The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-05-30

IL must not be confounded with Mr.. J.
Bioundelie Burton's romance, The Sea-
farers, recently published BY d. Appleton
81 Co.
In the spring list Of Messrs. Doubleday,
Page g. Co. cortland: Loring. Short Il
HARMONY, is work of peculiar interest
by Henry Demarest Lord, entitled A
Country Without Strikes. It describes
visit b.. the Compulsory Arbitration
Court OF New Zealand, and there is an
Introduction by William Pember Reeves,
ex- Minister Of Labor In New Zealand,
and author Of the Compulsory Arbitra-
ton law.
1t seems that in New Zealand alone, of
the eleven self-governing British colo
MES, the conflicts Of labor and capital are
by law and custom submitted to the ar
bitration of state tribunals, and the New
Zealand Industrial Cancellation and Ar
bitration Act is the subject OF Mr. Lloyd $
book, and he thus describes New Yea
land strike in the Hall of the Provincial
Assembly OF Canterbury;
"A table ran along the centre Of the
hall; on each side of 1t three or four men,
the brighter toilets and the better groom
ing of those on one side showing them to
belong to different class from those on
the other, whose plain clothes and fur
rowed faces bespoke them TO be working
men. They were busy In controversy,
and between them, at the head OF the
table, in the white wig of an English
Chief justice, was judge OF the supreme
Court of New Zealand. On benches I'M
der the windows were newspaper report
ers, and number Of spectators belong
ing, evidently, TO the same classes oil
society as the men sitting beside each
other at the table.
II know a strike when see it, for 1
have witnessed good many, including
the Pullman strike at Chicago, but this
looked like no meeting of strikers had
ever known. 1t looked like a court,
though, again, not like any had ever
seen before.
s.But 1t was both. For five years,
said my New Zealand friend, there has
not been a strike or a lockout in New
Zealand that has not been held in court
ROOM +"
Mr.. Reeves says In his preface that the
New Zealand Cancellation and Arbitra-
ton Act Is not only to stamp out sweat
ing and improve the workers condition,
though these are valuable consequences
but It's special and primary object was
to bring about industrial peace; and In
SO far as 1t has substituted orderly and
methodical hearing and adjudication by
impartial state Tribunals for the loose,
violent and haphazard methods Of the
strike and the lockout, 1t has succeeded.
The act has not yet had a very long life,
for it did not come into use until 1895;
but its popularity and usefulness have
steadily increased.
If" says Mr. Lloyd, 1.-THE American
people have any lesson to learn from
these experiences of New Zealand, they
can be trusted to learn it," The object of
the writer has not been to enforce his
views, but to present the facts OF an in
teresting social experiment, ON which the
public could, II 1t chose, build views of
its own.
Messrs. J. F. Taylor q Co., publish a
new edition of The Chronic Loafer, by
Nelson Lloyd, who Is witty, philosophical
and wise. His book Is very bright and
amusing, and chronicles the converse
lions, at a Pennsylvania village store,
(which is also the post office,) Of the
Patriarch, the School Teacher the Miller,
the Tinsmith, and the Chronic Loafer,
all of whom prove to be interesting char
acters, and the stories they have to tell
are most entertaining and original. Mr..
Lloyd's vigorous style and keen wit
should make his book very popular.
Let There Be Light, by David Lubin
| &c. P. Putnam's Sons; Portland: Lor-
| ing, Short g. Harmony, Is the story Of a
workingmen's club, its search for the
the causes of poverty and social Unequal
| ity, its discussions, and its plan for the
amelioration of existing evils.
| Half a dozen workingmen meet to dis
cuss the evils of the industrial and social
conditions, and to ascertain, If possible,
their cause. The conclusion arrived at
Is that the difficulty Is chiefly in the de
fects of N tious systems, and they form
an association, and consecrate themselves
to the work of reforming economics and
religion, building up q new church and
arranging a new social order.
Some one has truly said Of this book
which follows somewhat the schemes OF
Sir Arthur Helps's Friends In Council,
and of Cioero's Disputations: ut Is not
able for its originality, logic, and bold.
ness. While seemingly innovating and
destructive, il Is In reality catholic and
originally constructive, and can be &c
cepted by the most conservative man Oh
woman of the twentieth century. The
reasoning is such as to be readily under
stood by the uncritical as well as the
scholar, while the conclusions may posi-
bly, antagonize many persons who believe
themselves to have come to final con
clusion In economies and religion.