FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1912. Dividends v. Lives The Crime at Mount Lyell

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 87, 15 November 1912, Page 4

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1912. Dividends v. Lives The Crime at Mount Lyell

"Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand ; they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter."

These words from the Book of Isaiahhave a special application to the directors of the Mount Lyell Mining Company. That the recent mining disaster was directly due to tho greed for dividends has been demonstrated by an overwhelming weight of evidence. The capitalist speculators and exploiters continually prate of the risks that capital runs, but what wei;/!i the risks of capital in the balance against the risks that Labor runs? Do nni the workers in shop and ship, mine unci factory run the risks of less of health, limb or life every moment of their working days? Dealing particularly with those who moil and toil in the bowels of tho earth in the merciless struggle for existence, the miner may be said to be "tempting his fate on the hazard of -a die" every second, every minute, every hour, every day he is below, year in and year out. The grim, gaunt and ghostly spectre of Death ever hovers at his elbow, and if he escapes the grisly one's fatal, unheralded attack, the millions of Death—Disease and Disablement^—sooner or later get him into their fell clutches, and he drags out a lingering, tortured existence till their more merciful master puts an end to his sufferings. The nature of his occupation forces the miner to meet the Destroyer less than halfway, for if a fatality does not cut him off sharp and sudden, the lung complaint which ho contracts is sure in its effect, and makes his life nothing short of slow suicide.

What are the conditions under which a copper miner, say, at Mount Lyell works!-' He is half-smothered with sulphur and dust when he is boring, inhaling sulphur and fracteur fumes when he is firing, and chewing the deadly stuff when he happens to be digging the "banjo" into it. In fact, he oats it with his "crib," and smokes it with his pipe. Yet when he and his mates come out for better and safer working conditions or increased wages, it is the custom of the miserable, howling capitalist press to picture them as lazy. discontented, good-for-nothing citizens. Horrors like the one at Mount Lyell prove that tho best working conditions are due to the courageous miners, who aro in constant peril of their lives underground ; and because the Federation of Labor is strenuously fighting to preserve the conditions it has won for the miners in New Zealand, to safeguard their healths and lives at the sacrifice of "morn economy in working," it lias mot with nothing but abuse and slander, whereas every right-thinking citizen should applaud it for its efforts in ■the direction of ensuring the prevention of decimating disease and death.

Tho Lyell mine was a dangerous one —simply a death-trap, nothing else. There was cnly one moans of exit'—the main shaft—and the mine was in a generally unsafe condition. Repeated representations had been made by the men to secure the safety of the mine. Tho company threw every obstacle possible in the way to prevent an, adequate inspection of the mine, and the Government proved criminally callous in enforcing the regulations. The men at last went on strike to bring matters to a head, but were cajoled back to work under .a promise that their complaints would be inquired into and the causes rectified. Alas! they went back too soon and two score and more of them lost their lives in a mine which on a capital of £:-S00 r OO has paid £2,776.000 in dividends (or 900 per cent.) in loss than 20 years!

In face of incidents like these, the United Labor Party, the prevaricating press and the boodle-bugs have the frontery to'tell us that strikes are unjustifiable. Would that the miners of Mount Lyell had held out till tho safety of the mine had been guaranteed. Then the murder of these workers (for they were as surely murdered as though their throats had been cut) would never have occurred. Strikes at present not only always tend to raise wages and" better conditions, but often save thousands of livos.

Another point in the indictment against the Mount Lyell Company is that after the firo broke out the lives of the men could have been saved. In a. statement issued by Mr. J. J. Mahoney, president of the Lyell branch of the F.M.E.A., and also president of that organisation in Tasmania, occurs this passage: "Had there been a man in charge of each pump house, as there ought to have been, I venture to say that tho fire would have been promptly extinguished. It spread because the company would not pay the wages of an extra man. It see I,is an awful thing that for this paltry amount of money ■the lives of over 40 men have boon sacrificed. Why were the rr-en not notified in terms of urgent, wp.rniug that the fire was serious ? Tho pump house man knew it at 10.45, and must have telephoned up to the officials. 7t was their place to give strict orders for the men to leave immediately, and see that they obeyed. Every man could have been saved."

What should be the penalty for thoso whose lust for dividends forced the workmen to their deaths? It Will be but a small measure of justice if the assets of the company are drawn on to the uttermost farthing to compensate those who have been so ruthlessly deprived of their breadwinners, though such a crime against the workers cannot be atoned for by the payment of any sum of blood-money. The local Government contributed to the tragedy by not insisting on its officers doing their duty, and it should be impeached and dismissed from power by the electors at the first opportunity, when we trust will succeed to office a Workingclass party that will see to it that the possibility of such disasters will be minimised to the smallest degree. Of course, a full inquiry will be held into the calamity—but how futilo that! To quote the verses of an Australian writer:— "What though 'tis proved an avaricious few Endangered lives to gain a penny more ; Tho revelation will be nothing now, And will not joy to widowed home,s restore! "The game of grab will go on just the, same, And human life be sacrificed to greed, While gathering gold is mankind's loftiest aim. The rich will always prey on those in need. "It matters not what methods now they use, What at th' inquiry may bo done or said, The verdict will not alter the grave news That 40 HONEST WORKING-MEN ARE DEAD!"