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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR.
BULLETIN
BUREAU OF LABOR.
No. 5 6 —JANUARY, 1905.
ISSUED EVERY OTHER MONTH.
W A SH IN G TO N :
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1905.
EDITOR,
CARROLL D. W R IG H T ,
COMMISSIONER.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS,
G. W . W . H A N G E R ,
CHAS. H . VE R R IL L , G. A. W E B E R .
ii
CONTENTS.
Page.
Influence of trade unions on immigrants, by Carroll D. W right............................
1-8
Labor conditions in Australia, by VictorS. Clark, Ph. D ............................................. 9-243
Agreements between employers and employees........................................................ 244-257
Digest of recent reports of State bureaus of labor statistics:
Massachusetts................................................................................................................. 258-260
Digest of recent foreign statistical publications:
Strikes and lockouts—
Austria..................................................................................................................... 261-266
F ran ce...................................................................................................................... 266-271
G erm any............................................................: ................................................... 272-277
Great B ritain ......................................................................................................... 278-283
I t a l y .......................................................................................................................... 284-290
Netherlands........................................................................................................... 290-296
Decisions of courts affecting labor................................................................................... 297-317
Laws of various States relating to laborenacted since January 1, 1896............. 318-388
hi
BULLETIN
OF THE
BTTREATT OF
No. 56.
WASHINGTON.
LABOR.
January,
1905.
INFLUENCE OF TRADE UNIONS ON IMMIGRANTS.
S e p t e m b e r 8, 1901.
To t h e P r e s i d e n t :
Referring to your letter of August 1, transmitting a communication
from Mary E. McDowell, appearing in the Chicago Daily News of
Friday, July 29, and to your letter of August 10, inclosing an edito
rial from the Chicago Tribune, entitled “ The' Union and the Immi
grant,” and asking that in the investigation conducted relative to the
meat strike in Chicago the statements in these two inclosures be inves
tigated, I have the honor to report that they have been taken up by
our agent, Mr. Ethelbert Stewart, with the following results:
The article of Miss McDowell and the editorial relate practically to
one supposed influence of the trade unions among the foreign element
employed in the packing business in Chicago. This influence is exceed
ingly interesting and throws a valuable side light on the whole question
involved. The immigrant is, in the first instance, a wage-reducer,
either directly or indirectly, although the extent of his influence upon
wages can not well be stated; but as a prospective wage-reducer he is
met by the trade union in self-defense, just as the trade union meets
female and child labor, except in this, the union seeks to organize
the immigrants, while it seeks by legislation to prohibit or limit the
work of women and children—that is, the union seeks the aid of
the State to prevent wage reductions by means of female and child
labor, and it seeks by organizing the immigrants to prevent reduc
tion of wages by immigration. It makes no claim of undertaking
any charitable or primarily civic education among the immigrants, but
the secondary effect of the union on the immigrant is distinctively civic
in character. It is the first, and for a time the only, point at which
he touches any influences outside his clan. Even the progressive
1
2
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
forces inside the nationality lines consider the immigrant hopeless and
seek only to reach his children—as, for instance, the officers of the
Polish National Alliance direct their effort toward getting the Poles
to send their children to American public schools and to have them
mix up with and become a part of the whole people. The trade union,
however, must deal with the immigrant himself, and the immigrant,
when he learns that the union wants to raise his wages, decrease his
hours of labor, etc., begins to see the necessity of learning the Eng
lish language, of understanding the institutions he hears talked about
in the union meetings, and other matters which interest him.
A t the risk of taking up too much of your time, let me state a bit
of history. From 1880 to 1886 the nationalities employed in the
stock yards, in the order of their numerical importance, were Irish,
Americans, Germans, and a few Scotch. The great strike of 1886 dis
rupted the only organization of workmen in the yards—that of the
Knights of Labor—and after the failure of the strike a notable exodus
of Americans and the more active men among the Irish began.
Whether this was entirely voluntary, or in part resulted from activity
in the strike, is not germane to this subject. The Poles began to come
into the yards in 1886, after the settlement of the strike, but not as
strike breakers. This appears to have been a voluntary immigration,
increasing in volume until by 1890 the most of the unskilled occupa
tions were filled by Poles, who by 1894 had practical control of the
common labor.
The Bohemians began to affect noticeably the situation in 1894,
going first into the inferior positions, which they shared with the
Poles. There were two minor strikes between 1890 and 1894, which
in a measure aided in bringing about this result. There was some
movement upward among the Poles—that is, from lower to higher
occupations, but not so marked as among the Bohemians. The Bohemi
ans, coming in later., began under the Poles—that is, took the lower
positions as the Poles went up, and divided the entire unskilled labor
possibilities with the Poles. The Bohemians, however, soon out
stripped the Poles in the movement upward from unskilled to skilled
occupations.
The strike of 1894 unsettled these movements temporarily. Negro
labor was employed to break the strike and has been an element in the
situation ever since. In 1880 but one Negro was employed in the
yards, and he worked in Armour’s killing gang. While few of the
strike breakers of 1894 were retained, yet that event marks the real
beginning of the employment of Negroes. A t the beginning of the
present strike some 500 Negroes worked in the yards, many of whom
belonged to the union.
After the strike of. 1894 was settled the Bohemians were introduced
more rapidly, and this continued up to 1896. In 1895 the Lithuanians
influence of trade unions on immigrants.
3
began coming in, followed by Slovaks in 1896, and this continued
steadily until 1899, when the number began to increase rapidly. Two
3rears ago an enormous influx of Lithuanians, Slovaks, and Russian
Poles occurred, swamping the labor market in the yards. This was
caused largely because of the threatening war between Russia *and
Japan, and the consequent rush of people to escape compulsory mili
tary duty. This has been appreciably checked within the last six or
eight months.
The proportion of workmen of the various nationalities in the yards
at the beginning of the present strike (July 12) was, approximately:
Irish, 25 per cent; Americans and Scotch, about 2 per cent; Germans,
15 per cent; Poles, 20 per cent; Bohemians, 20 per cent. The remain
der were Lithuanians, Slovaks, a very few Krains, and, among the most
recent arrivals, Finns and Greeks, the latter, however, not being
appreciable in number. No attention has been paid in this investiga
tion to immigrants having a representation fewer in number than the
Lithuanians and Slavonians.
O f these nationalities, excluding the Irish and Germans, which are
not here considered as immigrants, the Bohemians are the most pro
gressive, and have the industrial advantage in this, that many of the
foremen are Bohemians and give preference to their nationality when
taking on new men. There is no apparent surplus of Irish, Germans,
Americans, or Bohemians in the labor market of the district affected,
the surplus being composed of Poles, Slovaks, and Lithuanians.
Among all the immigrants mentioned, except the Irish and Ger
mans, the clan spirit is at first all-powerful. The Bohemians, while
Catholics, are Bohemian Catholics, and the Poles are Polish Catholics.
This is even more true of the Lithuanians and the Slavonians, who are
the most clannish of all. No doubt difference in language has much to
do with this, but it is by no means the most serious feature. Each
nationality has not only its own church, but its own school system, the
Lithuanian schools making no pretense of teaching English, some of
the teachers not being able even to speak it. The Slavs and Galicians
have not as yet opened schools of their own. While the religion of
these different nationalities may be said to be one, the associations are
along exclusive nationality lines. They settle or rent properties by
districts, and in branching out to occupy more territory one side of
the street will first become Lithuanian for a block or so, and then the
other side of the street will be occupied by the same nationality. The
single men invariably board only in families of their own clan. Lan
guage has something to do with this, but really less than might be
apparent on first consideration, and less than might seem to be true.
When organizing building and loan associations, it is done along
strictly clan lines. The Bohemians have four of this class of associa
tions, the Poles three, and the Lithuanians one. The Slavs as yet
4
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
have none. There are other clannish distinctions, as Lithuanian Repub
lican clubs, Lithuanian Democratic clubs, Bohemian Socialist clubs,
Bohemian Democratic clubs, everywhere and always along the strict
est lines of nationality.
It is currently reported that before the organization of the union
this condition occasionally threatened riots along clan lines, owing to
the fact that foremen showed such preference for men of their own
clan. The union was organized by trades and departments, and the
officials refused to permit nationality lines to be recognized. In the
sheep butchers5union are to be found all the men connected with sheep
killing, regardless of nationalities. So severe was the fight made upon
this plan by the clan leaders— those who drew emoluments or secured
social prestige as leaders of the various strictly clan societies—and so
seemingly insurmountable was the objection raised by the Lithuanians
to the union that in 1900, when the Lithuanians were first organized,
it was permitted in one case to organize a Lithuanian union. The
experiment, however, was a signal failure. No subsequent experi
ments have been permitted.
The unions in the stock yards are controlled by the Irish, ably assisted
by the Germans. As a Bohemian or a Pole learns the language and
develops, he is elected business agent or other official. In the pork
butchers5 union, for instance, there are about 1,800 members, 600 of
whom are Irish, 600 Germans, 300 Poles, and 300 Lithuanians and
Slavs. This union recently elected a Pole as president of the local.
In their business meetings the motions made, resolutions read, and
speeches delivered are usually interpreted in five languages, though in
some locals in only three. All business, however, is transacted primarily
in English, although any member may speak to any motion in the lan
guage he best understands, his words being rendered into English for
the minutes of the meetings and into all the languages necessary for
the information of members. It is here that the practical utility of
learning English is first brought home forcibly to the immigrant. In
all other of his associations not only does his own language suffice,
but, for reasons that can be well understood, shrewd leaders minimize
the importance of learning any other. (The only notable exception to
this is the National Polish Alliance, and even here only the Polish lan guage is used. There is no apparent influence exerted, however, to
create the impression that the Polish is all-sufficient.)
In his trade union the Slav mixes with the Lithuanian, the German,
and the Irish, and this is the only place they do mix until, by virtue of
this intercourse and this mixing, clannishness is to a degree destroyed,
and a social mixing along other lines comes naturally into play. Not
only is the Amalgamated Meat Cutters5Union an Americanizing influ
ence in the stockyards, but for the Poles, Lithuanians, and Slovaks it
is the only Americanizing influence, so far as could be determined in
this investigation. It is true this Americanizing is being done by the
INFLUENCE OF TRADE UNIONS ON IMMIGRANTS.
5
Irish and the Germans, but it is Americanizing nevertheless, and is
being done as rapidly as the material to work on will permit, and very
well indeed. Again, the reaction is good in its results. The feeling
among the Irish against the Dutch and the Polack is rapidly dying
out. As the Irish in Chicago express it, “ Association together and
industrial necessity have shown us that, however it may go against
the grain, we must admit that common interests and brotherhood must
include the Polack and the Sheeny.” It is also admitted that when
the speech of the Lithuanian is translated in the meeting of the trade
union the Irish and the German see in it the workings of a fairly good
mind. Some of the best suggestions come from Bohemians, and
mutual respect takes the place of mutual hatred.
The investigation disclosed the influence of the union in teaching the
immigrant the nature of the American form of government. The
records of this office, independent of this investigation, show that
during an investigation of building and loan associations a few years
ago information from the Bohemian, Polish, and other clannish asso
ciations of that character could be obtained only through the services
of an interpreter. It was found that as soon as a Bohemian or a Pole
heard the word “ government,” or “ government agent,” he closed his
mouth, and it was impossible to secure any information.
This has been true in other investigations, notably in collecting
family budgets; but with an intelligent interpreter, using their own
language, the nature of the work was explained, and no further diffi
culty experienced. The union is breaking down this trait of character
in the foreigners of the nationalities mentioned. This it is doing not
as a matter of philanthropy, but from a selfish necessity. The immi
grant must be taught that he must stand straight up on his own feet;
that the ward politician is dependent on him—on his vote, etc.—and
not he on the ward politician. In this way he first learns that he is a
part of the Government, and while this is done by indirection, in a
large sense, there is no other force that is doing it at all. The Pole,
the Bohemian, the Lithuanian, the Slovak, and to a much lesser degree
the Galician, have inherited the feeling that somehow government is
a thing inimical to their natural development—a power forcing itself
upon them from afar; an intrusive power for repression, taxation,
punishment only; a thing which they must stand in awe of, obey, pay
tribute to, and wish that it had not come among their people, even if
they did not secretly hate it—a thing, in short, which ought not to be.
Being weaker than it they must be silent in its presence, and if forced
to speak, lie, as for them to tell the truth would mean imprisonment
or death.
It is not necessary for these things to be true in order that the illit
erate peasants should have believed them for generations. Seventyfive per cent of the stockyards immigrants are of thfc peasant and
agricultural laborer class of Europe, and comparatively few of them
6
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
can read or write in-their own language. To make such a people feel
that the Government is their friend, that they are a part of it, that
development and education, not repression, are its objects and its pur
poses with and for them, is an enormous task, and one which a trade
union single handed and alone can not be expected to accomplish by
indirection in a few years, with the flood of new ignorance that has
been brought in by the high tide of immigration into the stock yards.
In every trade union, however conservative, there are members who
will occasionally get the floor and advise their hearers to vote high
wages and shorter hours at the ballot box. As the groups of Slovaks
gather around after the business is over to have these things explained
to them, many get their first real idea of what the ballot and election
day mean, and the relation of these to the Government itself. In their
own home countries the two essential, if not only, elements of the
peasant and agricultural laborer’s mind is to believe and obey, or
follow. Advantage is taken of this fact here by clan politicians, as well
as the clan leader in every department. Once the leader can make these
people believe in him, he thinks for the entire group, and insists that
their duty consists in following his lead implicitly. Necessarily, the
trade union, in order to get them to break away from the leader that
opposed the union on industrial lines, would be compelled to urge
them to consider their own personal and group interests as wage
workers; to think and act for themselves along lines where they knew
the real conditions better than any one else, and certainly better than
their leader in a child insurance society, or something else as remote.
Here, too, are the first germs of what may be called the departmental
thinking implanted in their minds—that is, that while a leader may
be worthy o f their confidence in one thing, it does not necessarily
follow that he is so in some other class of interests.
It is doubtful if anj^ organization other than a trade union could
accomplish these things, for only the bread and butter necessity would
be potent enough as an influence to bring these people out of the fixed
forms and crystallizations of life into which they have been compressed.
Certain it is that no other organization is attempting to do this work,
at least not by amalgamation, which is the only way assimilation can
be secured among these various foreign elements. The drawing of
these people away from their petty clique leaders and getting them to
think for themselves upon one line of topics, namely, the industrial
conditions and the importance of trade organization, result in a mental
uplift. The only way they can pull a Slovak away from his leader is
to pull him up until he is gotten above his leader along the lines of
thought they are working on. The very essence of the trade argu
ment on the immigrant is—unconsciously again—an uplifting and an
Americanizing influence. The unionist begins to talk better wages,
better working conditions, better opportunities, better homes, better
clothes. Now, one can not eternally argue “ better” in the ears of
INFLUENCE OF TRADE UNIONS ON IMMIGRANTS.
7
any man, no matter how restricted the particular “ better” harped
on, without producing something of a psychological atmosphere of
“ better” in all his thought and life activities. If better food, better
wages, or even better beer, is the only kind of ‘ ‘ better ” one might
get a Slovak or a Lithuanian to think about, then the only way to
improve him is to inject the thought of “ better” into the onty crevice
to be found in his stupidity.
O f course, many object to attempts to improve these people because
the immigrants from Lithuania, Slavonia, and Russian Poland are
better off here than they ever were or could be in their own countries;
that, left to themselves, they would not only be perfectly satisfied, but
delighted with their improved condition; that the union must first
produce discontent and dissatisfaction with what would otherwise be
entirely satisfactory before it can get these immigrants even to talk
about joining the union. Again, it is urged that at home these people
do not expect to eat as good food as other people, nor to dress as well,
nor to live in as good houses; that, as peasants, they never compare
themselves with other people or classes o f people.
In opposition to all these things, the union begins by teaching the
immigrant that his wages are not so good as another man’s, doing
practically the same kind of work, while it neglects to tell him he is
not doing it so well, so intelligently, nor so much of it perhaps; but
the union gets him to compare himself not with what he was in Lithu
ania, but with some German or Irish family, and then “ stings him
with the assertion that he has as much right to live that way as any
body.” The union attempts to show the immigrant that he can live
better only by getting more money, and that by joining the union he
will get it. If left alone he would be entirely satisfied, perhaps, with
what he was getting before. It is perfectly true, probably, that in
most cases the union does not care for the Lithuanian in the first
instance, the real purpose being to protect their own wages by getting
the immigrants to demand high wages for their labor. So later on
some degree of fellowship is engendered, but self-defense is the real
motive.
The union point of view is that for a Lithuanian peasant to be con
tented, satisfied, and happy with the Lithuanian standard of living in
.America is a crime, a 'crime not only against himself but against
America and everyone who wishes to make individual and social devel
opment possible in America, and that whatever the union’s motives for
creating discontent, the fact that it does create a discontent among the
immigrants—which is the first step toward their improvement and
ultimate Americanization—renders the union so far a public benefactor.
Many persons were interviewed in securing information along these
lines—bankers, professional men, and all classes. One gentleman, in
the banking business in the stock-yards district for many years, stated
that the Slavonians and Galicians have been buying homes within the
8
bulletin of the bureau of labor .
last eighteen months to a most remarkable and unprecedented extent,
and that this is in a measure true of the Lithuanians, but not to such
a marked degree. He testifies that the union has given these people
a sense of security in their positions. By mixing up the nationalities
in the union meeting it has made them acquainted with each other and
dispelled an undefined dread of pending race war or struggle between
nationalities in the yards. Formerly most of the Slovak and Lithua
nian immigrants were a floater class. About the only ones who return
to their homes now are the Galicians, in whose country a more or less
representative form of government prevails. Others testified in a
similar way, although some thought the union had done little except
to agitate for higher, higher, and higher wages, regardless of economic
conditions.
On the police side of the problem, a sergeant of the twentieth pre
cinct, that known as “ back of the yards,” which is crowded with the
Bohemian and Polish elements, stated that there had been the greatest
improvement since the union was formed, in 1900—less disorder, better
living, more intelligence, and more understanding of American insti
tutions and laws; that they employ fewer policemen in the district, and
that less crime is committed than prior to 1900.
The studies of the various nationalities involved in the present meat
strike brings out some valuable points relative to the restriction of
immigration. Among them there seems to be an unalterable opposi
tion to laws excluding those who can not read and write in their own
language, and their argument is that the peasant population of central
and eastern Europe, from which they came, have more rugged morals,
simpler lives, and fewer vices than the inhabitants of the cities and
towns who can read and write, as a rule. They consider themselves
not responsible morally or politically for the fact that Russia has fewer
schools than Illinois and spends less money on education in a year than
does that State. They claim that their ignorance is not of the kind
that is synonymous with vice or with crime; that they are as innocent
as ignorant, whereas a far worse town and city population would be
admitted without question under such laws. They have some peculiar
ideas about prohibiting absolutely any immigration for a specific term
of years and then allowing only a certain percentage to come in each
year thereafter; but the main point they make is as to the illiteracy of
the peasant class, the most desirable we can secure, and the literacy
of the criminal classes of the great cities, which could come in under
such restrictive legislation. Such things are only a part of this study
brought out by your two letters, and the study has seemed to me so
interesting and, in a way, so novel, that 1 have taken courage to give
you the results quite in extenso.
I ain, with the highest regards, very respectfully,
C a r r o l l D. W r i g h t ,
Commissioner.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
BY VICTOR S. CLARK, PH. D.
The Commonwealth of Australia is not coterminous with the con
tinent of that name, but includes in addition the island State of Tas
mania, with an area of 26,000 square miles, or slightly larger than
West Virginia, and the dependency of British New Guinea, which has
an area of 90,000 square miles and an estimated native population of
over 300,000. Of the six States of the Federation, however, five are
upon the Australian mainland, and embrace the whole continental
area, an extent nearly equal to that of the United States exclusive of
Alaska and the insular dependencies. But the population, after more
than a century of settlement and development, hardly exceeds that of
the Union in the time of Washington, and is scattered along a coast
line of nearly 10,000 miles. There are no great rivers affording easy
and reliable means of ingress into the interior, no transcontinental
lines of railway have been constructed, and the great central plains
of the continent, as yet only partially explored, are visited or held
only by hardy prospectors and venturesome graziers, whose precarious
tenure is dependent upon a scanty and uncertain rainfall. Reverse a
dinner plate and you have a fair relief map of Australia, or at least a
diagram of its characteristic elevation features. The sloping rim
represents for the most part fairly well watered and habitable country,
timbered usually with the ever present but ever varying eucalyptus,
the “ gum 55 forests or “ bush” of the Australian settler. Where the
rim breaks into a depression toward the center is a barrier of more
rugged country, a land of hidden mineral treasures that paid toll to
the running streams and created the placer deposits of the early gold
fields. Bej^ond sink the interminable plains and the “ Never-never”
country, often blasted with drought but ever ready—even after years
of absolute aridity—to burst forth in a moment into oceans of rank
green pasture if a moist breeze escapes over the mountains to their
relief. On no part of the continent except in the southern highlands
is it usual to find snow, but the temperature range dips to the frost
level in Victoria and the more elevated plateaus of New South Wales,
while sugar cane and bananas, and the luxuriant vegetation of the
Tropics thrive in northern Queensland.
10
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The States just mentioned and Tasmania are old settled country, in
an American sense, as old as Ohio and the Mississippi Valle}7, but the
total impression, from a car window, received riding through them, is
of a land still in the pioneer stage of development. A visitor finds
himself constantly thinking, “ What opportunities! What a change
ten years will make in this country!” and then suddenly recalls the
fact that back in the daj^s of the Black Hawk war, in the times of the
u Forty-niners,” there was a generation of colonists in the prime of
life that had been born in Australia. The novel juxtaposition of old
settled social and political traditions with frontier conditions and
undeveloped resources first impresses an American. As an Indiana
business man said: “ It is a country that has grown only in spots.”
The relative predominance of pastoral over agricultural industries
accounts in part for the apparently primitive state of rural develop
ment. The remarkable concentration of the population in urban
centers is an attendant circumstance which helps to explain this as
well as many other features of Australian life. A statistical expres
sion of the last fact is found in the following table:
AREA AND POPULATION OF AUSTRALIAN STATES AND PER CENT OF TOTAL POPULA
TION IN CAPITAL CITIES AND IN CITIES OF OVER 8,000 INHABITANTS, 1901.
State.
Area
(square
miles)*
Total
popula-
State capitals.
Popula
tion.
Cities of over 8,000
population.
Per cent
of total.
Popula
tion.
Per cent
of total.
New South Wales................................
Queensland...........................................
South Australia....................................
Tasmania..........................................
Victoria.................................................
W estern Australia.........................
810,700
668,497
903,690
26,215
$7,884
975,920
1,354,846
498,129
362,604
172,475
1,201,070
184,124
487,900
119,428
162,261
34,626
494,129
36,274
35.9
23.7
44.8
20.1
41.1
19.7
612,859
190,363
182,350
55,844
595,382
56,722
44.9
37.8
50.3
32.4
49.5
30.8
Commonwealth.........................
2,972,906
3,773,248
1,334,618
35.2
1,693,520
44.8
These figures evidently imply the exploitation of a land of great
natural resources by a comparatively scanty population, otherwise the
tribute of the sources of primary production could not support such
relatively large numbers in the centers of secondary production and
exchange. Victoria and Tasmania are the only States capable of more
or less uniform agricultural settlement throughout their entire area.
In the former the rural and small-town population, in places of less
than 5,000 inhabitants, is 6.7, and in the latter about 4 per square mile.
This rural population, however, is not itself distributed evenly, but is
grouped as a rule in small and relatively densely settled districts.
Consequently the arable portion of Australia consists of large tracts
of quite undeveloped country, interspersed with'Smaller and somewhat
isolated areas of crop and farm lands in the hands of tilling settlers.
This turn in the development of Australia was due primarily to nat
ural causes, the climatic conditions of the country and its remoteness
LABOB CONDITIONS IN AUSTKALIA.
11
from tie markets and population centers of the Old World, but it
was fvrther favored by the method of early settlement and the system
of laid administration then adopted. The country was so distant
frop European markets as to forbid until recently the profitable
export of agricultural produce. The local demand was limited. There
w*s no tide of foreign immigration flowing in, with a large percent
age of land-hungry peasants, creating diversified industries and ulti
mately a large body of home consumers. For a half century the gov
ernment was almost autocratic, and the chief industries were carried
on largely by convict labor. This favored extensive land grants and
a baronial estate system, as distinguished from the system of small
holdings that has characterized early settlement in the United States
and Canada. Surveys were not undertaken upon a systematic basis,
and did not precede settlement. Beyond the occupied country was a
no man’s land, into which adventurous pastoralists pushed forward,
occupying the area of a small kingdom with their flocks. Hence the
local term for a large landholder in Australia to-day is a “ squatter,”
a word that carries with it quite the opposite significance from that
familiar to Americans. Some of these lands are actually unsudted
for agricultural purposes., but whole districts of valuable crop coun
try, only waiting the touch of the plow to yield bountiful harvests,
remained unbilled. When the State attempted to resume its rights over
these tracts., there was naturally bitter opposition from the temporary
holders. The latter were seldom dispossessed, the government con
tenting itself with exacting a small rent upon the acreage occupied.
Under the :eonstant pressure of private interests much passed into
actual freehold. For years the holders of large pastoral estates
belonging to the public, which were later turned into fertile farms,
stoutly maintained that the ground wouldn’t grow a cabbage.. Recourse
was had to legislation. The land laws of Australia and their amend
ments fill ponderous volumes, hardly of interest now even to the most
conscientious historian of tenures and agrarian policies, for they illus
trate no general principles*, but only record pullings and haulings in
the squabble to acquire and maintain rights in land by private parties.,
or to defend or assert similar rights on the part of the public. It is
no mere accident that Australia developed out of these conditions the
Torrens title system, one of the securest and simplest methods of land
transfer in the world.
The land was valuable and was occupied in this more or less hap
hazard manner, however, because grazing was profitable, and because
it was virtually the only avenue of investment and employment in
Australia during the first half century of the colony’s existence. W ool
could be shipped to England profitably, even in the old days when the
sailing voyage around the Cape occupied as many months as it now
does weeks. In the mild Australian climate stock does not need hous
12
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
ing, forage does nc^ have to be cut; one could set himself up’n busi
ness with land and animals alone. Grazing was' the natural jioneer
industry of the country.
With the gold discovery and mineral development of the midde of
the last century a new element was introduced into the population md
into the industrial life of Australia, but one that reacted only slowly
upon agriculture. In fact during the first excitement labor was drawn
away from instead of to farm occupations. By the time the country
population had awakened to the profit of the new market in the gold
fields the tide of miners was already ebbing in some localities. New
transportation routes had to be created. Food supplies in many
instances could be imported into the mining centers from abroad more
cheaply than they could be brought from centers of home production.
But an incentive was given to railway building, and from this time
dates the real development of the country. The labor market was
overstocked, especially in Victoria, when the mining excitement was
over. As a consequence a system of protected manufacturing indus
tries sprang up in that colony, accompanied finally by such redundant
prosperity that business was overstimulated, and the period culminated
in a land boom that collapsed in the early nineties. Meantime recent
gold discoveries in Western Australia created a new and speculative
interest in that country. Population was drawn away from the older
colonies, and after a sluggish existence of more than half a century—
during which period this section, the largest in area of the Australian
States, had acquired a population of less than 50,000—the western colony
became the Mecca of all the floating population of the continent. In the
decade ending in 1901 the number of inhabitants increased nearly three
fold, although the population of the other five States of the present
Commonwealth increased less than 2 per cent in the same period. All
these apparently abnormal fluctuations in population and industrial
concentration—this sort of chills-and-fever state of society— derive
from the same causes that express themselves in the predominance of
urban life and industry over the living and callings of the country.
They form the shifting scenery and setting of labor conditions, and
explain the relative prominence of the labor movement in social and
political life. The wage-earner, the mobile and unattached member of
society, predominates among the producing population. The con
servatism, the petty economies, the centering of life in small but cer
tain individual acquisition of property that characterize a farming
community, do not exist in Australia to the same extent as elsewhere.
Nor does this frugal and hard-fisted life contribute so largely to the
recruits of urban labor. This would appear the fundamental fact to
be observed in taking a first-glance survey of labor conditions in that
country.
Grazing is the most important single industry in Australia. W ool
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
13
alone forms one-fourth the total exports, its value on normal years
being between $80,000,000 and $90,000,000. Live stock, frozen and pre
served meats, hides and leather, and dairy products, constitute a second
large fraction of the exports, to the value of about $50,000,000 per an
num, and the aggregate mineral output of Australia’s mines totals over
$100,000,000 yearly. All the other exports of the Commonwealth,
including some reexports of manufactured articles, are valued rather
under $100,000,000, of which wheat, to the value of some $15,000,000,
constitutes the principal single item. ‘(") Grazing is largely an employ
ing industry in Australia, and even agriculture is conducted by more
wholesale methods than in the United States. Taking Victoria as the
State that has reached the highest degree of agricultural development
in proportion to its area, in March, 1902, there were 11,153 cultivated
holdings, with a total crop area of 3,810,413 acres, or an average of
92.6 acres of tilled land for each farm. The total area of the State,
however, is 56,245,760 acres. Only 6.77 per cent of the land, there
fore, is under tillage. Considered in relation to population instead of
area, South Australia leads in agricultural industry. Upon the date
given above the land under private ownership in that State aggregated
8,087,776 acres, and that held under lease from the government
24,910,830 acres, while the total territorial area of the State is about
578,361,000acres. Of these 32,998,606 acres of occupied land, 3,122,800
were under cultivation, or 8.6 acres for every person in the State. In
the entire Commonwealth the average area cultivated for each inhabitant
is 2.2 acres. Hay and wheat together constitute nearly one-half of the
produce raised. Queensland has developed a cane-sugar industry of
considerable local importance.
Manufactures are confined mostly to those required to supply local
demands, though before Victoria became a member of the Federation,
and while she still retained her independent tariff system, her manu
factured products were distributed throughout Australasia. Under
the Federal tariff home manufactures find their market in the entire
Commonwealth, and there is some export, especially of boots and
shoes, to New Zealand. Melbourne remains the manufacturing center
of the country.
