THE ERA OF EXTRAVAGANCE 279 



sider. Many of the Unions were strong financially, most of them 

 were making progress in that direction, all were animated by a 

 distinctly marked sense of loyalty to their own class. A man 

 named Spence, with a special faculty for organisation, had consoli- 

 dated the bulk of the workers in the mining industry into an 

 Amalgamated Miners' Association, a vast trade union embracing a 

 huge number of members. His success inspired him with the desire 

 to do something of the same kind for the nomadic hordes of shearers 

 who travel the country from Carpentaria to Mount Gambier during 

 the season when the wool clip is ripe for reaping. Their occupation 

 is necessarily intermittent ; the labour while it lasts is severe, but 

 the pay is good, an expert man commonly earning over 1 per day. 

 By degrees Mr. Spence succeeded in unifying the interests of this 

 widespread body of workers and established the Amalgamated 

 Shearers' Union. When more than half the shearers were in as- 

 sociation, they began to see what great power they could wield if 

 the Union could be made universal. Wool must be shorn at certain 

 seasons, varying somewhat according to locality. A week or two of 

 undue delay may greatly deteriorate a clip by the introduction of grass 

 seed into the fleece. Practically the squatter would be at the mercy 

 of the united shearers and have to submit to their terms, for he 

 could not delay operations while he sought other labour from 

 Sydney. The shearers were, as a rule, freehanded boisterous men, 

 whose mode of life tended to an undisciplined independence, and 

 they had not much faith in persuasive measures. Therefore, they 

 were not slow to assume that they could compel all following their 

 craft to come into the Union and have the country at their mercy. 

 This was the beginning of the organised campaign against non- 

 union labour. The struggle was protracted and bitter, disgraced 

 by intimidation, violence, bloodshed, the burning of wool-sheds and 

 other wanton destruction of property. The Union being well 

 organised and well in funds, set itself to prevent the employment 

 of non-union shearers by refusing to work alongside of them ; by 

 refusing to work for any squatter who employed them ; by forcing 

 the Carriers' Union to refuse the transport of wool so shorn to mar- 

 ket ; and eventually by constraining the wharf labourers in Sydney 

 to refuse to handle for shipments any wool not shorn by union 



