*THE
WORKER*
Brisbane
April 28, 1894
THE EDITORIAL
MILL.
Our Motto:
“Socialism in our time.”
As Tuesday
next, the 1st of May, draws near the timid hearts of the
uninformed wealthy in other lands will flutter and tremble in
anticipation of revolutionary Anarchist outbreaks which will shatter
existing society and substitute chaos. May Day has lost its
springtime significance. Its old time celebration has given places to
a newer movement fraught with different aims to those of our early
ancestors. The lads and lasses in England and Europe no longer dance
round the May-pole in honour of the return of spring, but march in
mixed solemn, sad, grave and gay procession to mark a demand for
shorter hours of labour and to draw attention to a movement which
stands second to none in history, and which promises at an early
period to cast into the shade in its demand for settlement all other
problems which now occupy the attention of some of the world's best
minds.
Since the
advent of the physical force Anarchist – that wild and excitable,
self sacrificing martyr who can see no hope for progress in
constitutional reforms – since the fearful doings of a mad police
in Chicago in May, 1886, when a peaceful meeting of workers was being
held in the Haymarket and a bomb, killing and injuring several
policemen, was thrown by some foolish man who determined to be
revenged on a body of police who it is now acknowledged were brutally
dishonest in their method of working up cases, the mind of the
“continental” Fat Man has been sorely exercised at the approach
of Labour Day. Fortunately for the Queensland fat gentleman the
workers have not been sufficiently starved in this province to
produce the physical force Anarchist who is at all times ready to
make and throw a bomb, and our obese Lend-lords, Landlords, and
Profit-lords contemplate with some serenity the celebration of May
Day by an eight-hour demonstration. The peaceful calm of our
patrician wealthy lower orders is undisturbed wave perhaps by a
ripple cause by the cable, “Extra police precautions are being
taken to cope with the expected Anarchist outrages on May 1st.”
*
* *
Mark you,
Australian wage – earners are not quite free from an opinion that
May Day celebrations by unionists are unconnected with physical force
anarchy, Queensland is the only province which has fallen into line
with the old world workers in the recognition of the universality of
the eight-hour movement. The opinion lately expressed by a unionist
in Victoria that May Day celebrations were “ the tail end of
Anarchy,” has often been given expression to by men who ought to
know better, showing that the capitalist is not the only person who
wants a little knowledge of the aims and objects of the world-wide
Labour movement.
*
* *
However, no one
in this province expects a revolutionary out break next Tuesday. The
eight-hours movement in these colonies is advancing on trade union
and parliamentary lines. Nothing more violent than a constitutional
strike has taken place in connection with it, and the Queensland
Legislative Assembly actually passed a bill in 1890 affirming that
eight hours should be considered a nominal day's labour. This bill
was introduced into Parliament on June 26, 1890, by “Sir” Samuel
Griffith, Q.C. Premier, and was entitled the Eight Hours Act of 1890.
It commenced with the preamble; “Whereas it is desirable for the
general welfare of the community that the hours of daily labour
should be such that workmen may have a reasonable time at their own
disposal for recreation, mental culture, and the performance of
social and civic duties; and whereas it would be conducive to this
end to declare by law the proper duration of a day's labour.” It
provided that “whenever in any contract of hiring, whether verbal
or in writing, reference is made to a day's labour, or it is
stipulated that the rate of payment for labour shall be calculated by
the day, or at a fixed price for a day's labour, or otherwise
calculated by reference to a day's labour, such day shall be taken to
be labour for eight hours, unless in any case a shorter period than
eight hours is, by the usage or practice of the trade or business in
connection with which the labour is performed, the ordinary duration
of a day's labour.”
The bill,
however, permitted workmen to contract outside the Act by making
special arrangements with the employers, and none of the prominent
unionists, who knew how useless such a measure would prove, were
sorry when it was thrown out by the responsible-to-no-person
Legislative Council.
*
* *
The eight hours
movement in Australia commenced in Melbourne during the boom times of
1856. The gold discoveries had given a great impetus to trade, wages
were high and employment plentiful. The stonemasons, as a rule in the
van of progress, initiated the agitation for a reduction in the
number of hours from ten to eight, ten hours a day being the usual
day's labour in those times, and the movement spread with such
rapidity and enthusiasm that in less than three weeks the united
trades of Melbourne had gained what it has taken many workers many
years to even think of asking for. The building trades of Sydney,
Brisbane, Adelaide and other cities were not many years in following
the example of their Melbourne fellows, and so general has the eight
hour movement become that in Brisbane the following trades and
occupations have secured the reduction; Stonemasons, quarrymen,
plasterers, bricklayers, plumbers, carpenters, seamen, labourers,
tobacco twisters, painters, compositors, iron-moulders, boilermakers,
coach-makers, tailors, miners generally, united furniture trades,
engineers, shearers and tanners and carriers.