Land transportation is conducted by railways owned by the govern
ments of the respective States, the private lines being few in number
and of little importance as highways of commerce. The coasting trade
is largely controlled by local shipping, and regular lines of homeowned steamers ply between the principal ports. The export trade,
however, is in the hands of British and foreign vessels. As Mel
bourne is relatively prominent ii^ manufacturing, so has Sydney
« Approximate figures only are given, as on account of the recent drought, current
export statistics are not fairly representative.
12425— No. 56— 05----- 2
14
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
been the commercial emporium o f Australia. Previous to the forma
tion of the Federation New South Wales was the representative free
trade, as Victoria was the representative protectionist, Australian
colony. These conditions have been modified under the uniform fiscal
regime of the Commonwealth.
As a whole, therefore, Australia is a scantily populated largely unde
veloped country, whose urban growth has been stimulated beyond the
wont of most young nations, and whose chief industries are as yet
pastoral and mining. The freeholding population is relatively small
as compared with the wage-earners, and agriculture has lagged some
what as compared with other forms of primary production. Condi
tions partly climatic, and depending upon the character and resources
of the country, and partly social and due to historical causes, have
reversed what we are accustomed to consider the normal order of
development in a virgin land, and the employing have antedated the
independent occupations.
HISTORY.
Australia had been partially known to European navigators for
nearly two centuries, when Captain Cook, in a voyage that retains
permanent significance in the history of discovery and colonization,
coasted its eastern shores in 1770. His favorable reports of the coun
try around Botany Bay and in the vicinity o f what is now Sydney
Harbor were not forgotten, and when, after the loss of her North
American colonies, England sought new ventures seaward, and espe
cially a place suitable for convict settlement, Australia and New Zea
land were already places prominent in the public mind, as lands likely
to prove suitable for occupation. Thus it happened that in January,
1788, a settlement was effected at Sydney by a body of some 750 Eng
lish convicts and a third as many officers and guards. After the
usual vicissitudes of a young and distant colony, the population grad
ually began to take root, free settlers came in, local explorations
revealed new resources, and by the close of the governorship o f Gen
eral Macquarie in 1821 the routine conditions of early colonial life
had become thoroughly established. Tasmania had been settled in
1804, and a year before that the first shipment of wool was made to
England. Civil courts and banks had been established, and several
ship loads of voluntary emigrants had arrived, while many convicts
whose time had expired were beginning a new life in the country.
Pastoral occupation gradually extended, and a certain degree of par
ticipation in the government was granted to the colonists. In order
to anticipate French settlement a^township was established on King
George’s Sound, in what is now Western Australia, and, following the
coast exploration northward, a penal post •was placed on the site of
the present capital of Queensland. Voluntary settlement began in
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
15
what is now Victoria, and under the Gibbon Wakefield plan a formal
colonization of South Australia took place. So by 1836 the nucleus
of each of the six States of the present Federation was in existence.
Public opinion was at this time centered upon the struggle to abolish
convict transportation to the colonies, and here first appears the line
of cleavage between the large landowners and the free working classes
that has remained, in one form or another, characteristic of Australian
politics. The “ squatting” interests wished to retain their convict
laborers. Even to-day in the “ back blocks” of Queensland one may
hear faint reminiscences of the old assertion that the best workmen
ever had upon the stations were the men contracted from the stock
ades. The question was fought over in New South Wales during the
decade ending with 1840, in which year an order in council in England
abolished transportation to that colony. But the penal establishments
in other colonies continued to receive recruits from the mother coun
try until a later date. The rudiments of an elected parliament were
created in 1843, when the legislative council, which had heretofore
been a small advisory body appointed by the governor, was increased
to 36 members, 24 of whom were made elective under a franchise
limited by a property qualification of about $1,000. There was a
$10,000 property qualification for members. The mother colony at
this time included the present States of Victoria and Queensland.
Tasmania and Western and South Australia were still under more
autocratic forms of government.
The year 1851 marks a turning point in the history of Australia.
The next decade saw the discovery of gold, the influx of a great popu
lation of adventurers and free laborers, the establishment of constitu
tional government upon a modern parliamentary basis, the beginning
of systematic development of interior transportation routes and rail
ways construction, and the disappearance of the convict labor question
and the rise of the land question to the most prominent place in public
interest. The following forty years of political history are occupied
with the struggle between the squatter and the settler, or between
cultivating and grazing interests, for the control of the government
and the making and administration of the land laws. The political
division was in a very general way along lines which had been defined
by the convict labor issue previously, and which, with some qualifica
tions, have been continued in the more recent alignment of parties
upon the labor question. The baronial sentiment of the great land
holder manifested itself in 1852, when the committee of the legislative
council appointed to draw up a plan for a new constitution reported
in favor of creating a colonial peerage, from which should be selected
the members of the upper house of the new legislature. The convict
labor question itself gave birth to the desire for an independent gov
ernment in Queensland, but the fight between selectors and squatters
16
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
for the public lands continued until 1868, when a temporarily satis
factory act was passed, without finally disposing of the question.
Victoria, which had secured separate government in 1851, escaped the
convict labor question entirely, and to a less degree escaped the land
question. An inrush of a quarter of a million miners in the three
years ending with 1855 placed her government upon a permanently
democratic basis. The year last mentioned a constitution was pro
claimed establishing a parliamentary government, with a legislature
of two chambers, both of which were elective. In less than eight
years this constitution had been amended so as to establish manhood
suffrage and vote by ballot and to abolish the property qualification
for members of the lower house. State aid to religion was done away
with, and large tracts of land were opened to settlement, the maximum
area allowed any selector being 610 acres. But the fight between the
popular and the conservative party raged with possibly even greater
bitterness around fiscal issues in Victoria than it did around the land
question elsewhere. This resolved itself finally into a contest between
the upper and the lower house upon the question of a protective tariff,
complicated by a dispute over constitutional points relating to the
respective legislative authorty of the two bodies. The popular branch
tacked tariff bills upon its appropriations, which were as persistently
thrown out by the landholding freetraders of the council, until revenue
ceased and the treasury was empty. The governor was recalled by
the home government for becoming involved in the difficulty, but the
protectionists finally won the day, and held their ground in that colony
until federation, when they led successfully a second campaign with
this as a Commonwealth issue.
The question of land tenures and administration has been thrown into
comparative obscurity since about the year 1890 by the rise into promi
nence of two other issues of even greater immediate importance. The
first of these resulted from the agitation for a federation of the Austral
asian colonies, which was effected, so far as the six States of the present
Commonwealth are concerned, in 1901. This agitation brought with
it, first the question of federation itself, and later the still discussed
and disputed details of reciprocal adjustment of State and Federal
powers, and the multitude of constitutional points and matters of Com
monwealth policy that appear like a host of unexpected guests upon
the scene as soon as an organic act of such importance is put into
actual operation. The second group of issues relates directly to indus
trial legislation, and is a result of the appearance upon the political
field of organized labor as a separate and independent party. This
party organization of the workingmen was consummated at a moment
particularly favorable to their ends. They were not hampered, like
the older organizations, by local traditions and policies, by remnants
of interstate jealousies, and by a general disturbance of their habitual
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
17
grooves of action by the issue and accomplishment of national union;
but they began with a national platform and policy, with the effective
discipline born of their trade union experience, and with views and
methods absolutely unconditioned by regard for precedent and past
experience. Federation, which came like a disturbing shock to the
established parties, found the workingmen organized and ready to
avail themselves of the new conditions thereby created. For this
reason they have possessed an influence disproportionate to their
numerical strength, and have been able to dictate policies to parties
individually stronger than themselves.
It is in the detailed history of the 15 years just mentioned that all
the movements and legislation of special interest to the student of
present industrial conditions lies recorded. Behind that need be remem
bered only the labor and land conditions that gave rise to the large
estates and the fact, most profoundly significant of all, that the small
farmer and the small homestead have hitherto contributed compara
tively little to the life and labor of Australia.
The Federal and state constitutions of Australia differ from those of
the Union in this fundamental respect, that they are, formally at least,
acts of the Imperial Parliament, and are subject to direct modification
by that body. In fact, however, they are drafted and amended by the
representatives of the people whom they are to govern and formally
ratified by them before Parliament takes action; so that the interven
tion of the Imperial Government is largely a matter of form, except
in respect to subjects that involve the relations of the Commonwealth
and its component States to foreign powers or to other portions of the
Empire. In each of the States, as in the Commonwealth itself, there
is a royal governor, who has the shadow of executive power and fulfills
a more or less traditional and ornamental function as nominal head of
the Government and representative of the sovereign. Real executive
authority rests, as in England, with a responsible ministry. The
legislature is in every instance bicameral, and the upper house in the
state government is known as the legislative council. This body is
elected for a term of ye&rs in each of the States except New South
Wales and Queensland, where members are appointed by the governor
for life. The Commonwealth senate is an elective bodjr, in which the
six States are equally represented, following in this respect the prece
dent of the United States Constitution. The lower house is in every
instance an elective and popular body. The Federal franchise is deter
mined by the Federal, and not, as with us, by the state governments.
Women are allowed to vote in Federal elections and in state elections
in South and in Western Australia and in New South Wales.
There is
a property qualification for voting in most of the States, and property
holders still possess a plural vote in Queensland. Victoria has recently
passed an act restricting the franchise of civil servants and giving
18
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
government employees separate representation in parliament. The
payment of members has gradually been introduced and prevails in
state and Federal parliaments, except in cases of legislative councilors
appointed for life.
The Commonwealth constitution follows the example of the United
States Constitution in leaving all residuary authority, not expressly
granted to the Federal government by the organic act, to the individual
States; but the expressed Federal powers are in many directions more
ample than those granted to the central government in our own country
in domestic matters; though in all foreign relations the right to levy
war, to make peace, and to enter into treaties other than commercial with
foreign powers, the authority of the Australian government is limited
by the Imperial prerogatives. There is no bill of rights or series of
express constitutional guarantees limiting the power of the legislature
over individual liberty and property, except that trial on indictment
for any offense against a law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury.
The ultimate interpretation of the constitution rests, with the permis
sion of the Government, in the Privy Council of England.
The more extended powers of the Federal Parliament of Australia,
as compared with those of the American Congress, relate to marriage
and divorce, railways, insurance, and financial and trading corpora
tions, foreign corporations, invalid and old age pensions, “ conciliation
and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes
extending beyond the limits of any one State,” and matters referred
to the Parliament of the Commonwealth by the parliament or parlia
ments of any State or States; but so that Federal laws enacted under
this last authority shall extend only to those States by whose parlia
ments the matter is referred, or which afterward adopt these laws.
It is under the last two provisions that an as yet undefined authority
is given to the central government to enact laws regulating industry,
an authority which, however closely curtailed by subsequent precedent
and constitutional decisions, the labor party hopes ultimately, through
the action of individual States, to place permanently and unqualifiedly
in the hands of the Commonwealth.
THE PO LITICAL LABO R P A R T Y AND SOCIALISM.
The political labor movement of Australia is an outgrowth of trade
unionism. Its dominating impulse has not been heretofore socialistic
in the technical sense, though its ultimate aims and actual measures
look more and more toward government control of the means of pro
duction. But it is not a theoretical and doctrinaire propaganda under
taken with the idea of revolutionizing society. Rather it is a more or
less empirical and opportunist movement, with its views centered upon
certain practical and immediately realizable aims in the way of indus
trial legislation. It is the product of conditions peculiarly Austral
LABOE CONDITIONS IN AUSTEALIA.
19
asian, and in its present special manifestation is a force that may soon
be spent; for its political measures do not aim to harmonize all the
interests of society in a single ideal, but to secure particular favors
for a class that probably, under normal conditions, would constitute a
political minority. However, considered more broadly, as part of a
social movement as wide as Christendom for the amelioration of the
lot of the workers, it possesses more general and permanent signifi
cance. The methods adopted by the workingmen of Australia to
better themselves through parliamentary control can be successful only
so long, and to the extent, that they carry with them a large number of
voters not directly identified with the wage-earning classes. This is
possible temporarily when, as at present, the older political parties
are disunited for a time by the inertia of dead issues, and while the
agricultural vote is still slumbering and inattentive. But when the
farmers wake up, with a class interest opposed to the programme of
the urban workmen and a strenuous demand for retrenchment in pub
lic expenditure, as recently occurred in Victoria, the labor party is
found conducting a rather barren campaign. It is only by adapting
their measures to the interests of a permanent majority that the parti
sans of labor can succeed, and the history of the past 15 years records
a series of adjustments taking place between labor ideals and objects
and the exigencies of practical politics—a process as yet only partially
completed.
The population of Australia is almost entirely of British descent.
According to the census of 1901, 78 per cent of the people were born
in Australia, nearly 19 per cent in Great Britain and other British
possessions, and a little over 3 per cent in countries outside the Empire.
The labor traditions and organizations of the-country are therefore of
British derivation. Trade unionism, based on English precedents,
has long been powerful in Australia. In each of the larger cities there
is a trades hall, sometimes as imposing as one of the regular govern
ment buildings, erected upon land granted for that purpose by the
public authorities. The first Intercolonial Trades Union Congress
was held at Sydney in 1879. The general constitution and purposes of
this and succeeding assemblies seem to have been similar to those of
the Trades and Labor Congress of Great Britain. A second congress
was held in Melbourne in 1884, at which representatives from three of
the colonies were present. Sixty-nine delegates took part in the pro
ceedings, of whom 50 were from Victoria, 15 from New South Wales,
and 4 from South Australia. Forty-one unions, branches, or amalga
mated societies were represented. Among these were the Amalga
mated Society of Engineers and the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters
and Joiners, vigorous branches of the British societies, with their
conservative policies and benefit features. The engineers established
their first branch in Sydney in 1851 with a membership of 12, which has
20
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
since been increased to 700. They have never had a strike, but have
during their history contributed about $5,000 to the strike funds of other
unions. The carpenters and joiners have also maintained an organiza
tion that has kept pace with the growth of the countiy. A t the time
of the congress just mentioned there were 55 unions affiliated with the
Melbourne Trades Hall, including a women’s union, represented by two
delegates in the convention. The Amalgamated Miners’ Associa
tion of Victoria had 19 branches. There were 24 societies associated
in the Sydney Trades and Labor Council, with an aggregate member
ship of 8,000, in addition to which there were a number of independent
organizations in the city. One of the district coal miners’ protective
associations reported a membership of 2,500. The Adelaide Trades
and Labor Council had 3,000 affiliated members. Altogether the con
gress evidently represented a considerable body of vigorous and grow
ing organizations. The premier of Victoria addressed one of the
sessions, and the government of the colony extended further courte
sies in the way of a railway excursion to the delegates. Cooperation
was fully and favorably discussed. In the matter of internal organi
zation, amalgamation of the independent unions along trade lines,
which had already been begun, especially in the maritime trades, was
encouraged, and steps were taken toward a national federation of labor.
Upon questions of general public policy the congress was united in
opposition to the admission of the Chinese, in opposition to immigra
tion assisted by the Government, and in urging upon the governments
of the different colonies the necessity of using their influence with the
Imperial authorities to prevent, if possible, an extension o f French
convict settlement in Pacific islands adjacent to Australia. Opinion
was divided somewhat upon the protection issue, the Victorian dele
gates almost unanimously and a majority of the representatives of
the two other colonies apparently being favorable to protection,
though this policy was opposed by some of the New South Wales del
egates, notably by the representative of the Seamen’s Union. The
two constitutional reforms most insistently urged were “ one man, one
vote,” and the payment of members of Parliament wherever this had
not been adopted. No laws that at the present day would be called
socialistic in Australia were advocated, but motions were passed in
favor of legalizing the 8-hour day, which was already practically
enforced in nearly all the trades; for legalizing trades unions, which
were still nominally subject to the old conspiracy laws in some colo
nies, and had not been affected by the English act of 1875, and for
additional employers’ liability and factories and shops legislation. A
revision of mining legislation was advocated and more stringent inspec
tion of machine^. It was also urged that the old master and servant
law should be repealed. There was no discussion of nationalizing any
industry or of compulsory arbitration. A rather original proposal
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
21
was advocated by this and subsequent congresses, that the trades and
labor councils should by parliamentary authority be made quasi-public
corporations, like harbor trusts, boards of agriculture, universities,
and similar bodies, with statutory authority to make bv-laws, appoint
inspectors of dangerous occupations, recommend legislation affecting
workingmen, and initiate measures to prevent or settle industrial dis
putes. Finally the following rather significant resolution was unan
imously adopted:
That this congress desires to urge upon labor organizations in the
various colonies to at once elect a parliamentary committee in their
respective colonies, whose duty it shall be to assist in passing through
Parliament measures for the benefit of labor, and where possible
endeavor to obtain for labor direct representation in Parliament.
In discussing this motion a member said that what he suggested
was 64That the artisans of Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, and their
adjoining suburbs send artisans to Parliament; that the miners send
miners to Parliament; the weavers send weavers to Parliament, etc.;
and by that means we shall have direct representation.” It must be
remembered, however, that party organization and discipline, and that
many of our ideas of party loyalty and consistency, would be quite unin
telligible to an Australian voter—at least at the time when this motion
was adopted. The colonial system, with a responsible government—an
executive practically elected by the legislature—allows the simultane
ous appearance of a number of parties in Parliament, whose varying
groupings and rearrangements time the lives of the successive minis
tries. Therefore a minority of labor representatives might, as they
do at present, hold a balance of power, determine the political life of
the cabinet, and so be able to dictate legislation in their own inter
ests. Our system of government, which throws the election of the
executive back upon the people, fixes his term of authority, pitches
the fate and determination of future policies upon a single election,
leaves no such place for an effective third party, creates the necessity
for a vast, complex, disciplined, and expensive party organization, and
makes our methods of political propaganda quite different from those
of the English colonies. This fact needs to be kept in mind in watch
ing the evolution of the labor party in Australia. An immediate
result, to be obtained by electing a few members representing their
class interests, who could throw their votes so as to make and unmake
ministries and thereby secure the particular laws desired by the
unions, was the prospect that presented itself to the trades union
congress of 1881. It was not proposed to construct a complex and
extensive party organization.
In 1885 the number of organized workmen in Australia was esti
mated by their leaders to be 150,000, out of a total population of less
than 3,000,000. At the Brisbane congress of 1888, the fifth of these
*22
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
intercolonial conferences to be held, 66 delegates were present, and
every Australian colony except Western Australia was represented.
Naturally, on account of the location of the congress, the Queensland
delegates were most numerous, though they were sent by fewer
societies. From that colony 23 unions or amalgamated organizations
were represented; from New South Wales, 30; from Victoria, 9; from
South Australia, 10; and from Tasmania, 8. The proceedings at once
reveal the presence of more or less socialistic sentiment among the
delegates. Some avow themselves advocates of these theories. When
the question of a national organization, which had not yet been effected,
was under discussion, several spoke favorably of creating a body
similar to the Knights of Labor in America. The principle of fed
eration, which had been gradually extending in the individual trades
and reaching across colonial boundaries, prevailed, however, and a
committee was appointed to carry it into effect upon an intertrade
and intercolonial basis. This was accomplished at the Hobart con
gress the following year, when the short-lived Australian Federation
o f Labor was founded. While there was still a division of opinion at
Brisbane upon the free trade-protection issue, a motion in favor of a
protective tariff in all the colonies was unanimously adopted. Another
motion that received the unanimous assent of the delegates was:
That it is the opinion of this congress a simple yet sovereign remedy,
which will raise wages, increase and give remunerative employment,
abolish poverty, extirpate pauperism, lessen crime, elevate moral tastes
and intelligence, purify government, and carry civilization to a yet
nobler height, to abolish all taxation save that on land values.
The proceedings do not state how members reconciled this with the
preceding resolution in favor of a protective tariff. This congress
seems to have marked the turning point where organized labor
diverged from traditional trades-union lines to enter the political
field. The delegates of the Trades and Labor Council of South
Australia reported that the Adelaide Trades Hall had nominated nine
and returned seven candidates at the last election. A motion was
unanimously adopted to the effect that:
In the opinion of this congress it is desirable that the various trades
and labor councils of Australasia should formulate an electoral pro
gramme in accordance with the resolutions come to at this and preced
ing congresses for support of all interested in labor, and the acceptance
of parliamentary candidates. That no candidate who does not adhere
to the labor programme should receive the support of the labor party.
The following year saw the great dock strike in London, a struggle
that seems to have reacted strongly upon opinion in the Australasian
colonies. A sympathy with the working people and a certain social
sentiment, evoked by that event among all classes of society in those
countries, prepared the ground to some extent for a favorable reception
of political labor propaganda. As in America, there seems to have
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
23
been a sort of contagious and more or less emotional socialism, of the
u Looking Backward” variety, abroad.
Henry George had been in
the colonies, and his views were receiving much attention. Australia
had for half a century been looking for some kind of a land panacea.
A few years later an offshoot of this movement manifested itself in an
attempt to realize some of these socialistic ideals in an Australian
communistic settlement in Paraguay, which, like so many similar
enterprises in America, resulted in failure.
It was a typical trade-union crisis, however, that finally gave a
political impulse to the new labor movement that was, so to speak,
incumbent in the very atmosphere. The maritime trades were well
organised. Most of the Victoria unions, where there was a remark
able land and building boom in full career, including the seamen, were
affiliated with the Trades Hall. Of the great labor organizations of
that colony only the miners, who were strong and independent, held
aloof from that central body. As is usual in periods of abnormal
prosperity, a number of short, sharp, successful strikes occurred,
especially in the building trades and allied industries, and employers
were irritated and on the defensive. There may also have been fear
or premonition of the coming industrial collapse in the air, foreseen
by the shrewder business men, but not apprehended by the unions.
In any case, when the ships’ officers decided to organize and to affiliate
with the Trades Hall, their employers resolved to make an issue upon
this point. It is the same point that gave rise to the recent equally
unsuccessful strike of the Victoria railway employees. The ship
owners maintained, with considerable show of reason, that the affili
ation of their officers with a body including strong organizations of
seamen would be prejudicial to ship discipline. Organization was
perfected on both sides. The Trades Hall decided to support the offi
cers in their contention that they should be permitted to associate
themselves as a union with whomsoever the}' pleased, and a general
sympathetic strike was declared. Ill feeling was further accentuated
in the maritime trades by the discharge of a union seaman from one
of the colonial boats because, it was alleged, he had been an active
representative of his organization.
There is said to have been no
cause of complaint on the part of the other unions. Their relations
with their employers were amicable. Yet at the strike call, of the
16,650 members of the shearers’ union, for instance, 16,500 stopped
work. For a time every industry was paralyzed. Coming as it did at
the apex of a boom, this crisis was the more severely felt, and it may
have precipitated the final collapse that occurred three years later.
There was some division of public opinion as to the justice of the
strikers’ cause. The chief justice of Victoria subscribed $213.33
weekly to the strike fund. The preseut chief justice and former pre
mier of New Zealand took the platform in favor of the strikers when
24
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the disturbance spread to that colony. But upon the whole the pub
lic sided with the employers, and the men were utterly defeated. For
a period unionism in Australia was prostrate, and during the hard
times of the following years it was uphill work to recover even a rem
nant of its former prestige. The shearers, still unbroken, conducted
strikes of their own in 1891 and 1894. These difficulties were accom
panied by considerable disorder, especially in the back country of
Queensland.
The conditions were somewhat such as might be
expected to prevail if a large body of our western cowboys should
take a notion to create an industrial disturbance, or such as actually
occurred at the time of the Occur d’ Alene difficulties a few years
ago. Houses were burned and men were shot. The shearers formed
camps in the remote districts and maintained the semblance of a mili
tary organization. The government in some of the colonies was
sufficiently concerned to call out troops, and many of the strikers
were arrested and imprisoned. This interference by the public
authorities was bitterly resented by the workingmen. All of these
strikes, therefore, having proved ineffective, and a sense of the power
of the government to defeat organized labor in such crises by
throwing its influence in favor of their opponents having become
emphasized in the minds of the labor leaders, they naturally turned
to new methods and attempted to make their power felt in the gov
ernment itself.* Political agitation, which, while theoretically indorsed,
had up to this time been rather a side issue with the unionists, thus
became their main reliance. The Australian Federation of Labor,
recently mentioned, had gone down in these conflicts, and the seventh
of the intercolonial congresses, held at Ballarat in 1891, was the
final attempt of the workingmen of Australia to come together on
strictly trade-union lines. In effect, the failure of a series of wide
spread and sensational strikes, the intervention of tire government in
these struggles, and the general social discontent attendant upon a
period of financial collapse and acute industrial depression were the
immediate causes that brought organized labor in Australasia into
politics.
While the intercolonial congresses and the federal labor organiza
tions gave at the outset more or less of a national character to this
political movement, the genesis of the party and its programme and
methods in the different colonies were not identical. The New Zealand
workingmen never formed a class party, as did those of Australia, but
succeeded in merging themselves with and in recasting the platform
and organization of the old Liberal party of that country; and it is to
this fact that their relatively greater success is largely due. In Aus
tralia, however, a class party was formed in every instance, with par
liamentary representatives who are in most cases workingmen, which
works as an independent organization and trusts to alliances with
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
25
other parties and factions to secure the passage of those measures to
which it is committed. In order to understand the individual charac
teristics of the labor movement in the different States, however, it is
necessary to go back somewhat in local history, and also to indicate
the broad geographical and industrial divisions among the workers,
which are reflected in their organizations.
The two great sources of primary production in Australia are rep
resented by wool and minerals. Back over the rim of the great inte
rior basin of the continent are the.broad stock ranches, employing a
small permanent force throughout the year, but during the “ season”
requiring, each of them, a large number of temporary employees—
the shearers and shed men, who harvest, sort, and bale for shipment
the returns of the animated crop of the stations. These men, inter
mittently employed, from necessity nomadic in their habits, with no
home ties, associated in bands only a portion of the year and collec
tively isolated from town life and most of what constitutes modern
civilization, acquire habits of thought and action and qualities of tem
perament different from those of other classes of workmen. Often
their life is an alternation of strenuous exertion and reckless dissipa
tion, of abundant physical necessities and actual want; but it seems,
with all its rudeness and crudity, to create men exceedingly loyal to
class ideals. This is the sentiment that gives vitality to the “ bush
unions,” the labor organizations of the “ back blocks” of Queens
land and New South Wales, and to a lesser degree of Victoria and
South Australia, and in the first-mentioned State maintains the balance
of power of the labor party in the remote and thinly settled districts.
Then come the “ barrier unions,” the miners’ organizations, whose
strongholds are in the mountain rim of the continent. In every State
of the mainland the miners contribute an important fraction to the
labor vote, and in Tasmania they appear to be the only class of work
ers possessing an effective influence in elections. Along the coast are
the maritime and longshore, trades, exceptionally important in a coun
try devoted so largely to the production and export of raw materials
and employing therefor a large coastal fleet. The headquarters of
these occupations are naturally in the port cities, where labor organi
zations are reinforced by colliery workers, artisans, and factory opera
tives; so that in spite of the powerful country organizations, except
in Queensland, and to a less degree in Tasmania and in Western Aus
tralia, the urban centers are the focus and stronghold of the political
labor vote.
The United Trades and Labor Council of South Australia was formed
in 1884 for the purpose of wielding political influence in that colony.
As already mentioned, this body had secured the return of 7 out
of 9 candidates supported in 1887. But these were not, speaking
in the present sense of the term, labor members. They were not
26
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
themselves from the working classes, and secured labor support solely
in virtue of the fact that they indorsed the legislative programme of
the trade unions. In 1890 out of the 20 candidates favored by the coun
cil 14 were returned, but there was no direct labor man among them.
The legislation desired by the workingmen, however, was not secured,
and for this reason some system of more effective political representa
tion was desired. To this end a campaign fund, formed by a levy upon
each unionist that ultimately reached 37 cents, was raised, and it was
resolved that the labor vote should be given only to a candidate who
was “ a person who is eligible to become a member of a trade or labor
society, which trade or labor society is eligible to become affiliated
with the United Trades and Labor Council.” This confined electior
to wage-earners, so far as the workingmen could accomplish it.
Three resolutions that were characteristic as representative of labor
party discipline, were adopted: (1) “ That all labor representatives
must agree to occupy cross benches, no matter what party is in
pow er” (i. e., they must constitute a balance of power and not com
mit themselves to the permanent support or opposition of any minis
try); (2) “ That labor candidates shall pledge themselves, if returned,
not to accept office in any ministry;” (3) “ That in the event of a
plebiscite being taken in regard to the conduct of a labor representa
tive, and such plebiscite being unfavorable, he shall be requested to
and shall resign his seat. ” This probably marks the first attempt to
introduce effective party discipline, in the American sense of the
word, into the political life of Australasia. How necessary it was
to do so is shown by the experience of the new South Wales labor
party a year later. Nominations were made by a “ plebiscite” of the
unions, and the 3 candidates for membership of the upper house of the
colonial parliament thus presented by the Labor Council were all suc
cessful in the election of May, 1891. The following year 8 members
of the lower house were elected by the workingmen. The party is
said to have been somewhat weakened by the opposition to federation
that developed in its ranks in this colony. Since federation several of
its most active members have been transferred from the local to the
Commonwealth legislature. Therefore it is not as strong in the pres
ent as in the preceding state parliament, possessing but 1 of the 18
members of the upper house, and 6 of the 42 members of the popular
chamber. But at the recent election the party increased its Federal
delegation from 1 representative and 1 senator to 2 representatives
and 3 senators. In addition, 1 representative from an uncontested
electorate has since joined the labor party. In this election the labor
leaders claim to have won every seat which they contested. O f the
8 senatorial candidates running, the 3 labor men received an absolute
majority of votes. On$ interesting feature of the political labor
movement in this State is the effort being made to join hands with the
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
27
farmers in an attempt to secure socialistic legislation in the common
interest of these two sections o f the community. The labor party,
which was started as a purely metropolitan organization, is now revis
ing its constitution so as to make fuller provision for country branches
and take advantage of the state agricultural fair to hold conferences
with farmers and country delegates to settle on rules and platform.
The party already has 2 country representatives in the state parlia
ment, one standing for a mining, and the other, who is himself a fruit
grower, for a purely agricultural district. A labor leader in this State,
speaking of this new phase of his party’s propaganda, said: u W e find
that many farmers who denounce socialism roundly are realty social
ists so far as practical measures affecting themselves are concerned.”
