The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1889. THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1880, 18 April 1889, Page 2

The Temuka Leader THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1889. THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.

In Russia some few years ago .Tears were subjected to fearful persecutions, and consequently large numbers of them had to fly from the country. Subsequently Germany expelled all foreign Poles found within her dominions, and more recently still Prance expelled foreign mechanics and workmen who had not been naturalised. Thus withiu the last few years the greater part of Europe has thrown out of the industrial hive immense swarms of workmen, and the question is now, Where have they all gone to ? In our opinion it is very easy to trace them. Some of them, who could raise the means, went to America, but the greater, most miserable, and the worthless part of them are scattered all over English cities, and have become “sweaters,” to the ruin of the English workman. America, too, is now awakening to the surrounding realities, and has commenced to put her foot down to prevent the overcrowding of her labor fields with foreigners. Notwithstanding her immense territory, large tracts of which are still barely discovered, the cry of “ America for the Americans ” is being raised, and taken up in a spirit that denotes it to be no empty sound. In the near future, without the slightest doubt, America will restrict the influx of foreign workmen, and then the British Empire will alone remain the entrepot for all the world to pour its superfluous population into. Into the British Empire they must come, in under the shelter of the “Union Jack of Old England,” where they shall enjoy equal liberty with the prince. Who cannot but feel proud of British laws and British generosity in thus providing a home for the homeless? Who cannot but sing pmans over the grandeur and splendor of British institutions and the liberty enjoyed under the sheltering shadow of the British flag? No one excepting inquisitive meddling persons like ourselves, who would like first of all to know “Why England should be a dust-bin for all the world to empty human excrescence into, while her own children are dying of hunger and of thirst, or 1 ingering in the agonies of appalling misery.” Away with England’s boasted freedom when such is the case! Away with the ass that brays out “Britons never shall be slaves! ” while his kith and kin are writhing in the pangs of hunger next door. We have no sympathy with such freedom, and the fact that Englishmen have borne with it so long proves that Carlyle was pretty near right when he said the English people were mostly fools. This English freedom is based on the horrid doctrine of “ The survival of the fittest,” the cut-throat policy of competition, or, to put it in a simple way, it is based on “ Ereetrade gone mad.” It is the liberty that enables the capitalist to grow richer, and the working man to starve. In despotic Russia a stranger must show he has the means of making a living before he is allowed to take up his residence withiu the dominions of the Czar. In England the scum of the earth can find refuge, and will be given work to do by the hardened money - worshipping capitalist, provided it does it cheaper than Englishmen. This is the cursed, unfeeling, inhuman policy that England pursues, and to it is partly due the depression which exists throughout thewholeof the British dominious.

It affects us seriously in Ibis colony. It enables British manufacturers to

produce goods at a nominal cost by means of the labor of these foreigners, who work for next to nothing, and are satisfied with food upon which Englishmen could not live. The English manufacturer flings the result of the labor of these “ sweaters ” upon the Australian markets, and notwithstanding our Customs duties they can undersell the products of colonial labor. This is the reason why it is impossible to develope the resourcas of this colony; also it is the reason why our workmen are half their time idle, and it is also the cause of a good deal of the sweating system. To compete with imported goods the colonial manufacturers must get cheap labor, and hence the adoption of the “ sweating system.” Now are we going to join hands with England in her toothless imbecility ? are we going to accept the cheap labor of the riffraff of the earth, and let our kith and kin starve ? What was the necessity for Germany and France to drive population away? Both countries work from 12 to 16 hours per day, and in Germany large numbers of factories work even on Sundays, the object being to produce cheaply and undersell competitors. Supposing these countries reduced the hours of labor to 8 hours, they would have plenty of employment for a great many more people, but then they could not undersell England while working at the rate of 12 hours a day. The remedy is, therefore, let all work 8 hours, and all will start on equal terms. No one except capitalists would lose by this, while it would shed such beneficent influence over the lives of the poor that it would in reality turn this earth into a paradise for them. But it is against the doctrine of getting the greatest possible amount of work done at the smallest possible cost, it is against the liberty of the subject, it is against the doctrine of political economy, and sooner than interfere with these alleged laws half the world may starve. Let it he remembered that political economy has been written in the interest of capital, and that consequently it is absolutely opposed to the interests of labor. It is doing great injury, not only to workmen but to every one in this colony, and the proper way to deal with the problem is to prohibit the importation of certain goods which are well known to be the result of the labor of the English sweating system.