The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-02-18
GREAT LABOR HAPPENINGS rue WORLD OVER
BY Peter Power.

0ICat thlh6o "a hoPPNAAao -
foreign lands, SO far as labor
affairs are concerned, that the
cables do not mention. In the
first place, the old-age pension
law that became operative in Great
Britain the beginning Of the year,
and which was regarded as revo-
lutionary by the privileged class,
sinks into insignificance beside the
proposal that are now made by a
royal commission that was ap-
pointed by the Tory government,
under the administration of the
Hon. Arthur I. Balfour, and which
commission held over when the
Conservatives were ousted from
office by the present Liberal re-
gime.
The commission not only pro-
poses to wipe out the laws relat-
ing to the poor in Great Britain,
but 1t suggests plans to parliament
that are truly revolutionary and
epoch-making in every sense that
those terms imply. While the
commission was Tory at the out
set, there were enough labor men
and socialists on board to WELD
powerful influence, and the re-
suit Is that the Tories have become
converts of socialistic doctrine and
out-Liberal the Liberals.
The royal commission recon-
mends that the present poor laws
be wiped out, and that in their
stead laws be enacted to provide
n nUn1 ont fAr ho xr,I<
may be involuntarily idle without
their necessitating to become GRIM
inals to find Jobs in the work
house. The commission proposes
the establishment Of a government
labor department, which will have
control and supervision Of great
national works such as reforesta-
ton, blocking the encroachments
of the sea on the coasts, draining
and irrigating waste lands, re-
claiming marshes, and in some in
stances erecting and repairing
public buildings.
Those who pretend to know de-
iclare that the present Liberal
government will adopt the plans
proposed If upon no other grounds
than that of political expediency.
Tens of thousands of workers will
be given employment when the
D1lis become laws, and il there is
to be any settling with the piper
the privileged class will be COM
PEELED to make good.
| An epoch-making movement
that is unnoticed by the press as
sociations is under way in Belgi-
UNI. A great national strike of
all workingmen will begin in the
spring, according to present ar
arrangements, to force the govern
ment to change the present ballot
ing system and give every man
one vote only. Under the pres
ent system the nobility and great
capitalists have three votes each,
the middle class business men and
clergy two votes each, and the
workingmen have but one vote.
This political strike will also
have an Industrial side. The min
ers OF Belgium will not return to
work until they have been grant,
ed the eight-hour day, and it is
likely that their fellow workers
in France and Germany will make
common cause with them.
.
And what do you think of a hod
carrier serving as vice chairman of
the national council in Australia?
This job corresponds in a way to
vice president of the United States.
me man who sits at the head of
the table in the cabinet meetings
OF the Australian national govern
ment and Yields the big stick ia
miner, who Is now premier. A
metal worker is secretary of for
eign affairs, while a carpenter
holds the portfolio of minister for
national defense. and the minister
Tor trade is a man who formerly
MADE hats for living. The post
master general of Australia is a
miner, and the minister of home
!affairs Is a newspaper writer
while the attorney general is a
friendly attorney. This in Austria
lia-not in America.
For the first time in modern
history a strike has broken out I'm
Jerusalem. AS in Egypt recently
It's the printers who created the
trouble. Two Jerusalem daily ma
Ipers were forced to suspend publi-
cation because one office mistreat-
cd an apprentice. All the printers
walked out. but after some parIev-
ing the trouble was adjusted.