The local legislation which has been enacted with the support of the
party has been: (a) free education up to a compulsory standard or up
to 13 years; (5) adult suffrage for the lower house of parliament;
(o) an additional land tax on property valued at over §24,330, and an
addition of 20 per cent to the tax upon lands owned by absentees;
(d) a* state bank; (e) a labor department, similar to our State employ
ment bureaus; (jf) a state produce export department, which receives,
refrigerates, stores, consigns, and collects for colonial produce sent to
the authorities for export; (g) workmen’s blocks, or sites for home
building, more fully described under the land laws; (h) a workmen’s
lien act; (i) a shop and factories act; (j) state inspection of steam
boilers; (k) an early-closing act; (l) an employers’ liability act, including
seamen under its benefits; (m) and an as yet ineffective conciliation and
arbitration act.
In New South Wales, also, the labor party went into politics in
1891, and a month after the South Australian unions returned their
first 3 workingmen members to the upper house the workers of the
mother colony sent 35 regular labor representatives to parliament,
and some ten or a dozen other members were elected who were pre
pared to support every plank of the labor platform. This platform
contained the following provisions:
1. Electoral reform, to provide for the abolition of plural voting;
the abolition o f money deposits in parliamentary elections; extension
o f the franchise to seamen, shearers, and general laborers by means
of a provision for the registration o f votes; extension of the franchise
to policemen and soldiers; abolition of the 6 months’ residential clause
as a qualification for the exercise of the franchise; single-member
electorates, and equal electoral districts, on adult population basis; all
parliamentary elections to be held on the one day, and that d&y to be a
public holiday; and all public houses to be closed during the hours of
polling. (Achieved.) 2. Free, compulsory, and technical education,
higher as well as elementary, to be extended to all alike. 3. Eight
hours to be the legal maximum working day in all occupations. (Since
modified by inserting the words u where practicable.” ) 4. A work
shops and factories act, to provide for the prohibition of the sweating
28
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
system, the supervision of land boilers and machinery, and the appoint
ment of representative workingmen as inspectors. (Partly accomplished,
with great advantage in many instances.) 5. Amendment of the mining
act, to provide for all applications for mineral leases being summarily
dealt with by the local wardens; the strict enforcement of better con
ditions on such leases; abolition of the leasing system on all new gold
fields; the right to mine on private property; greater protection to
persons engaged in the mining industry, and inspectors to hold certifi
cates of competency. (Partly achieved.) 6. Extension to seamen of the
benefits of the employers’ liability act. (Achieved.) 7. Repeal of the
masters and servants’ act and the agreements validating act. 8. Amend
ment of the masters and apprentices’ act and the trades union act.
(The latter part of this plank has been secured.) 9. Establishment of
a department of labor, a national bank, and a national system of water
conservation and irrigation. (The first part of the plank has been
secured, an advances to settlers board has laid the foundation of the
second, “ and the third is being gradually realized by a cumbersome
piecemeal system.” ) 10. Elective magistrates. 11. Local government
and decentralization; extension of the principle of the government as
an employer, through the medium of the local governing bodies; the
abolition of the present method of raising municipal revenue by the
taxation of improvements effected by labor. (The now famous daylabor policy is the outcome of this plank.) 12. The federation of the
Australasian colonies upon a national as opposed to an imperialistic
basis; the abolition of the present defense force, and the establishment
of the military system upon a purely voluntary basis. 13. The recog
nition in legislative enactments of the natural and inalienable rights of
the whole community to the land—upon which all must live, and from
which, by labor, all wealth is produced—by the taxation of that value
which accrues to land by the presence and needs of the community,
irrespective of improvements effected by human exertion, and the
absolute and indefensible right of property on the part of all Crown
tenants in improvements effected on these holdings. (Land value tax
ation and tenant right in improvement have been engrafted on the
statute book in a modified and generally satisfactory form.) 14. All
government contracts to be executed in the colony. 15. Stamping of
Chinese-made furniture. 16. Any measure that will secure for the
wage-earner a fair and equitable return for his or her labor. (A very
great number of such measures have been secured, such as compulsory
arbitration, early closing, etc.)
This party soon split on the fiscal issue, however, and until the
question of free trade and protection was wholly subordinated to dis
tinctively labor issues and to the principle of party loyalty there was
constant dissension. Four months after they were elected the 35 pio
neer members had divided themselves as evenly as possible between
the ministeralistsand the opposition, 17 voting on one side and 18 on the
other. In 1894 there were two labor parties in the field, but the
“ solidarity pledge,” by which every member binds himself to vote as
the party caucus may decide, had been introduced. The reorganized
party had secured 25 seats in a state assembly of 125 members by
1901, and they increased their strength to 25 members in a reduced
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
29
house of 90 members in the 1904 election. They have 4 represent
atives in the upper house.
. The party platform has not been materially modified in recent state
conventions, except that in 1904 a plank was inserted opposing public
borrowing except for redemption of loans, reproductive works, and
the completion of public works already under construction. Local
government and the nationalization of monopolies are favored. In
his policy speech the leader of the state party is quoted by the labor
press as saying that “ As time went on he might be in favor of a
measure similar to the arbitration act, dealing with all rents and com
modities, and fixing their prices, but he was not at present in favor of
such a measure.” The Federal delegation of the party consists of 7
representatives, an increase of one over the previous Parliament.
There are no labor senators from this State.
The party claims the credit for a goodly list of laws, which have
received its active support in Parliament, though these acts stand for
the work of all the progressive elements of the legislature of which
the labor members form but a fraction. Among these laws are:
1. A voluntary conciliation and arbitration act, passed in 1891.
2. The electoral act of 1893, which provided for single electorates and abolished
plural voting.
3. A labor settlements act, described under the land laws.
4. The land tax act of 1895— falling on unimproved values at the rate of Id. per
£ [xk cent per dollar], with an exemption up to $1,168.
5. The income tax of 1895 of 6d. per £ [2} cents per dollar], with an exemption up
to $973.
6. The police franchise act— giving votes to the police.
7. Two mining acts amendment acts, wThich lowered the charge for miners’ rights,
reduced the cost of occupation leases, and imposed labor conditions on all special
leases granted to lafidowners under the original act.
8. A workshops and factories act, which made registration imperative; provided for
periodical inspection; sanitation and ventilation; the fencing of dangerous machinery;
fixed meal hours; prevented the employment of children under 13, and permitted lads
under 16 and females to work 48 hours only.
9. The coal mines regulation act, which makes managerial daily inspection and
periodical inspection compulsory; insists on the appointment of certificated inspectors,
arbitration in disputes, coroner’ s inquiries on accidents, notices of abandonment, the
fencing of abandoned shafts, payment by weight, appointment of check weighers by
men, impulsion to the working face of not less than 100 feet of air in each minute for
each man, boy, and horse in each mine; prohibits the employment of women, and
boys under 14, and public-house payments, also single-shaft mines, and so on.
10. The selectors’ relief act.
11. Reappraisement of special areas.
12. The perpetual leasing act.
13. The navigation act amendment act— so mutilated by the council that its main
provision was one for the reduction of pilot fees.
14. The election act amendment acts of 1896, 1897, and 1898. These reduce the
period necessary to qualify for a transfer from one electorate to another from three
12425— No. 56— 05------3
30
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
months to one month, and make voting under an original right valid until a trans
ferred right is obtained; revision courts sit monthly instead of half-yearly; the hours
of polling are further lengthened, and the transmission of rights by post is per
mitted.
15. The exclusion of inferior races— this to be arrived at b y means of an educa
tional test.
16. An amendment to the navigation act in 1899, securing better accommodations
and safety appliances for seamen, and inspection.
17. The early closing act, which provides for the closing of all business premises
at 6 p. m. on four nights of the week, at 1 p. m. on one day, and at 10 p. m. on another
day.
18. The act to limit the attachment of wages, the exemption being up to $9.78
weekly.
19. The coal mines regulation act amendment act— to prevent novices working
alone in coal mines.
20. The truck act.
21. The coal lumpers’ baskets act.
22. The old-age pensions act of 1900, which provides for the payment of $2.43
weekly to adults of 65 years, resident in the State for 25 years prior to application
and not possessed of property exceeding the value of $1,460, or an income exceeding
$253.
23. The miners’ accident relief act of 1900, which provides for allowances in cases
of disablement; gives widows a funeral allowance of $58.46 and a weekly allowance
of $1.95, and $0.61 for each child under 14 years of age.
24. The city council amending act, which abolishes plural voting and gives the
lodger a vote.
25. The wharves resumption aet.
26. An act to amend the early closing act (1900), which made it applicable to all
country shopping districts proclaimed by the governor, where the hours of closing on
four days shall be 6 o’ clock, on one day 10 o’ clock, and on another (Wednesday or
Saturday) 1 o’ clock. This act made also 8 o’ clock on five nights and 10 o’clock on
the remaining night the hours for news agents and booksellers; limited the hours of
assistants employed in hotels, restaurants, and eating houses, of minors, of all bread,
meat, and milk carters, and fixed certain holidays for their use.'
27. The shearers’ accommodation act of 1901.
28. The miners’ accident relief amendment act of 1901, which brings under the
provisions of the main act all works in the neighborhood of mines where owners
may treat ore, coal, or shale; which provides for the selection of the committee of
inspection in the proportion of one government inspector, two miners’ representa
tives, and one mine owners’ representative; and which makes payable to the fund
b y every mine owner a sum equal to one-half the aggregate of the sums deducted
from the miners’ wages for the support of the fund, and makes compulsory weekly
payments to parents or unmarried sisters whose deceased brother supported them.
29. The industrial arbitration act of 1901, described more fully later; and (30), the
women’ s franchise act of 1902, which gives women the right to vote, but not to sit in
Parliament.
Victoria, like South Australia, had seen a number of men more or
less formally recognized as labor representatives sitting in its parlia
ment prior to the formation of a regular party organization. One of
the present labor members was first elected in 1889. For a time, how
ever, there was a struggle between the orthodox trade unionists and
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
31
the political wing of the workers, the last in turn divided into a mod
erate and a radical faction, as to whether they should retain the old or
adopt the new method of labor propaganda. When the workingmen
finally committed themselves to political agitation, it was through the
political council of the Trades Hall at first, and then through an organ
ization nominally independent of the unions, called the Progressive
Political League. In 1892 a number o f strictly labor members were
returned to the colonial parliament, marking the first success of the
newly adopted plan of campaign. But the independent political organ
izations of the workingmen always waned between elections, and the
burden o f resuscitating them before every campaign was felt to be an
inconvenience. In order to give more permanency and continuity to
the movement, unionism in the old sense, which had been supplemented,
but not supplanted, by the political branches, was brought into play.
However, politics were constantly clogging the unions’ business, and
interfering with the harmonious conduct of their regular work. So,
in 1900, an organization of the state party based upon unionism was
finally adopted, following lines that have already been described to
some extent in connection with the movement in South Australia, and
that are, in a general way, typical of the political machinery established
by the workingmen for party purposes throughout Australia. There
is a permanent Political Labor Council o f Victoria, distinct from the
Trades Hall Council. The former deals with political, and the latter
with trade union matters. The political council consists of delegates
from both unions and “ branches.” The branches enroll both unionists
and sympathizers, and are coterminous with the state electoral districts,
in both o f which respects they naturally differ from the trade unions.
Only the branches have the right to nominate candidates. The estab
lishment of Federal government has brought in some new and complex
conditions. The State of Victoria forms a single senatorial electorate,
and some of the Federal representative districts include two or three
state electorates. In determining nominees for the senate, the branches
and unions alike have the right to present names of candidates to the
political council, whieh prints ballots containing the names so pre
sented to be distributed to the individual members. The nominees
polling the highest number of votes then become regular party candi
dates upon pledging themselves in writing to support the platform of
the party and to pay 5 per cent of their salaries into the political fund.
Nominations are made in Federal representative districts by the joint
action of the constituent branches. The Political Labor Council is
therefore the party machine. It not only decides upon candidates to
some extent, subject to the will of the party at large, but it determines
what seats to contest—i. e., in what districts it is worth while to pre
sent candidates—what literature shall be issued, what speakers sent
32
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
out, and finances the campaign. In other words, it is almost identical
in its functions with the state central committees of either of our polit
ical parties in the United States. Victoria, however, with its rela
tively large farming population opposed to the labor party, is not a
favorable field for the political action of the workingmen. Neverthe
less, at the recent election they increased their state delegation from 11
representatives in a lower house of 95 members to 19 representatives
in a reduced house of 68 members, besides electing, for the first time,
2 of the 35 legislative councilors. In the Federal Parliament the
labor party has one senator and two representatives. As a result of
its activity the old opposition party in Victoria has practically disap
peared, and the only division of importance in parliamentary forces is
that separating ministerialists from laborists.
The political labor movement in Queensland until recently possessed
the unique aspect of combining the two old parties in solid opposition
to its demands. This situation was changed in the autumn of 1903,
by a parliamentary crisis over taxation measures that brought a coali
tion ministry containing two labor members into power. Conservative
forces have been very strong in Queensland. Not only are the pas
toral interests large, but the sugar industry is a powerful employer of
alien labor. Manufacturing is but slightly developed, and the towns,
being chiefly commercial distributing centers, are in sympathy with
employing interests to a larger extent than the industrial cities of the
south. In many districts, however, in spite of a restricted franchise,
the bush and mining unions control the political situation. The first
regular labor member of parliament was elected in 1892. At the state
election of. 1904 the party increased its delegation from 23 to 34 mem
bers in an assembly of 72 members. It had no representative in the
upper chamber, which is an appointive body, the members holding
office for life. Five of the 6 senators representing Queensland in the
Federal Parliament are labor men, and their delegation in the lower
house is 6, indicating that the party controls a majority of the popular
vote of the State.
Until the mining discoveries of the early nineties, Western Australia
was a remote, sparsely settled, undeveloped tract of country, with a
population outside the small port towns as bucolic as the Boers, and
conservative institutions that had hardly felt the touch of modern
progress. With the inflow of a large mining population, however,
the pressure of democratic interests for political reforms became very
great. Constitutional government dates only from 1890, and the
upper house of parliament has been elective since 1893. So the whole
political history of the colony under liberal institutions is contempo
raneous with the presence of an organized labor party in Australia. A
trades council was formed in Perth in 1892, and a year later a •; P ro
gressive Political League ” appeared on the scene in the same city.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
33
As a large percentage of the immigrants were from the eastern
colonies, it was natural that they should bring in the organizations
and the theories of social betterment prevailing on the other side of
the continent.
It was not until the Federal elections came up, however, that pledged
labor members appeared in the state parliament. The workingmen
had favored federation, against the opposition of the old residents, and
profited by its success. The organization of the party hitherto has
been less perfect than in the eastern states, and two independent
political leagues have existed, one in the gold fields and one in the
coastal districts. At the 1904 election the party increased its delega
tion from 7 to 22 of the 50 members of the lower house, besides having
2 representatives in the upper chamber. As a result of a cabinet
crisis in August, 1904, a labor ministry came into power. Their policy
has proved very conservative, so as to evoke considerable criticism
within their own party. One constitutional amendment proposed by
the premier, in accordance with the first plank of the state platform,
is to submit to a referendum the question of the abolition of the upper
house of the local parliament. It is also proposed to initiate legisla
tion looking to the gradual realization of the ideals of the party as
outlined in the remaining planks of the platform, but to do this so grad
ually as not to disturb existing conditions. The fighting platform of
the party, which thus becomes the practical programme of a ministry
in power, is as follows: (1) Referendum on the question of the abolition
of the legislative council; (2) tax on unimproved land values, and no
further alienation of Crown lands; (3) old-age pensions; (4) a maxi
mum day of eight hours; (5) local control and state management of the
liquor traffic; (6) departmental construction of public works; (7)
nationalization of monopolies and the establishment of a department
of labor; (8) state banking and insurance; (9) limitation of state bor
rowing except for the purpose of reproductive works, and the estab
lishment of a sinking fund for the redemption of all future loans.
Among the legislative acts already secured by the labor party from
previous ministries are a compulsory conciliation and arbitration law,
a workingmen’s compensation for accidents statute, and a factories’ act.
Tasmania is the most rural and the least progressive—from a labor
point of view—of the 6 States of the Commonwealth. The “ cocky”
or “ cockatoo” — Australian for “ hayseed” —is in both industrial and
political control. A Workers’ Political League has been organized
recently in Hobart, and the coastal mining districts have 5 members in
the local parliament. The labor movement in this island, however, is
said to be but a feeble reaction induced by the more vigorous agitation
on the mainland. It has not manifested itself as a factor in shaping
legislation.
34
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
In Federal politics the labor party has exercised even a more domi
nant influence than in state legislation. Franchise conditions, more
efficient party organization and discipline, and a greater unity and
definiteness of aim have favored its success in this field. During the
first two Commonwealth ministries it allied itself with the protection
ists, maintaining the leaders of that party in power for a price—which
price was obedience to the behests of the laborists in matters of indus
trial legislation. In April, 1904, when the protectionist cabinet failed
to agree with its labor coadjutors upon details of the Federal concilia
tion and arbitration bill, that party was thrown out of power and a
strictly labor ministry took the reins of government. This ministry
held office until August, when a coalition of protectionists and free
traders defeated the labor premier on a question of detail in the same
bill. So at the present time there are, to all intents and purposes, a
government and a labor party, the latter constituting the real opposi
tion. The two old parties have been forced into an unwilling alliance
that, despite their ancient antagonisms and still divergent views upon
the fiscal question, seems likely to remain permanent. It groups
together what are upon the whole the least discordant interests, and
defines the true line of party cleavage upon the most important issues
before the people. Socialism looms larger and larger as the one dis
tinctive issue of modern Australian polities, and therefore determines
party alignment.
Nevertheless, even the conservative forces in Parliament are strongly
affected with what would be considered in most countries radical s}7mpathies. The coalition formed to fight the labor party gave chief
place in its programme to compulsory conciliation and arbitration o f
industrial disputes enforced by Federal statute, and a Federal old-age
pension system. Indeed, when the coalition leaders and the labor
ministry announced their respective policies in Parliament, immediately
after the recess following the retirement of the protectionist cabinet,
the essential features of both were so strikingly alike that a smile o f
amusement passed over the faces of the assembled legislators. The
present division between the two parties is not defined so much by
practical legislative proposals as by their ultimate aims and the funda
mental social ideals and principles underlying the measures they
respectively advocate.
The growing strength of the labor party in both state and Federal
parliaments is shown in the following table, which is compiled from
returns as late as August, 1904. On account of a reduction of mem
bership in two legislative chambers, percentages as well as actual
numbers are given. In South Australia and Tasmania no general
election took place in 1904.
85
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
MEMBERSHIP OF UPPER AND LOWER HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT OF EACH STATE AND OF
THE COMMONWEALTH AND NUMBER AND PER CENT OF LABOR MEMBERS, 1903 AND
Lower house.
Upper house.
Total
members.
Labor members*
Parliament.
Number.
1903.. 1904.,
Per cent of
total.
Total
members. 1
Number;
’ 19031. 1904..
1903. 1904. 1903. 1904
Commonwealth.................
New South Wales..............
Queensland........................
South A u s t r a li a .............. ........
'Fa.smfl.wia:
...................................
Victoria...............................
Western Australia............
36
58 .
3918
18
35
39-
36
58
3918*
18
35
30
a
4 ,
2
16 ’ 22.2
6.9
4
1
2
("•)
44.4
6.9
11.1 i 5.6
1
6.7
1 5.7
(«)
Labor members*
Per cent of
■ total.
19031 1904. 1903. 1904.
75
125
72
42,
35
95
50
75
90.
72
42
35
68
50
14
24
23
5
5
11
7 s
22
25
34
6
5
19
22
18.7 • 29.3
19.2
27.8
31. 9’ 47.2
11.9
14,.3
14. 3: 14.3
11.6
27.9
14. 0- 44.0
« Not reported.
In adopting a regular platform the Labor party made a long step
toward the system o f political organization in vogue in the United
States; and one of the most interesting features of political evolution
in Australasia to-day* for an American observer, is the gradual trend
to what we might call scientific politics-—toward party tactics and
strategy, and methods of organization similar to those called forth by
the practical exigencies o f our own political life. The “ solidarity
pledge’* is simply a reinvention of our caucus system; the scheme of
branch organizations, is simply another version o f our precinct com
mittees and primaries; the political council is, as already suggested,
but a state central committee under another name, and the formal
platform, with its truly formidable array o f planks,, is a structure
designed upon quite American principles. Indeed the writer found
an old American political organizer working on the labor committees
in Melbourne, and professedly following out the American system in
many points o f party tactics. The platform itself is the product of
a gradual evolution of opinion among the workingmen and their
leaders^ and is becoming an outspoken indorsement of state socialism.
In the early conventions every man brought forward his pet scheme
for reforming soeidy, and in the interest of peace usually secured
some recognition of his views in the official programme o f the party.
But this led sometimes to platforms o f great length and inharmonious
composition, large portions of which were not taken very seriously
by the voters, and thus the moral advantage of a formal enunciation
of party principles was lost. The custom therefore grew up of put
ting forward the main issues indorsed by the party as a “ fighting
platform,’* adding a more or less extensive “ general platform’*—com
posed of resolutions adopted in the interest of harmony, to placate the
inevitable crank element o f the conventions, or of planks having only
local or secondary significance. O f course many of the early planks
36
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
have been dropped from time to time as legislation has been enacted
embodying their main principles.
In 1902, eleven years after the last of the old intercolonial congresses
had been held at Ballarat, a Commonwealth Trade Union Congress
assembled at Sydney. The change in the programme, opinions, methods
of propaganda, and economic theories of the delegates from those of
the earlier conferences amounted to a revolution. The congress of
1902 was really the national convention of a social-democratic party,
announcing principles parallel with or more radical than those of
European organizations. Great changes had taken place meantime in
the political and social conditions of Australia. As the secretary of
the congress says in his introduction to the proceedings:
During the 11 years which have elapsed since the last con
ference the whole character of the industrial movement in Australia
has been changed. The old prejudices which divided the workers of
the different States and made a federation of labor impracticable are
now happily removed. The fiscal question is now a relic of the dead
past; interstate jealousies are nonexistent; and to-day labor has direct
representation in every parliament in Australia—an achievement due
in a great measure to the persistent advocacy of the representatives
of labor in conference assembled.
A third of the 21 delegates assembled were members of federal or
state parliaments. All of the States of the Commonwealth except Tas
mania were represented. The proceedings give evidence of consider
able advance in political education and independent thinking over the
earlier congresses. Motions are less.of ten adopted unanimously, and
are frequently amended. Glittering generality and social panacea
resolutions find little favor. It was moved and carried to drop from
the agenda without discussion a motion to the effect: “ That the people
should own all the means of production, distribution, and exchange,
thereby reducing the hours of labor in proportion to the commodity
as produced.” After some discussion and amendment a motion was
carried recommending the nationalization of coal mines. It was also
resolved that the iron industry, still undeveloped in Australia, ought
to be nationalized instead of being allowed to fall into the hands of
private companies. And against some opposition, apparently on moral
grounds, a motion was passed in favor of nationalizing the liquor
traffic. This was the extent of the nationalization resolutions adopted
by the congress. It will be noticed that no mention was explicitly
made of government resumption of land values. Measures were taken
to organize a national federation of trade unions. It was also proposed
to abolish the royal governors, with their high salaries and expensive
support allowances, in the different States, retaining only a Federal
Governor-General. The congress was favorable to cooperation, and
desired an extension of technical education. The following political
platform was adopted.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
37
F IG H T IN G PLATFORM .
1—
M a in t e n a n c e of a W h ite A u stralia .
2—
C ompulsory A rbitration .
3—
O ld A ge P ensions .
4—
5—
N a t io n a liza tio n of M onopolies .
6—
R estriction of P ublic B orrow ing .
7—
N a v ig a t io n L a w s .
C itizen D efense F orce .
G E N E R A L PLATFORM .
1. Maintenance of a W hite Australia.
2. Compulsory arbitratian to settle industrial disputes, with provision for the ex
clusion of the legal profession.
3. Old age pensions.
4. Nationalization of monopolies.
5. Citizen military force and Australian owned navy.
6. Restriction of public borrowing.
7. Navigation laws to provide (a) for the protection of Australian shipping against
unfair competition; (6) registration of all vessels engaged in the coastal trade; (c)
the efficient manning of vessels; ( d ) the proper supply of life-saving and other
equipment; ( e ) the regulation of hours and conditions of work; ( / ) proper accom
modation for passengers and seamen; ( g) proper loading gear and inspection of same.
8. Commonwealth bank of deposit and issue and life and fire insurance depart
ment, the management of each to be free from political influence.
9. Federal patent law, providing for simplifying and cheapening the registration
of patents.
10. Uniform industrial legislation; amendment of constitution to provide for same.
Political labor propaganda naturally begets political opposition from
the employing classes, and there are several strong organizations in
Australia that, although they do not operate as independent parties,
throw their influence into the political struggle. The Victorian
Employers’ Federation is one of these. It is a permanent organiza
tion, with salaried officials and a campaign fund, and makes a business
of bringing political influence to bear, both in elections and during the
sessions of parliament, to prevent legislation hostile to employing
interests. There are similar associations in other States. The Pastoralists’ Union, a strong organization that was existing prior to the
organization of the Labor party, represents a single class of property
owners and emploj^ers. In Sydney there is a 64Taxpayers’ Union,”
apparently opposed to any increase of direct taxation, especially upon
land values, and hostile to labor legislation. Queensland has an
organization representing similar interests, known as the 44National
Liberal Association.” The chambers of mines and of commerce in
Western Australia are actively opposed to the Labor party. A number
of these societies have come together in a more or less informal alli
ance under the auspices of the Australasian National League, which
has a more professedly political purpose than any of the other bodies
mentioned. The league was founded originally in South Australia,
and while by no means representing as effective a political movement
38
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OE LABOR.
as the Labor party in the matter of organization and discipline, pos
sesses considerable influence, e sp ^ ’°lly in the local parliaments. It
indorses the following simple platform, apparently with the purpose
of conciliating the support of all the older, more conservative, but
somewhat nebulous party organizations:
1. To promote economy in public expenditure.
2. To oppose government borrowings on any but clearly reproduc
tive works.
3. To oppose government interference with private enterprise.
4. To resist the nationalization of industries and manufactures, and
also of land by excessive taxation..
5. To oppose undue domination in parliament of the labor or any
other party which has extreme socialism as its object.
6. To support legislation promoting the development of agricul
tural, pastoral, mining, manufacturings commercial, and industrial
mrsuits by private enterprise, and t o protect them from harassing
egislation and taxation.
{
More recently the same platform has been taken up by the Central
Council of the Employers of Australia,, an organization represent
ing the Employers’ Federation of New South Wales, the Victorian
Employers’ Federation, the Federated Employers?" Union o f Queens
land, the Federated Employers’ Council o f South Australia, and the
Western Australian Chamber of Mines. This council held a Com
monwealth conference at Sydney early in March, 1904y. and among
other things drew up a formal protest against the passage of a Federal
conciliation and arbitration act. The annual conferences of the cham
bers of commerce and o f the chambers of manufactures of Australia
also serve as foci of opposition to the labor party, or at least to many
of the measures upon its programme. The various state farmers’ con
ferences have been less successfully used for this purpose.
Notwithstanding these attempts at forming a united opposition to
socialistic and political labor propaganda in Australia, the labor party
has greatly profited by the weakness of its opponents in both political
and industrial organizing power. Employers, naturally competitors
with each other and with mutually opposed interests, do not easily
unite and lack discipline in collective action. The older political par
ties have hitherto been divided on traditional tariff lines, and to a con
siderable extent by interstate jealousies and apparently by questions
of purely personal leadership. The labor party is like a small regular
army opposed to a large and disorganized body of half-drilled militia.
The daily press o f Australia, is almost without exception arrayed on
the side o f the opponents o f labor, apparently without affecting the
political situation materially in either direction.
The Victorian
Employers’ Federation publishes a monthly periodical called u Lib
erty and Progress,” devoted to combatting socialism and political
labor agitation* The monthly report of the Chamber o f Mines of
LABOR CONDITIONS IN
AUSTRALIA.
39
Western Australia and the various trade journals published in the Com
monwealth are also sources for adverse current commentaries and
criticism of labor measures and administration. The labor press of
Australia is represented by a number o f trade-union periodicals, such
•as the Waterside Workers’ Gazette, of Sj'dney; the Australasian
Typographical Journal, of Melbourne;, the organs of the various
state railway employees’ associations, and by weekly papers of more
general character, such as The Worker, of Brisbane; The Worker, in
Sydney; The Tocsin, in Melbourne; The Herald, in Adelaide; The
Democrat, in Perth, and The Worker, in Kalgoorlie. A short-lived
labor daily in Melbourne expired recently, it is reported, as a result
of a libel suit. Other dailies are said to be projected in Sydney and
in Adelaide.
The trade-union movement has not been supplanted by the organiza
tion of a labor party. In fact, the unions form the skeleton of that
party, which is clothed with a flesh of unorganized political adherents.
But trade unionism has been profoundly modified by the relative prom
inence attained by politics in the labor movement. The unions are
seldom benefit organizations and close corporations. They dropped
the policy of exclusiveness in most instances when they began to work
for votes. . Low fees and liberal membership conditions naturally fol
low the emphasis given by these societies to the quality of political
power. Strict trade distinctions show a tendency to become obliter
ated. Allied occupations are included in the same society, as in the
Australian Workers’ Union, which enrolls ail classes of ranch hands
and even country storekeepers, and the Australian Workers’ Associa
tion in Western Australia. Umans of unskilled labor attain relatively
greater prominence. Political supplants trade discipline as the main
motive of their existence. One of the rules o f the Workers’ Union
imposed a fine of $14.60 upon an3r member who works or votes against
a member of the labor party.
However, the strictly trade-union spirit continues to exist, and is,
perhaps, reviving after a period of partial eclipse. A labor writer
recently said, in reviewing the movement for the past ten years: “ For
a time there was a tendency to decry unduly the industrial and to exalt
the political weapon. That has passed. Experience has shown each
to be necessary, and equally necessary.”
Neither has the entry of labor into politics done away with strikes as
a resort in industrial disputes. Such difficulties are still occurring.
One of the moat notable o f recent years was the Victorian railway
employees’ strike in May, 1903. The same year there were mining
strikes in progress in both Victoria and Tasmania, the former a pro
tracted and bitter struggle, attended by more or less violence, by the
dynamiting of a private residence and other destruction of property.
