1904

THE POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL

SITUATION IN AUSTRALIA

THE political situation at the hour in Australia generally, and Victoria particularly, is of more than ordinary interest, and the issues involved are of a kind that has not been met with hitherto in any Parliament; and although the population affected is comparatively small and the area relatively large, the principles involved are identical with those struggling for ascendency in Europe and America.

Numerous speakers and writers have referred to Australia as 'the paradise of the workman,' and quoted cases which have helped to create an impression in some quarters that already the standard of life of the workers generally in Australia is such that there is little or no room for dissatisfaction with the prevailing economic conditions.

If this were so it would be difficult to account for the social unrest that undoubtedly shows itself pretty plainly and finds at the time its chief expression in the political activities of the workers, who are battling vigorously to return to the Federal and State Parliaments an increasing number of direct Labour representatives.

The industrial disputes, too, are fought quite as bitterly as in other countries, a notable instance being that of the Gippsland (Victoria) coal-miners, where the men of the Outtrim, Jumbunna, and Korrumburra coal-mines, some 1,300 in number, stubbornly resisted for seventy weeks the conditions the employers sought to impose, and have now yielded when actual starvation has compelled them; and this week a number of them who have been entirely peaceful and law-abiding all through the dispute, are leaving Victoria by boats for other States-viz. New South Wales, Western Australia, and New Zealand; some of them deeming it expedient to change their names to run less risk of being black-listed by the Employers' Federation. The unemployed assemble several days during each week and hold meetings in the usual style, calling upon the authorities to provide means for work, &c., it being alleged that in Melbourne alone there are between five and six thousand out of employment—a statement which can easily be believed seeing that this represents 5 per cent. of the male workers; whilst the trade union statistics show that in

several trades 15 per cent. more correctly represents the true state of affairs.

The Amalgamated Engineers at the present time have 18 per cent. of their members in Victoria in receipt of Society benefits; New South Wales being quite as bad. Nor is gold-mining in Victoria any better, as is shown by the conditions obtaining in and around the city of Ballarat. It is authoritatively stated that in Ballarat, East and West, there are about one thousand six hundred miners employed; of these about six hundred receive 7s. 6d. per shift of eight hours, or 21. 5s. a week, and the thousand who work as 'tributers,' and usually put in six days a week, average about 12s. 6d. per week per man. This seems almost unbelievable, and but that I have had many opportunities of mixing up with the men themselves and talking the matter over in its various phases, I should doubt its accuracy. As regards farm workers, wages range from 6s. to 18s. a week and food, but for harvest hands about 6s. a day is paid.

Many skilled workers are badly organised, and wages are proportionately low, many connected with the agricultural-implement making receiving not more than from 30s. to 40s. a week.

As regards furniture-making in Victoria, in spite of trade unionism and a wages board stipulating the conditions for all at the trade, Chinamen included, this trade is now monopolised by the Chinamen, and white men are literally compelled to leave the State, there being no work for them. Of the 740 men now engaged in furniture-making in Melbourne and district, 110 are Europeans and 630 are Chinese. During the last twelve months the secretary of the Furniture Trades Union, at the Trades Hall, Melbourne, states that he has issued eightynine members' clearances-i.e. that number of members has left the State because there was not the slightest prospect of their being able to obtain employment. A large proportion of these men are now in New Zealand.

To indicate the stage of development as regards street transit in Melbourne the trams may be instanced, which are run by cable system and are in the hands of a private company, the almost universal charge being 3d. In a very few instances, where the State railways compete, penny fares for short stages prevail, and on some lines passengers may purchase a dozen tickets for 28.; but over a very large portion of Melbourne the minimum price is 2s. 9d. per dozen tickets.

This is in marked contrast to Sydney, where the street cars are on the electric overhead system and are owned and controlled by the State, and where penny stages are generally prevalent. The Sydney trams are one of the best-paying assets of New South Wales.

As bearing upon the social conditions and the relationship between employers and workers, it is stated that the Melbourne tramway employés dare not, as they value their situations, be identified with

any labour union, the most rigid espionage on the part of the company being carried out. The same applies to the employés of the Melbourne Gas Company, who have no industrial organisation, and dare not form one, because of the known hostility thereto of the company directors.

These facts will serve to dispel any idea that the prevailing industrial and social conditions leave nothing to be desired from the workers' standpoint.

But to give the points which tell on one side and not to give others would create a wrong impression, and therefore it is necessary to say that, speaking generally, and more particularly for shop or stores assistants and for many mechanics, the standard of living is higher than in England. For practically all stores assistants to leave work at six in the evening or a little later, to work late one evening in the week only, and for all to have a half-holiday once a week is a distinct advance upon the conditions in Britain. Mechanics generally do not work more than forty-eight hours a week, and the rates of pay are distinctly higher than in Britain. Taking mechanics' wages as ranging in London from 36s. to 50s. a week, a fair comparison here would be for similar men in Melbourne from 45s. to 65s. a week, but this higher figure is obtained for an hour less work per day. Of course there is a difference in purchasing power, and especially as regards refreshments. The customary drinks of the workman in London, costing 1 d., 2d., and 3d. per glass, in Melbourne can only be had for 3d. and 6d. respectively, whilst in many country towns the minimum price is 6d. A felt hat costing 6s. 6d. at home, in Melbourne costs 10s. 6d.; but this difference does not prevail all round, my own estimate being that a typical mechanic will receive 15s. per week more in Victoria than in Britain, and one-half of this 15s. will be absorbed in increased expenditure, leaving a solid margin of 7s. 6d. a week to the good for one hour's work per day less. As counteracting this, again, the periods of unemployment appear to be longer on the average in Australia than in the Old Country.

