*THE
WORKER*
Brisbane,
March 16, 1895.
Bystanders'
Notebook.
THE
POOR SQUATTER.
For
a considerable time past we have heard the whining cry of “The poor
squatter! The poor squatter! What hard times he is having. What is he
to do in the face of such times, heavy rental, marsupial tax, stock
and dairy tax, to say nothing of a lot of ill-disposed scoundrels in
the shape of discontented unionists and various other ills too
numerous to particularise?” Well, we know what he should do, but it
would be useless to tell him, as it is something just and humane, and
anything of this description is particularly out of their line, as
has been amply proved of late years. What some of them actually do to
get quite with the Government for taxing them is quite another thing,
as the following little transaction will show. Some few months ago a
certain squatter, owner of a cattle station out Tambo-Blackall way,
having vacancies for six hands, comprising one married couple and
four single men, notified his agent in Brisbane to engage them and
forward them to the station.
In
due course they were engaged, the single men at £25
per year, the married couple at £60.
rather an exorbitant rate of wages certainly! The agent paid the
steerage fares to Rockhampton, but on arriving there this virtuous
squatter either directly or indirectly procured from the emigration
aged emigrants' tickets to carry them by rail to Alpha. How and by
what means were these tickets obtained? Surely at the rate of wages
paid he could well afford to pay the railway fare. What would be said
What would be said of a union agent who would represent six old
colonists as emigrants and procure them railway passes up the
country, thereby doing the Government out of £11
18d. Would the Government take no action? We rather think they would,
and it certainly would go very hard with the person who so obtained
the tickets. But the best feature of the whole piece is that the
people engaged by this particular squatter have signed an agreement
incorporated in which is a clause to the effect that should they
leave before the expiration of twelve months they will forfeit their
travelling expenses. Would their railway expenses be included? This
gentleman is distinctly one of the law 'n order type, and is such a
thoroughly honest and just man that within the last few weeks he has
had the cool gall to write on two occasions to a newspaper
complaining of the injustice of a certain P. M. STRAIGHT
WIRE.
*
* *
STICK
TO THE UNION.
It
is impossible to impress on the minds of the workers too often or too
forcibly to stick to the unions, and stick to them with heart, mind
and soul, for should the unions be neglected and eventually become
powerless, the result will be desolation. Even at the present moment
if some strong action is not taken the lives of the bush workers will
be worse than the blacks, as their necessities of life entail a far
heavier outlay that the latter's and their pay is very little above
it. I am credibly informed that on two stations on the Maranoa,
Eurelia and Amby Downes burr cutters are receiving 7s. 6d. to 12s.
6d. per week; on one station, Mitchell Downs, 16s. per week. On a
cattle station on the Barcoo, Enniskillen stockmen and general hands,
under twelve month's agreement, £25
per annum. How much lower the rate of wages can be brought by the
unscrupulous it is hard to say, but one thing is certain that unless
the bushworkers put aside all petty feeling and word with unanimity
for the cause, it will not be a bare living wage they will receive,
but one that will entail on them the necessity of thieving to save
themselves from starvation. Therefore let every unionist sink private
feeling, and use his utmost endeavours to bring all into the union,
and let him do it in such a manner that those who do so join will
become members from their hearts and not only from a wish to birk
argument, for the latter sort only rat at the time of a strike or any
industrial crisis.
STRAIGHT
WIRE.
*
* *
THE
REFERENDUM.
No
system of civil government can be considered advanced and efficacious
which does not radically embody the referendum as an essential.
Various provisions may be made for the constitution of parliaments,
and for a full representation of the people therein: but the great
truth of the experienced and demonstrated insufficiency of these
'protective' provisions confronts the intelligence of every
thoughtful person. The corruption of Parliament, whether consisting
of one or two Houses, is, as all history irrefutably proves, a matter
of glaring possibility. But the conscious corruption of the whole
nation for the conscious and foreseen injury or calamity of the whole
nation, is, I conceive, historically unknown. Against the proposed
establishment of the referendum the infatuated voice of foolish
declamation and of extravagant protest has been raised, but, if the
action of the current generation co-operates faithfully with common
understanding, this declamation and this protest will be disdainfully
and irrevocably set aside. Concisely speaking, the referendum
acknowledges the indefeasible right of the enfranchised population to
supremely control the affairs of the nation in spite of the arbitrary
interference or protestation of the parliament then functioning as
chosen law-givers. Such being the objects and the foundation of the
political referendum, it follows as a self-evident sequence, that,
before the referendum could efficaciously and to full satisfaction,
operate, every person qualified by age, sanity, and personal
presence, should be fully enfranchised. When we survey the extensive
effect of this principle in its beneficent operation, in its power to
amend and correct the national constitution, and to permanently
consolidate the constitution thus amended and corrected, we conclude
that no grander and more beneficent achievement could attract our
ambition than the indestructible establishment of the referendum.