40
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The ideal of the labor party, however, is compulsory state arbitra
tion of disputes, tending to state regulation of industry. The growth
and dominance of this sentiment dates from the strike failures of
1890-1894, and, unlike England and America, finds some support
among the more exclusive unions of skilled employees. These bodies
have never been compelled to have recourse to strike measures to the
same extent as the great unions of the other countries and do not
possess the same complete control of the industrial situation and the
same powers of economic compulsion. But they have been involved
in the difficulties of the great unskilled unions and organizations of
Australia, which, as is natural in a country producing chiefly raw mate
rials, constitute a large proportion of the workers’ societies. The funds
of the conservative unions have been called upon to support these
strikes, they have seen the control and administration of these conflicts
pass into the hands of other parties, and have known them to fail in
almost every instance. Therefore considerations of self-interest have
much to do with the attitude of the older organizations toward arbi
tration laws.
The projects and aims of the labor party are not fully expressed
by the comparatively modest enunciation of principles contained in
its platform. The Melbourne Trades Hall has been conducting a
formally socialistic propaganda in Victoria, and has employed Mr.
Tom Mann, the English socialist, as a salaried organizer for this
purpose. However, political responsibilities and the atmosphere of
office breed conservatism, and the programmes and policies of the par
liamentary leaders Of the party are far from satisfying a certain wing
of doctrinaire reformers. ^ The Australian Socialists’ League opposes
compulsory arbitration,* for instance, as simply fastening firmer the
wage system upon society, and at its last federal conference thought
it necessary formally to repudiate the “ alleged socialistic legislation
of the last 10 years, which had in no way altered the economic condi
tion of the worker, and the politicians who were labelled falsely as
socialists.” Mr. Tom Mann advocates substituting the name socialist
for labor party and has gone so far in his criticisms, implied or overt,
of the present labor programme that a slight coolness is apparent in the
attitude of several of the political leaders toward him. At the last
state conference of the party in New South Wales, Mr. Watson, leader
of the party in the Federal Parliament and more recently prime minis
ter, is quoted as saying that he recognized that nothing short of social
ism would do away with the ever-recurring difficulty (of unem
ployment), but he feared there was no probability of inducing the
people to accept that proposal in our time. The time was not ripe
and the people were not ready for such a proposal. When premier
the ^ame leader said: “ W e are not pledged in any way to the
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.^
41
views of continental socialists. W e believe in the underlying princi
ple of socialism, certainly, but we ask the people of Australia to judge
us by our immediate and practical proposals.” Later, in defining his
policy as prime minister, he said: “ As to any general extension of
government ownership, it is not contemplated. We recognize as
clearly as any set of men can recognize that you must proceed very
steadily in a matter of that sort, otherwise the system will break
down. You run the danger of finding yourself short of those cap
tains of industry who are so necessary to carry out enterprises on a
commercial basis. Personally I do not contemplate the establishment
of any of these adjuncts of government without divorcing them abso
lutely from political control.” Upon the plank stating the nationali
zation programme of his party, he said:
It is a declaration of principle, as affecting the attitude of the party
toward well-defined crises that may occur. It is not contended for a
moment that it is possible for a long time to come. You can say if you
like that a complete system of nationalization is an aspiration. Members
of the party are fully of the opinion that it would be a good thing,
but none of them contemplate the early realization of that ideal. I
certainly say that in the present state of human nature, if you attempted
to apply collective ownership all round you would find the scheme
would break down. Those of us who believe that some day it will be
practicable, can only look forward to the gradual .evolution of society to
render possible its being effected. If to-morrow the labor party of
any of these States were in power with an overwhelming majority, there
would be no attempt on its part to assume governmental control of all
industries. As to land nationalization, we are in favor of leasing land
instead of selling it. I understand the practical attitude would be to
cease selling land that may still belong to the state. There ought to
be a Federal national bank, Federal life and fire insurance, and if it be
deemed necessary to develop the iron industry, it would be wise for
the State to undertake that also. The present tobacco monopoly is a
good example of the kind we propose to nationalize under the Federal
programme.
A labor senator thought the attainment of the objects of land
nationalization was possible through taxing unimproved values.
Another senator said: “ The old absurd phrase, 4a general division
of property on Saturday night and a fresh start Monday morning5
is simply laughed at by labor members. No, the majority of mem
bers are only prepared, in carrying out our platform, to go to the
extent of nationalizing such services as are dangerous to the com
munity if held in private hands.” Another said: “ I don’t want it
to appear that I think government control impracticable, for we have
in various parts of the world illustrations of successful nationalization.
Tobacco, drink, and matches have been made government monopolies.
The gibe about a man’s losing his cottage if the labor party obtain
power is simply ridiculous, and, like the suggestion of a general
42
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
divide, too silly to be talked about.” Another senator believed in the
nationalization of an industry as soon as competition had been elimi
nated; that is to say, as soon as an industry had become a monopoly.
A member of the labor cabinet said: “ I favor the extension of state
and municipal control to spheres of industry where there is reasonable
ground for believing such intervention will be commercially or socially
advantageous to the whole community. I do not wholly accept the
maxim, 6From every man according to. his ability, to every man
according to his needs.’ Human nature must be recast before the
formula will fit. •No sudden inversion of social habits is likely to be
permanent. The change which is to survive must be gradually effected.
1 believe rational socialism suffers from those visionaries who preach
interference by the State in family life. The State should seek to
strengthen, instead of weaken, the parental instinct—the desire of
every man to do the best for his children, consistent with the equal
rights of others.” These opinions, coming in practically every instance
from wwking people, men who have supported themselves by manual
labor until they entered Parliament, suggest a grasp upon real life
of which many ex cathedra and doctrinaire socialists are innocent. A
fair share of Anglo-Saxon common sense, and a wholesome distrust of
theories characterized many of the men interviewed. It was as if they
were ashamed of being connected with a movement that had so many
visionary associations, and wished to justify their status as practical
men by having to do only with the concrete side of their party pro
gramme. Their political councils are as free from the long-haired
element as those of any other party, their debates are without senti
mental coloring, and their enthusiasm is the same kind of joy in combat
that characterizes our own electoral campaigns.
Yet there is an idealistic element in the Australasian labor movement
that gives it a certain degree of moral force. Its aims are not sordid,
or even inspired wholly by material ends; but rather it contains a tinc
ture of sentiment verging at times and with some leaders almost upon
the confines of religious enthusiasm. _ Nor is the movement itself
irreligious. Speaking of Christianity, a rather poetical labor editor
writes: u Its power of appeal to the poor and the outcast and the
oppressed is gone. * * * But far away in- Nazareth, back across
nineteen centuries of time, the clear, transparent spring still gushes
forth from the ground. And modern economic science, wending its
way slowly through the wilderness in its search after Truth, stands a
moment by the fountain and sees with surprise its face reflected therein. ”
Mr. Tom Mann intersperses his socialist speeches with scripture quo
tations, and delivers a “ pleasant Sunday afternoon” address on
a socialism and Christianity.” The Trades Hall of Melbourne recently
had a conference with the churches of that city. One of the labor
representatives at this meeting said: u 1 am a Methodist and a qualified
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
43
lay preacher of the Methodist Church.” Leaders of this possibly
most socialistic of Australian trade organizations frequently reverted
in conversation to what they considered to be the ethical aspects of
socialism, to its appeal to the unselfish instincts and to the fraternal
sentiment among men, as contrasted with the selfish instincts, the
u antisocial self-gain mania” induced by modern competition. One of
the most prominent union officials made this statement: “ Socialism is
Christ’s teaching.” The same man said: “ Thrift is sometimes rob
bery—if it deprives a man of his better nature or his children o f an
education.” There is no doubt that a sort of moral sympathy con
ciliated by the labor party from all elements of the community has
enabled its parliamentary representatives to secure so much quasisocialistic legislation. They have been carried along to some extent
upon a wave o f sentiment agitating all ranks o f society. And it would
appear that the final limitations of this movement, or its rate of pro
gress, would be dependent upon the degree and the continuity of this
extraparlisan support.
THE LABO R PROGRAMME IN PROCESS OF REALIZATION.
Upon reviewing the federal platform of the labor party as given on a
previous page, there are brought into view in succession a number of
questions that, both on account of their historical and their present sig
nificance, are important factors in the labor conditions and legislation
of the commonwealth.
The “ Maintenance of a White Australia” involves rather more for
that country than does our Chinese exclusion policy for America. The
island continent is almost an appendage of Asia, and it is set down in
the vicinity of a host of insular associates, the Polynesian groups and
the East Indies. The Commonwealth is embraced in an Imperial con
nection with the cooly multitudes of British India. And it possesses
large tracts of strictly tropical country, with the hot, humid climate,
the rank vegetation, the diseases and other drawbacks, and with the
special agricultural capabilities of the Torrid Zone. The question,
therefore, naturally falls into three divisions; Chinese exclusion, introimperial exclusion—both of which are essentially Commonwealth
questions—and plantation-labor exclusion, which affects chiefly and
directly certain industries of Queensland.
The Chinese question has developed special aspects in Australia of
more or less direct interest to Americans. In addition to becoming
agricultural laborers in the cane fields, market gardeners, and miners,
they became manufacturers of the cheaper class of furniture under a
sweat-shop system, and depressed the condition of white workers in this
industry. The urban competition of the Chinese was more severely
felt in Australia than in California, because there was not, as in the case
44
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
of California, a rapidly-growing market and a demand for labor nor
mally in excess of supply. And the situation was not as promptly and
as drastically met by remedial legislation.
The Chinese began to arrive in Australia in numbers at the time of
the gold excitement, 50 years ago, and their presence was first felt as
a menace to white labor in Victoria. An act was passed in that
colony in 1854 limiting the number of Chinese to be brought into
the country to one for every 10 tons of a vessel’s burden. Amending
acts were passed in 1855 and 1861 increasing this restriction. By
1861 there were 12,988 Chinese in New South Wales and 24,732 in
Victoria, at which time they constituted over 11 per cent of the adult
male population of those colonies. They shifted hither and thither
with the discovery of new gold fields, and when the exhaustion of the
placer diggings overstocked the labor market with miners thrown out
of employment, their presence was keenly resented. In the year men
tioned there was serious rioting in the New South Wales fields, calling
for the intervention of the military. A t the following session of par
liament a law was passed in that colony, practically identical with the
amended Victorian law upon the subject, providing that only one
Chinese passenger should be brought to the colony for every 10 tons
of a vessel’s burden, and for a payment of a tax of <£10 ($48.67) by
every Chinese before being allowed to land. An annual tax of £4
($19.47) per capita was imposed upon Chinese residents, and they were
not permitted to become citizens of the colony. This act was further
amended in 1881, but it was so far ineffective that in 1887 no fewer than
4,436 Chinese entered New South Wales by sea alone. In May, 1888,
two vessels containing a large number of Chinese immigrants arrived at
Sydney, but the premier refused them permission to land. The
supreme court, however, overruled his decision and they were finally
allowed to enter the countn^. As a result of this incident a more
stringent enactment was passed, limiting the number to be brought by
any vessel to one for every 300 tons of burden, imposing a landing
tax of £100 ($486.65), prohibiting Chinese from engaging in mining
without a special permit from the minister of mines, and forbidding
their naturalization. Queensland passed a restrictive act in 1878, at
which time there were over 18,000 Chinese in that colony. The other
colonies enacted anti-Chinese legislation upon similar lines, in some
places increasing their special disabilities. A Federal immigration law
has recently been placed upon the statute books which supplements
state legislation upon the subject and largely meets the wishes of the
labor party. This act excludes, with certain unimportant exemptions,
any person who can not write out and sign, from dictation by a customs
inspector, a passage of 50 words in some European language.
Although the economic effects of the competition of Chinese labor
are most evident in Melbourne and Sydney, these people constitute a
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
45
relatively more important element of the population in the tropical
territory of north Queensland. While they engage to some extent in
ordinary plantation labor in the latter country, and are employ ed as
general laborers, the laws of the State prevent their being employed
as miners or upon public works, such as railways construction. They
occupy themselves chiefly7 as independent cultivators, especially as
lessees of land which they take for a term of years to clear and till,
after which they turn it over to the owner in good shape for handling
by white men. It is as pioneers and bush clearers of this sort that
they are chiefly appreciated by the owner of tropical lands in Australia.
The crop to which they devote themselves principally is bananas, and
they largely^ control both the production and the distribution of this
fruit in the Commonwealth, dealing with wholesalers among their
own countrymen in the southern cities, and thus maintaining the trade
in their own hands. In the larger towns they are also taking up what
is one of their favorite occupations in the Hawaiian Islands, the
grocery business, though this is as y7et a new departure in Australia.
The last report of the chief inspector of factories of New South Wales
states that there are about 70 Chinese groceries in Sydney. Until
recently.they have not engaged in laundry work, but now their signs
are numerous in all the Australian cities. It is in the furniture trade,
however, that their competition has been most severely felt by urban
workmen. There is a large district in Melbourne principally devoted
to this business, and the same is true to a less degree in Sydney".
According to the evidence given before the shops and factories com
mission of South Australia, in 1892, the same competition existed to
some extent in Adelaide at that date. The second progress report of
the factories act inquiry board of Victoria, rendered in 1894, is devoted
largely to this aspect of Chinese labor. It was shown that where 10
years before the cabinetmakers’ union had 200 members employed,
there were at the date mentioned only 15 members at work. In 1880
the total number of Chinese carpenters and cabinetmakers in Melbourne
was given, in a special return made to the premier, as 66. In 1889
there were 45 Chinese furniture factories in operation, employing 584
hands. The Orientals, like the European workmen, suffered from the
collapse of the boom in 1898. When the report was made, however,
a year after that event, the chief inspector of factories reported 228
Chinese as engaged in the trade.
The history of this competition shows from what slight and almost
accidental beginnings an industrial condition affecting the prosperity
of a whole line of manufacturing and the welfare of a considerable
body7 of workmen may arise. The Chinese began woodworking in
Australia by making boxes for their countrymen for sending gold to
China during the early digging period. When this employment
12425— No. 56— 05----- 4
46
BULLETIN OF THE BUEEAU OF LABOR.
ceased, they began to make common chairs, which they hawked about
the colony for sale. Then they made cheap washstands and toilet
tables, and the commoner grade of bedroom furniture. Evidently the
immigrants who took up this occupation did not belong to the more
skilled class of workmen of their own country; for they are said not to
have known the art of dovetailing and mortising, and to have produced
work of an inferior character, fastened together by the aid of nails and
glue. They copied the design, rather than the construction of the
better class of European work, and thus were able to supply an article
presentable enough so far as outside appearance went, but wholly
without workmanship and durability. These goods were sold as
European wares by the dealers. It was maintained by merchants that
stamping articles, or requiring them to be sold under a Chinese label,
would do little to remedy the situation. One dealer stated in the
evidence: “ If there is a difference of 5 per cent they (customers) take
the Chinese article. 1 carry on a large business, and that has been my
experience right through, both as a master and as a salesman. The
price is the ruling element. As to patriotism, there is nothing at all
in it as to selling furniture; it is ‘ pocketism.’ ” However, the Chinese
overcompeted among themselves, and, as stated, suffered writh the
others during the financial crash. They had formed their own unions,
and in 1893 struck against a 20 per cent reduction in wages, going
back to work finally at a 7 per cent reduction. The effect of their
competition was to reduce the wages of European workmen below a liv
ing standard. Indeed, several Europeans were working for Chinese
employers. The Chinese generally had half-caste apprentices, whom
they used as interpreters, paying them 9s. ($2.19) a week, with a slight
increase after long service. Europeans engaged in furniture making
were able to earn from 20s. to 30s. ($4.87 to $7.30) a week at piece
work. Wardrobes that were reckoned at 8 days’ work of 9 hours a
day, were made for 27s. 6d. ($6.69). The price of making a Kauri
(hard pine) extension table, 6 feet by 3 feet 6 inches, and staining in
imitation of black walnut, had gradually been reduced from 15s. to 6s.
($3.65 to $1.46). The board which presented this report recommended
strict factory and sanitary supervision of the Chinese; a legal maximum
of 48 hours per week; that every place in which one or more Chinese
wus engaged in manufacturing for sale should be regarded as a factor}^,
and that the furniture be stamped with the name of the maker in such
a way as to shorv whether it wTas the work of Chinese or European
mechanics. These recommendations became law in practically the
form presented, and the provision including any place where a single
Chinaman is employed under factory supervision has been generally
enforced by statute throughout Australia.
An objection to the Chinese worker that becomes especially
strong in a country like Australia, where there is much state regula
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
47
tion of industry, is the facility with which lie manages to evade factory
laws and regulations and to elude the surveillance of inspectors. The
furniture makers of Victoria are now under a minimum wage deter
mination established by a government board under the factories act,
but the inspector reports that the Chinese commonly work “ at times
prohibited and at rates below those fixed. ” In a report of the New
South Wales Royal Commission, which investigated the working of
the Victorian factories act and minimum wage board system in 1901,
it is stated that “ to stop this, unless there be an inspector to each
man, seems improbable. The consequence of the Chinese and other
(slow worker) competition is that factories where the cheaper kind of
furniture is made are in a bad way.” The Victorian Royal Commis
sion of 1902 says: “ Hitherto no method has been devised of effectively
controlling these people and of compelling them to observe either
factor3r or sanitary laws. The solitary worker, especially, in both
these trades (furniture and laundry) defies the law with the quiet per
tinacity which is characteristic of his race, and an occasional prosecu
tion has utterly failed to make him observe it.” The same indirect
evasion of the shops half-holida}" law is charged by the Sydney
inspectors. As a result of this disposition, regulations made for the
purpose of helping the white workman may become an instrument
for increasing the effectiveness of Chinese competition.
So far as such competition exists at present or may exist in the
future, therefore, it is a crucial contention writh the Australian labor
party, advocating and imposing so far as possible state regulation of
industry, that this disturbing factor of cheap and largety uncontrolla
ble labor shall be eliminated from the problem which they have in
hand. This fact, with other considerations to be mentioned later, gives
especial pertinence to the first place occupied by the “ White Aus
tralia” plank in their platform.
The number of Chinese in Australia, however, has been decreasing
gradually under the recent restrictive legislation. In 1891 they num
bered 38,077, or 11.97 for every 1,000 of the population. In 1901
their absolute number had fallen to 33,231, while their relative num
bers, as compared with the total population of the Commonwealth, had
fallen to 8.81 for eveiy 1,000 inhabitants. Of the 8,783 Chinese males
and 530 females reported as engaged in gainful occupations in Queens
land that year, 3,466, or more than one-third, were market gardeners
or fruit growers, 654 were employed on sugar plantations, 1,310 were
engaged in various commercial undertakings, ranging all the way
from petty hawking to wholesale importing, 597 were house servants,
and 529 were engaged in placer mining, most of the latter washing
from the tailings and old fields deserted by white miners, as they do
along the Fraser River in British Columbia. With the exception of
58 cabinetmakers, the Chinese do not appear to be engaged in factory
48
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
occupations in Queensland, and no reference to Oriental employment
is to be found in the annual report of the factory inspector of that
State. South Australia had at the time of the 1901 enumeration 3,280
male and 175 female Chinese residents. Of the latter but 6 were wageearners. Mining industries employed the labor of 1,519 of the males,
or nearly one-half, 391 were engaged in market gardening, 224 were
seamen or ship’s employees in various capacities, and 169 were engaged
in domestic service. A considerable number were reported in the skilled
trades, including 63 carpenters and 42 tailors. Most of the South
Australian Chinese, however, are in the northern territory, the tropical
country around Port Darwin, and are separated by the breadth of the
continent and by practically insuperable barriers of unoccupied and semiarid country from the more thickly settled portions of the State. Their
presence is therefore less felt as a competitive factor by the working
people. The factory inspector in his report refers to the present com
petition of the Chinese in the furniture trade as unimportant. Victoria
has a Chinese population of 7,349, of whom 609 are females. The
number of Chinese emplo}red in the furniture trade in the years 1900
and 1901, respectively, was 552 and 574, an increase of 22, while the
whole number of European males and females, including upholsterers
and workers in special branches of furniture making where there is no
Oriental competition, in the two years in question, was 1,239 and 1,238,
a decrease of just one. The number of Chinese in laundry work
increased from 194 to 242, and the number of Europeans in the same
occupation increased from 412 to 521 during the same period. New
South Wales had a Chinese population of 11,263 in 1901, of whom 673
were females. The statistics of their occupations are not available.
There are about 3,000 Japanese in Australia, most of them in Queens
land, where they are employed as field hands on the sugar plantations
and are engaged largely in the pearl and beche-de-mer fisheries upon
the north coast. A number of Syrians have settled in Melbourne, and
are said to be initiating a new sweating evil in the underclothing trade.
About as many Hindoos and Cingalese as Japanese have found a home
in the Commonwealth, where they are included under the title
“ Syrians” in local parlance. These people have taken to itinerant
vending, especially to pack peddling through the country districts.
Many of them are British subjects by birth, but this has not affected
the policy of state and Federal governments in restricting their immi
gration. Indeed a contract-labor law, somewhat similar to our own,
has been applied to restrain English mechanics coming to Australia
under engagement from entering the country. Another phase of this
introimperial exclusion appeared indirectly last year, though not in
connection with permanent immigrants, when the Federal Government
refused to sign a mail contract with a British steamship line employ
ing colored firemen, though the latter were British subjects.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
49
The third aspect of the White Australia question, relating to the
exclusion of Pacific Islanders and other alien plantation labor, has
chiefly local significance, in that it applies peculiarly to a single State;
but it has reacted indirectly upon Federal policy, because of its eco
nomic relation to the production of sugar. In Queensland it is the old
and unsolved problem of tropical plantation labor; in Melbourne it is
in addition the fiscal question of a high tariff upon the importation of
sugar, in order to foster sugar planting without black labor, compli
cated by a subsidy addendum. The Commonwealth has undoubtedly
been willing to make sacrifices to keep white. It is willing to pay a
high price for sugar without any corresponding return in revenue, in
order to try the experiment of raising cane in the Tropics with white
field labor, and even to pay a considerable sum annually out of the
public purse, if this prove necessary, in order to keep the business
going upon that basis. But the history of the White Australia ques
tion in this most significant sense of the word has been essentially local
until within the last three years.
Sugar raising began to attract attention in Queensland in the sixties,
and in 1867 there were 6 small mills in operation in the colony. The
growth of the industry was checked somewhat during the follow
ing decade by the selection for cultivation of varieties of cane not
adapted to the country, and the appearance of a blight that devas
tated most of the fields. Recovery was rapid, however, with the
introduction of the harder bamboo canes, though manufacturing and
cultivating were still done in a very small way by the individual
planters. In 1883-84 there were 41,367 acres under cane, of which
25,792 acres were ground, and 36,148 tons of sugar were produced.
There were 152 mills in operation, however, or a mill for about every
272 acres, with an average output of less than 240 (long) tons each—a
wasteful method of production that could not exist in face of serious
competition. The first central mill was erected the following year,
with the assistance of a government loan of $243,500 granted for that
purpose. In 1893 a 6‘ Sugar Works Guarantee A ct” was passed by
the colonial parliament, which provided that any group of farmers
could form themselves into a company, and by mortgaging their lands
to the government obtain sufficient capital to erect a mill. Under this
act the government had invested £512,600 8s. lOd. ($2,494,570.05) in
mill advances up to June 30, 1901, and had at that date £61,372 18s.
lid . ($298,671.44) additional outstanding in overdue interest and
redemption installments. Therefore the sugar industry in Queensland
is a matter of direct public concern to every taxpayer, and the White
Australia programme, as indirectly affecting what might be termed a
consolidated state interest, acquires more than ordinary significance
from both a sectional and a national standpoint.
50
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
South Sea Islanders appear to have been first introduced in Queens
land for the purpose of growing cotton at the time when that industry
flourished temporarily in Australia in consequence of the closing of our
southern ports during the civil war. An Indian cool}7 act was passed
in 1862, but the regulations attending the importation of labor under
this statute were so stringent that none of the planters cared to avail
himself of its provisions. A Sydney shipowner, who had been long
engaged in the South Sea trade, is reported to have brought the first
“ Kanakas,” or Pacific Islanders, to Queensland for cultivating cane in
the early days of the sugar industry. He thus gave the initiative to a
business that soon developed very great abuses. 44Recruiting ” vessels
cruised among the islands, enticing people from their homes, separat
ing families, killing ruthlessly and sometimes without provocation,
and reviving the conditions of the African slave trade to an extent
that caused the British Government to interfere with 44An act for the
prevention and punishment of criminal outrages upon natives of the
islands in the Pacific Ocean,” passed in 1872. The whole series of
statutes for controlling the importation of plantation labor comprised
the imperial act just mentioned, which was amended in 1875, and 5
colonial acts passed in 1880, 1884, 1885, 1886, and 1892. This whole
body of legislation was repealed, so far as Australia is concerned,
by the recently enacted Commonwealth law. By a provision in
the first colonial act a previous Queensland statute, passed in 1868,
regulating Pacific Island laborers, was repealed. The imperial laws
required that vessels engaged in recruiting laborers should be licensed,
and should be subject to special jurisdiction and procedure for the
inquiry into and punishment of any complaints and crimes arising
out of their method of securing Polynesian immigrants. The colonial
acts provided for government agents who should accompany recruit
ing vessels, for inspectors to supervise the condition of laborers
while in the colony, stipulated that certain sanitary requirements,
both on shipboard and in plantation quarters should be observed;
that a certain scale of rations and clothing be provided; that medical
supplies and attendance be furnished, and hospital accommodation
afforded sufficient for the ordinary requirements of the patients.
Every employer was required to place himself under bond to the
government for the proper observance of the acts, including the
return of the islander to his home at the expiration of his contract. It
was further specially provided that no Pacific Islander should engage
in any other occupation, or be employed in any other capacity than as
a plantation laborer in tropical and semitropical agriculture. This
was defined by a later amendment not to include the cultivation of
corn, any work of plowing, or any wrork around a sugar mill, except
handling cane and bagasse. It was intended that the Kanaka should be
exclusively a 44man with a hoe.”
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
51
The ration allowance was liberal: 1% lbs. beef or mutton, 2 lbs. bread
or flour, 5 oz. sugar, 3 lbs. potatoes or 6 oz. rice, and i oz. tea per
diem, with l i oz. tobacco, 2 oz. salt, and I oz. soap a week.
In 1885, after a vigorous local campaign upon this issue, an amend
ment to the then existing laws was passed abolishing the system of
imported labor after December 31,1890. For a time it appeared that
public opinion in Queensland had settled down to a policy of enforcing
a White Australia programme supported entirely by local sentiment.
This feeling was induced in part by the evidence presented by a royal
commission, appointed to investigate the recruiting system, which
reported more or less abuse as still existing in the method of supplying
laborers. And there was said to be a lax observance of the regulations
in the colony itself. Witnesses stated that the men were induced to
leave their homes and go aboard ship under false pretenses— “ decoyed”
was the term used in the report; that the period for which the men
agreed to come “ was in no instance three years;” that “ they (the inter
preters) invited the islanders to ‘ go work on ship,’ to ‘ sail about,’ to
‘ go see white man’s country,’ ” and that these people were induced to
assent to contracts they did not understand by tempting displays of
wares, and thus became involuntarity committed to working for a
number of 3^ears in a foreign country, at unaccustomed labor, and
under conditions prejudicial to their health and in much more than the
normal number of instances fatal. The death rate among islanders in
Queensland, who are mostly adult males in the early prime of life,
averaged, for the 10 years ending with 1900, 36.05 per 1,000 per
annum. It was even claimed before the commission that the canoes
of the natives were wrecked in one instance in order to force the occu
pants to remain aboard the vessel. •As recently as 1890 missionaries
reported that wives were involuntarily' separated from their husbands
who went on these expeditions.
On the other hand, the statistics show that a fair proportion of the
laborers who have worked for a term in Queensland are ready to reen
gage voluntarily at the expiration of their contracts; that some elude
official vigilance in order to remain in the State as free laborers, and
that many after returning to the islands prefer to enter into a new
contract when the next recruiting ship comes around in preference to
remaining in their own country. The islanders have certain commu
nal responsibilities in their tribal life, which doubtless become irksome
after a period of the economically freer life of a plantation laborer.
When a savage has once become an individualist, he seems to resent a
reimposition of even the light communal obligations of the easy-going
South Sea Islanders.
As the period for the final exclusion of the Kanakas under the act
just mentioned drew near, however, a quiet movement was started to
secure a removal of this prohibition upon contract labor. The pros
52
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
pect of a withdrawal of this labor had certainly affected the sugar
industry adversely, and there was some real alarm lest it might be
ruined altogether. Another royal commission was appointed, which
took evidence and reported in 1889. The contention was made, and it
was supported to some extent by statistics, that the presence of black
labor made work for the white man by creating an employing industry
where otherwise there would be no industrial development. One
planter testified that out of his total expenditure for wages the previ
ous 3rear, £800 ($3,893.20) had gone to white men and £420 ($2,043.93)
to islanders. The highest annual amount paid to islanders by this
planter during the previous 5 year's had been £464 ($2,258.06), and to
Europeans £1,820 ($8,857.03). This witness maintained, further, that
a large part of his total expenditure for operating his plantation, which
averaged about $25,000 per annum, and reached a maximum of £6,057
($29,476.39) during the 5-year period, went indirect^ to white employ
ees, in payments for machinery, transportation, supplies, and other
necessaries.
As a result of the investigations of this commission, aided possibly
by local political developments, an act was passed in 1892 renewing
the importation of Pacific Islanders under practically the same restric
tions as those formerly prevailing. As the three-}7ear contracts of the
islanders employed under the old law had not yet expired when the
new law went into operation, there was practically no cessation in
the employment of this form of labor in sugar production in Queens
land, nor has there been to the present day.
The sugar industry in that State, and in the small area cultivated in
the extreme northeastern part of New South Wales, is unique, how
ever, in the relatively large proportion of the cane that is produced
by small farmers and by white labor. In proportion to the total
acreage under cane in the two States mentioned, the number of col
ored plantation hands employed is probably smaller than in any other
cane-sugar-producing country in the world, and has been constantly
decreasing. Of the 59,102 acres cut in Queensland in 1902, 11,376
acres are returned as produced by white labor alone. While abso
lutely accurate statistics are not at hand showing the number of col
ored aliens employed on the plantations, the figures are sufficient to
show that an estimate of 8,000 islanders and 1,600 Asiatics and Japa
nese is approximately correct. In 1901, before the effect of the
recent drought was fully felt, there were 112,031 acres of cane under
cultivation in Queensland, or more than 11 acres for every colored
alien plantation laborer in the State. There were 2,610 cane growers,
mostly whites, in Queensland that year, with an average area per
grower of 42.6 acres under sugar cane. The average amount paid for
the cane crop by the mills is estimated to be in the neighborhood of
$4,000,000 annually, upon a basis of 1,350,000 tons of cane at $3 a ton.
