LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 2949, 9 June 1891, Page 4

LABOUR AND CAPITAL.

The Marquis of Salisbury, in the course of a speech lately made before the delegates of the Associated Chamber of Commerce iu London, thus referred to the position of Labour and Capital, indicating the line of action Her Majesty's Governmect propose to adopt in England, an example certainly that might with safety be followed by our New Zealand legislators These lights between labour and capital of course have their inconveniences, but they are controversies which I sup. pose must take place, aud our business, certainly the business of her Majesty's Ministers, is to look at them iu a spirit of absolute neutrality, only desiring tint that result mar be achieved which may be for the greatest interests of both the parties who are concerned. (Cheers.) Ido not think i" is just, to say that the existence of unions, trade unions, federations, or bod ies of that kind, can be looked upon as a danger or an unexpected evil by the commercial interests of this country. (Cheers.) Uniwti is not the discovery of agitators, it, is not invented by any particular men, or the result of any set of political institutions. The people who made trade unions and employers' federations were Watt, who invented the steam engine, and Wheatstone, who invented the electric telegraph. They are the result of tho easier communication which exists between all mankind compared to what existed in tho days of our grandfathers ; and, apart from all questions of politics and questions of agitation, it must needs bo that as the means of communication increase man who have the same interests and are fighting with comiron dangers will unite together more aud more, and combino their interests in common action. (Cheers.) All we have to hope is not that this spirit shall abate, but it shall go on and have its perfect work. and that all who are united by common interests shall be guided by common counsel to do that which is wisest and best for themselves and the community in their judgment. (Cheers.) But the correlative of unions is perfect freedom not to havo unions. (Cheers.) The corollary of liberty of uniting is the absolute liberty of refusing to unite (Cheers), and the State, all who bear ollieo, or who exercise iuHuence in this country are b'nind to do their utmost that each man in his own discretion may use his own liberty to dispose ! <s he thinks best, of every commodity, including that greatest of all commodities, his labour, aceordiug us he may judge his own interest to bo. (Cheers.) That is not a mere controversial proposition ; it lies at tho base of our uatioual character and our national existeucc. Either Englishmen must absolutely change their characters so that they shall be as unlike anything which they have ever been before, or they will continue to require that each man shall bo fr«e in his own actions to carry on his own industry. You may have what political movement you please, you may havo what vicissitudes of parties or changes of Government you like, you will find that in the long run facts wil be stronger than sophistries or theories, and that tho facts will require that men shall work as they please, and not other wise. (Cheers ) I know that there once existed a different stato of things. I know that in France something more than a hundred years ago it was impossible for anybody to work unless ho joined the union of his particular trade and submitted to its rules. But that state of things produced such a tension among classes and such an impoverishment of every industry that, it was swept away in the catastrophe with which it overwhelmed all the other institutions of the State. Ido not believe at this tirao of d ly that abuses which the French Revolution swept away will bo deliberately set up in our midst. (Cheers).