Letters to Editor July 6, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE JULY 6, 1895.

Mail Bag.

WANTED – (to prepare way for Socialism in our time).

One Adult One Vote.

Land tax.

Income tax.

State bank.

Shops and Factories Act.

Eight hours 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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C.J.K. - Thanks.

JUSTICE – Too long. Made par.

VIGILAST – Your dream held over for a period.

TRUTHFUL DICK – Later. Writing you care of Kewley.

MULTI DUCE - Keep dark. His fall will be the greater.

TASMAN – Not a time-expired one. Heineann's case has already been referred to in the WORKER. He is still a J.P.

J.W. - The Kanaka is not to be blamed so much as the politicians who opened the doors to the slave trade. We recognise that.

G.R. READ, BOATMEN – Copies WORKER posted regularly since May 25 to Labours, Woolwash. Supply not discontinued when your letter arrived. Will cease mailing after this issue, as you expect to finish this week.

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ED. WORKER – The men in Wilcannia district, N.S.W., are just as much victimised as they are in the land of coercion. In reply to a request for employment a squatter replies, “I am only taking the names of men personally known to me,” which means that a stranger or good unionist doesn't get a chance. However, I hope all men will stick to the Union. We shall have a say by-and-bye. - J. G. O'F.

ED. WORKER – I was glad to see in your last issue the letter signed “Lizzie Orchard.” It is a fact that many of the publicans out West expect their girls to dance after doing a hard day’s work under penalty of the sack. I hope the western unionists will take the matter up on behalf of their sister workers. The girls should organise for better conditions, and I am sure the bush workers would gladly help them. - UNIONIST, MOUNT MORGAN.

ED. WORKER – S., a mounted trooper at Petrie-terrace stables, in receipt of a fair salary, has commenced in the milk business. This branch is attended to by his wife, who is said to be also working for a certain draper, shirt-sewing. The milk vendors in the district complain of the competition of a Civil servant. Mr. Tozer, the Colonial Secretary, has been informed of the facts, but does not appear to have considered the matter of much importance. Perhaps if he had to depend on milk selling for a living he would see the objection to allowing a man shortly to be pensioned off to take custom from people who are not to be pensioned off when they become old. - ANTISWEATER.

ED. WORKER – Will you allow me to make a suggestion to members of the Legislative Assembly? I think the excise on tobacco manufactured from leaf grown in the colony should be repealed or sixpence per lb. Extra duty imposed on leaf grown by Chinese, or by people who employ Chinese or other coloured labour. At present the Chinese completely elbow the whites out of the industry, and the storekeepers who make a big profit out of the industry through the employment of Chinese simply laugh at the small white growers who attempt to compete with them. It is a scandalous shame that the Government should permit coloured labour to secure such predominance in an industry which can be carried on just as well by Europeans as by Asiatics. The white man cannot compete with the Chinese. If the latter are permitted to continue the tobacco industry without restrictions then it simply means that the whites who are not “bosses” must go out of it. Goodness knows there are enough of white men in want of work, and Parliament ought to frame the laws of the country so as to give them the preference. - DARLING DOWNS.

ED. WORKER – Great publicity is given in the capitalistic press to the alleged outrages occurring from time to time in the western and other districts, and persistent efforts are made to discredit the Labour Party thereby. A few particulars as to the mode of procedure in this, the Attorney-General's constituency. Immediately after the visit to this district of Messrs. Dunsford and Ogden, a public meeting was called to initiate a Progress Parliamentary Association. The meeting was a success, and officers were appointed. About a week after this forty miners were summarily discharged by a certain company. The same day, and during the following fortnight, an equal number of men were put on to work, but in no one case has a man that attended the meeting of the P.P.A. been given a start again in the claim. The managing director, who is also owner of the larger share of the mine, distinctly states that no man who attended that meeting shall get employment in the mine. This gentleman, save the mark, is now a Justice of the Peace, and a few days after the wholesale sacking match of men that were guilty of the heinous offence of daring to think for themselves, a young man, not an employe', applied to him to witness his signature to the necessary electoral application form, where-upon the J.P. Asked which side the young man was on, and upon his stating that he was for the labour Party, said, “You are of the wrong colour,” and, further, refused to witness the signatures as requested. This publicly in the open bar of an hotel. How does this lot score for terrorism? - R.W., Mareeba Goldfield.

