clean Dominion than in the per.petuation of a gigantic Fraud upon the !sody Politic. ■<T>; Now, I don't want to bemuse you with rmany figures, but the -followingform "*'■■"•"'