The total wages of colored aliens at current rates per annum, assuming
53
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
their numbers to be as given above, would be about $1,000,000. In
other words, at a rough estimate, three-fourths cf the proceeds of the
cane crop, exclusive of manufacturing, go to the white cane growers.
That the proportion of whites employed in this industry is increasing,
irrespective of recent legislation, is to be inferred from the following
table:
ACRES OF CANE GROUND, TONS OF SUGAR MADE, AND NUMBER OF PACIFIC ISLANDERS
IN QUEENSLAND, 1885, 1890, AND 1899.
Year.
1885..........................................................................................................
1890..........................................................................................................
1899..........................................................................................................
Acres of
cane
ground.
Tons of
sugar
made.
38,557
40,208
79,435
Pacific
Islanders
in Queens
land.
55,796
68,924
123,289
10,755
9,689
8,826
While sugar production, therefore, had increased 121 per cent in 11
years, the number of Pacific Islanders employed decreased 18 per cent
in the same period.
In 1901 there were repqrtedto be over 800 white farmers registered
in the Mackay district as claimants for the bounty upon cane grown
by white labor. This bounty ranges from Is. to 5s. ($0.97 to $1.22) a
ton of cane, according as the average sugar content of the latter varies
from 10 to 12J per cent, and therefore amounts to $10 or $12 per ton
of sugar produced. The latest Federal customs statistics do not show
any falling off in sugar production as a result- of prohibiting the
importation of black labor. The figures are as follows:
SUGAR PRODUCED BY WHITE AND BY BLACK LABOR, AND TOTAL BOUNTY PAID, 1902,
1903, AND 1904.
[The figures for 1904 are the official estimate made from crop returns as late as July of that year.]
1902.
1903.
105,444
222,402
Cane grown by white labor (tons)..............................................................
12,254
24,406
Sugar produced by white labor (tons)........................................................
Sugar produced by black labor (tons)..........................................................
65,581
65,456
89,862
77,835
Total sugar produced (tons).........................................................................
Total bounty paid........................................................................................... $119,279 ; $236,181
1904.
277,900
31,190
97,810
129,000
$305,734
il
The increase in production, however, is doubtless due largely to
more favorable climatic conditions, as 1902 was the last year of the
recent drought. And it is interesting to note that while the total pro
duction increased over 65 per cent in the three years in question, the
proportion raised by black labor only fell from 81 to 76 per cent; so
that at the present time only one-fourth of the crop is reported for
excise purposes as produced by white labor. The sugar refiners claim
that these returns are not very significant, as much of the cane reported
as raised by whites is really brought to maturity by black labor and
only harvested by the former. It is also stated that land is being let
out to Chinese planters who raise cane by contract, but this informa
54
BULLETIN OF THE BUEEAU OF LABOE.
tion was not verified upon the ground. The sugar crop of New South
Wales, which does not total that of a single large plantation in Hawaii
or Cuba, shows a slight falling off in 1904; but this is hardty to be
attributed to alien labor conditions, as only about 10 per cent of the
cane raised normally is cultivated b}r blacks.
In considering the relation of the White Australia programme to
the development of tropical agriculture in Queensland it must be
remembered that the State extends for 1,200 miles from south to
north, with a corresponding variation of climate. All of the country
likely to prove a field for the employment of colored labor lies within
a few miles of the coast, for beyond these lowlands begins immediately
a range of highlands, verging off into the central plain, with a dry cli
mate, cool nights, and other natural conditions not Unfavorable to
Europeans. Along this coast line there are three districts where cane
growing has been profitably undertaken. Their relative climatic fea
tures are suggested by the following table:
AVERAGE CLIMATIC CONDITIONS IN THREE DISTRICTS OF QUEENSLAND FOR FOUR
YEARS.
District.
Cairns (tropical).........................................
Mackay (subtropical) ..............................
Bundaberg (semitropical)........................ 1
Mean
mini
mum
temper
ature.
Mean
maxi
mum
temper
ature.
Mean
temper
ature.
Highest
temper
ature.
67.6
63.9
61.3
83.3
79.8
83.4
75.4
71.9
72.3
100.4
96.6
99.6
Total
Lowest units
of
temper heat
per
ature.
year.
45.1
Frost.
Frost.
27, 516
26,280
26,389
[
The wages of white employees in the three districts mentioned are
given in the following table. These are taken from official figures,
gathered originally from the books of the planters. In all cases, with
the exception possibly of some of the more highly paid mill hands,
board and lodging are furnished plantation employees, and the cost of
these is reckoned into the compensation stated in the table—at from
7s. Gd. to 10s. 9d. ($1.83 to $2.62) a week for field hands, according to
the district, and at an unspecified but probably somewhat higher sum
for mill hands. The figures quoted, therefore, include the value of
both board and wages:
AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGES OF WHITE EMPLOYEES IN SUGAR INDUSTRY OF QUEENS
LAND, BY DISTRICTS.
Occupation.
Boilermen...............................................................................................
Cane carriers..........................................................................................
Centrifugal men.....................................................................................
Clarifier men..........................................................................................
Engineers...............................................................................................
Field hands...........................................................................................
Firemen..................................................................................................
Mechanics.............................................................................................
Mill laborers..........................................................................................
Sugar boilers..........................................................................................
Bundaberg.
$9.65
7.18
8.17
8.39
17.84
6.78
8.70
13.18
6.75
20.32
Mackay.
$10.16
7.79
8.27
8.52
17.60
7.28
9.90
13.99
7.38
18.01
Cairns.
$11.76
8.76
9.25
9.25
22.87
8.61
11.03
14.60
8.52
23.52
55
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
It is evident that in each ease the wages of white men increase as
more tropical country is approached. Turning now to black labor, it
will be seen that this condition is exactly reversed, if we take into
consideration the cost of working days alone, which is the real labor
cost. The planter pays this class of labor by the year, and gets a
return of only as many days as the laborer is able to work. Including
all the expenses of recruiting, return passage, hospital and medical
attendance, rations and clothing, and wages, the cost of islanders is
estimated to be upon an average as follows in the three districts
mentioned:
AVERAGE ANNUAL, WEEKLY, AND DAILY WAGES OF BLACK LABORERS IN SUGAR
INDUSTRY OF QUEENSLAND, BY DISTRICTS.
Per
annum.
District.
Per work
ing day.
Per week.
Bundaberg.............................................................................................
Mackay..................................................................................................
Cairns....................................................................................................
$180.62
155.93
176.84
$3.47
3.00
3.40
$0.58
.50
.57
Mean..............................................................................................
171.13
3.29
.55
This would make the average cost of the colored field hand in
Queensland about 55 cents a working day, or about the same rate as
prevails in Cuba, taking crop and dead season together. It is con
siderably less than is paid in Louisiana, and less than in Hawaii. The
average yield of sugar in Queensland, however, is eonsiderabty under
2 tons to the acre. The average yield for the I years ending with
1900, which may be taken as fairl}" representative, was 1.75 short tons
to the acre, as compared with 2.7 tons per acre in Cuba, and a much
higher average in Hawaii. In order to understand, however, the
real ratio of cost of labor in different climates, the average hours and
days worked by the two races respectively should be considered.
The average hours per week are given in the following table:
WORKING HOURS PER WEEK OF WHITES AND ISLANDERS IN QUEENSLAND.
District.
Whites,
Bundaberg................. ...........................................................................
Mackay............................. ....................................................................
Cairns.....................................................................................................
Mean.............................................................................................
j
Islanders,
j 0 v ^ t“ m e
57*!
58fj
56 |
56
61*
60
1*
1*
1*
57*|
59*!
1*
Data of the relative number of days worked by the two races are
available from only two districts.
DAYS WORKED BY WHITES AND ISLANDERS IN QUEENSLAND.
District.
Bundaberg................................................................... 1
Mackay.........................................................................
Work
days a
year.
313
313
Whites.
Days
worked.
295
292*
Islanders.
Days
lost.
! Days j
|worked, j
i
18 ’
20*i
j
295 !
299 |
Days
lost.
18
14
56
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
These figures probably make a relatively more favorable showing
for the white laborer than the facts warrant, for the islander is usually
a contract man and remains in the same employ throughout the year,
while the white laborer is exceedingly unstable in a tropical country,
and it is probably a rare occurrence for any wage-earner of that race
to work 295 days at field labor in the course of a year. Concerning
a mill in the Cairns district of northern Queensland it is stated that
“ 409 white laborers passed through the books in order to provide and
maintain a daily requirement of 88 hands to keep the mill in operation
during the season of thirty weeks.”
The figures all tend to show that the economic value of the white
laborer decreases rapidly as a more tropical climate is approached—
a fact that hardly needs statistical verification. In Bundaberg, in the
southern and cooler part of .Queensland, the white field hand’s wages
are relatively lower and his working days greater in number than in
Mackay or Cairns. His total efficienc}^ the amount of work he can
accomplish, probably decreases far more than the figures show, when he
reaches the tropics. Assuming the averages before us to be accurate,
the fact is evident that from the point of view of competition, whether
domestic or foreign, the white laborer is placed at a disadvantage as
soon as he attempts to invade the field of the darker races. In its
relation to the labor problem in Australia this fact presents two aspects.
It shows that if black labor is admitted, it will drive white labor out
of certain occupations in a portion of the continent, which, it must be
remembered, is much more tropical than any portion of the United
States. And it shows, on the other hand, that if black labor is
excluded from Australia, that country can not hope to develop its
northern resources so as to compete with other tropical countries in
the world’s markets, or so as to compete with tropical products from
abroad in its own markets unless protected by high tariffs or by
government bounties.
Probably a popular majority in Queensland is opposed to black
labor at any cost, though the weight of commercial interest is in its
favor. The parliamentary leader of the labor party in that State said
to the writer: “ We believe that northern Queensland can be developed
by white labor alone; and if we knew it could not, we should prefer to
let it lie idle than to saddle the country with a black race and a con
tract labor problem.” Evidently a majority of the people of the
Commonwealth have taken this view, for the Federal Parliament has
passed a law providing for the gradual cessation of black labor and the
return of the islanders to their homes, and has provided a duty of nearly
l i cents per pound on sugar, an excise of about half that amount
on sugar raised by black labor, with a rebate of two-thirds the excise
upon sugar from cane grown by white labor.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
57
COMPULSORY ARBITRATION OF INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.
The second plank of the federal labor platform, calling for State
arbitrament of industrial disputes, takes one into an entirely different
field and touches upon what is evidently becoming the central princi
ple of the Australasian labor movement—State regulation of industry.
This might not at first appear to be the true import of the demand for
compulsory arbitration, nor was this the first aspect of such a law that
appealed to the labor men themselves. But as already shown in the
Report on Labor Conditions in New Zealand (Bulletin of the Bureau
of Labor, No. 49), the regulation of industry b}" the State is an out
come of the arbitration laws that has so far been welcomed, even
though it may not have been anticipated, by the workingmen. This
part of the labor programme has been fully realized as yet in but two
of the Australian States, New South Wales and Western Australia,
though a dormant act is on the statute books of South Australia, and
some of the objects of such a law have been attained by different means
in Victoria; and that State is gradually approaching compulsory arbi
tration by indirection. These laws will be supplemented and their
principles extended in some degree to the entire Commonwealth, b}^ a
Federal act establishing compulsory arbitration in interstate disputes of
an industrial character, which has passed Parliament the present session.
All of this legislation is so recent in Australia, however, that no conclu
sion of final value can yet be drawn as to its success or its economic
effects. For partial testimony upon these points we must turn to New
Zealand, which has had 9 jrears’ experience with the operation of such
legislation. The most that can be done here is to trace the growth of
public sentiment favorable to such laws, to describe the machinery so
far set up in the effort to apply them, and to review a few of the more
salient results of their operation during their short existence. Any
report upon this legislation in Australia at the present time must be
preliminary.
For a considerable period before the formation of the labor party
there were provisions made for voluntary conciliation and arbitration
in the agreements existing between organized bodies of employers and
employees in Australia. The Melbourne Trades Hall and the Employ
ers’ Union of Melbourne had carried into effect a scheme for the con
ciliation of trade disputes, based upon the Nottingham Board, in 1887.
The 1888 agreement of the Newcastle colliery workers with the opera
tors contained a provision for the appointment of a referee by the chief
judge in equity of the district, to hold office for twelve months, and
to receive a fee for his services, before whom all disputes under the
agreement should be brought for adjudication. About this time there
were several unsuccessful attempts to secure favorable action in the
58
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOB.
colonial parliaments upon bills providing for conciliation and arbi
tration without compulsion. This was previous to the maritime strike
of 1890. That collision between employing and labor interests caused
a rapid crystalization of public opinion in favor of such legislation as
had been previously projected. A royal commission was appointed in
New South Wales to inquire into strikes and labor conditions. In the
report of this body there is an exhaustive discussion of the laws in
force in different countries for the prevention and settlement of indus
trial disputes, and a draft of a measure introduced into the South
Australian Parliament by Mr. Kingston, who testified before the com
mission, is published. It is probable that this is the source from which
the New Zealand authorities copied when they transposed a large part
of M r. Kingston’s bill into their projected legislation upon the sub
ject. Mr. Kingston himself had previously studied the question from
the standpoint of legislation in other countries, and remembers having
received some suggestions from the Ontario law. As a result of the
report of this commission, two bills providing for voluntary concilia
tion and arbitration before state tribunals were introduced into the
New South Wales parliament by twTo successive ministries, and the
second became a law in 1892. The general outlines of the machinery
set up to settle disputes are almost identical with those of the New
Zealand law passed two years later. The colony was to be treated as
one industrial district, or could be divided into several districts, not
exceeding five, each with its council of conciliation. A council of
arbitration was established for the whole colony. A salaried clerk
of awards was provided for in each district. Registered unions of
employers and employees, respectively, recommended persons to be
appointed members of the councils of conciliation and arbitration.
These persons received their appointment from the governor, who also
fixed their salaries or compensation. The district councils of concilia
tion consisted of an even number, and the council of arbitration of
three members. If, prior to the giving of an award, the parties to a
reference agreed to be bound thereby, the decision of the council of
arbitration could be made a rule of the supreme court and in that case
it became legally binding. The president of the council possessed the
powers of a judge to maintain order, and the arbitration council could
summon witnesses, take evidence under oath, and enter premises for
the purpose of obtaining information relating to any matter before
them for decision. The purview of the council extended to wages and
compensation for work of any character, quality of workmanship, food
supplied workmen, sanitary conditions of the place of labor, “ an}r
established custom or usage of any industry, employment, or district,”
and “ the dismissal or employment under agreement of any employee
or number of employees;” also any matter pertaining to the interpre
tation of a contract between workmen and employers might come
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
59
under the jurisdiction of the council. All that was needed to make this
act practically identical with the acts adopted later in New Zealand and
Western Australia was a liberal interpretation of jurisdiction, power of
either party to bring a case into court, and universally binding awards.
Under this act a board of conciliation and a council of arbitration were
set up and all the preparations made to begin work. Ten of the 102
trade unions in the colony maintained provisions in their rules requiiv
ing them to have recourse to the conciliation and arbitration councils
before beginning a strike. Some unions adopted the rule in the fol
lowing form:
Whenever a dispute or claim shall arise between 10 or more mem
bers of this union and their emploj-er or employers, and no settlement
can be privately arrived at by the parties thereto, the same shall be
referred to conciliation under the trades disputes act, with a refer
ence, if needed, to the council of arbitration; and in the latter case
the award of the arbitrators shall be accepted by the union in behalf
of its members.
During the first year the act was in operation one colliery dispute
was settled by arbitration, one colliery dispute by conciliation; in 8
cases where employees applied to have a dispute go before the councils
the employers refused, in one instance at the expense of a strike which
cost the colony nearly half a million dollars, of which $62,363.27 was
spent for police alone; and in 6 cases negotiations undertaken for the
purpose of bringing a dispute before the councils w^ere for other
reasons unsuccessful. It would appear, from the official records, that
voluntary conciliation and arbitration in New South Wales failed
largely through the indisposition of employers to come under its
provisions.
In 1891 Mr. Kingston secured the enactment of a law providing for
conciliation and arbitration of industrial disputes in South Australia,
but the bill was so modified in parliament as to remain largel}% like
the New South Wales act, ineffective. This act provided for a colonial
board of conciliation and arbitration, but the powers of this board
could be exercised only after unions of employers and employees had
voluntarily registered under it. No union of either class has as \ret
been willing thus to submit itself to the jurisdiction of the board.
Shortly after its first organization this tribunal investigated a dispute
between a tanner in Adelaide and his employees; but he refused to sub
mit to the findings of the board, and it was decided that they had no
legal power to compel an acceptance of their award. Under a clause
of the act, however, the president of the board is authorized to inquire
into and if possible to settle upon a conciliatory basis any industrial
dispute that may arise in the State. Six strikes have thus been inves
tigated by the present president, 3 of which were settled by the parties
themselves; in one case the employees refused to accept the recom
mendations of the president of the board and were defeated, and in
60
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
two cases the award of the president was accepted and is reported to
have proved satisfactory to both parties. The two strikes successfully
settled in this manner involved the tobacco workers and the shear
ers—the latter represented by one of the strongest unions in the State.
No similar legislation subsequent to this act has been passed in South
Australia, except an equally quiescent minimum wage board law, to
be mentioned later.
Tasmania and Queensland are reported to have done nothing in the
way of conciliation and arbitration legislation, though in Queensland
both voluntary and compulsory bills have at different times been sug
gested. In 1893 there was a seamen’s strike in Australia, which involved
the four eastern capitals and intermediate ports and threw between
1,200 and 1,500 men out of work. The union prejudiced its case by
calling out members whose articles had not expired, thus subjecting
them to prosecution and imprisonment under the shipping laws; but
the labor side was read}^ to submit its case to settlement under the
trades disputes act of New South Wales. This strike kept alive the
subject of state conciliation and arbitration, and measures were initi
ated by Mr. Kingston, then premier of South Australia, to secure the
cooperation of the colonial governments to bring pressure to bear upon
both parties to submit to conciliatory measures; but the premiers of
the other 3 colonies concerned refused to interfere. At this time it
was moved in the Queensland legislature that the occasion demanded
that a bill be introduced, in accordance with a suggestion contained in
the governor’s speech, “ providing for conciliation or compulsory
arbitration in cases of industrial dispute.”
MINIMUM W A G E BOARDS.
The minimum wage board provisions of the Victoria factories act
represent a partial application of the principle of compulsory arbitra
tion, though not for the express purpose of preventing trade disputes.
The powers of these boards are directly limited by the statute itself to
the determination of two principal matters only—the minimum wage
to be paid in a trade under jurisdiction and the number of unindentured
apprentices or improvers to be employed in proportion to regular
workers, and their rate of payment. The right to fix a minimum wage
involves, of course, fixing overtime rates, and so gives the boards—as
is further expressly provided in the act—authority to determine the
length of the ordinary working day. The power of the boards is
limited further by the fact that they have jurisdiction over only such
trades as parliament may determine. They have no authority to pre
vent strikes nor to inflict penalties for strikes or lockouts.
Although in practical operation a preventive of trade disputes, this
object was not primarily in view when the minimum-wage boards were
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
61
established, in 1896. This point should be kept in mind, for it makes
the theory upon which a board works in fixing rates of wages quite
different from that actuating an arbitration court. The function of the
latter tribunal is professedly to prevent or settle industrial disputes, and
it has authority to punish any person or organization that initiates a
trade conflict. In fixing a minimum wage, therefore, the definition of
u minimum,” which an arbitration court must observe, is such an aver
age wage as ought under existing conditions to be considered a fair
and equitable wage by both parties—such a wage as would appeal to
their sense of justice and extinguish the necessity of a resort to a more
violent remedy in order to arrive at a proper adjustment of the points
at issue. Such a wage, as the experience of the New Zealand tri
bunal has shown, may be actually higher than the normal or prevailing
wage at the time a case is brought up for adjudication; in fact, it is
only by. thus raising wages that a court can secure a fair share of the
profits of prosperity for the workingmen. On the other hand, the
court must have authority to lower wages below the average prevail
ing in any trade if a depressed condition of that industry demands
such action. The theoretical function of an arbitration court is to
adjust wages to the profits of an industry.
The minimum wage boards were established, on the other hand, in
response to an antisweating agitation. They at first had jurisdiction
over those trades only that were suffering exceptionally from this evil,
and their theoretical function was to adjust wages, not to the profits
of an industry, but to the cost of living and decent maintenance of a
family in the districts under their supervision. They do not profess
to satisfy all of the wage demands of workers, and do not supersede
or forbid the right of the latter to resort to strikes or other means of
enforcing demands for a larger share of the profits of an industry than
those afforded by the determinations of the boards. Under these con
ditions it is evident that the boards would have been within their rights
and would have fulfilled their original intent had they merely enforced
a living wage in each trade under their jurisdiction. And it evidently
was perfectly logical for the legislature to restrict their functions to
determining solely those points in the mutual relations of an employer
and employee that had a direct bearing upon the ability of the latter
to support himself and family according to the prevailing standard
of living. The social sanction of compulsory arbitration rests ulti
mately upon the police power of government; it is an indirect method
of maintaining more perfect industrial, and therefore social, peace.
The social sanction of the minimum-wage determinations rests upon the
common interest o f society in itiaintaining among all classes of people
a standard of living comporting with the general wealth and civiliza
tion of the community and guaranteeing healthy social progress. It
12425— No. 56—05-----------5
62
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
was the necessity for protecting society against the competition of a
lower civilization—that of the Chinese—that gave the final incentive to
the Victoria legislation. But in the midst of the general movement
toward state regulation of industry taking place in the Australasian
countries this legislation has been diverted toward a development sym
pathetic with that occurring in neighboring States and colonies, and in
its application has been made to accord more or less with compulsory
arbitration principles.
The original Victoria act creating these boards was passed in 1896,
the year the New Zealand arbitration law went into actual operation,
and formed part of a body of factory legislation, the ordinary features
o f which will be considered elsewhere in connection with the factory
laws of the other States of the Commonwealth. The provisions con
stituting the boards, however, in virtue of their interpretation and
application, belong rather to arbitration enactments, and are so under
stood in the present instance. The original act mentioned above was
superseded by a second law, passed in 1900, which extended the mini
mum wage board provisions. The last law expired by limitation in
1903, and was superseded by the amended act now in force.
Minimum-wage boards, known in the act as special boards, are com
posed of not less than 4 nor more than 1 0 members, representing equally
the employers and employees in the trade under their jurisdiction,
together with a chairman, elected by the other members, but who
is not one of the original members of the board. A separate board
is formed for each trade. The members were formerly elected by the
employers and employees respectively represented, but by the 1903 act
they are made appointive, the governor remitting the choice of members
to the parties represented only in case one-fifth of the latter object in
writing to his nominees. The appointment is for two years, and the
compensation of members is fixed by regulation. A t present the chair
man is paid £1 ($4.87) and members 10s. ($2.43) for each full day
served, besides necessary traveling expenses.
The 1903 act establishes a court of industrial appeals, consisting of
a supreme court judge appointed by the governor in council, with two
assessors appointed by the court from nominees of employers and em
ployees, respectively. Provision is made for a registrar, also appointed
by the governor. The court has power to amend the whole or any part of
a board’s decision, upon appeal by a majority of the representatives of
either party on the board in question, or of 25 per cent of the employ
ees, or of the employers of 25 per cent of the workers under the juris
diction of the board, or upon reference of the board’s decision to the
court by the minister of labor.
Boards may be appointed in the clothing, furniture, baking, butch
ering, and small-goods trades under the act itself, and may be appointed
for any factory occupation, provided a resolution has been passed by
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
63
either house of parliament declaring it is expedient to create such a
board.
A board may fix either wage rates or piecework rates, or both, or
may allow manufacturers to fix piecework rates based on the mini
mum wage which it establishes. A board must specify the hours for
which a rate of wages is fixed and the rate of pay for overtime.
In fixing wages a board may take into consideration the nature, kind,
and class of work, the mode and manner in which the work is to be
done, the age and sex of the workers, and any matter which may be
prescribed by regulation.
A board may fix the proportion of unindentured apprentices or im
provers to be employed in any process, trade, or business, and the
wages to be paid to them. In fixing such wages the board may con
sider age, sex, and experience.
The chief inspector of factories may grant a license to any aged,
infirm, or slow worker to work at less than the minimum wage fixed
by the board, provided that the number of persons licensed as slow
workers in any factory shall not exceed one-fifth the whole number of
employees receiving the minimum wage or over in such factory, un
less for special reasons the minister of labor permits this proportion
to be exceeded.
The amended act of 1903 was passed by a parliament not especially
favorable to labor interests, and contains some provisions relaxing
considerably the stringency of its predecessors. Former boards fixed
the proportion of apprentices to journeymen, but the new law provides
that this shall be done only in case the apprentice or improver is not
indentured. Some employers have devised a form of indenture so
lenient in its obligations on either side that it does not differ materially
from an ordinary contract of service; and they are thus able practi
cally to evade the improver clause of the act and employ juvenile labor
to any extent not in direct violation of other statutory restrictions.
The provisions with reference to slow workers are also new, and are
intended to meet difficulties more fully detailed later.
The new law further defines the procedure and limits the discretion
of the boards in fixing a minimum wage by the following provisions:
The board shall ascertain as a question of fact the average prices
or rates of payment (whether piecework prices or rates or wage
prices or rates) paid by reputable employers to employees of average
capacity.
The lowest prices or rates as fixed by any determination shall in
no case exceed the average prices or rates as so ascertained.
These provisions have made it necessary to allow the chairman of
a board authority to administer oaths and take evidence, either from
members o f the board or from outside parties.
In case the average prices or rates ascertained are not satisfactory,
64
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the whole matter may be referred through the minister of labor to the
court of industrial appeals, which then proceeds to fix a rate of wages
independently of the evidence just referred to, exercising the same
power in this respect as an arbitration court.
The board is also allowed by the new act to fix special wages, prices,
or rates for aged, infirm, or slow workers.
Upon the whole, therefore, the amended law curtails rather than ex
tends the powers of industrial regulation granted to public agents,
although the court of industrial appeals and the modified procedure
of the boards indicate a slight approach toward arbitration court
methods. This is rather in form than in principle, however, and does
not affect the general fact that the most recent legislation in Victoria
represents at least a temporary reaction from the movement toward
state control of industry.
Most of the observations, comments, and criticisms of the working
of the Victoria factories act given in this report necessarily apply to
the law as it stood prior to the recent amendments, for the new pro
visions have had little time to influence conditions, and most of the board
determinations now in force were made previous to their enactment.
The boards so far constituted number 38, and there have been 47
appointments of chairmen, 9 of which were to fill vacancies caused by
deaths or retirements. The boards, with the occupations of their
respective chairmen, have been as follows:
O c c u p a tio n s o f c h a ir m e n .
S ta te p e n s io n e rs (e x -s u p e r in te n d e n ts
o f p o lic e ).
N im b e r o f
1 ja r d s p re
s id e d o v e r .
10
C l e r g y m e n .......................................................
6
S u p r e m e c o u r t j u d g e ..................................
3
P o lic e m a g is tr a te s .........................................
5
E sta te a g e n t .....................................................
6
B arristers a n d s o lic it o r s .............................
4
S h o p k e e p e r s .....................................................
4
C u ra tor o f in te s ta te e s t a t e s .....................
S c h o o lm a s t e r ...................................................
P u b l i c a n ..................................................... ..
T o w n c l e r k .......................................................
A r c h i t e c t ...........................................................
N o o c c u p a t io n .................................................
3
2
1
1
1
1
N a m e o f b o a rd .
A e r a te d w a te rs; a rtificia l m a n u re s ; brass w o r k e r s ;
b r e a d m a k e rs; b r ic k m a k e r s ; ir o n m o ld e r s ; m a lt
tra d e ; p a stry c o o k s ; p la te -g la s s w o r k e r s ; w o o le n
tra d e .
C o n fe c tio n e r s ; c o o p e r s ; ja m m a k in g ; m e n ’ s a n d
b o y s ’ c lo t h in g ; p o tt e r y ; s h irt m a k in g .
B r e a d m a k e r s ; m e n ’ s a n d b o y s ’ c lo t h in g ; w o o le n
tra d e .
B o o tm a k e r s (2 ); fe llm o n g e r s ; p a s t r y c o o k s ; ta n
n ers.
B e d s te a d m a k e r s ; b u tc h e r s ; c ig a r m a k e r s ; je w e l
ers; le a t h e r g o o d s m a k e r s ; o v e n m a k e r s .
B ru sh m a k e r s ; c a r ria g e b u ild e r s ; u n d e r c lo t h in g ;
w o o d w o rk e rs.
B re a d m a k e rs; m ille t b r o o m m a k e r s ; s a d d le rs ; u n
d e r c lo t h in g .
F u r n itu r e m a k e r s ; p rin te r s ; tin s m ith s .
E n g ra v e rs ; w o o d w o r k e r s .
B re w e rs .
S to n e cu tte rs.
W ic k e r w o rk e rs.
B r e a d m a k ers.
The constitution and procedure of these boards has been the subject
of criticism, favorable or adverse, accordingly as they have individu
ally met the difficulties arising in the trade for which they were con
stituted with greater or less success, and according to the special bias
o f the critic in favor of a greater or less degree of state regulation of
industry. It will be noticed that the law does not require the exist
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
6.5
ence of unions or private organizations of any kind, that it does not
raise the question of preference to unionists, and that it acts of its own
initiative in investigating disputes. The boards are representative,
not judicial bodies; they did not, until 1904, take evidence under oath,
and they are presumed to contain within their own membership the
information required for a fair determination of most of the questions
that come before them. They are constituted upon the analogy of a
legislative body, as the arbitration courts are constituted after the
fashion of a judicial tribunal. Violations of their determinations are
prosecuted before the ordinary courts, and there is no confounding, as
in the case of the arbitration tribunals, of legislative and judicial pow
ers, by placing both kinds of authority in the hands of the same body
of men. A court of arbitration enacts laws, and then takes legal cog
nizance of the violation of those laws; a minimum wage board simply
exercises legislative powers delegated to it by parliament, and leaves
all question of enforcing its acts to regular administrative and judicial
channels.