ED. WORKER - “S.S.S.” states, in your columns on the Victorian Parliament, that “it may have been unwise to have included protection in the labour platform, but it was certainly opposed to the interests of the party for one member to have decried a portion of the platform upon which he was elected. “ Now, I take exception to the latter portion of that sentence. Mr. Hamilton was run at the last election by what is known here as the “People's Party,” a political organisation that advocates neither protection nor free-trade, because it recognises the fact that it makes very little difference to the workers as to whether they “stew in protection or fry in free-trade,” the fat man gets there all the same. When this party was formed it was distinctly understood that the fiscal question was to be ignored, for the common good, because in our ranks there are both protectionists and free trades, and if this question is raised we shall cease to be united. Religious questions have been used to divide the wolves, and now that the cock won't fight Mr. Falman and Co. want to ring in Protection and Freetrade to divide us; but I am pleased to state that up to the present it has not had the desired effect. Mr. Hamilton has not broken any of his election pledges, and if he does he is likely to get it hot, seeing that he is the first (and, I trust, not last) Labour member for Bendigo; he is very closely watched both by the workers and Mr. Falman and Co., and if he falls well, then – oblivion. In conclusion, the People's party platform is -

1. One man one vote.
2. A tax on land values.
3. Income tax.
4. Referendum.
5. Federation on a Democratic basis.
6. Prohibition of the importation of Chinese, Coolie, hindoo, Kanaka, Asiatic, and other labourers and persons under contract.
7. Eight Hour's day.

Trusting that the workers in your colony have scotched”Boodlewraith,” and will return a few more Labour members at next election.- CHARLES CARTER, Bendigo (Vic.)

ED. WORKER – Allow me, in fair play, to reply to the letter in your columns of the 22^nd June, signed Lizzie Orchard, Longreach. While wondering that you allowed the insertion of such a libellous and unfair paragraph I can only presume that you did so on the voucher of a certain contemptible fellow who uses the honourable title of union delegate to do a lot of mean things instead of performing the duties intrusted to him by his fellow unionists, and who, in this instance, used Lizzie for the purpose of venting his personal spite against me. Lizzie Orchard worked for me for about eighteen months as cook and did her work well and without a hitch until recently, when the male biped in question appeared on the scene and practically took up his quarters in my kitchen. (Several borders at one time plotted to pin a dishcloth to his coat tail). From that time the hotel kitchen was no longer mine. Lizzie was instructed by someone not belonging to the hotel not to clean fish for the tables, as he thought it was not the cook's place – work which she had done before for months without a murmur, and which is done by all cook's here. She had sworn, she said, to clean fish for no one. I overlooked this for a while; and at last she refused to clean a couple of fowls for the table, work which she had done before, and which is done by all the cooks here. She did not complain of being overworked, otherwise I would have got her some assistance. According to her advise, it was not a cook's place to clean fowls. He thought it was too undignified for her to clean fowls or fish. Whilst larking with this same male biped in the kitchen she spilt some hot water over her foot. The local chemist prescribed the usual remedies promising a complete cure in a week; but the friendly union delegate, turning quack, prescribed his own special remedies, which were ointment and powders and about two and a-half yards of strong calico bandage. You would think that he was going to bandage a horse that was badly broken down. The result was three week's sore foot. When more fish and fowl were left uncleaned my patience fairly burst, and I walked out to the kitchen, told her that she could not serve two masters, and gave her a week's notice. She left, and since then I have bossed my own kitchen once more. Her statement with regard to my requesting her to dance and on her refusal giving her a week's notice is one big falsehood. All my employe's once their work is over, are free to do what they like. The fact that they nearly all remain with me for long periods of service shows that they must be well satisfied. My dances are fortunate enough to be always attended by a large crowd of ladies, and there is never any necessity to press one into the service. As to Lizzie's modest request to leading and prominent union men, the latter, as well as all the members of the union, know that they have always (especially in the union dark hours) found, and always will find, a true friend and a staunch practical supporter in PADDY O'REILLY that keeps the hotel.

Great Western Hotel, Longreach, 23^rd June, 1895.