THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1892. THE SESSION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2399, 23 August 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1892. THE SESSION.

One of the peculiarities of the present session is the extraordinary rapidity with which measures introduced by the Government pass through Parliament. It is nothing uncommon to see half-a-dozen Bills run through at a sitting, and that without evoking hostile criticism of any moment. Now what is to be inferred from this? What can anyone conclude but that there is nothing very wrong in any of the Government measures when they are allowed to pass almost unopposed like this. If the Government were modifying our laws in a wrong direction ; if they were introducing provisions which would clash with class interests : if, as is frequently asserted, they were introducing class legislation, it is absolutely certain that they would meet with strenuous opposition, but this is not so. There is scarcely any opposition offered to their measures, and all the talk and all the time has been wasted on matters with which the Government were not responsible, and which very often had little to do with their policy. Three weeks were spent in discussing the Financial Statement, and Mr Fergus, who wound up the debate, had the assurance to say that it was the fault of the Government that it had been protracted so long.. What could the Government do ? Last year they forced a debate to be brought to an end by sitting all night, with the result that they were compared with Henry VIII, and characterised as tyrants, who refused to the Opposition even liberty of speeches. If they had adopted similar tactics this year, no one knows what they would have been regarded as by the Opposition. In the debate on the Address-in-Reply no Government supporter, with one or two exceptions spoke at all, and wherever the Government could push on business they have done so. But it is impossible to push on business as the House is at prpgept constituted. Those who remember the .Stout-Vogel tenure of office when the late Sir Harry Atkinson led, the debates were conducted in a reasonable manner. Sir Harry n.ev.er obstructed business, and never resorted to apy factious Opposition. It is different altogether now. Mr Rolleston i§ a very bad leader, for the reason that he works on the principle that nothing good can come out of Nazareth. The present Government have practically adopted the land policy which he himself was supposed to favor, and which he has so frequently advocated, yet he sees nothing in it but what is vile and wicked. The' feet is Mr Rolleston works on the principle that pyery man on the Government side of House is a double-dyed scoundrel, while ti[Q»e on his side of the House ai*6 pure, spotless, human atoms, as stainless as a cherub, and as guileless as a dove. Most of the disorder proceeds Mr Roiieston's mistaken view of his position. His idea is that the mo : A important work he can do is to turn the Ministry out, and get into their places, and with this object in view he spares no pains to discredit them,. There is nothing seriously wrong to charge them with; but some excuse must be found to show their unfitness for their position, snd so an effort is being made to prove that they are not fit to lead the House, with the hope that this will influence the minds of the electors. Mr Rolleston and his followers are making a great mistake. The people can see that the present Government are doing well, and [no amount of opposition rowdyism will make them change their

opinion. The public would think a great deal more of Mr Rolleston and his friends if they paid more attention to bills passing through Parliament, instead of raising miserable quibbles, and trying to harrass the Government and waste time about nothing at all. Measures very often pass through Parliament in a very slip-shod way, and it would be far better to turn attention to putting them in workable shape. Only last week a no-confidence motion was discussed ; this evening another is to be brought forward in the shape of censure on the Government in connection with the Legislative Council appointments. This will be rejected, the Government will come out of it all right, and all the country will gain by it, it is a greal waste of time.

THE STRIKE IN AMERICA. The disturbance in America over the strikes is becoming a very serious matter. Americans of course must have everything on a large scale, and apparently they are having strikes now on the approved gigantic principles. The cause of the American strikes is that the employers are endeavoring to cnt down wages. A couple of years ago increased protection was given to American industries with the result that they are driving all imported articles out of the market. This was called the McKinley Tariff and it caused consternation throughout Europe. In England it had the effect of throwing large numbers out of employment, but European countries retaliated by increasing their own customs duties. Such protection ought to have satisfied American manufacturers, but apparently nothing will do for them but to become millionaires, and with this object in view they have decided on cutting down wages. The first to begin it was Mr Carnegie, the great ScotchAmerican millionaire. Mr Carnegie went to America as a poor boy, and succeeded in amassing great wealth. It is said that he is worth 40 or 50 millions of money, and for years he has resided in Scotland, where he has astonished the people with his democratic speeches and his denunciation of wealth. He has written some books, which have been welcomed by the most advanced thinkers as powerful additions to Radical literature, and they have been extensively quoted as the opinions of a humane millionaire. But notwithstanding his lip Radicalism, Mr Carnegie is apparently as anxious as ever to add dollar to dollar. The managers of his immense iron-works in America were the first to cut down wages, and when philanthropic people in England appealed to Mr Carnegie to interfere he declined to do so, and replied that he had full confidence in the managers of the works. From Mr Carnegie’s works the strike has spread, and now America is plunged in the throes of a fratricidal warfare in which many are slain. The strikein Americadiffersfrom that experienced in these colonies two years ago. In the colonies the strike was not over a question of wages : It was simply Union v. Free Labor. The unionists refused to work with anyone except unionists, and the employers insisted on employing whomsoever they liked. In America the question is a reduction of wages, and whatever may be said of the Australians, the American strikers have apparently a just cause. In the face of the fact that increased protection was recently given to industries which were already the most highly protected in the world, it is impossible to believe that a reduction of wages should become a necessary consequence. Increased employment and increased wages is the natural consequence of increased protection, and the action of the Americans can only be put down as a wanton attempt to secure an unfair share of the products of labor to capital. There can be no doubt that the capitalists will win; it is impossible for the strikes to succeed when Gatling guns and other highly destructive weapons which modern science has invented, are brought to bear on them. The working classes in any country have not now the same opportunities as they had in past ages, and they may as well realise it. Governments everywhere are on the side of capital, or as they put it—law and order, —and the resources of the nation are thus ranged against the poorest and most helpless of it. Strikes, therefore, can never do any good, and men may as well realise it at once. They have no means to fight with. The Gatling gun is on tne side of capital, but the ballot box is on the side of labor. Let the laborer strike through the ballot box, and no one can strike him back. This is the only hope of the laborer, and if he neglects this be does not deserve either sympathy or support,