The labor world., 1905-10-21

;,;as ssif tilyen niS .i,fus :
q. Then 1t dawned upon the union that
the strike had become lockout. The
besieserss were sbesieged. The weapon
OF capital was not"free-labor, but star
walton. .f ~ ~ar~3 -r@@; - ;'':
starvation won easily. Ten weeks
after the first shot the unions capitu-
lated to the grim foe hunger that be-
fore chen had bowed the neck Of many
q proud city. M|acEacharn- had meant
to break the unions. And they were
broken all right; I"
Funds gone, membership decimated,
courage wflted, the once great trades
unions Of Australia We're counted out.
The capftu1ation was anonunced> In
the biggest public hall the labor lead
ers could get. John Hancock, big
bodied and big hearted-the finest
platform man in Austral1a-rose in
the hall Of silent hundreds to tell the
men that they must return to work on
the best terms they could get. It was
the shortest and most pregnant speech
he ever made in hts life. -"Friends,"'
he said, ''men OF Australia, we have
not been beaten, we have been starved
into submission. Unionism IS dead,
but anything can happen in a denor-
racy and from the ashes of the funeral
pyre that the shipowners have lighted
will rise the phoenix of our liberties"
Nobody knew what he meant. 1t
IS doubtful Whether he knew himself,
But 1t sounded large and fine, and
something with that sort of sound was
just what those depressed people want
ed that night.
But one year later big John Han
cock took his seat in parliamentary
first labor member sent in by the first
POLITICAL lab6r partyin in Australia.
Vanquished in the Industrial war the
members OF the battered trades unions
had reorganized their forces on a po-
litical basis and sought to win by the
ballot the privileges capital had de-
MED them. Someone discocered that
where all men have votes and the bulk
Of men are wage carriers they only
have to decide among themselves what
they want from the state to get It.
That was only ten years ago. And
now they have gotten nearly all they
wanted: Think Of it. Eleven years
ago the unions were battered, dead,
done for. Today tkeir direct lineal
successor owns the whole blessed com
monwealth Of Australia. ].
They attacked municipal councils
first and forced the minimum, wage
and eight-hour days on all Of them.
They attacked the state parliaments
next ard gained factory legislation and
old age pensions and compulsory ar
bitraticn. No factory in the country
can now employ child labor Or work
its people more than eight hours per
day, or pay less than the minimum
wage fixed by the wage boards. In
two of the six states the labor party
are the government in office, in two
others they hold the balance of power,
and In two others they are the direct
opposition.
But it is their success in the Com
monwealth Parliament-the national
assen1bly-that marks out Australia as
a socialistic nation.
In the senate half the members are
pledged Socialists-definite servants of
/ the: Labor party 1n.~tlie REPRESENTA-
>tives the direct opposition are pledged
Socialists also-members OF the same
party::+ Compulsory arbitration IN: Ia
Dor disputes; is the law actually op-.
Grating In two Of the states and tile
National 4Legisla ature has passed. q law
enforcing Compulsory arbitration iii
any labor dispute that extends from
; one state to another. = .'zSSs~ ~ E'sss
MacEacharr, the lord mayor of Mel
bourne, the man who smashed union
ism, was defeated last year by labor
candidate in the contest for election of
a member Of the house Of representa-
tives. i :; 80!
Twelve years ago in Australia there
were two parties, the Free Traders and
, the Protectionists. Today there is one
party-the Labor party-and the drag
gled remnant OF another that OCCASION
ally totters helplessly before tired
public and tries to get itself taken seri-
ously as the anti Socialist party. But
It has no power, 1t never had a policy,
and its friends are ashamed to recog-
nize it in the daylight. Some day a
man may arise I'M Australia who will
evolve a policy big enough to cover
the anti-labor party and those others
who at present remain outside; but so
far as the writer knows he hasn't sent
word of his coming. And the gentle
man who precipitated all this on the
country: has sought his country seat
and the tiresonne seclusion Of q friend
less man.
The writer points no moral. But he
has heard the suggestion that social
ism was a coming force in American
politics treated with derision, and he
thinks that: perhaps this story may
be worth thinking over. Because man
hood suffrage prevails IN America, and
the great, big bulk of Americans are
wage earners, too. a. ~~ - - -
That the Labor party as a political
force viii b" able to do business in
the British Par liament after the next
electi6n~ ts now grudgingly admitted
~ It's most persistent opponents. 1t
is mot unlikely that there will be near
1t one hundred seats contested on be-
halt Of labor and socialism,, OF these
probably sixty will have a good fight
iyfr r1,ance> for vjcfor>y; y 'rho+ 101yaef