Vol. VIII. No. 89. 
IMPERIAL INSTITUTE JOURNAL. 
[May, 1902.] 
Kb 
LABOUR RETROSPECT. 
United Kingdom.— The improvement in the iron and steel trades has 
become more evident during the past month, and has compensated for the 
slackness still existing in certain other industries ; so that the general state of 
employment is better than it has been at any time this year, and, moreover, 
compares not unfavourably with a twelvemonth ago. In the textile industry, 
the situation is not much better, but the building, furnishing, printing and 
leather trades all continue to improve ; boot and shoe workers, however, are 
not well employed. It must be understood that these reports of improvement 
apply to the state of employment, and not to the wage rate. The dispute in 
the Stourbridge glass trade furnishes another example of the restrictive 
policy which trade unions are alleged to favour. The rupture took place on 
the question of promoting or appointing men to positions in the glass house. 
Under the system enforced by the men’s society, a vacancy in a particular 
department had to be filled by a man from the ranks of the union, who had 
been brought up at this particular work, the masters being prohibited from 
promoting men from other departments. A system so discouraging to 
personal advancement has naturally been found injurious to the trade, and 
it is principally on this point that the masters are holding out for reform. 
Fortunately, there is little unfriendly 'feeling among the men towards their 
employers, the dispute being with the society itself. Messrs. Thos. Webb 
and Sons initiated the attempt to get rid of these restrictions, and have 
opened their factory with non-union labour. Other firms are following this 
example. Speaking recently in the Rhondda Valley, Mr. W. Abraham, M.P. 
(Mabon), who is recognised as one of the most thoughtful and level-headed 
of our labour organizers, gave an account of his recent investigations into 
labour matters in America. At one time, he said, he thought that working 
with machinery could not be to the advantage of the men he represented. 
He returned thoroughly cured of this prejudice. The capitalists of America 
would not put up with the second best of anything, and whenever new plant 
was invented they calculated the purchase cost to them and threw away 
machinery that would be used in England ten or fifteen years longer. 
There was no sentiment; every man was invited to ascend, and valued 
according to his efficiency and the wages he earned. They were strong 
trade unionists, and were allowed to bargain for their fellow-men with the 
capitalists as to the price of work, but no interference was tolerated as to 
the amount of work to be done. Every workman was free to do as much 
as he possibly could, and if he did more than an ordinary day’s work he 
was paid a bonus. 
Colonies. — The Emigrants’ Information Office have brought up to 
date their handbook of general information for intending settlers in the West 
Indies, and the following is a summary of the latest and most important 
details : — Firstly, with regard to general openings, the sugar industry comes 
under consideration. This, however, requires capital and experience, and is 
mainly in the hands of large proprietors, most of whom have been long con- 
nected with the West Indies. All field labour, and nearly all artizan labour, 
is carried on by coloured workmen, who are better able than white labourers 
to work under a tropical sun. In British Guiana and Trinidad there are 
occasional openings for the employment of young men as overseers on the 
sugar estates, at salaries of about ^40 to £^50 per annum with board and 
lodging. Such men are required to be fairly educated, and men of the 
farmer class are usually found to be most suitable. In no case, however, 
should any young man go out, except under regular engagement. There is 
also, occasionally, some opening for capable artizans and shop assistants, but 
they, too, will do well to obtain situations before going out. Persons possess- 
ing large capital will, no doubt, have the time and money to visit the West 
Indies and judge for themselves of their capabilities as a field for investment 
and a place of residence. Small capitalists with, say, _£2,ooo will find that 
these colonies offer a fair prospect of making a comfortable livelihood, but 
they should first work for a year or two with some planter to learn the 
methods of cultivation. The industries for which the islands are suited are 
the cultivation of fruits, such as bananas, plantains, coco- nuts (by the sea 
coast), limes, oranges, etc., for all of which there is an increasing market ; 
and also tobacco, coffee, cocoa, arrowroot, indiarubber, fibre plants, spices, 
and in some islands (as in Jamaica) the raising of cattle, horses and mules. 
Intending settlers in Jamaica would do well to communicate with the 
Secretary of the Institute of Jamaica, from whom can be obtained particulars 
of a scheme of articling pupils in firming and planting, which is intended 
for young men with some £2,000 or £45,000 capital, who wish to adopt an 
agricultural career. A settler with enough capital to combine cattle- and 
sheep-farming with fruit and other cultivation, should do well. Properties of 
200 to 1,000 acres, with house, etc., would cost from ,£500 to ,£3,000 and 
upwards. The outlook for fruit-growers has been considerably brightened 
since the starting of the direct line of steamers. Bananas yield enormous 
crops, and their cultivation requires less capital than most of the other crops, 
and is remunerative. Sugar has latterly fallen to a low position, the total 
value of the sugar-cane products exported during the last five years being 
little more than one-third of the value of bananas and oranges shipped to the 
United States. The causes of this depression of the sugar industry are not 
far to seek, and in so much as they are of local origin they are entirely reme- 
diable. There are, perhaps, four sites in Jamaica at the present time where 
the erection of central factories fed from a clientele of contiguous estates would 
enable sugar to be produced at a greatly reduced cost, but on the whole the 
majority of sugar estates in Jamaica are of sufficient size, agriculturally, to 
stand on their own merits and to be capable of individual development. The 
sugar district of Vere is being provided with a system of irrigation. The 
Government chemist considers that a capitalist seeking an outlet for his 
money in Jamaica could find no investment so safe, certain and remunerative, 
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123 
as a well-situated sugar estate managed on up-to-date lines, and with sufficient 
capital to work it economically. A labour trouble in Lagos, says the Colonial 
Secretary, is that there are, unfortunately, few natives who take to agricultural 
work, and it is a deplorable fact that among the unemployed there are quite 
a large number of able-bodied men who, because they have been taught at 
school to write a few ungrammatical sentences in a fairly legible hand, con- 
sider it beneath their dignity to follow agricultural pursuits. The capacity of 
the country still remains undeveloped, and this class of native could, if 
properly trained, materially help to open up the country in this particular 
way. Applications for employment in the Secretariat as clerks in Government 
establishments are constantly being received, and it was recently suggested to 
a candidate that he should take up agricultural work. He was appointed a 
pupil on one of the model farms, but remained there only a few weeks. He 
resigned, stating as his reason for so doing that the work he had been given 
to do was far too hard and too degrading. There is great scarcity of labour 
in Bloemfontein, and numerous building operations cannot be commenced 
before the supply is improved. The proposal to utilize the Boer refugees as 
labourers seems likely to lead to difficulties, judging from a recent example. 
