THE EELATIONS OF LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

Waikato Times, Volume VII, Issue 346, 1 August 1874, Page 2

THE EELATIONS OF LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

Ever since waged labpur camo intoexistenco.Jtho lawmakers of this country have busied themselves with keeping theworkers under restraint. At the outset the master was only the senior or more experienced member of the craft, simply shaping the raw material of hia customers with the assistance of journeymen* ami ho hud his wages and hta hours of labour fiiod like a common labourer. When, however, in course of tune, the mfts<ov-tr,vdesnv.m beumne a contractor Id furnish his customers with things ready for use, or tlio proprietor of an *>stablishmi»nt manufacturing goods for sale in distant markets, and when, moreover, his class gained political power, the case win altered, and laws were made for his protection against tho poor workers, who were visited with pains and penalties if they transgressed those laws. For centime past e?«ry n>w Act that wns pnssod contained a crtm nal clause against combinations. Somptinies, both masters and woiKkwu were equally lusblo to pnnishI meti\. The Act of 1707. for lha regulation of tl>e journeymen tailors of London rooming or paying moro than 2i 7id a day, rendered both receiver and giver liable to 3 months' hard labour in n house of correction. In 1821 that great Radical whom in later duyi ivo familiarly called " Old Joe Hume" moved for n Commission of Inquiry into the Combination Acts, winch was granted. That Commission I'lucidntod—l. Thnt labour combinations existed tlnoughout the j country; 2. That in trades without cambiu.it iou t3<> wages | were from 5s to JO* a week les-i than in trades with combinations, and that this was the caso in the tnme trades between the difleicnt localities where combinations did or did not exist ; and 3. That nil tho prosecutions and convictions that Untl taken place hml been against workpeople, but no tonvictions could be found against employers. Both Government mid Parliament being in a happy mood, the Combination Liws were repealed. They were so numerous that i the simple recital of the titles covers sit and a liulf pages foolscap. The law by which they were repealed enacted — " Tlitvt journey men, workmen, or other peraons who shall j cuter into any combination to obtain an advance or fix the | rate of wages, or to le»seu or alter tl»<» hours or duration of the time of working, or to deowase the qiuntity of work, or to induce another to depart from iiis serrico before the end of the time or term for w hich bo is hired, or to quit or return his work before it shall bo finished, or not being hired, to refuse to onter into work or employment, or to vegulato th» mode of carrying on a manufacture, trade, or business, or tho management thereof, shall not therefore bo culpable or liable to prosecution or punishment under the common or statute law." It may here be mentioned that, by Castlereagh'i six Coercion Acts of 1819, trade meetings of any kind were tanked wttli unlawful assemblies — treasonable and ■editions meetings. In 1825, Mr Hnskisson, tbi> Vice-Presidont of tbo Board of Trade, implored the House to repeal tha Act of tho previous year to prevent a revolution. Tho Home Secretary, he stated, was in poiseition of information which showed that the coal miners and iron-workers of the North were completely orgaimed aguimt their employers ; th«y had presidents, ieeretaries, treasurers, and delegates, tho busineis of the latter being to m iko periodical reports of what was going on at the different works, and thero was weekly and monthly meetings, and half-yearly congicssee. Every, thing resolved at the delegate meetings had to bo ■übmitsed to the vote of all the members, and then encU member had to pny a shilling a week. Such an amount of money could not be intended for anything but mischief. These miners' associations were in fact nothing else but the much abhorred Federal Republic — tho suppression of which, in France, had cost England so much blood and treasure. If <ueh societies, ho maintained, were not put down quickly, the carrying on of business would become impossible — their only aim could bo revolution, the subversion of the institution* of the country, and the destruction of pronort}'. Purliament lent a willing ear, and undid the good it had done the previous year by passing the Act of which the present Criminal Law Amendment Act is a revised edition. What would the colleagues of Mr HuskiMon haio said to two delegates of such »%vfnl combinations entering the House as members with a triumphant Tory maiority. And what are tho facts now ? Was there ever so much coal and iron produced in any age or country by the «ime number of h»nd», and in tho same time, as since tho passing of tho present cuiuricipntiiig Trades Union Act? Or so much wealth m general in all brandies of industry notwithstanding the great strikes ? Or is it all duo to the Criminal Law Amendment Act, tho criminal portions of the Master* and Servnnts Act, and the distorted application of too Conspiracy Laws ? These penal iniltctiont upon tho workpeople of the present day are but the itequel of the last. Ti> male out their case, tho advocates of those inflictions must provo that without the lash work is less diligently and less efficiently performed than under the lash ; unless they demonstrate' thufc, beyoud the possibility of cavil, their case breaks hopelessly down, even from the employers' point of view. But above all, employers and their spokesmen in the Pres* »hould remember that before one becomes a lured wages labourer be is * man ; and the amn oC tho pres-nfc generation who btippons to be m that position which compels bim to gain his subsistence by working for wages has learned to assert his dignity o»a man, and the working class nsa whole insists that tbe dignity shall be recognised by tho other classes in all the relations of life. Wiwauves as* tho Unionists, if tbo obnoxious Acts be repealed, what guarantee they have to give large employers of labour that they shall not run tho risk of being left in tho lurch, on certain emergencies, by tbm workpeople ? None. Tho remedy, the infallible remedy, i*i» tho empJoyei s' own hand*~digm}sed tieatuicut and fair payment of the people they employ. Tbe Inspector of Fore*.ti for Olago in his report recently submitted to tho Government; draws attention to th« fact that thero u in Southland timber on the ground to last 40Ojear6, supposing 20 s.i« mills were each employed cuttm<; ut the rate of 100 ncros yearly. This calculation, as thJrc nro 80,0000 acres of forest, is based on tbe idea that there h no reproduction - thftt in fact, consumption u to | go <m but no tiw§ arc to gfowto roplaco tho»o cut down. lit got* further, "n't »hov\» that thoie turnty mills will employ ut least 300 men, earning in the ajij^cgato £30,000 nyeur wages, and tint tho produce of tiujir labor will bo lur^y oxpoited.