Letters to Editor March 23, 1895

*THE WORKER*

Brisbane, March 23, 1895.

Mail Bag.

WANTED - ( to prepare way for Socialism in our time):

One adult One Vote.

Land Tax.

State Bank.

Shops and factories Act.

Eight Hour day where practicable.

Referendum and Initiative.

Taxation of every person according to ability to pay.

The State to find work for unemployed.

The State to fix a minimum wage.

Free Railways. Free administration of Justice.

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The WORKER does not hold itself responsible for

the opinions of its correspondents.

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P.K. - Have used in another way. Free.

ALPHA – Very sorry to hear of the undercurrent.

In a straight out fight there can be no doubt as to who would win. We must place our hopes on the better education of the crowd.

H.H. - censor advices you to ride your Pegasus at an amble, not bowl him along at a gallop. A deep toned storm voice making the mountains shake with fear,” and the earth's deep caverns groan doesn't usually voice the sentiment;” Be kind to travellers all.

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ED. WORKER – I wish to ask you to insert in the WORKER an extract taken from the War Cry of February 23, and a few words of my own about the same subject. At the Trades Union Congress held at Norwich, England, the president said; First of all, everything which undermines the character of our fellow unionist. Am I too sweeping when I say that we have more to fear from drinking and gambling than all the capitalists put together. I quite agree with that statement, and that all our troubles have been caused through drink and gambling, and until our members give up this habit, we shall very soon go back to the old days of slavery. Hoping that you will insert this in the WORKER for the benefit of all unionists and non-unionists. JP., Hon. Del., A.W.U.

P.S. - I belong to the Salvation Army, and intend to remain a member – J.P.

ED. WORKER – I have been reading some of Carrie Honey's ideas re propagandist lectures. The great fault with the average bushman is that he either fancies he knows everything, or else he doesn't know enough to be aware of his own ignorance. The political reform enthusiast, when he hears the wild, undying hostility to squatters, and general wipe em-out sort of bushmen spinning a yarn about what he is going to do in the line of bringing the squatters to their senses, generally shrugs his shoulders and remarks in a pitying tone that such men do more harm than good; while in reality he doesn't know enough to come in out of the wet. We want teachers, right enough, and teachers with no flies on them at that – men capable of conceiving a new idea and of explaining it. Get us men who can teach the blatant, blithering unionist, with a voice like a bull-frog in an iron tank, who is always skiting about “cawnference” and “plebiskites,” that bush unionism isn't the Alpha and Omega of all men. Let us have men who can give us some ideas, even if only a dim and obscure one, as to what is the true meaning of humanitarianism. We ritch about Socialism and our love of humanity, while at the same time we are pure and simple individualists. - TRUTHFUL DICK.

ED. WORKER – Just a few lines to let you know how freedom of contract is progressing out this way. I worked for a few weeks at post-cutting for a contractor on Tilboroo station, and received wages from him at the rate of 50s. per week and tucker, and when we finished the job we were at he told me that he would probably start another line of fence in a few days, and asked me to stay on with him, to which I agreed on his promising to let me have the post-cutting at a certain price per hundred. We came in to camp at the station while we were waiting for a start, but during this time Mr. E. H. King, the head boundary rider on the station, came to me and told me he wanted a striker in the blacksmith's shop for one half-day. I asked him what the wages were and he replied that he would pay me at the rate of 4s. 2d. per day. This was only for a half-day, mind. However, I declined his kind offer, whereupon he he ordered me off the station. I didn't bother shifting for a few days until my late employer came out to the station from Eulo, when King told him that he would give him the other line only on condition that he would “sack “ me, which I took on hearing how matters stood, and let the contractor go on with his work. This is only a specimen of freedom of contract in its early stages, but if workers are foolish enough to allow it to come to maturity without knocking it on the head, then, I say, heaven help the bushmen of the west. - BILL SMITH, Eulo, March 7^th , 1895.