Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1890-12-29
GIVE LESS LABOR.
How the English DOckers Would Solve
the Cs,estion of Work and Wages.

the Cs,estion of Work and Wages.
Richari McGhee, president of the
British Dock Laborers' National union,
has been making speeches in the promi-
nent towns of Ireland. Following is
the substance of one of his addresses,
and it is interesting because of the some
what novel advice given:
Thirty-ive thousand men came out
last March. The employers told them
that they could get plenty of blackleg
labor. The union knew that it would
take three of these blackleg laborers to
do the work of an ordinary dock .laborer.
Their advice to the men was not to give
more than one-third the work they were
giving in the past, and they described
that system as ca canny, that is ''pull
gently" in plain English. The union
men, when the strike was over, went
back to their work, and before a week
the employers were begging that the
men would, at any terms, give the same
quality and quantity of labor as before
the strike. They replied: "You told us
and you told the public that you were
perfectly we'll satisfied with the amount
of labor you got from the men who were
working when our men were on strike,
and now you ought to be equally well
satisfied with the same amount of work
from our men; but, at any rate, you are
not going to get any more" Well, that
was the weapon they used in every port
where they had made what they believed
was Just demand and where it was re-
fused. I'LL
There is an old Scotch saying that the
minister breaches the sort Of sermon he
is paid for, and there is another saying
that the tailor cuts his coat according to
the cloth, and so we say to the laborer
who is not receiving what we believe he
should get for his labor, give less labor,
and very soon you will solve the labor
problem. think it is equally moral to
preach the doctrine that in addition to
giving less you should not give it of such
a good quality. When the Lancashire
cotton manufacturers and the Yorkshire
wooden manufacturers were asked by
the Indian consumers to charge small
er price per yard the two counties gave
them cotton mixed with paste, and for
wool gave shoddy, and by that means
solved the problem. and every one was
satisfied all round.
If the laborers did not get justice, and
they had as much right to define what
justice is as their employers had, they
could give less of the article and give it
to them in shoddy, and he ventured to
say if they put that system into practice
they would not long have to stand on
the streets on strike He was humbly
of opinion that the very worst thing they
could do was to strike, because although
it would be severe blow to the employer,
it would be equally a severe blow to them.
He thought the Dock Laborers' union
had proved itself match for the skilled
unions, and he wanted also to say that
he knew no class of work where skill
is so much required as that of the dock
laborer. If they wanted cargo well
slowed it requires immense practice and
skill.
One line in Liverpool-he did not like
to mention the line, because he did not
like, great as the temptation was, to ex-
pose them over the country-but in one
line in Liverpool the ambulance books
demonstrate that one working man in
every week has been killed for years.
This line of ships is owned by respect
able firm of Christian shipowners who
go to church every Sunday, and who
sometimes built churches, and in that
line of steamers one dock laborer was
killed at his work every week, or fifty
two in the year. Since the union. went
a1ono tn Tivarnoo1 and rot q firm foot