THE LABOUR QUESTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 2802, 28 June 1890, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE LABOUR QUESTION.

TJK B'/.RLIN CONFERENCE. THE OBSERVANCE OF SUND A.S A l)A.y T OF REST. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN L\BOUR AND CAPITAL. "THE CLINK OF CLOSING PJViiTS." [KKOiM OUIi OWN' COUKKSI'O.NDENT.J Paris, March 2U. Tjik Zollveroiu Labour Conference of Berlin will have achieved one satisfactory work, if aided by tho fiorco light beating on its prominency, it simply accumulates and co-ordinates tho proofsof the immense difl'oroticcs that exist in sevoral countries regarding wages, hours of labour, and workiug customs. Not that the vital statistics will be now, but they will be more prominently presented to tho general European mind. However, as for correcting thevso Inert* by international statues, no working man anticipates that, because tho l!ood Suinaritiiniain is Utopian. Wo shall have ono international Blue Book more. Tho Postal Union itself has not boon nblo to bring all nations into its fold, sincG Australia and South Africa (iro lono stars, nor aro all the Stalos that are members of the Union, able to apply the minimum scale of postage ; hence, why English is dearer than French foreign postage. States cannot even adopt a satisfactory common Zollverein ; neither France nor England can apply one to thmr own colonies. How much more difficult the task then, to uniformize the output of labour, as if it were a Nevada Silver Mine, or something demanding a close season like game and fish. The working classes, in Franco at least, have long since bade good-bye to sentiment, philanthropy, and philosophy, for the settlement of their toil and wage quarrels.. The Berlin Conference is viewed merely as a tardy, a sentimental tribute, paid to their long-neglected complaints, and wruug from capitalists and rulers by the new stragedy of the hewers of wood and drawers of water, who have applied the co-operative principle to redress their grievances, and possessed of the power; of threatning an allround cessation of work, can bring the wheels of industrial existence to a standstill. The cessation of-work on a, Sunday, or one day in the seven has no importance in the eyes of Continental workmen, so long as it implies a reduction of one-seventh in their weekly income. Raise the wages proportionately for the other nix days, so as to cover the loss of the seventh, would bo a solntion. But what Congress will propose that ; where are the Sabbatarian employers who will consent to nay that indemnity out of the "surplus value" of profits? The "unearned increment," is more omnipotent than Sermon on the Mount maxims. There is as much Sunday work in Protestant Germany, as perhaps in Catholic France. In France, the workmen have next to no religion, and that little tends to disappear. Too many of them keep Imuli as a day, not of rest, but of dissipation. Under the First Republic, quite a soriea of philanthropic fetes were decreed and organised, tending to repose the body, and to warm and unite hearts. It was not the mile of a creator, but of creation. It is by the progress of manners and refinement of institutions, that such questions as Dominical, or a seventh day of rcposo, can be achieved. Go vernment might nid the salntory reform by insisting, since orders are "qualified," that on their contract works ho Sunday labour shall be executed. Formerly tho post-offices in France were closed at half-p.ist five on Sunday afternoons ; at present they do nut shut till four hours later, as on week days. In 1814, when the Bourbons were restored, the Prcfot do Police (Foucho) ordered the law of 1782, suspending all work on Sundays, to come into operation. The great legislative opponent of tho abolition of Sunday labour in Germany was Prince Bismarck. Belgium has labour legislation meriting to be studied. Passing over that which protects children and women, or common humanity, it prohibits tho payment of his wages in kind, and the impounding of his earnings for debt. Tho Belgium workman is exonerated from all judicial costs when seeking redress beforo tho courts ; tho State aids him to buy in his own liouso ; it recognises tho right of workmen to syndicate and to repress dram shops; the law etrikos .ill new drink dens and rum holes with a uoxt to it prohibiting , license. '' I'll bo king , of tho May"—tho work-ing-class has decided. On uoxt May day, will bo inaugurated tho auuual tweutyfour hours rest for cosmopolitan labour. It is a now departure, imagined by the Fronoli oufrici; to organize, marshal, and count, tho battalions of co-workers. As soon as handicrafts are disciplined, pud affiliated trades welded into a common Holidarity, tho great battio between Labour and Capital will come off. The dreadful note of preparation, and the clink of closing rivets up, can be heard. Those who have ears to hear, would do well—to hear.