This is,
perhaps, not a bad record for 34 years' agitation (the Brisbane
stonemasons won the eight hours in 1860), but there are so many large
bodies of wage-earners still denied “reasonable time for
recreation, mental culture and the performance of social and civic
duties” - railway men, shop assistants, and others – that the
efforts of all eight-hour agitators should be concentrated on
effecting their objects by parliamentary means if it expected to
accomplish a universal eight-hour day in our time.
Eight hours'
work,
Eight hours'
play,
Eight
hours' sleep, and
Eight bob a
day.
The song of the
early Australian reformers will remain merely a song for many years
to come as far as the majority of wage-earners are concerned unless
the ballot box is brought into requisition as a weapon to compel
reform. Strikes are useful when men are determined and are prepared
to risk imprisonment as well as the boycott to gain their ends, but
the majority of wage-earners as a rule haven't the pluck to “ take
arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them,”
Parliamentary
action is the
safest; it is peaceful; it is orderly; it is swift, silent, and sure;
and like the Maxim gun, can be operated by a child. We commend
parliamentary action so all those who still work longer than eight
hours per day, and we draw their attention to the Labour Platform and
solicit their support for the Labour Party. The anti-Labour Platform
Politicians will do nothing to reduce the working hours, for such a
reduction means the employment of a larger number of men and women
and less profit, Interest, and Rent. The prepared to at once agree to
an effective law making eight
hours a legal day's labour wherever practicable.
*
* *
Our
readers are invited to show their sympathy with the eight hours
movement by taking part in the great gathering expected on Tuesday
next at the Exhibition Grounds. A procession will take in the
morning, at which the following societies will be represented in the
following order:
- Band
- Eight Hour Banner and Committee
- Boot Trade Union
- Q.U.B.L.P.S. and Banner
- Boilermakers
- Bricklayers and Banner
- Furniture Trade
- Seamen and Banner
- Iron-moulders
- Carpenters and Joiners
- Tobacco Twisters
- Stonemasons and Banner
- Shop Assistants
- Q.T.A.
- Plasterers and Banner
- Waterside Union
- Painters
On
the grounds every arrangement will be made for the comfort of
visitors, who will be provided with a programme of sports, will have
a chance of winning valuable art union prizes, and will have the
satisfaction of knowing that all moneys accruing from the
demonstration will be devoted to liquidating the debt on the Trades
Hall. W. G. H.
*THE
WORKER*
Brisbane
May 5, 1894
EIGHT
HOUR DAY.
All
Brisbane turned out to view the Eight Hour procession which was
celebrated on Labour day, the 1st of May. The procession
this year was much larger than it has been for the two previous
years, and as it gaily marched down Queen – street on the way to
the Exhibition Grounds it was admired by thousands of onlookers who
lined the roadway and side walk. First in order was the Eight Hour
committee with its beautiful banner headed by the Naval Brigade Band.
Then followed the Boot Trade Union, stronger in number than any other
society in the procession, and moreover, the sons of St. Crispin
sported a very nice new banner. After the bootmakers came the
Ship-wrights, in the midst of whom was borne aloft a splendid model
of a full rigged ship. The Boilermakers came next. After them the
Furniture Trade Union, who were immediately followed by the Brisbane
Volunteer Fire Brigade with reels and horses most tastefully
decorated with beautiful flowers. Then came the banner and members of
the Federated Seamens' Union, being followed by a band heading the
Ironmoulders, who displayed the figure eight made of beautiful
flowers.
Next
came the banner and members of the Amalgamated Carpenters and
Joiners, then the Tobacco Twisters' Union followed by a band, and
then the Stonemasons' Society who displayed on lorries the manner in
which stone is worked by them. Next in order came the smart-looking
Shop Assistants, who were followed by the Queensland Typographical
Association, whose display left more impression on the minds of those
who saw it than did anything else in the procession. It represented
Bellamy's allegorical coach. On a vehicle were comfortably seated
three “Fat Men,” representing “Rent,” “Interest,” and
“Profit,” and a very brazen-faced young lady flashly attired,
representing Pleasure. Driving the coach was a man who indeed looked
very grim and gaunt, emblematic of Hunger. The coach was pulled along
by the workers themselves in adapted costume, thus showing the lesson
that Edward Bellamy has made clear. The Plasterers followed with
their splendid banner, and the procession was closed by the Painters.
There was plenty of lively music during the whole length of the
route, and all, excepting the Fat Man, were delighted at the success
of the demonstration. At the grounds was provided an excellent
programme of sports which was carried out successfully, to the great
satisfaction of a crowd of visitors numbering about seven thousand.
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