M.,
Gympie.
*
* *
TRUSTS
AND SYNDICATES.
Speaking
of the tendency of small railway companies to fall into the hands of
large syndicates in the United States, the man who wrote Andrew
Carnegie's “Triumphant Democracy” says: “it is with railways as
with manufactures; consolidation into the hands of a few
organisations seems the inevitable tendency. The saving and
efficiency thus effected over the hundred former disjointed petty
corporations, each with its officers and staffs, are so manifestly
great that nothing can prevent these consolidations. What the outcome
of this massing of forces is to be is difficult to foretell, but that
it is in accordance with economic laws is certain; therefore we can
proceed without fear. We are on sure ground, hence the final result
must be beneficial. If corporations grow to gigantic size and attempt
to use their powers like giants, forgetting that they are the
creatures and servants of the State, we may safely trust the
Democracy to deal with them. There is no problem which an educated
people cannot and will not solve in the interests of the people when
solution is demanded.” There can be very little question as to what
the outcome of this massing of forces is to be. The gigantic
syndicates such as the late Jay Gould's Western Union Telegraph
Company, and the Standard Oil Trust, having it in their power to
sweat their employ'es as well as fleece the public will compel the
public for its own safety to either take over the business of the
syndicates or compete with them. This the public through its
government or municipalities can do as successfully as in the case of
other industries owned and controlled by the State in other lands.
A.B.C.
*
* *
MODERN
BARBARIANS.
I
was very much struck by the Premier's remarks in reference to Harry
Norman's good billet. The remarks brought to mind a passage I read
some years in a popular work. It referred to the fact that next
generation will look down upon us as we look down on the past. But
let me give the passage; “Some day man is to read with surprise
that once there was upon earth a state of warfare between divisions
called nations, that Europe once continually taught nine millions of
men how best to butcher their fellows, and called this vile work a
profession. The coming man will marvel that intemperance prevailed in
these barbarous days, that there were paupers and criminals without
number, and that even in Britain the many were kept down by the few,
that the soil was held and used by a class, and that a million
sterling was taken from the public revenues every year by one family,
and spent in vulgar ostentation or riotous dissipation, a family
which was an insult to every other family in the land since it
involved the born inferiority of all others. He is to read of all
this as we now read of the armoured keel-boat and the horse
locomotive, and thank his stars that he was not born as we have been
before the dawn of civilisation. 'As one man's meat is another man's
poison,' so one age's civilisation is the next age's barbarism. We
shall all be barbarians to our great grandchildren.” The one family
referred to above is the royal family, and the coming Queenslander
will regard us as barbarians for paying £5000
a year to a representative of the said royal family when there is
such deplorable distress in this colony.
QUEENSLAND
REPUBLICAN.
*
* *
AUSTRALIAN
FEDERATION.
Few
people who have given the subject any consideration are likely to
doubt that Federation, if carried out upon equitable principles,
would be a good thing for these colonies. But can we in the present
apathetic state of public opinion cherish the slightest hope that any
scheme based upon Democratic principles, and sufficiently elastic to
admit of modification in the future, will be formulated? I think
readers will agree with me that we cannot, and that, on the contrary,
we shall be saddled with some such iron-bound constitution as that of
the United States, under which we shall be as powerless to have our
will carried out as the Americans are; the inevitable Upper House
under some guise or other is certain to be imposed upon us in order
to prevent reforms, and to defend vested interests, &c., &c.,
The above being the case it behoves all Democrats to oppose
federation for at least the next twenty years, at the end of which
time perhaps public opinion may be sufficiently educated to decide
the question. No legislature should under any circumstances consist
of more than one House or Assembly, and that House should elect the
Government, also the Judges and the Commander-in chief of the army.
This would do away with the curse of party government, and is in fact
the only way really responsible government can be obtained. I was
almost forgetting the most important point of all, and that is when
federation does come we must have the referendum and perhaps the
initiative also.
RICHD.
NORTH. 23 Wickham street.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Labour
Members in the Central District.
Labour
Members Kerr, Turley, and Fisher have addressed large and
enthusiastic meetings at Springsure, M'Donald's Flat, Emerald, and
Jericho. At the close of the meetings resolutions were carried
condemning the Government and expressing unbounded confidence in the
Labour Party. Messrs. Kerr, Turley, and Fisher intend also to address
meetings in Barcaldine, Longreach, and all through the Barcoo
and other electorates out West.
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