Four starving Dutchmen asked for charity from a philanthropic resident, who 
offered them a gardening job at 5s. a day each. On the first day he found 
the four Boers smoking under a hedge. They had hired two Kaffirs at 
as. 6d. a day to do the work for them. In Johannesburg the carpenters and 
joiners have been out on strike, and many were able to obtain their demands, 
owing to the large amount of work waiting to be done. 
Foreign Countries. — The question of the legal position of trades 
unions has been before the courts in the United States, and the New York 
Court of Appeals has just given a ruling on the subject. According to this 
ruling, working men have the right to organize for the purpose of securing 
higher wages or shorter hours of labour, or otherwise improving their relations 
with their employers, and have the right to strike where their object is not to 
gratify malice or inflict injury upon others, but to secure better terms of 
employment for themselves. In course of the action which brought about 
this ruling, it appeared that the members of a steam-fitting association insisted 
that contractors should not employ the members of another association who 
worked for lower wages, and caused strikes which resulted in the displacement 
of those of whose rate of wages they complained. The association whose 
members were displaced secured an injunction restraining the first-mentioned 
association from striking or making threats to strike, but this action was 
reversed on an appeal, the appellate courts holding, in effect, that members 
of labour organizations need not work with other employees not members of 
their organizations, and may order a strike to enforce their demands. The 
Court of Appeals took the ground that the defendants had the right to strike 
for any reason they deemed a just one, and had the right to notify their 
employer of their purpose to strike. A labour organization, the Court said, is 
endowed with precisely the same legal right as an individual to threaten to do 
that which it may lawfully do. It is perhaps worthy of remark that the Court 
was far from unanimous on the question, the decision being reached by a 
majority of one. The State Labour Commissioner in his bulletin for the last 
quarter of 1901 says, that during that quarter only 4 - 6 per cent, of 97,270 
members of labour organizations in New York State were idle, as compared 
with S - 5 per cent, for the same 1S8 unions in the corresponding period one 
year ago, when the idleness was less than it had been in any of the preceding 
years. Similarly the proportion of members idle at the end of December 
declined from 257 percent, in 1900 to 19’! per cent. 1901, the decreased 
idleness being particularly noticeable in the building, clothing and baking 
trades. At the end of January, 1902, there was a small decrease in employ- 
ment in the building and furniture trades, which caused the average propor- 
tion of the unemployed in all trades and industries to rise to 20*9 per cent. 
In 1901, 47,585 members of labour unions obtained advances in wages, as 
compared with 2,068 who sustained losses. The average per capita weekly 
gain of the former was Si '9 7 and loss of the latter $2*67. 
In Italy a new Law on Emigration has come into force, and has 
introduced so many and important changes that it will mark an epoch in 
the annals of Italian emigration. The law establishes, first of all, a separate 
Government Commission to control emigration in all its branches, and to 
have a special care for the interest of the emigrant himself. An emigrant is 
defined to be a third-class passenger. Emigrants may start from three Italian 
ports only, Genoa, Naples, and Palermo, at each of which an inspector of 
emigration appointed by the Commission is stationed. Besides the ship’s 
doctor who is appointed by the steamship company, each emigrant ship 
carries an Italian naval surgeon whose duties, besides the medical care of 
emigrants, are to ensure the proper carrying out of all the requirements of the 
law during the voyage. No persons may book or engage emigrants who have 
not obtained a licence from the Commissioners. Foreign steamship com- 
panies may become agents provided that they nominate an Italian subject or 
legally constituted Italian firm as their representative, and provided that they 
submit to all Italian laws and regulations as regards the actual operations of 
emigration. Public inducement to emigrate is prohibited, and no tickets may 
be issued without the production of a passport by the intending emigrant. 
The law contains numerous articles to protect the emigrant from imposition, 
to limit his responsibility in case of inability to sail after once booking his 
passage, to determine the indemnities to which he is entitled in case he 
does not obtain his passage, and further to specify how disputes between the 
agent and the passenger are to be settled. The agent has to pay a Govern- 
ment fee of 6s. Sd. per adult passenger, which goes to form an emigration fund 
to meet the expenses of the commission and the offices connected with it. 
In the countries tc ’which Italian emigration is most specially directed, as, 
for instance, the United States, Brazil, and the Argentine Republic, the 
Government will arrange for the institution of offices for the protection and 
information of emigrants and establish a labour bureau with travelling inspec- 
tors. Another novel feature in the law is that the same protection is 
accorded to Italians returning to their own country as to those that are 
leaving it. This is an important matter, as the statistics show that the 
number of returning emigrants wffio have made money, is equal to the 
number of those who go out to seek their fortune. 
Disturbances, originating with the Socialists, occurred in Belgium and 
resulted in a general strike in Brussels, followed by a rapid- extension of the 