Without a doubt the original intent of the law was that a true mini
mum, and not an average wage, should be fixed by the boards. But
in practical application the effect has been in nearly if not all cases to
establish what in the United States would probably be considered a
“ union wage” in the determinations. The year after the act went
into effect protests and petitions were presented to parliament by the
Melbourne manufacturers against the determinations of the tailors’
and the bootmakers’ boards, largely upon the ground that the ruling
wage established was higher than employers could afford to pay,
though in case of the tailors’ board difficulty appears to have arisen
from the attempt of that body to fix a more or less uniform rate for
the making of custom and ready-made garments.
If a board has consented, however, to fix a true minimum wage,
upon the assumption that employers will recognize it as such and pay
a higher average wage, it has been found that advantage is taken
of this situation to force down the prevailing wage to the level
o f the board determination. In the report of the Royal commission
o f 1903 it is stated: “ The chairman (of the clothing board) further
explained that in fixing £ 1 ($4.87) a week as the minimum wage of
women, ‘ It was felt that this was a fair minimum to be earned by the
slow worker—practically an incompetent hand.’ Whatever may have
been the intention of the board, the official reports show that there are
clothing factories where no woman or girl receives more that 2 0 s.
($4.87) a week.” On the other hand, if a board fixes a fair average
wage as the minimum, there is active competition among employers
to get the best possible hands for the money, and every less competent
employee and aged and slow worker is thrown out of employment as
a result. There is thus created a new problem of industrial distress
66
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOK.
hardly less deplorable and difficult to remedy than the original evil of
sweating. These are the two horns of the dilemma presented by any
attempt to fix wages by legislative authority, whether by arbitration
or by minimum wage boards—and it can not candidly be said that
much progress has been made as yet toward a solution of this difficulty
in any of the Australasian countries.
The procedure frequently adopted by the boards does not tend of
itself to afford a ready and reliable elucidation of the trade conditions
upon a knowledge of which its determinations should be based. The
representatives of the two sides frequently meet each other in a spirit
o f partisanship, accentuated by their particular trade bias, and begin
a tug of war over the preliminary question of time wages, upon which
such piecework determinations as the board may make are usually
based. As the whole authority of the State is behind the wage finally
fixed upon, making it part of the law of the land until a new determition shall have been made by the board or the present determination
revised—allowing for a dubious appeal to a higher tribunal—the
ground is naturally contested vigorously; and in most cases the repre
sentatives of employers and employees, respectively, act and vote as
a unit, so that the casting vote of the chairman, usually a laymen in
in the special trade under consideration, becomes the final arbiter upon
the main points in dispute. In some instances employers have with
drawn altogether from the board and refused to take further part in
the proceedings, leaving the chairman and the employees—a legal
quorum under the act—to take final action. On the other hand, the
shirt board and the printers’ board came to unanimous decisions, and
upon no point in the clothing-board determination was the chairman
called upon to give a casting vote; but the more usual practice would
seem to have been for the employees to demand say a minimum wage
of $15 a week, the employers to contend for $7.50, and the chairman
to split the difference and secure a compromise on $ 1 1 or $1 2 . The
governor in council might suspend the operation of a determination
for 6 months, in order to allow the board to review it; but unless
there has been some flagrant and obvious error committed, that body
can hardly be expected to amend its own decisions. Until the court of
industrial appeals was established, in 1903, a determination could be
finally challenged before the supreme court of the State. Two such
cases have occurred, in both of which the government—as represented
by the board—has been upheld. One of these appeals was by an
employer, to have a determination set aside, and the other by the gov
ernment, to enforce a penalty against a butcher who was employing
his sons in his own shop, and thus exceeding the number of improvers
allowed by the board’s decision. In the latter case, naturally, either an
interpretation of the determination itself, or of the power of the board
under the law to limit the right of a father to employ his own sons in
his business, might be required. The decision covered both points, to
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
67
the effect that where a contractual relation existed the fact that a man’s
employees were minors and members of his own family made no dif
ference in the eyes of the law, in the enforcement of a determination.
As a result of this decision it has been expressly provided in the act
o f 1903 that 66 no determination of a special board shall apply to any
children of the employer.”
The two chief objections made to the law have been (1 ) that it was
unjust to the old and the slow worker, and that when conditions of
competition make it worth while creates a body of unemployed whose
interest it is to evade the law, and (2 ) that it has a detrimental effect
upon industries. Those who support the law maintain (a) that it has
practically done away with sweating and has been an influence in
favor of higher wages, (5) that it has not affected industries unfavor
ably, and (c) that it has been influential in preventing industrial con
flicts between workers and their employers.
The first contention of those who criticised unfavorably the law in
force until 1904 is undoubtedly true. It worked a hardship upon the
less competent workmen, and thus created a new class of unemployed.
The interest and the influence of those thus adversly affected by the
act probably occasion secret violations of the law. The effect of the
determinations may have also been reactionary to the extent that they
create conditions favorable to the growth of small home production in
some lines where the natural trend of industrial evolution is toward
factory production under conditions both economically and socially
better for the workmen. This seems to be the case to some extent in
the boot trades, in saddlery, and in tobacco working, where the attic
workshop has come in as the last recourse of the slow worker who
peddles his completed wares at starvation prices to the less scrupulous
class of jobbers. The whole question of the effect of the law upon
industrial development must be considered an open one, for there are
so many disturbing factors in the problem at present.that any one of a
score of different opinions upon the matter may be the right one. Aus
tralia has been normally undergoing a gradual convalescence from the
acute depression of the early nineties. Federation has wholly revolu
tionized fiscal conditions by establishing a uniform tariff against foreign
competition and interstate free trade throughout the Commonwealth.
The South African war and the gold discoveries in Western Australia,
both of them creating a demand for men and labor especially affecting
the Anglo-Saxon communities of the Southern Hemisphere, and the
recent unprecedented drought, have all complicated the local situation
in Victoria.
As to the hardship worked upon the less competent employee by the
minimum-wage law, a large amount of direct evidence appears in the
published reports o f the commissions that have investigated the work
ings of the act, concurring to the effect that a new evil has been pro
duced, or at least an old evil accentuated, by this legislation. While
the inspector has always been empowered to grant special permits to
68
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
workers who by reason of “ age or infirmity” are not able to earn
the minimum wage, allowing these persons to accept less than the
minimum wage established by the boards, experience shows that this
is not a sufficient remedy for the situation. The New South Wales
commissioner, speaking of the law in force prior to 1904, says in his
report upon this act:
Victoria has an excess of skilled labor, and the consequence is
that the slow worker loses employment and suffers. For him there is
no provision, while there is for the aged or infirm, to which term
very properly a wide meaning is given by the chief inspector. But
except in the case of old servants, employers are chary of employing
men with a license; there is, first of all, the dislike of both masters
and men to asking for the permit, and, in the second place, the em
ployers do not wish the public to think that they are paying wages
below the minimum, being afraid that it ma}Timagine a wrong cause
for their so doing. I saw one of these less capable workers. He had
been in employment for 1 0 years at 30s. ($7.30) a week, but just before
the board affecting his trade came into existence he had changed his
employer. Not being able to earn the minimum wage, he had to go.
He lost his home, and, as he told me, has frequently had to pawn his
clothes to obtain rood. His case was pitiable. He is about 56, and no
doubt a permit could be obtained, but the difficulty is to find an
employer who would take him.
The Victorian commission of 1903 says in the same connection:
While on this subject (the boot trades) we may refer to the effect o f
the minimum-wage law upon the slow worker. There can be no doubt
that while the first minimum wage of 36s. ($8.76) a week hampered
this class of operatives in obtaining and keeping regular employment,
the increase in June, 1898, to 42s. ($1 0 . 2 2 ) a week greatly intensified
their difficulty in earning a livelihood. * * * The consequence is
that collusion between a certain class of employers in the boot trade
and slow workers is said to be common, the legal minimum being paid
over to the employee, who hands part of it back, sometimes for a
nominal consideration, in the belief that he observes the letter o f
the law. Last year we inquired into the matter privately, and came
to the conclusion that in a fair number of instances small factories,
employing under 2 0 persons, do not honestly pay the minimum wages.
Among other cases mentioned to us, there were several men earning 25s.
to 30s. ($6.07 to $7.30) a week, the rates being entered in the factory
wages book for the inspector’s examination at £ 2 14s. and £ 2 15s. ($13.14
ana $13.38) a week, respectively. In another factory a young man
earned on an average at piecework 16s. ($3.89) a week; in another,
where the log rate for a certain class of work was 8 d. (16 cents) a
pair, he received 5d. (1 0 cents) a pair. A very bad case mentioned to
us was that of an old man who was a slow worker. His earnings
averaged 1 0 s. ($2.43) a week only. * * * When it is the interest o f
employers and workmen alike td keep the agreement for unduly low
wage-rate secret, and no witness can be found to give evidence to sup
port a prosecution, it is hopeless for the inspectors to try and suppress
the practice; and the worker naturally has a substantial grievance
against the law which permits a minimum to be fixed which he can not
ea*n, but does not in any way protect him by requiring the payment of
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
69
a fair but lower rate which he can earn. One employer frankly admit
ted that he could buy plain, strong boots of an inferior class much
cheaper than he could make them, and hence had given up making
them in his own factory, but said he was satisfied that if condi
tions o f the law as to wage rates had been honestly observed, such
goods could not be produced at the prices at which he purchased
them. * * * As regards the loss of employment by slow workers
generally when the minimum wage was enforced in 1898, one of the
largest employers, with a staff of 280, stated that he had dispensed
with 60 to 70 hands; another with a staff of 200, had dismissed 20;
while a third, who gave work to 160 persons, expressed the opinion
that one out of every 8 adult males in the trade had lost their employ
ment here, and many had never regained it.
In his annual report for 1898 the state inspector of factories, a
strong advocate of the law, says:
The men are not true to themselves. It is notorious that some of the
men who are quite able to earn the minimum wage, and are no doubt
actually earning more than that sum for their employers, sign for the
minimum wage and take less. I have had repeated complaints from men
that it is done, and repeated admissions from men that they have done it.
* * * W hy do they do it? Because they are afraid of not getting
work; because they know there are men at the door of the factory
probably waiting for any chance to take their places; because they
know there are old and slow workers who are willing to take any wage
and sign anything if they can only get work. An old man I once
asked to sign a statutory declaration as to his wages looked me fair in
the face and said: “ Mr. Ord, I’ll declare anything you like.” What
he meant was: “ 1 must work, and to get and keep work, I will commit
perjury if you like.”
It is perhaps worthy of passing mention as evidencing how the prob
lem of industrial regulation grows upon the hands of the authorities
as soon as it is once undertaken by the Government, that the only
solution of the difficulties mentioned that suggests itself to the inspec
tor is: “ To provide work at remunerative wages for men able to work
and old-age pensions for the old workers.” In other words, the out
come of regulative legislation—the only means by which it can
accomplish even its most modest objects successfully—would be state
socialism.
There is another means of evading the law, however, that is even
more difficult to cope with in those trades where it can be practiced
than is the collusion just described between employer and employee.
In fact, in this case the law is circumvented instead of evaded, and
there is no formal violation of the statute. A bootmaker or harness
maker, for instance, can sell leather to his former hands, if need be
granting them credit, and buy back from them completed articles or
parts of articles at a stipulated price. A tobacconist can sell leaf
tobacco to his men and buy back the cigars. This is a purchase and
sale of commodities, not of labor, and has actually in some instances,
according to statements made to the writer by employers, become a
means of cheapening the labor cost of goods.
70
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
However, too close attention to detailed difficulties and weaknesses
sometimes distracts attention from the broader and more important
results flowing from the application of a new legislative principle in a
community, and a fair examination of the Victorian minimum wage
law must include the statistical evidence as to its general effect upon
wages and employment and the testimony as to its influence upon the
general condition of the worker. If nobody had been benefited by
the law, it would have hardly survived 9 years of amendment and legis
lative attack. There is an ontological argument to be advanced in
support of all the radical labor legislation of Australasia.
Concomitant with the existence of the minimum wages law, whether
due to its influence or not, there has been a healthy increase in the
number of factory workers as compared with the years immediately
before the act went into operation, and even in comparison with the
years of the previous boom. In 1902 there were 4,252 registered fac
tories in Victoria, with 59,440 operatives, an increase of 2,495 opera
tives over the previous year, and of 11,627 operatives over the most
prosperous year (1890) of the last boom period. Except in 3 occu
pations, where there has been a recent increase in the proportion of
female and juvenile workers, the rate of wages has uniformly risen
since the boards went into operation. The following table of average
wages is taken from the report of the state inspector of factories for
the year ending December 31, 1902:
A V E R A G E W E E K L Y W A G E S IN T R A D E S U N D E R B O A R D D E T E R M IN A T IO N S IN 1902 A S
C O M P A R E D W I T H A V E R A G E W A G E S B E F O R E D E T E R M IN A T IO N S W E N T IN T O E F F E C T .
B e fo r e d e
t e r m in a
tio n s w e n t
i n t o e ffe ct.
T ra d e .
87.88
4.81
6.64
7.91
8.35
10.12
5.62
9.17
7.36
4.87
4.12
8.66
8.98
7.08
5.15
8.23
10.00
8.15
6.79
7.50
6.69
6.83
8.96
7.54
6.59
3.51
7.73
2.74
5.58
8.07
4.97
B e d s te a d m a k e r s ................
B o o k b in d e r s ...................... .
B o o t m a k e r s ..........................
B r e a d b a k e r s .......................
B r e w e r s .................................
B r i c k m a k e r s ....................... .
B r u s h m a k e r s .....................
B u t c h e r s ............................... .
C ig a r m a k e r s ....................... .
C lo th in g m a k e r s (m e n ’ s )
C o n f e c t i o n e r s ...................
C o o p e r s ...................................
E n g r a v e r s .............................
F u r n it u r e m a k e r s .............
J a m m a k e r s .........................
J e w e le r s .................................
M a t s t e r s ...............................
M a n t e lp ie c e m a k e r s . . . .
M ille t b r o o m m a k e r s ____
P a s try c o o k s .........................
P la te g la ss m a k e r s ...........
P o t t e r s ...................................
P r in te r s ( c i t y ) .....................
P rin te r s ( c o u n t r y ) ...........
S a d d le r s .................................
S h ir t m a k e r s .......................
T a n n e r s .................................
U n d e r c lo t h in g m a k e r s . .
W ie k e r w o r k e r s ...................
W o o d w o r k e r s .....................
W o o le n g o o d s .....................
o D e cre a se .
1902.
88.39
5.37
6.87
10.42
9.63
11.13
6.47
9.81
8.09
5.45
5.09
10.56
12.13
9.61
4.62
10.02
10.97
10.67
8.13
6.96
8.68
8.84
9.49
8.05
8.54
3.49
8.64
3.08
6.37
10.63
5.19
In c r e a s e .
80.56
.5 6
1.23
2.51
1.28
1.01
.8 5
.64
.73
.58
.97
1.90
3 .1 5
2.53
« . 53
1.79
.97
2.5 2
1.34
« .6 4
1.99
2.01
.53
.51
1.94
« .0 2
.91
.34
.79
2.56
.22
71
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
The following statistical appreciation of the effect of the Victorian
factories act upon wages is summarized from T. A. Coghlan’s Aus
tralia and New Zealand, 1902-3: There has been a general increase in
the pay of male labor equivalent to 19 per cent, and of female labor
to 17 per cent, or about 5s. 9d. and 2s. 3d. ($1.40 and $0.55) per week,
respectively, in occupations under the determinations of the boards.
The comparative average weekly wages of workers of various ages in
regulated and unregulated trades in Victoria are as follows:
W A G E S P A I D IN V I C T O R I A T O E M P L O Y E E S IN T R A D E S R E G U L A T E D B Y S P E C IA L B O A R D S
A N D IN O T H E R T R A D E S .
A ge.
T ra d e s u n d e r
b o a rd s .
M ales.
13 y e a r s ..............................................................................................................
14 y e a r s ..............................................................................................................
15 y e a r s ..............................................................................................................
16 y e a r s ..............................................................................................................
17 y e a r s ..........................................................................................’...................1
18 y e a r s ...........................: ................................................................................ :
19 y e a r s ..............................................................................................................'
20 y e a r s ..............................................................................................................*
21 yea rs o r o y e r ............................................................................................. 1
A l l a g e s ..............................................................................................................|
31.48
1.58
1.85
2.19
2.84
3.57
4.52
5.58
10.77
8.70
F e m a le s .
30.97
2.05
1.24
1.56
2.03
2.76
3.08
3.73
4.81
3.87
O th e r trades.
M ales.
31.58
1.83
2.13
2.60
3.16
3.97
4.70
5.52
10.20
7.56
F e m a le s.
30.87
1.03
1.07
1.34
1.72
2.15
2.58
2.88
4.24
3.08
The wages of boys and youths are uniformly lower in the regulated
than in the nonregulated trades; but for adult male workers and for
all female workers wages are in every case higher in the regulated
occupations. The difference of $1.14 in favor of male workers of all
ages in the regulated trades is greater than an inspection of the figures
immediately preceding would lead one to expect, and is due to the fact
that in the regulated trades three-fourths of all workers are adults,
whereas in other trades the proportion is not more than three-fifths.
Some testimony was obtained as to conditions prevailing under the law
in force in 1904. The factory inspectors have reported that the act has
practically done away with sweating in the clothing trades. This should
be somewhat qualified, however, as breaches of the determination of the
board and the factories act do occur, and some of them appear to be
so habitual as to constitute a permanent labor condition. In a prosecu
tion in Melbourne in July, 1904, it was shown that a manufacturer con
tracted out Chesterfield coats as Eaglans, thus lowering the price of mak
ing from $1.08 to $0 .73. The writer saw goods going out of a factory to
be made up by contractors, because the latter could manufacture more
cheaply than the factory paying full board rates. The proprietor,
showing his books.confidentially, said: “ We are paying $ 1 .1 0 a dozen
for making denim trousers, and can’t afford to make them in our factory
in face of this contract competition. The wages board rate for making
these trousers is $1.34 a dozen. Moreover, out of her price, the con
tractor pays for trimmings, which amount to 2 1 cents a dozen. So she
gets the work done and her profit out of 89 cents, or 45 cents under the
72
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
legal rate. Clearly she evades the law. I think that her method is to
offer her hands full-time wages, and then dock their pay for the num
ber of pairs under so many dozen that they fail to complete in a week.
These workers have told me that they were sweated. They are not
necessarily poor hands. They are good workers, but in poor circum
stances. W e can make clothing here 1 2 £ per cent cheaper than in Syd
ney or Adelaide.” So far as can be inferred from the information,
obtained directly from manufacturers, this kind of evasion is very
general for certain classes of goods, especially the cheaper grades of
workmen’s and youths’ clothing, and naturally competitive conditions
force all merchants into the same practice if one of their number suc
cessfully circumvents the law in this manner. South Australian
clothing manufacturers interviewed claimed that the prices at which
Melbourne firms sold goods in Adelaide proved that sweating existed
in the former city. One specific instance was cited where 3,000 over
coats were shipped to Adelaide from Melbourne at a price that proved
conclusively either a loss to the manufacturer or a cost of making much
less than that provided by the Victorian determination.
On the other hand, while these conditions affect certain branches
of the clothing trades, the general condition of operatives in these
occupations has probably been considerably improved by the act.
The statistics of the chief inspector of factories just quoted, even
allowing for the fact that some unscrupulous employers or contractors
may juggle the figures of their pay sheets, are evidence that this is the
case. An Adelaide clothing manufacturer admitted that he would
probably be driven out of business by his Victorian competitors were
it not for the higher wages which the latter were required to pay. It
is significant that several manufacturers who were sending work out
on contract complained of their inability to secure competent hands
and were frequently compelled to advertise for workwomen, thus indi
cating that a market for skilled operatives existed, and that the latter
were not forced to sell their labor at sweaters’ rates. The large and
better equipped factories had been very slightly affected by the deter
mination of the board. One large retail store in Melbourne employs
900 hands in the manufacture of clothing and white goods for its own
sales. In this establishment no change was made in the pay roll when
the determination went into effect. The following favorable opinion
of the act was expressed by the manager of one of the largest factories
in Melbourne: “ Our factory has run for 40 years under many chang
ing conditions, and we have, I think, the largest factory in the Com
monwealth for clothing and underclothing. W e employ 1,250 opera
tives and sell our clothing clear around Australia and have travelers
in every State of the Commonwealth. W e have no trouble whatever
with our wages board. The act is working admirably. W e want all
employers forced to work on parallel lines, and that achieved, all is
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
73
well. There is more difficulty in underclothing, because there is no log,
and so the prices for making different articles are not defined. W e
can get enough female labor, but not enough that is properly trained.
W e have been more than able to compete with other States since fed
eration, because we had an established industry. So we were able to
cater at once to the demand of other States, that previously had been
importing from home (England).”
Victoria certainly has profited from the extended market opened
to her manufacturers by federation. The value of 24 classes of
locally manufactured articles exported to other States increased over
$5,000,000, or more than 147 per cent, between 1900 and 1903. The
exports of garments rose from $663,880 to $1,636,723 in that period.
Evidently this explains to some extent the lack of trained operatives,
the increase of wages, and the other changes in industrial conditions
reported in this trade. During the same three years the interstate
exports of boots and shoes manufactured in Victoria about quadrupled,
their value rising from $284,231 to $1,144,294.
This sudden expansion of certain lines of industry evidently renders
any deductions from wage and manufacturing statistics as to the
effects of economic legislation unreliable. It also constitutes a condi
tion that colors all the testimony of employers upon the subject. A man
whose business has doubled or trebled in a couple of years is apt to be
optimistic as to general prospects and also extremely impatient of any
regulations or restrictions that hamper him in the least in his efforts
to take full advantage of the opportunities suddenly opened before him.
The proprietor of probably the largest boot factory in Melbourne, a
new and model establishment, expressed the following opinion of the
factories act in an interview:
W e have invested largely in our business since tne act has been in
force. Under it our conditions are more settled, and this gives us an
advantage over New South Wales. Before the act went into operation
sweating was rampant, and for that reason the fair employer has bene
fited by the change. W e pay many of our employees more than the
minimum wage. I was through some of your largest factories in
America last November (1903), and am well satisfied with our Victorian
labor conditions in comparison. You pay higher wages than we do, but
you have longer hours and get more work out of your men. I have
seen both sides of our trade. I have worked at it as a journeyman for
as low as $7.30 a week; and I favor the factories act. There are incom
petent employers as well as incompetent employees, and it is the
employer who never ought to be in his position who is forced to sweat
men. The act eliminates that sort of an employer. W e are satisfied
with the present apprentice conditions—1 apprentice to 7 journeymen.
Another manufacturer, employing about 130 hands exclusively in
making women’s shoes, who was formerly an opponent of the act, said:
If a man can not earn our minimum wage of $10.96 a week he is
not worth his room in the place. Our act works very well. Wage
74
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
boards, I think, are much better than an arbitration court. My busi
ness has been expanding since the act went into force. Sneaking for
myself alone, I don’t think the act has kept me back. I think it pref
erable to the old system, now that we are accustomed to the rules.
Conditions are more settled, and you can make plans accordingly.
Before the act there was always uncertainty on account of new union
demands.
The secretary of the Melbourne Bootmakers’ Union expressed him
self regarding conditions under the amended law as follows:
Some manufacturers are employing boys without indentures or
with only fictitious indentures. The indentureship requirement under
the present act may be anything. But trade is fairly good and we
are still working under the old determination. Trade nas been better
since federation than previously. The factories act has not injured
trade and it has benefited the workingmen. W e have had no strikes
since it went into effect, and we now recognize that strikes are done
with and look to parliament for our remedies. The act is not evaded
by large employers, and though it is evaded to some extent by small
factories, there is a limit to this, for an employer is afraid to dis
charge a man who has connived with him in violating the law. Slow
workers in our trade generally drift into repair shops. W e had a call
for a man the other night at a full meeting of the union, but no one
present was unemployed.
The manager of the Denton Hat Mills, an establishment thirty-four
years old, employing 400 hands, and paying regularly a dividend of
1 0 per cent upon a capital of about $175,000, said:
. W e are not under a wage board, but are under trade union domina
tion. Although, to my knowledge, there is not a journeyman in our
trade out of employment in Victoria, we are allowed but 1 apprentice
to 7 journeymen, on a 5-year indentureship, and 1 girl each year for
every 2 0 women employed. The minimum wage is fl4.61 a week, for
48 hours’ work, and the union is working to get this minimum raised
to $15.83. I should prefer to be under a wage board, and am ready
to apply for one in our business.
Notwithstanding these favorable opinions, however, employers as a
body are not sympathetically disposed toward the wage board sys
tem, and many are active opponents of the principle of state regula
tion, which it implies. This antagonism is partly due to class bias,
accentuated by the political division created by the rise of the labor
party, partly to the resentment which any new form of social restraint
arouses in those feeling its effects for the first time, and in no small
degree to practical embarrassments that have followed the enforcement
of some of the board determinations. Indeed, the attitude of an
employer toward the whole law, if it affects his particular business, is
usually determined almost entirely by the character of the determina
tion under which he chances to be working. In some trades every
employer visited opposed the law, and in others there was a generally
favorable attitude toward its provisions. Men engaged in unregu
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
75
lated occupations usually dread the uncertainties attending a possible
extension of the act to their business, and accordingly are vigorous—
if rather theoretical—critics of the act.. The three amendments recently
solicited and secuied by employers, allowing slow-worker permits,
forbidding a limitation of indentured apprentices, and defining the
minimum wage, have done much to lessen this opposition; and it is
not without the range of possibility that the time may come when
employers will be united in defending the act against an attempt to
substitute an arbitration tribunal for the wage board, or even against
the efforts of thoroughly organized and disciplined unionism to over
ride the more liberal provisions lately embodied in the law.
Employers have complained that the limitation of apprentices in
proportion to the number of journeymen employed, formerly enforced
by the board determinations, was an unnecessary and harmful restric
tion, and that some industries were seriously pampered, and were
likely to be still more so in the future, by a deficient supply of prop
erly trained operatives.
Naturally, workmen have feared the competition of underpaid child
labor if the apprenticeship restrictions were relaxed. So far the
employers seem not to have employed the freer hand given them by
the amended act in such a way as to arouse the serious resentment of
the unionists. Of course the latter have the remedy of a strike in
their power, exactly as if no factory law or wage board determina
tion existed, if conditions justify such action in their opinion. The
secretary of the Melbourne typographical society said that while a
few employers had used the apprentice provisions of the new act as a
cover under which to recruit cheap labor, the better class of employers
had generally observed the conditions established before the amend
ment was made; that is, 1 apprentice to the house, and 1 to every
3 journeymen employed. The proportions that have been established
by some of the other boards are as follows:
Underclothing, 1 apprentice and 1 improver, or 2 apprentices or
improvers, to each fully paid person employed; clothing, 1 male
apprentice or improver for every 3 journeymen, and 1 female appren
tice or improver for every 2 fully paid female workwomen; butchers,
1 apprentice or improver for every 3 fully paid persons; cabinet
makers, 1 male apprentice or’ improver for every 4 journeymen. The
boards usually provide a sliding scale of rates for payment of appren
tices and improvers, according to the time they have served, and
the law expressly forbids taking on young persons to learn a trade
without paying for their services, or receiving any premium for
employing such persons. It is claimed by the inspector of factories
that these provisions react favorably upon the general condition of
apprentices, as the employer finds it to his interest to teach them as
rapidly as possible, in order to make their services valuable enough to
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BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOB.
recompense him for the increased wages he is obliged to pay them
with each year’s added experience.
The provision in the new act creating a court of industrial appeals
was favored by employers, and has not been especially criticised by
employees. While no cases have been carried to this court, its exist
ence is said to have a salutary effect in bringing the opposing interests
on the boards to terms, as each party prefers a solution arrived at by
a body of representative tradesmen, to the uncertain decisions of a
judicial body. Recently the threat of an appeal by a large employer
led to a conference and adjustment of difficulties arising out o f the
tobacco trades determination that had been threatening trouble in
that business for over a year. The first appeal was set to be heard
September 29, 1904, and was carried up from the artificial manures
board.
It was anticipated or hoped in certain quarters that the wage board
determination would drive the Chinese out of the furniture trade. It
has not done this, though it has mitigated to some extent the severity
of their competition. However, as recently as June, 1904, a deputa
tion of members of the furniture board waited upon the Victorian
premier to urge him to take steps to prevent the ousting of Europeans
from that occupation by the Chinese. It was suggested that the State
buy out the 614 Orientals interested in that business. The report of
the chief inspector of factories for 1903 gives the number of Chinese,
o f all ages, employed in this industry as wage-earners as 440, as com
pared with 779 Europeans.
The effect of the board determination in the harness and saddlery
business is said to have been unfortunate, and to have enabled Adelaide
manufacturers to capture the market for several lines of goods in the
western or “ Wimmera” district of Victoria. However, the exports of
leather goods to other States, aside from boots and shoes manufactured
in Victoria, have nearly doubled in the 3 3^ears since federation. It
is also reported that this determination has encouraged the practice of
outworking, or doing work by contract in little outside shops. Har
ness making would be peculiarly liable to experience such a develop
ment, on account of the small expense of setting up a workman
independently in this business. Although the effect of the law may
have been to encourage unregulated domestic production at the expense
of a higher type o f factory production in this and a few other trades,
there are many occupations where power machinery is used and a
piecework system of payment prevails that are forced into factory
channels by the act. If piecework rates are regulated by factory
output, for example, where power-driven machines are used, doing
3,000 stitches a minute, and sometimes several parallel seams simulta
neously, it is evident that prices will be so low as to drive from the
occupation altogether the home worker, using a treadle machine.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
77
The question of the amount of litigation and expense involved in
enforcing the determinations of the wage boards is of some interest.
The boards compare very favorably with arbitration courts in this
respect, and one strong argument in their favor is the lessened expense
of procedure for all parties coming before them. The chief inspector
of factories, who administers the law and the determinations made
under it, said: u I don’t think I have as much trouble with the 38,000
workers now under the wage boards’ determinations as I had with
the first 1 0 , 0 0 0 .” This is borne out by the statistics of the department.
In 1901, of the 310 prosecutions undertaken in the courts by that office,
47 were for breaches of board determinations. The following year,
of a total number of 159 cases, 36 were for breaches of the boards’
awards. The total legal costs of administering the system the latter
year were under $2 0 0 .