As regards working hours, there is no Eight Hours Law generally prevalent in any of the Australasian States, and never has been; and in Victoria at present, taking all workers, there are quite as many working more than eight hours per day as there are working eight hours or less.

The real reason for the instituting of the eight hours day in Victoria by the workers in the building trades in 1856 appears to have been because it was found to be so much more exhausting to work under the heat of the Australian sun than it had been in a European climate, and the demand for the eight hours work-day has been advocated in Australia chiefly on those grounds. It is only in recent years that the demand for reduced working hours has been put forward as a sound economic method of absorbing the unemployed dislodged from

their occupations by the march of invention, and also as a means to enable the worker to share more equitably in the ever-increasing product of labour.

Having regard to the greatly increased productivity of labour, the West Australian Labour party is now vigorously advocating a seven hours work-day, and when one speaker at the Victorian eight hour celebration claimed that there were stronger reasons to be advanced now in favour of a six hours work-day than there were in 1856 in favour of an eight hours day, the statement was received with vociferous applause.

At the forty-eighth celebration of the eight hour day in Melbourne, which took place on the 25th of April of this year, circumstances transpired which added special interest to the event. The occasion was one of more than ordinary interest, as the chief speaker was the Hon. J. C. Watson, M.H.R., who only two days before had been sent for by the Governor-General and charged with the responsibility of forming a Ministry; two days later Mr. Watson assumed office as Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, all his Ministerial colleagues (save one), with himself, being pledged members of the Labour party.

The political Labour parties of the various Australian States date from the year 1890, when, after the termination of the Australian maritime strike, which affected the whole of Australia and New Zealand, and which ended by the defeat of the workmen, forthwith the trade unionists and others resolved to take political action on independent lines. With the advent of Federation and a Commonwealth Parliament, in January 1900, Labour men were ready to contest a number of the electorates, and succeeded in returning fourteen pledged Labour members to the House of Representatives out of a total of seventy-five, each State contributing a share in the following order: New South Wales six, Queensland three, Victoria two, West Australia one, South Australia one, Tasmania one.

To the Senate, consisting of a total of thirty-six members, nine pledged Labour men were returned as follows: Queensland four, West Australia two, Victoria one, South Australia one, Tasmania one, New South Wales none.

That the Labour members worked effectively and assiduously even their strongest opponents frankly admit. That their behaviour in and out of Parliament could not have been displeasing to a larger number than those who had returned them may be concluded from the fact that when the first Parliament expired by effluxion of time, and the election for the second Parliament took place in December 1903, the straight-out Labour men in the House of Representatives were increased from fourteen to twenty-three; New South Wales sending seven, Queensland six, West Australia four, Victoria three, South Australia two, and Tasmania one.

In the Senate the Labour party increased their numbers from nine in the first Parliament to fourteen in the second-viz. from Queensland five, West Australia four, South Australia three, Victoria one, Tasmania one, and New South Wales none.

As Queensland's total number of members in the House of Representatives is nine, and six of these are pledged Labour members, it will be seen that Labour has a slight preponderance of power in the second Chamber as far as this State goes; whilst in the Senate, where the total number of members for each State is six, the Queensland Labour men have five out of the six seats, or, combining the two Houses, the Queensland contingent thereto totals fifteen, and of these eleven are Labour men.

It may be well to explain that each of the six Federated States returns six Senators; whilst the number returned to the House of Representatives is based upon population, New South Wales returning twenty-six, Victoria twenty-three, Queensland nine, South Australia seven, West Australia five, and Tasmania five.

The franchise for both Houses being adult suffrage, much speculation took place as to how the women would vote, or whether they would vote at all. The result has shown that the women were quite as keen to exercise their vote as the men, and, as might naturally have been expected, whilst independence of spirit was shown, and the right to do exactly as they pleased was freely claimed and acted upon, each class voted in the main as did the men folk in the same class; and although quite a number of workmen were concerned as to whether the Churches would succeed in detaching and diverting the votes of many women in a manner unfavourable to the Labour policy, all such were perfectly satisfied when the results were declared.

The women did not vote at the first Federal election, and to most of them it was an entirely new experience, and naturally there was a small percentage of odd cases; but over the whole Commonwealth the lively interest shown by the women and the all-round efficiency that characterised them at the polling-booths commanded the most hearty admiration of the sterner sex. During the election campaign great amusement was caused by the wrigglings of those candidates who for many years had opposed woman suffrage, but on this occasion were taxing their brains as to how to secure the votes of the women. Their sudden discovery that after all women would probably impart a healthy tone to matters political, and that there really was no valid reason as to why the right of citizenship should be exclusively held by one sex when the everyday interests of both sexes were directly affected thereby, &c.: this in face of the most determined opposition to the women's claim all through their political careers until they were beaten, relieved the monotony of many a meeting when women themselves, or men on their behalf, insisted upon reminding such candidates of their previous attitude on this subject.