The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-12-18

ing more an attraction to the very best
and most skilled Of their own workmen,
because it was not only country where
good wages prevailed, but one IN Whlch
men were not in danger of being thrown
suddenly out of work and forced TO
spend all they had saved to keep their
families from starving IN the next laDof
conflict. Less than six years experience
has been enough to convert two OF the
principal colonies of Australia to the
new experiment. and both New south
Wales and South Australia have lately
decided to try how New Zealand eX-
pertinent will answer among their own
people.
ION the whole, therefore, it is only jus
tice to say that the New Aealand d s 81
ment has in its own country, ana supJScl
TO the conditions for which 1t was de-
has put stop to strikes and locko1tS IN N
its own country; it has given new STABILITY
workers SO much that the numbers of
hands employed in factories has very
nearly doubled itself since the law was
brought into operation IN 1874 II mas DeeH
the means of vastly increasing the PROD
ucts of the labor of the country; an, ana
finally. it has gradually reconclled poth
workers and employees TO ITS provisions
while il has led other, and larger coIn i
mites to initiate a system mat mas uo oi
so much for peace and prosperity TO the
land of its birth
zone or two principles which lie at the
very foundation of the system cannot be
ignored in considering its applicability 70
any other country than that in which it
began. The most important of these is
fhe nrfncipls that the interests of every
class in a community are regarded by the
political reformers of New Zealand as
whole. it is no answer at all in New
Zealand to a Complaint, that manufac-
turers are growing very rich While work
men continue poor that it is the inevitable
result of Inequalities of position in the
ifsl and frainina in business and many
men only their hands and natural intel
ligence. The reply there IS, that II IS not
good for the people at large that such dis
oh 10
fore if the capitalists are making TOO
much out of their business in proportion
itself not only justified but bound to step
in and assist in remedying the evil
IT have studied with deep interest for
rnisgiviny to the future, many of the
social and Industrial conditions of this
great country. l have admired, with no
stinted admiration, its enterprise and en-
ergy. and the marvellous results which
What I have not admired has been the
social and political evils that seem TO me
quite as vigorous as the development Of
the country in other and more worthy dl-
rectlonS- The root OF these eVls seems
to me to be found in the rapidly widening
gulf between the classes Of the rich and
the poor-or in other words, between the
capitalist and the workman. There was
a time apparently not so very long ago,
when the line that divided these classes
was one which was not hard to pass, and
thousands of the capitalists Of today have
undoubtedly risen from the RANKS OF the
workers. Conditions, as you all know.
have changed, and are changing still
more; and if things go on as they are
now going, the time cannot be distant
when the line will be as hard to pass in
America as it has long been in Europe 1t
appears to me that few greater misfor-
tunes could befall this land and its peo-
pie than this.
There was a time when those who had
the good things of the world might look
such a state of things with selfish
very nearly gone by. The salvation-the
only possible sa1vation-of a wealthy class
the well being of all the classes which are
a little less fortunate than itself. and the
the line of wealth can hope to rise above
it. To secure this l am convinced an ap-
peal Will require to be made to high
standard of public interest. and not even
to the enlightened selfishness of the peO-
pf u eStlE $500 oiI oile slHe ~ elle
other For tins reason entirely believe
in the principle of the New Zealand law.
trade disputes for the common interest of
all c's A3s: and it represents more than
this-As-ss the recognition of the principle
that society is charged, for its own pro-
lection. with the duty of seeing that JUS
tee IS done TO an classes OF ITS people,
even to the extent of discouraging the
growth of riches in one class to the degra-
dation of the others
i believe that here. as everywhere else,
the end come to be the act of the whole
people, acting through some kind Of I'M
biased court; and that the country which
is the last to recognize this viii fall be-
every class of it's people But I also be-
lieve that the people of America are not
ready for it yet. They have still to try
other substitutes for it. which may be Of
at least partial and temporary advantage.
They have still to learn by experience
that even if these improve matters they
viii bear more Improvement still I trust
that this convention will suggest some
such improvements for trial: I hone they
will find greater inducements to lead
workers to associate in unions. and en-
ployers in associations. that they may
be more easily brought together. and vol
untary Cancellation and arbitration may
be promoted. Above all. venture to hope
that one result of such a convention as
this may be that representa- ives both of
wealth and labor may recog-1 ze the SUI
preme necessity which exists in a great
nation like this for the practical applica-
ton of the principle that no individual and
no class can be, or ought to be. free from
the control of the majority of the people
in anything which concerns the public
good Upon such a recognition will follow
here as elsewhere. an increase of good
feeling between classes. a new confidence
in the justice of courts. and a. DrosDerify
no longer liable to be crippled and over
thrown by conflicts. ruinOus alike to the
well-being of those who take part in them
and of the yet greater public. which is at
present the helpless victim
Kentuckian-He called me a liar. sir.
New Yorker-And what did YOU do?
KentUrEian-T went m the f1,ra7-a1 -