It has already been stated that any reliable deductions as to the
effect of the minimum wage determinations upon industry are hardly
yet possible. The testimony of manufacturers generally is that the
law has been detrimental, and has hampered business development;
but employers have themselves asked for 11 of the 38 boards estab
lished, though not as a body—the petitions being supported by a large
number in most instances, in one case by 1 2 , and in another by three.
The effect of the determinations is to establish uniform rates of
payment and hours of labor among competing employers, and thus
to favor those who are by inclination or policy most liberal to their
employees; at least this must be the effect if the law is properly
observed. According to the Victorian commission, the “ adoption of
the statutory wage system, combined with the use of labor-saving
machinery and keener competition,” resulted in closing some 47 of the
smaller boot and shoe factories of that State. A brush factory is said to
have moved to Tasmania to escape the restrictions imposed by the law.
One of the large tobacco manufacturing firms transferred its cigar
factory to Adelaide for that reason. To some extent, apparently, there
has been a movement to escape restriction legislation by taking a busi
ness beyond the jurisdiction of the law. But this has not been impor
tant enough, so far as the testimony at hand goes, to do more as yet
than show a tendency. There is always uncertainty in Australia as
to what legislation may crop out in the State to which you remove.
And Melbourne enjoys advantages as an old-established seat of manu
facturing industry that go far to countervail any embarrassments that
the operation of the minimum wage provisions have as yet occasioned.
Although it can be said, quite without reservation, that there are
instances where the general effect of this legislation, and especially of
the uncertainty as to what further measures along the same lines may
be enacted in the future, has been to discourage the investment o f new
12425—No. 56-05-----6
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
capital in industrial undertakings, the great expansion of Victorian
manufactures since federation is a stubborn assertion that no death
blow has yet been dealt to the growing enterprise of the country.
While the enforcement of the minimum wage law in Victoria has
not been attended by such a marked rise in the price of commodities
as has characterized the period during which the arbitration law has
been in force in New Zealand, and the cost of living in the former is
much less than in the latter country, there is some evidence to show
that in special instances, in trades subject only to local competition,
the higher wage and shorter hours enforced by the boards have been
followed by an increase in the price of the product to the consumer.
After the determination of the butchers’ board went into effect the
price of meat rose 3 cents a pound, the rise of 1 cent imposed by
the master butchers’ association in January, 1901, being expressly
stated to be due to the “ increased price of stock and the factories
act.” A number of shops in this trade are known to have been driven
out of business by the board determination. In the bakers’ trade the
determination of the board, according to testimony given in the report
of the Victorian commission rendered in 1903, is commonly evaded or
violated. There has been no general rise in the price of bread, as
wheat fell from $1.28 a bushel in 1897, to 58 cents in 1900. Again,
as showing the tendency of state regulation of wages to create a
demand for more regulation and intervention by the Government, the
following is quoted from the report just mentioned: “ Witnesses on
both sides advanced the idea that, as the State had seen fit to regulate
wages, the next step should be to fix by authority the price of bread.”
O f the policy of government control of industry it can truly be said,
without prejudice to the question of its advisability or inadvisability,
that, like fame, it increases as it goes.
IN DU STRIAL ARBITRATION.
Western Australia, following the lead of New Zealand, was the first
o f the States of the Commonwealth to place a compulsory conciliation
and arbitration act upon its statute books. The original law, which
resembled the New Zealand act very closely, was passed in 1900, but
was wholly remodeled in the revised act of 1902. Both laws provided
for a single arbitration court in the State and for boards of concilia
tion in each of the industrial districts into which the State shall be
divided by the governor. A t present there are three such districts.
The constitution, procedure, and powers of the boards and court are
as follows:
The boards may consist of 3, 5, or 7 persons, though in practice
they have consisted o f 5, of whom one is a chairman elected by the
other members, or in default of election appointed by the governor,
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
79
and the remainder are respectively elected by the unions of employers
and employees registered under the act, each side being equally repre
sented. The term of office is three years, and members receive a fee
of $5.11 for each day they serve. In case of emergency or any
special instance of industrial dispute the governor may appoint a
special board of. conciliators, whose constitution, jurisdiction, and
powers are similar to those of a regular board.
The arbitration court, which is a court of record, with a seal judi
cially noticed in all courts-of justice, consists of 3 members appointed
by the governor. The president of the court must be a supreme
court judge. The other two members are appointed from persons
nominated by the unions of employers and employees, respectively.
The lay members of the court hold office for 3 years, and receive a
fee of $15.34 for every day they serve.
The act provides for a clerk of awards in each industrial district, to
act as recording and executive officer of the boards or the court; and
for such court officers as the governor may think necessary. The
registrar of friendly societies, an officer existing prior to the passage
of the act, is made the chief recording officer under its provisions,
with whom industrial unions of employers and employees must regis
ter in order, to have a standing before the boards or courts, or a voice
in their constitution.
The only parties recognized in industrial disputes are unions or
associations of unions of employers, or of employees, or individual
employers. In order to secure registration, an employers’ union must
consist o f not fewer than 2 persons who have employed in the aggre
gate 50 or more workers in the trade in question throughout the 6
months immediately preceding registration. An employees’ union
may consist of any number of workers not fewer than 15.
An industrial agreement is a contract or collective bargain between
a union or association o f workers and an employer or union or asso
ciation of employers, which when duly executed and filed with the
clerk of awards of an industrial district is enforceable in the same
manner as an award of the court. Such agreements may be for an}'
term not less than 6 months or more than 3 years, but remain in force
after the expiration of their term, except in respect to parties who
retire therefrom by giving formal notice of their intention, until
modified by an award of the court or a subsequent agreement.
Proceedings before a board are undertaken upon application by
either party to an industrial dispute, who may be represented by agent
in such proceedings, but shall not conduct his case by counsel or
solicitor without the consent of all parties thereto. Boards have the
powers of summoning witnesses, administering oaths, hearing and
receiving evidence, and maintaining order granted to courts of justice.
The board embodies its decision in a recommendation, which, if
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
accepted by the parties to the dispute, is incorporated in an industrial
agreement. Failing an appeal from the recommendation of the board
to the court of arbitration within one month o f the date when such
recommendation was filed, the latter operates and is enforceable in all
respects as an industrial agreement.
A dispute may be referred directly to the court of arbitration by a
majority of the employers or the workers interested therein, without
prior hearing before a board; or a majority of the parties on either
side may appeal to the court from the recommendation of a board,
within 30 days of the filing of the latter with the clerk of awards, and
any board may refer a dispute pending before it to the court. Lawyers
appear in cases before the court only when all parties so agree. In
addition to the powers of taking evidence granted the boards, the court
has authority to require the production of bocks and papers relating
to questions in dispute, to accept as proved formal matters proved or
admitted before a board, to exercise the powers o f the supreme court
in taking evidence upon deposition in distant places or out of the State,
and to compel any party to the proceedings to give evidence as a witness.
The court may accept such evidence, whether strictly legal or not,
as in equity and good conscience it thinks fit. It also may order either
party to pay to the other party costs and expenses, including expenses
of witnesses, or apportion such costs between the parties, but can not
allow costs on account of agents, solicitors, or counsel. Both the boards
and the court, or their authorized agents, have authority to enter and
inspect premises, and to interrogate employees, in any matter relating
to a dispute under their advisement. When technical questions are
involved, experts may be appointed—one by each party—to sit as
assessors, but not as members, of the court.
The decision of the court, in which a majority of the members must
concur, is legally enforceable without the consent of the parties, and
extends to every employer and every worker in the industry for which
the award is given, unless otherwise specified, including those not
originally parties to the dispute. The court may limit the award to
any town or area, or may extend its provisions to any person, employer,
or industrial union within an industrial district, or may review and
amend an award already given. The award may fix what shall con
stitute a breach of its provisions, and what sum, not exceeding £500
($2,433), shall be the maximum penalty payable by any party in respect
o f any breach.
The jurisdiction of the boards and court extends to any industry,
which is defined to mean “ any business, trade, manufacture, under
taking, calling, or employment in which workers are employed.” A
“ worker” is “ any person of the age of 16 years and upward, of either
sex, employed or usually employed by any employer to do any skilled
or unskilled manual or clerical work for hire or reward in any indus
LABOR CONDITIONS IN
AUSTRALIA,
81
try.” The court is empowered “ to prescribe a minimum rate of
wages or other remuneration, with special provision for a lower rate
being fixed in the case of any worker who is unable to earn the pre
scribed minimum.” Its jurisdiction also extends to any “ industrial
matter,” a term that will be further defined later, in the discussion of
the awards.
The court has jurisdiction to hear cases for breach, and to enforce
its own awards, and to deal with offenses against its order and dignity
specified in the act.
The law contains a specific prohibition of strikes and lockouts in
the following terms: “ Any person who (a) takes part in or does or is
concerned in doing any matter or thing in the nature of a lockout or
strike; or (b) before a reasonable time has elapsed for a reference to
a board or court of the matter in dispute, or during the pendence of
any proceedings before the board or court in relation to an industrial
dispute, suspends or discontinues employment or work in any industry;
or (c) instigates or aids in any of the above-mentioned acts, shall be
guilty of an offense, and, upon summary conviction, on the informa
tion or complaint of the registrar, or of any industrial union, shall be
liable to a penalty not exceeding £50 ($243.33).”
The provisions of the act apply to members of industrial unions
employed by the government as if the latter were a private employer.
In case of railway servants, the association of locomotive employees is
compelled to register, and other associations may register under the
act. Such societies may enter into industrial agreements and petition
an award of the court, like employees on private undertakings, but
only the court, and not any board, can act upon such petition.
In the comments upon the New Zealand arbitration law, in the report
upon labor conditions in that colony, it was pointed out that the boards
of conciliation had not worked successfully and were rapidly falling
into disuse. The same is true in Western Australia, and the registrar,
in his report upon the working of the act, published in 1904, suggests
that “ the act would be much simplified and the settlement of indus
trial disputes would not be retarded if this section and all other pro
visions relating to boards of conciliation were omitted.” * * *
“ The chief reasons for the avoidance of the boards are (1 ) the want of
finality attaching to their recommendations, and (2 ) the fact that their
recommendations affect only the parties to the dispute and not (as in
the court’s award) other persons in the industry in the locality. It is
further found, on examining*the reports of proceedings, that nearly
all the cases heard by the boards have been reheard by the court, on
the reference in each case of the party dissatisfied with the board’s
decision.” O f the 131 industrial disputes heard in the State in 1902
and 1903, 108 were referred directly to the court without prior hear
ing before a board, and of the 24 cases that came before the boards 16
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
were subsequently appealed to the court; and even when a board’s
decision has been accepted some question of interpretation or ruling
under the recommendation or the act itself is often brought under the
notice of the court for settlement. An effort was made to abolish the
boards when the revised act of 1902 was passed, but at that time only
four or five disputes had been adjudicated under the former law, and
it was deemed expedient to give the boards a further trial, partly on
account of the fact that the scattered population and long distances in
Western Australia made it inconvenient to bring all cases before a
single tribunal. The writer interviewed a large number of people in
different parts of the State who had had practical experience with the
working of the law, as representatives of employers or employees, with
out finding a single instance where the retention of the boards as at
present constituted was favored. Two persons thought the boards
might be made useful if their powers were extended. The secretary
o f the Perth Employers’ Association said: “ I should not recommend
dropping the boards of conciliation altogether, but would make the
decision of a board final on all matters where they came to an agree
ment, allowing an appeal to the court only on those points upon which
the board failed to agree.” A labor member of Parliament expressed
practically the same view: 44 As at present constituted the boards are
useless. Perhaps their jurisdiction could be extended so as to make
them valuable if the court would refuse to reopen issues that had once
been settled before the board, even though the case as a whole were
appealed.” The minister of labor considered the boards valueless,
and stated that they had settled but one case in his district. The
Perth Trades and Labor Council has recommended to the Government
that the sections of the arbitration act relating to boards of concilia
tion be repealed.
The minister of public works said: “ 1 am convinced that the boards
of conciliation are unnecessary. They are a failure in my mind, and
I am speaking from considerable experience in conducting cases for
the workers. I don’t know of any case where a board’s recommenda
tion has been adopted. There is no appeal to them now, as the parties
go directly before the court in order to save unnecessary expense.”
An employers’ representative on a board of conciliation said: 44 Con
ciliation boards are simply a waste of time. New South Wales acted
wisely in not having them. Labor men used to cite employers before
the board simply to get their side of the case, and so fight them to
better advantage before the court. Our board (in the Perth and
Fremantle district) has not had a sitting for 15 months.” A former
representative of the employers on the arbitration court said: “ The
boards are a dead letter and ought to be out of the act. I f you are
thinking of legislation o f this sort in America, have no conciliation
boards.” The secretary of the Fremantle Trades and Labor Council,
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
83
the president of the Perth Trades and Labor Council, the secretary of
the Railway Employees’ Association, and a merchant-manufacturer
who is one of the largest employers of labor in Perth, agreed in
expressing practically the same opinion.
In the original draft of the bill for the revised law of 1902, among
the powers of the court enumerated in the preliminary section of the
act a clause was included granting authority to settle “ the claim of
members of industrial unions of workers to be employed in preference
to nonmemberp.” This clause was twice passed by the lower, and
rejected by the upper, house of parliament, and finally left out at the
close of the session in order to save the bill. It will be remembered
that the correlative clause respecting “ the claim of members of an
industrial union of employers to preference of service from unem
ployed members of an industrial union of workers” was allowed to
stand. The arbitration court has interpreted this specific rejection of
the clause as a denial of the right to grant preference to unionists, or,
as we should say, enforce the closed-shop principle, which might
otherwise have been assumed under other clauses of the act. In this
respect the law of Western Australia differs from the laws in force in
New Zealand and New South Wales. In New Zealand the court, sup
ported by a decision of the supreme court of the* colony, assumed
under the general provisions of the law the right to grant preference
of employment to unionists, which was later conferred by amendment
to the statute, and in New South Wales such power has been expressly
granted to the court in the original act.
The Western Australian act differs from the New Zealand law in con
taining no provisions for dealing with disputes in related trades, for
the continuance of the operation of awards until the making of new
awards, or for prohibiting the dismissal of workers or the discontinu
ance o f work by the worker pending the final disposition of an indus
trial dispute. The last provision was included in the New Zealand act
in order to protect workingmen witnesses from dismissal, or intimida
tion by fear of dismissal, during the pendency of a case before the
court. The registrar, in his last report upon the law in Western Aus
tralia, has recommended that amendments covering all three of these
points be made to the existing act. The New Zealand law was
amended to provide for disputes in related trades because the truck
ers in a mine struck, thus throwing out of employment the miners,
who were already under an award. In that colony unorganized work
ers, or organized workers not registered under the act, may strike if
no award has been made covering their industry. In Western Australia
the prohibition of strikes and lockouts is absolute instead of condi
tional, and therefore the need of authority to deal with related trades
is less urgent. Nevertheless it is a convenience for all parties, espe
cially^ for employers, to have the conditions of employment in all the
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
occupations or trades followed in a single industry settled at one time.
By the terms of the New Zealand act all building trades are defined as
related occupations.
The administration of the act in W estern Australia has been vigor
ously criticised by the labor people, chiefly because the president of
the court has refused to grant preference to unionists, has interpreted
the minimum wage to be the minimum existing wage as determined
by evidence, or at least a wage based upon such evidence, and not a
fair or union wage conditioned to some extent by the prosperity and
profits of an industry, and because he has refused to fix piecework
rates. These points will be more fully considered in connection with
the New South Wales law in another part of this report. This
practice of criticising the court has been common wherever an arbi
tration law has been in operation, and can hardly be avoided when
matters of such general public interest as those coming before that
tribunal are under adjudication. As the functions of the court are
legislative rather than judicial in most instances, public discussion of
its actions does not raise questions relating to its dignity or reflecting
upon its impartiality to the same extent as in case of ordinary courts
of justice. The only case brought for contempt of the court in West
ern Australia was initiated by a union of employers. It was brought
against a daily newspaper for publishing comments upon a question
before the court for adjudication. As the incident raises an interest
ing question as to the relation of state industrial regulation to the
freedom of the press, the paragraph objected to is quoted at length:
The Amalgamated Miners5 Association, in entering their vigorous
protest against the whole piecework system, very properly say that it
is 46 simply trading one man’s necessities against those o f another.”
It is also contended, and with seeming truth, that the men are more
careless under the piecework than under the day-labor system. This
can be understood to be the case for many reasons. Where the pay
is cut so fine at the instance of the employer, it is easy to see that the
men, in their anxiety to earn wages, might take less precautions than
they would have to take if, as would be the case under day labor, the
management would have to be in a large degree responsible for
accidents.
The president of the court stated that u The article is sufficiently
serious in its nature to warrant us in calling upon the publisher to
show cause why he should not be committed for contempt o f court.”
The complaint was not entertained, however, on technical grounds
relating to the court’s jurisdiction, as the proceedings were taken
specifically for contempt; but the judge intimated that a case might
be brought by the union under another clause of the arbitration act,
which provides th a t 64 If any person writes, prints, or publishes any
thing calculated to obstruct or in any way interfere with or prejudi
cially affect any matter before the board or court, he shall for every
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
85
such offense be liable to a penalty not exceeding £50 ($243.50).”
However, no further action was taken by the plaintiff.
The disposition to influence the decisions of the court through pub
lic opinion, and to regard it really as a representative legislative body,
is further evidenced by the petition of the coastal trades and labor
council that the act be amended so as to allow a two-thirds majority of
the unions to remove their representative. There was considerable
criticism on the part of both employers and workers of the provision
which allows the governor to appoint members of the court from any
persons nominated by the unions without regard to the number of
unions supporting that particular representative. Thus it has hap
pened that persons nominated by a minority of the unions and sup
ported by fewer unions than other nominees have received the
appointment.
In order to avoid the repetition of many points, and to obtain a
better comparative view of the operation of compulsory arbitration
under different conditions, the details of the awards and the juristic
principles and precedents developed in the administration of the law
in Western Australia will be considered in connection with those of
New South Wales.
In summarizing the effects of the act in Western Australia the reg
istrar says in his report for 1903:
The above legislation has promoted, consolidated, and regulated
unionism. By far the greater number of unions of workers registered
have been established since and for the purpose of registry under the
act. In case of employers unions were practically unknown until the
experience of masters under the act showed the necessity of organi
zation.
Industrial peace has been promoted. Strikes and lockouts being
absolutely prohibited by section 98 of the 1902 act and the court and
boards being constituted, disputes which otherwise might have been a
menace to and a great financial burden upon the State have been
amicably settled by conciliation and arbitration.
As a result of the decisions on the industrial disputes dealt with, the
hours and conditions of labor and rates of wages of the workers have
been, in all the leading industries, regulated ana determined for periods
covered by the awards.
The attitude of employers and of those not directly affected by the
act is more favorably disposed toward compulsory arbitration in West
ern Australia than in New South Wales. In the debate upon the second
reading of the bill of the revised law of 1902 every speaker, including
several employers, approved of the principle of compulsory arbitra
tion involved in the act. General emphasis was placed upon the pre
ventive influence of the strike penalty. Only one case was brought
to the attention of the writer where it was claimed that the influence
of the act had been to prevent the investment of capital in manufac
turing operations in the State, and in that case the investor resented
86
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the interference of trade-union officers rather than any conditions
imposed by an award. One large employer and capitalist in the
coastal district said: “ I know of no specific instances where the act
has driven capital away from the State. The decisions of the court
have usually been very fair, although the demands filed by the men
have been unreasonable.” The following adverse opinion is from a
large employer of labor, who is also in an official position to have
extensive experience with the act: “ From the time of the big strike
in 1890 I was in favor of compulsory arbitration. But after our expe
rience here we find that it has not filled the bill. I feel that the court
goes beyond its proper functions and opens up many matters that
destroy the usefulness of the act. For instance, in the gold fields it
classified occupations so rigidly that small miners, who must employ
the same men in a number of different capacities, were greatly ham
pered or unable to carry on. An arbitration law should settle dis
putes, not create them, as our act has done. Our experience has been
that unless every award is in favor of the men the court gets nothing
but abuse from them. (There is no judicious and impartial support of
its jurisdiction.) W e have had no actual strikes of importance, but
the men in our business will boycott a job we do not settle on their
own terms. Personally I consider the principle of compulsory arbi
tration a good thing, but I consider the act as administered here, with
hard and fast conditions, an evil. I have come to the conclusion that
the law has done more in Western Australia to unsettle business than
is compensated by any benefits we have derived from it.”
Another employer said: “ I am adverse to the arbitration law. It
enables a union to step in and disturb the otherwise harmonious rela
tion existing between an employer and his men. And it is unquestion
ably hampering manufacturing in this State. ” A former representative
of the employers on the court said: “ The arbitration act has failed in
three points: (1) It has not attained industrial peace in any true sense
of the word; (2 ) it has unsuccessfully attempted to fix a minimum
wage, which is economically impossible; (3) and it has proved unequally
binding on the two parties under its jurisdiction, holding the employer
but not the employee.”
On the other hand, a manufacturer who is probably the largest
employer in his line in the State said: “ I have better control over my
factory than I ever had before during the eight or nine years we have
been running, because of the arbitration award. I think 1 can speak
for the whole of the boot trade in this, and I am comparing present
conditions with the trade-union terrorism before the act went into
effect. My present business would be 50 per cent larger than it is had
it not been for the.reign of arbitrary trade unionism. Personally I get
as much work from 80 employees now as 1 got from 1 0 0 before we had
the award. Prior to arbitration we had a number of strikes, and
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
87
besides that the unions used to ‘ put a ring around my machines’—that
is, limit their output. Since the award I have been able to work these
machines. W e have practically no apprentices, and only one or two
migratory boys in the factory; but all of my men get a shade over the
minimum wage. My men abide by the award, and are better con
tented than when we had union rule.”
Workmen generally favor the act, desiring only that the powers of
the court be extended to matters not now within its jurisdiction. How
ever, some of the better organized unions are not disposed to take
advantage of the provisions of the law, preferring to maintain their
independence and settle their own accounts with employers. The sec
retary o f the coal passers’ union at Fremantle said: “ I hope our union
will never come under the arbitration act, though the law does good
in some cases.” A number of similar expressions were heard from
labor men in New South Wales.
Such objections as the workers present to the present act relate
mostly to its administration. The secretary of the Amalgamated
Miners in Western Australia said: “ The law works fairlv well, the
difficulty being in its administration. Every judge who has acted as
president o f the court has placed a different interpretation upon some
clauses of the act, and we have had four judges since 1902, when the
law went into operation. This was unusual, as one change was caused
by death and another by illness; and when we have a permanent head
for the court this trouble will be over. There is great difficulty over
the minimum-wage clause. The present judge holds that the court
has power to fix only the wage of the least competent man, leaving
employers to grade upward from that minimum.” A labor editor in
Kalgoorlie called attention to the same difficulty, and to the fact that
contradictory definitions of the minimum wage had been employed in
different awards. It was pointed out in the New Zealand report that
no uniform practice had been followed in this phase of administering
the law in that colony. The minister of labor referred to the same
question in his comments upon the law: “ Our first judge, Justice
Moorehead, and his successor, Justice Burnside, understood the- term
minimum wage as used in the act to mean a standard wage. Judge
Parker, however, has acted upon the assumption that the term means
the wage of the least competent man. Until this decision was made
all went well with the law and the men were satisfied. If there had
been no arbitration act in force at the time the Eastern Gold Fields
Miners’ case, which I conducted, was tried, we should have had one of
the bitterest strikes in the history of Australia. The men were better
organized than anywhere else in the Commonwealth, with the possible
exception of the Newcastle colliery district in New South Wales, and
had ample funds. There had been rumors of a proposed reduction o f
wages in the gold mines for some time. W e were 400 miles from the
88
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
coast, commanded the situation, and were prepared to fight. Soon
after the arbitration act came into effect, notice of the proposed reduc
tion was posted, but instead of downing tools we took our case into
court, and although an award was given creating a considerable reduc
tion in wages, the men obeyed it without demur.”
The principal industry of Western Australia is gold mining, and the
conditions under which it is carried on are exceptional enough in that
State to justify special consideration of the working of the arbitration
la\y in connection with this occupation. There are two principal mining
districts, known respectively as the Eastern and the Murchison gold
fields. The former is situated between 360 and 550 miles inland, and
is reached by a railway from the coast at Fremantle. This railway
passes for the most part through country that is practically a desert
during the dry season, and is supported solely by the gold-fields trade.
It is owned by the Government. Water for both domestic use and for
the mines is piped more than 350 miles from watersheds in the coast
ranges. The chief centers of this field are Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie,
the latter, with its suburbs, a thriving city of nearly 15,000 inhabitants.
The Murchison district is over 250 miles from the nearest port
town of Geraldton, and is likewise reached by a single line of rail
way from the coast. Although in country too arid for agriculture,
the mines of this district are supplied with water from local sources.
The two principal gold mining centers of the State are therefore isolated
communities, supported by a single industry and dependent upon one
line of communication and distant markets for the necessaries of life.
Wages and the cost of living are high. There is not a flexible supply
of labor. A general strike in either field would mean destitution for
the workers and very serious embarrassment for the companies. The
interest of both parties in maintaining industrial peace is therefore
very great. While there are no places in the United States where
exactly analogous conditions exist, because none of our mining fields
is so remote as those of Western Australia from large population
centers, yet in some o f our Rocky Mountain camps, such as Coeur
d’Alene and Cripple Creek, situations have arisen that one could easily
imagine duplicated in Kalgoorlie.
As intimated in the statement of the minister of public works quoted
above, the relations of employers and employees were somewhat
strained when the Amalgamated Miners’ Association cited the principal
employers of the Kalgoorlie field before the arbitration court, in
August, 1902. With the greater development of the district and the
completion of the railway the cost of living had fallen, and the excite
ment of the boom period, that continued for some years after the first
discoveries, had somewhat abated. Mining had changed from a purely
speculative to an industrial basis. While new claims were constantly
being filed and exploration was continued, the limits of the best paying
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
89
reefs were pretty well known, and the prospector element had yielded
in importance to the population of wage-earning miners who had settled
in the principal camps. Some new adjustment of wages and condi
tions of employment was inevitable. The miners were well organized,
and though divided into two rival unions, they were united in their
determination to prevent a reduction of pay. Action was taken by the
miners upon the posting of notices reducing wages in certain mines.
Both of the unions appeared as appellants in the case.
The court sat 4£ days and heard 49 witnesses and 3 addresses by the
representative of the employers and of each of the unions. Consider
able evidence was taken as to the cost of living in this case and in those
subsequently heard in other districts of this and the Murchison field.
According to statistics furnished by the Western Australian chamber
of mines the award wages for Kalgoorlie varied from 5 to 16f per
cent above the minimum wage paid in the mines previously.
In no occupation for which wages were fixed by the court in this
award was a lower rate of pay established than the minimum paid at
the time the case was heard, though in case of a large class of unskilled
labor the award minimum and the lowest rate paid at any mine before
the award were the same. In other districts for which awards were
subsequently granted there were 42 cases where the minimum wage
established by the award was higher than the minimum paid in any
mine in the district prior to the award, and 16 cases where the mini
mum fixed by the court was less than the minimum paid in any mine
previously. The largest increase amounted to 15 per cent, and the
largest decrease to 7£ per cent of the minimum wage formerly paid.
In some instances the hours of labor were increased, and in others
decreased one hour a week. Surface men usually work forty-eight
hours, and underground men forty-seven hours a week. No figures
are given that enable a comparison to be made between the rates of
pay fixed by the award and the average wage previously paid in all
the mines subject to the court’s decision. Therefore the statements of
the men that their pay was upon the whole reduced, and of employers
that wages were upon the whole increased by the award, are without
statistical verification.
The court attempted, in a sort of rough and ready way, to adjust
wages to the cost of living in the different camps. This was done by
forming arbitrary divisions in the fields, according to the distance of
their mining centers from the coast, and adding one English shilling
(24 cents) a day to the wage of best-paid miners, and proportionately
to the wage of other employees, accordingly as the sections in which
they worked were successively more remote from the nearest seaport.
The following tables present in a concise form the wages thus estab
lished, and the cost of staple provisions in the different districts, as
brought out in the evidence before the court.
90
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
A W A R D W A G E S P E R S H I F T I N E A S T E R N A N D M U R C H IS O N M IN IN G F IE L D S O F W E S T E R N
A U S T R A L IA .
[U n d e r g r o u n d w o r k e r s , e x c e p t i n t h e K a lg o o r lie d is tr ic t, w o r k e d 47 h o u r s a w e e k , in 6 sh ifts ; a ll sur
fa c e m e n a n d u n d e r g r o u n d m e n i n t h e K a lg o o r lie d is tr ic t w o r k e d 48 h o u r s a w e e k .]
E a ste rn fie ld s.
O c c u p a tio n .
M u r c h is o n fie ld s.
K a lg o o r
L eon oraC ueM en zies.
lie .
L a v e rto n . N a n n in e . A b b o tts .
B o ile r c le a n e r s .....................................................
B r a c e m e n .............................................................
C y a n id e v a t m e n .................................................
E n g in e d r i v e r s ..................................•................
E n g in e d r iv e r s (m a in s h a f t ) .........................
H orse d r i v e r s .......................................................
M a c h in e m e n (s h a ft s in k in g , d r y ) .............
M a c h in e m e n (r is in g , d r y ) ...........................
M a c h in e m e n (d r iv in g , s to p in g , e t c .) . . .
M in ers ( h a n d - d r i l l ) ...........................................
M u llo c k e r s a n d s h o v e l e r s .............................
P l a t m e n .................................................................
S u r fa ce l a b o r e r s .................................................
T i m b e r m e n ...........................................................
T o o ls m it h s .............................................................
T r u c k e r s .................................................................
“ W e t g r o u n d ” ( e x t r a ) ...................................
M e c h a n ic s ( j o u r n e y m e n ) ...............................
M e c h a n ic s (h e lp e r s a n d l a b o r e r s ) .............
