OUR LAWS.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3850, 2 May 1881, Page 1

OUR LAWS.

(To the Editor of the Evening Star ) r«?K'~ Many thaßks. for your remark* re the wages in youiv issue of. last night. I may remark that I do not see any letters or information from our clergymen, teachers, or rich men, that will enlighten a.labouring man as to how he can better ms condition, but plenty of laws to pre. Tent his rising. Were as much pains taken to raise the condition of a labourer as there is to keep him down to stamtion point—as thongh cheapness was a virtue —I should not write this. I beliere in the! Scripture it tells.you, "Hide not your light under a bushel;" but I don't beliere in being starved for showing itit ia too much like boycotting. We hare any amount of it here, and I don't want anr more of it than I bare had. X write this in the hopethat some way may be found for men id lire without crushing each Other, and that men who Kate lived honestly, or hare done their best to do so, all their lires, shall not be treated worse than convicts because! they lire under the laws and obey them, and that those men shall not be considered paupers who hare lived by manual labour all their lires, and hare no money when not able to work. Sir, I can but touch on one law now, which affects erery labouring mau in the, commnnity, and that is the contract law, and so long as it remains unaltered ; so long will wages be low to the many: You,sir, are aware the balloting papers are . numbered, though the same officials know who rotes for or against their party; the consequence is when a contract is let to (He lowest tenderer, and he happens to be % known friend, although he may take it it one-half of what an honest tenderer sould, he can make it pay, because in the >ne case the work is only slummed orer, md in the other [the man must fulfil hit contract, so that often it would be cheaper For the public to take the highest tender than the lowest, as the work has to be paid for again. The consequence of this system is tbat the dishonest contractor has the most chances of making money, and the Government back him up because he pretends to keep wages down. I hare written against this system for years, and have to suffer for so doing, and if any of the contractors like the system and can show how it iarfood to them or the public, the public I *a§iiure will be grateful to them. Notwimitanding it is cowardly to rrrit^ nnonymoualv, in some people's idea. it is UpHnoii mlwtkw^tkom who want; to know the writer's name aX»»pt greater cowazda>r=X am, &c. 4 P.S.—You may observe that a~ man may obey the laws and be forced to act dishonestly to lire. One law says you must work for your living; another, you must hare money to get it.