<>92.43
2.84
2.84
a 3.24
a 3.24
a 2.84
3.49
3.37
3.24
2.84
2.56
2.84
2.43
3.24
« 2 . 92
o 2 .5 6
<*.41
« 3 .6 5
« 2 .4 3
a 92.72
3.04
3.04
3.53
3.89
63.08
3.69
3.57
3.45
3.04
2.76
3.04
2.64
3.45
3.45
2.76
.41
<>3.65
<>2.84
93.65
3.24
3.24
3.77
4.14
63 .08
3.89
3.77
3.65
3.24
2.84
3.24
2.8 4
3.65
3.65
2.8 4
<*.41
o 3 .6 5
o 2 .8 4
93.04
3.04
2.92
o 3 .2 4
o 3 .6 5
6 2 .8 8
3.53
3.41
3.24
3.04
2.76
2.92
2.6 4
3.24
3.35
2.7 6
.20
o 3 .6 5
o 2 .6 4
aP r e v a ilin g ra tes o f w a g e s ; n o a w a rd .
6 I n c lu d in g 24 c e n t s p a y f o r fe e d in g o u ts id e o f s h ift tim e .
cK a lg o o r lie t r u ck e r s r e c e iv e 92.43 a s h ift w h e r e tr u c k s a r e fille d
93.16
3.16
3.16
o 3 .2 4
o 3 .6 5
63.12
3.77
3.6 5
3.49
3.28
3.00
3.1 6
2.88
3.49
3.5 9
3.0 0
.2 0
o 3 .6 5
Peak
H ill.
93.53
3.41
3.41
o S .2 4
3.83
6 3 .3 7
4.01
3.89
3.73
3.53
3.24
3.41
3.12
3.73
3.83
3.24
.20
o 3 .8 3
o 3 .2 4
fr o m c h u te s .
<f F o r s h a ft s in k in g o n ly .
P R IC E S O F V A R IO U S A R T IC L E S O F F O O D IN E A S T E R N A N D M U R C H IS O N M IN IN G F IE L D S
O F W E ST E R N A U S T R A L IA .
E a ste rn field s.
M u r c h is o n field s.
L eon oraL a v e r to n .
C o m m o d ity .
B a c o n .............
F res h m e a t .
B u t t e r ...........
D r ip p in g s . . .
F lo u r .............
O a t m e a l ___
R i c e ...............
O n io n s ...........
P o t a t o e s ___
C o ffe e .............
T e a .................
S u g a r .............
J a m .................
C ueN a n n in e .
M e n zies.
W h o le K a lg o o r lie .
A b b o tts .
P e a k H ill.
sa le
U n it
p r ic e
(lb s ) .
R e
R e
R e
R e
R e
R e
at
ta il
C ost ta il
C ost ta il
C ost ta il
C ost t a il
C ost ta il
P erth . C ost
at
at
at
at
p r ic e
p r ic e
at
p r ic e
p r ic e
p r ic e
at
p ric e
m in e . a t m in e .
at m in e .
a t m in e .
a t m in e .
a t m in e .
at
m in e .
m in e .
m in e .
m in e .
m in e .
m in e .
1
1
1
2
50
7
1
1
1
1
5
1
2
90.24 90.25 90.304 90.254 90.364 90.254 90.364 90.304 90.424 90.314 90.364 90.32 90.424
.244
.244
.2 2 4
.284
.244
.2 2 4
.43
.424
.424
.484
.344 .484
.334 .484
.354 .61
.414 .424 .444
.32|
.424
.33
.424
.544
.394
.484
.304
.324 •m
.404
.414
1.284 1.52 1.944 1.55 2.674 1.584 2.674 2.09 2.19 2.494 3.65* 2.634 3.894
.40
.65
.3 9
.79
.71
.364
.394
.484
.484 .404
.454
.484
.474
.05
.06
.10
.10
.06
.06
.07
.10
.07
.10
.12
.064
.074
.05
.04
.04
.024
.024
.10
.024 .04
.024
.034 .03
.034 .08
.04
.05
.01
.03
.04
.04
.024
.024
.08
.10
.014
.014
.014
.28
.33
•424 .314
.424 .324 .424
.264
.274 .364
.364
.284
.424
1.164 1.254 1.824 1.27 1.824 1.284 1.824 1.31 1.824 1.34 2.434 1.35 2.434
.0 5
.07
.08
.06
.08
.06
.07
.07
.08
.10
.064
.064
.074
.14
.17
.224
.174
.224 .154 •244 .204 -244
.224 .284 .234 .284
Taking an arbitrary ration of one-fourth pound tea, one-fourth
pound coffee, one-half pound sugar, and 1 pound of each of the other
commodities whose prices are given in the above table, and the aver
age wage in the 1 2 occupations uniformly regulated by awards in the
6 districts, and using the Kalgoorlie figures as an index, the relative
variation of award wages and of the cost of food in the districts in
question is expressed by the following percentages.
91
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
R E L A T I V E A W A R D W A G E S A N D CO ST O P F O O D IN T H E E A S T E R N A N D M U R C H IS O N
M IN IN G F IE L D S O F W E S T E R N A U S T R A L I A .
E a stern field s.
A v e r a g e w a g e .....................................................
C ost o f f o o d ...........................................................
K a lg o o r lie .
M e n zies.
100
100
107
108
M u r c h is o n field s.
L eon oraC ueA b b o tts .
L a v e r to n N a n n in e .
113
115
103
113
Ill
123
P eak
H ill.
119
134
A different combination of figures might make the cost of food
appear to vary in quite a different ratio, but the percentages here pre
sented indicate that a practical artificial adjustment of wages to cost of
living might lead to some rather bizarre results. Evidently this prin
ciple alone can not guide a court in fixing rates of pay, and its partial
application in the present instances was vigorously criticised by
employers. They have pointed out that as railways have been built
to the richest centers in the fields, the cost of living is usually lowest
in precisely the places where the mining industry is best able to pay
a high wage; but the principle adopted by the court in these awards
has been to make the poorer mines, located where food, fuel, and other
supplies have to be freighted at great expense and the cost of operat
ing is highest, pay very much more for their labor than mines rela
tively more favorably situated. The action of natural economic law
would bring about this result, even if there were no arbitration court;
and though the method of determining wages adopted by that body is
so simple as to be almost amusing, and has been aptly described by an
editor as “ taking the richest mining camp possibly in the wide world
as a center, measuring off circles around it, and increasing all wages
paid in similar employments for every inch of the radius;” and it may
be true that such a process “ spells extinction at every step for some
employer attempting to follow the industry, until finally a point is
reached beyond which no. employment is possible,” yet an award does
no more than to define rather more rigidly than before conditions
already existing. In a semidesert country like the interior of West
ern Australia, profitable mining development is always conditioned by
transportation facilities to an even greater extent than elsewhere,
simply because all food and supplies must be imported from very dis
tant markets.
Yet the effect o f these awards has very possibly been to discourage
new development, by bringing clearly and prominently before invest
ors the high labor cost of putting a new mine on a producing basis.
The report of the Western Australian chamber of mines thus refers
to this subject: <4W e say advisedly that the decisions of the court of
arbitration have been the direct cause, not of mere stagnation, but of
serious curtailment of the sphere of employment hitherto furnished
by that industry (gold mining). Let us suppose for a moment some
92
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
mine of sufficient promise to warrant expenditure of capital in open
ing up and proving, but which is not an exceptionally rich show.
Would any sane individual, either by himself or in concert with others,
face such a proposition on the basis of the wages fixed by the court of
arbitration in any outlying district? And if this is so, if the pursuit
of the industry in the prospecting stages has been rendered impossible
except in case of mines of unusual richness, what future can be legiti
mately hoped for, and what effect must the exhaustion of existing
mines have on the number of workers engaged in the industry ?” A
mining official said: “ The arbitration act hampers expansion in min
ing in two ways. The high wages it creates prevents speculative
development of fields and individual mines that might prove very pro
ductive if once opened up; and they prevent our working low-grade
ores already discovered, which are abundant throughout the surround
ing country.”
A t the expiration of the Kalgoorlie award, which is most important
as affecting the largest gold-mining district in the State, the employers
voluntarily entered into an industrial agreement with the unions,
renewing the old terms, with some slight concessions to the workers.
The companies restored the 47-hour week for underground men, which
had been increased to 48 hours by the award. They also raised the
wages of riggers from 10s. ($2.43) to 11s. 8d. ($2.84) a shift, and sup
plied some omissions in the award by fixing the wages of mechanics’
laborers at 11s. ($2.68), oilers at 10s. 6d. ($2.56), and foremen at 11s. 8d.
($2.84) a shift. This agreement was accepted without demur by four
o f the five unions affected. The judge refused an appeal by the fifth
union to bring certain points, to which they objected, into court. An
agreement was also entered into at the expiration of the Cue-Nannine
award, which reduced wages slightly in that district, without recourse
to arbitration.
The court has refused to abolish the contract system, but has directed
that such agreements shall be in writing, contain a clear specifica
tion of the work required to be done, the price for which it is to be
done, the price at which stores and explosives will be supplied by the
company to the contractors, and the dates of the progress payments
to be made to the men. The unions officially wish to do away with
contract and the mine managers wish to retain the system. In the
testimony before the court it was not shown that contract miners
usually earned less than those receiving wages, although this claim is
often presented by the men. A union official showed the writer a
settlement account of a party of 10 contractors who had earned only
4s. 6d. ($1.10) a shift, which was considerably less than their cost of
living. However, in a detailed statement showing work done, stoping
and driving sulphide ore on contract, in the “ golden mile” at Kal
goorlie, where payment was based on linear footage bored, the average
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
93
earnings of 6 parties of miners, totaling 14 men, working on 5 differ
ent levels, 1,620£ shifts, were 14s. Id. ($3.43) a shift. These are the
net profits of the men after paying for stores and explosives. Their
award wage would have been 13s. 4d. ($3.24) a shift. The labor cost
of breaking out ore on these contracts was a shade under 50 cents
a ton.
Miners sometimes claim that the contract system is used as a means
of evading the terms of the award. One union officer said that con
tracts were let for carpenter work, cleaning cyanide vats, and even for
tool sharpening. A mine official said: “ Mine owners want to retain
freedom of contract. Doubtless managers have employed the contract
system to avoid some of the evils of the arbitration court awards.
Usually shaft sinking is let by contract, because that is a kind of work
that owners want rushed through, and where the supervision of work
men would add relatively more to the cost. Practical considerations
of this sort usually determine whether or not work is contracted. The
average earnings of contractors are fully equal to award wages, but not
so uniform. The advantage may lie with either party. The time and
cost of doing work underground can not be predicted exactly because
the material to be worked can not be seen. Some contractors are now
earning as high as $6.09 a shift.” One of the members of the court
also referred to economies in supervision, especially where work was
being done in obscure headings, effected by letting work in contract.
The evidence before the court appears to indicate that some of the best
workers and many of the nonunion men favor this system of working.
This is but a phase of a question that will be considered elsewhere, in
connection with the minimum wage, relating to the alleged leveling
effect of a statutory wage upon workmen.
New South Wales sent one of .its prominent judges to New Zealand in
1901 to investigate the working of the arbitration law in that colony,
and upon his report enacted a somewhat similar law, embodying the
principle of compulsory state arbitration of industrial disputes. The
main difference from the New Zealand law is that no provision is made
for boards of conciliation or for preliminary conciliatory procedure
before bringing the case up for arbitration. The manifest failures of
the New Zealand act in this direction doubtless were the occasion for
this modification. The essential provisions of the New South Wales
act are as follows:
(1) The governor is directed to appoint a registrar whose duties are:
(a) To issue certificates of incorporation to unions registered under the
act; (b) to record industrial agreements (or collective bargains between
unions of employers and unions of employees); (c) to receive officially
applications for a reference o f an industrial dispute to the court; (d)
to certify to any order o f the court.
12425— N o. 56— 05------ 7
94
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
(2) The act provides for the incorporation of any trade union or
any branch of a trade union, or any employer or employing corpora
tion or company, or group of the same, that has in the aggregate
employed upon an average 50 persons during the 6 months preceding
the application for incorporation. The unions upon complying with
the provisions of this act as to incorporation, including the filing of
their rules with the registrar and the approval of these by him, become
for the purposes of the act corporations endowed with the usual
powers, except that they are not liable to have their property taken
in execution except under the act. A union may have its registration
as a corporation canceled by the court upon application by the reg
istrar. Any application to register an industrial union may be refused
if another union is in existence to which the applicants might con
veniently belong. Industrial unions have three special privileges not
shared by ordinary trade unions or associations of employers: They
can bring references to the court; they can enter into industrial agree
ments enforceable by the court; and they have the right to nominate
candidates for appointment upon the court. But jurisdiction of the
court is not confined to unions or their members in the application of
its orders and awards.
(3) The court consists of a supreme court justice as president, and
a representative of each the employers and the employees, appointed
by the governor from nominees of the unions of the two sides, respec
tively. The term o f appointment is 3 years, and the salary of lay
members is £750 ($3,650) per annum and expenses when traveling.
(4) The court has full power to determine its own rules, to take
evidence, to inspect books in camera, to enter and visit for purposes
of inspection or information any industrial establishment concerning
which a reference is before it, to reopen any reference, and to assess
costs, except that it shall not allow costs for the attendance of a lawyer
in behalf of any party. Lawyers, however, are allowed to plead before
the court. The president of the court alone shall decide upon the
admission of evidence.
Proceedings in the court are not removable to any other court by
certiorari or otherwise, and there is no right of appeal on technicalities
to any other court.
The arbitration court is expressly authorized to (a) fix a minimum
wage and slow-worker rate; (b) grant compulsoiy preference to
unionists; (c) make any of its decisions, or any custom or regulation of
any industry, or any term of an industrial agreement a common rule
in any industry; (d) grant injunctions to prevent a violation of an
award; (e) expel members from unions; (f) dissolve unions by ordering
a cancellation of their registration (but this power is clouded by
technical uncertainties arising out of the wording of the act at present);
(g) impose penalties and inflict fines up to the amount of £500 ($2,433)
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
95
upon any union, or £5 ($24.33) upon any member of a union, for
breaches of an award or order of the court.
(5) The act prohibits strikes and lockouts under a penalty of £1,000
($4,867) or two months’ imprisonment, and makes inciting or partici
pating in such a disturbance a misdemeanor.
(6) Prosecutions for breach of any award may be brought before a
court of first instance, with right of appeal to the arbitration court
itself.
(7) Provision is made for the registration of industrial agreements,
as before mentioned, which are enforced by the court.
(8) The life of the act is limited, it being provided that it shall ter
minate, unless reenacted, upon June 30, 1908.
To begin a strike or lockout is a misdemeanor under the act, and
the court has held that it has no power to punish this offense, but that
prosecutions for violation of this clause of the statute should properly
be brought before the regular criminal tribunals. In thus making
issues arising from offenses against the act itself, “ questions which are
or may be subject of proceedings for an indictment,” and holding
them to lie beyond the court’s direct jurisdiction, progress has cer
tainly been made toward that separation of legislative and judicial
power, which has always been a salutary principle of organic law.
Even as it is, the discretion of the court is the only security that a per
son has that he may not be convicted of violating the court’s commands
by virtue of an interpretation amounting virtually to an amendment
of an award. In New Zealand a pecuniary penalty for offenses of a
similar character against the provisions of the arbitration law may be
inflicted by the court, and a conviction secured carrying with it finan
cial consequences and social losses greater than those involved in what
are technically serious criminal acts, with a possible ultimate recourse
to penal sanctions, without the protection of criminal procedure or
jury trial. One of the most important advances made by the New
South Wales act, then, over previous legislation of the same character,
has been in the express and implied provisions creating a separation of
the judicial functions, as involved in the punishment of breaches of
awards and contraventions of the act itself, from the delegated legisla
tive powers conferred upon the tribunal which it constitutes. In a
debate in the present session of parliament the attorney-general of
New South Wales, who is author of the present law, said: “ In their
essence the determinations of the court are the same as the regulations
under the factory acts, and it is only proper that they should be
enforced in the same way.” Though in case of trials for breaches of
awards this separation of the two spheres of authority is not complete
in the act in question, a beginning has been made which, with the con
stantly increasing burdens of the court, points the way to a final and
absolute divorce of legislative and judicial powers. If under the pres
96
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
sure of business, which is already becoming a most serious problem,
the arbitration court should be wholly relieved of all necessity of
interpreting its own awards and punishing their violation, even upon
appeal from the lower magistrates, a very positive advance would have
been made toward a recognition of orthodox juristic canons in this
body of legislation.
The New South Wales act gives the court jurisdiction over the
employees of the government railways, while in New Zealand this
authority has been granted only with important reservations. The
Commonwealth arbitration bill was withdrawn by the ministry which
proposed it, in 1903, on account of a controversy over this point,
although the law later enacted gives the Federal court jurisdiction
over industries conducted by a State or other public authority. The
matter may be mentioned here simply in order to indicate that the
principle involved is quite distinct in the two instances. The individ
ual States of the Federation own their railways, and administer them
either through a special board of railway commissioners or through a
separate ministry or department. The compensation, promotion, and
general working conditions of employees are regulated in some instances
by administrative ordinances, and in some instances by acts of par
liament, or by both of these. If a State cares to divide authority over
the railway service between its regular administrative officers and an
arbitration court it is perfectly competent to do so; or it can decide
that the public welfare will be better consulted by leaving undivided
authority over the railways and their employees in the hands of a
single department of the government. The argument in favor of the
latter course is that the railway commission or the responsible officer
at the head of that department is better able to adjust salaries and the
general conditions of employment to the vaiying demands of the
service than is an outside body. But the whole matter is a question of
policy, pure and simple, and wholly within the jurisdiction of the local
parliament.
In case of the Federal Government, on the other hand, there are
constitutional principles involved, and it is held by many persons that
to assume jurisdiction over the state railway employees would be an
unjustifiable and illegal invasion of state’s rights. A decree of the
Federal arbitration court raising wages, for instance, may become
tantamount to an order to a state parliament to increase its appropria
tions for the support of its railway service. Before this tribunal state
governments will be placed in the position of private employers.
It is only by an extraordinarily loose interpretation of the Federal
constitution that such a power can be conjured into the hands of the
central government, and the fact that this construction has been
adopted in the recently enacted Commonwealth arbitration law shows
how widely the theories and ideals of many public men in Australia
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
97
differ, as regards the principles of Federal government, from those
held in America.
The development of compulsory arbitration in actual application to
industrial disputes, the silent and ceaseless way it absorbs powers and
becomes a potent regulator of industry, has been examined in the
report upon labor conditions in New Zealand. It would be an unnec
essary repetition to go over all this ground again in case of New South
Wales and Western Australia, where many New Zealand precedents
have been adopted; therefore, in the present report, consideration will
be confined to such developments and principles arising in the applica
tion of the arbitration law of those States as present novel features
or old features with a novel emphasis.
A most important difference between the New Zealand act and that
of New South Wales is that while the former forbids strikes and
lockouts only after one of the parties thereto has voluntarily come
under the jurisdiction of the court, by filing an application for the
reference of the matter in dispute to that tribunal the latter makes a
strike or lockout a misdemeanor, if begun or instigated u before
a reasonable time has elapsed for a reference to the court of the mat
ter in dispute.” While, therefore, strikes may and do occasionally
occur in New Zealand, in cases where a trade is not under an arbitra
tion award and there is no disposition on the part of either employers
or employees to appeal to the law, a strike or lockout, qud strike or
lockout, is a violation of the law in New South Wales, without regard
to any previous recourse to the intervention of the court. The offense
in the first case is analagous to a violation of an injunction granted
pending proceedings, and in the latter case it is a direct violation of a
penal statute.
The first case that came before the court in New South Wales led to
a clear enunciation of the principle that the law was intended to pro
hibit strikes and lockouts; that this was the central and essential prin
ciple of the law, and that the court would punish any act looking
toward a violation o f the spirit as well as the letter of these clauses of
the statute. The reference in question was brought by the Newcastle
Wharf Laborers’ Union against the Newcastle and Hunter River Steam
ship Company (Limited). The official summary of the case is as follows:
Various disputes had from time to time arisen between the claim
ants and the respondent company with regard to the terms and con
ditions of employment. In April, 1902, the respondent company
determined to dispense with the casual system of engaging labor on
their wharfs, which had been in force for the preceding 18 months,
and to take on constant hands. Preference of employment on these
terms was offered to the members of the claimant union, who, however,
declined to work on the terms offered, though they were willing to
accept a provisional arrangement pending a reference to the court.
To this the company would not agree, and engaged a number of non
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unionists, who displaced the members of the union. The court were
of opinion that the company honestly believed that they were legally
entitled to force the members of the union out of work in the exercise
of the right of freedom of contract, which they claimed.
Held, that the company had been guilty of a breach of the act, and
that its action was “ in the nature of a lockout.” (a)
Semble, an employer may be guilty of an act “ in the nature of a
lockout” without closing his place of employment or suspending work.
The right of freedom of contract has been considerably modified by
the industrial arbitration act. Though parties may still make volun
tary agreements, existing terms and conditions of employment can not
be disturbed at the will of one party alone. The object of the act being
to secure continuity of industrial operations, in the absence of mutual
agreement as to alteration of existing conditions, resort must be had to
the court, which will decide “ according to equity and good conscience.”
The respondent company having altered the conditions existing at
the time the dispute arose, the court ordered that the status quo should
be reestablished, and that the members of the claimant union, who had
been displaced by nonunionists, should be reemployed by the com
pany upon the terms stated in the award. The claimant union was
ordered at all times to supply the necessary wharf labor, the company
to be at liberty to make good any deficiency by engaging nonunionists.
The important principle is thus enunciated that the arbitration act
has so modified the right of freedom of contract that, “ though parties
may still make voluntary agreements, existing terms and conditions of
employment can not be disturbed at the will of one party alone.”
This is the basic principle underlying the New South Wales statute—a
new canon of private law first made a general enactment and clearly
defined in that State. In New Zealand the Government has assumed
the right to make and enforce a new contract o f service upon the
application of either party thereto; in New South Wales the court has
assumed the right to enforce the implied contract necessarily existing
between every master and servant until, either by mutual agreement
or by its own intervention, that contract has been modified.
In a second case, brought before the court shortly, after the one just
mentioned, a union of shipwrights had withdrawn its men from certain
work as a result of a disagreement as to classification of work with the
shipbuilders’ and the shipjoiners’ unions. The men were forced to
return to work, though they had meanwhile secured engagements else
where, under a penalty of £5 ($24.33) a member and £100 ($487) upon the
« The court in Western Australia seems to hold the view that a lockout is not com
mitted when the employer substitutes an entirely new set of men for those dismissed.
This opinion is based upon an opinion of the full court to the effect that in order for
an act to constitute a strike or lockout it is necessary that “ the intention of the
workmen in the one case and of the employer in the other should be that the
employment shall be continued if a satisfactory settlement of the matter in dispute
can be arrived at.”
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
99
union for violation of the court’s order. They were directed to bring
any matter in dispute with the other unions before the court in the
regular manner, but they were not permitted to interrupt employment
as a result of that dispute.
A third case arose from the action of the manager of a copper
mining syndicate in reducing the wages of the smelters in his emplo}^
without previous consultation and agreement. The reduction was made
in consequence of reduced profits in the industry. The court, how
ever, made a retrospective order for payment of wages at the original
rate from the date that they had been reduced. In his decision the
judge again said: “ There can be no alteration of conditions of employ
ment, except by the mutual consent of the parties, until the court
determines what the conditions shall be.”
The converse is not true—that the contract can not be altered against
the mutual consent of the parties thereto. The court can impair the
validity of a private contract already existing, without the consent of
either party, upon the application of a third person not a party to the
contract itself. This important power of the court is conveyed in the
following clause of the act, authorizing it to—
Declare that any practice, regulation, rule, custom, term of agree
ment, condition o f employment, or dealing whatsoever in relation to
an industrial matter shall be a common rule of an industry affected by
the proceeding.
This means in substance that a union may have a rule of that organi
zation applied and enforced in the whole trade in the State; that any
clause of a collective bargain made by one employer with his employees
may be extended by the court to all employers under its jurisdiction,
and that a previous different agreement between any one or group of
such employers and his or their employees is no bar to such extension;
that a custom that has grown up in one locality, possibly in response
to the more perfect organization of labor in that vicinity, or for other
causes, may be extended to other localities where these conditions do
not exist. All this lies within the discretion of the court, and it is
claimed a custom is thus made a common rule at times without the
previous knowledge of many employers thereby affected. However,
the court prescribes that every reasonable effort shall be made to secure
fair notice of an extension or a projected extension of a condition by
means of a common rule to all concerned in its application. This is
another phase of what was discussed in the New Zealand report as the
“ colonial award,” and would of course be in direct violation of our
constitutional provisions prohibiting the legislature from impairing
the validity of private contracts, were such a law attempted in America;
yet the court could hardly fulfill its purpose without this authority,
as is suggested in the following published statement of the former
attorney-general of New South Wales, who is the author of the act.
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
A shearers’ union registered under the act applied for the cancellation
of the registration of a rival union, alleging, among other reasons for
granting the application, that an industrial agreement between the
rival union and the pastoralists would be a bar to any order of the
court regarding the pastoral industry. To this the attorney-general
replies:
This contention is not considered sound by most of those who are
competent to speak as to the intention and meaning of the act, and 1
am not aware that it is supported by the opinion of any lawyer. If it
is correct, the act can be defeated every time an attempt is made to
put it into force by the making of a contract between two or more pri
vate persons who might be prejudicially affected by the court’s decision.
Probably the matter of second importance within the court’s juris
diction is that of preference to unionists. This is a point, in addition
to the one just mentioned, where an almost necessary power of the
court would be in conflict with the State and Federal constitutions of
the United States; for by this grant of power parliament delegates to
the court authority, which our legislatures do not possess, of special
and class legislation. The provision of the New South Wales act reads
as follows, under powers of the court, authorizing it to—
Direct that, as between members of an industrial union of employees
and other persons, offering their labor at the same time, such members
shall be employed in preference to such other persons, other things
being equal.
The power here granted is supplemented by the following clause,
defining 64industrial matters: ”
The employment * * * of any person or persons, or class of
persons in any industry, or the dismissal of or refusal to employ any
particular person or persons or class of persons therein.
Under these clauses the court has held that it possesses authority to
order that a nonunionist seeking employment shall, as a condition
precedent to his obtaining it, agree to join the union within a speci
fied time after his -engagement. It is doubtful, however, whether
the court would exercise the power, which it probably possesses
under the second clause just quoted, and which has been exercised by
the New Zealand tribunal, of directing that nonunionists already
in the employment of a firm shall be replaced by unionists apply
ing for engagement subsequently, although the union can not, when
the order is given, supply the men required by the e m p lo y e r . The
policy .of the court is not to order preference where an employer in
the past has habitually given preference to union employees. If
preference is granted, it is usually subject to the conditions estab
lished by the precedent of the New Zealand court—that admission to
the union shall not be restricted, that fees and dues shall not exceed a
specified sum, and that the union shall keep an employment book open
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
101
for the inspection of employers at a convenient place for consultation
during- business hours. In case of colliery employees the court has
enforced the rule that when a reduction in hands takes place the last
taken on shall be the first to go.
Preference to unionists in Australia has given rise to a serious polit
ical question that has not presented itself up to the present time in
New Zealand. In the latter colony the labor men are not organized
into an autonomous party, as in the different States of the Common
wealth, and the trade unions are not directly political organizations,
although they possess considerable indirect influence in elections.
They are not, as in Australia, the primary units of a political labor
league, whose members are taxed for campaign purposes. They are
bound by no pledges to support any particular candidate or platform.
In Australia, as was explained in describing the organization of the
labor party, the unions are integral parts of the political machine. A
member of a union in some instances has not a free ballot on election
day. One of the most powerful unions had until recently a rule,
which will be quoted later in another connection, imposing a fine of
£3 ($14.60) upon any member voting or working against a labor candi
date. The rules of the political labor council, Victoria, require each
union joining to pay $5.11 affiliation fee; and each member of an
affiliated union to pay 2 cents a quarter to the election fund. Similar
provisions are found in the constitution of the New South Wales
Political Labor League. The executive of the latter body has 16
prominent trade union officials among its 23 members. Some unions
require that a man shall possess an elector’s right in order to be eligible
to membership. An Australian labor federation has been formed by
the cooperation of trade unions throughout the Commonwealth, which
levies 24 cents on its members for the purpose of financing Federal labor
candidates. The writer was present at a meeting of a trades and labor
council where a motion to raise a fund by a levy on the unions for the
purpose of paying the campaign expenses of labor candidates was dis
cussed and supported by a large number of the delegates present.
Although the motion was amended so as to recommend that the Politi
cal Labor League make such a levy for the purpose indicated, the
practical effect of any action the league may have taken pursuant to
this recommendation was exactly the same as if the fund had been
raised directly by the council. One of the speakers said: “ Politics
are the very foundation of our constitution, and the success of the
council is largely attributable to the political labor movement.” The
secretary of an employers’ association thus voiced his criticism of the
political influence of compulsory preference to unionists in the arbi
tration awards:
Compulsory preference to unionists means compulsory labor par
tisanship, and creates a vicious circle of labor power. The union
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
leaders are the political leaders and hold office by virtue of the
trade-union vote. They make laws that compel every worker to join
a trade union as a condition of securing employment. Trade unions
form the Political Labor League—the labor party organization. There
fore the labor leaders virtually compel every wage-earner to join their
party and vote for them. In other words, they use the legislative
machinery to give themselves permanent political tenure.
An attorney who has represented employers in important cases
before the arbitration court said:
In the case at Broken Hill (a principal mining center) an application
for an award was made by the Barrier branch of the Amalgamated
Miners’ Association shortly before election, although there was little
prospect of their securing higher wages under prevailing conditions,
.and special stress was laid upon the claim for preference to unionists.
It was commonly reported that the union brought this application
with the end of strengthening its ranks so as to defeat Ferguson, the
candidate for parliament. Ferguson is a labor man, but had some
quarrel with the Political Labor League. The Amalgamated Miners’
Association has a rule requiring members to vote for labor candidates.
If the Australian Workers’ Union (to which reference is made later)
has repealed this rule in its own constitution, it still maintains it in
spirit. Man}7 cases are brought before the court by a small body of
men controlling a small union, in order to secure a preference to
unionists clause, and thus strengthen their ranks and their own polit
ical and labor influence, although there is no economic occasion for a
dispute and no discontent exists among the great majority of work
ingmen employed in the industry.
The Commonwealth bill establishing a Federal arbitration court,
which has recently become a law, contains a provision, inserted
against the will of the labor ministry in power at the time, which
allows the court to grant preference subject to two important restric
tions intended to meet the difficulties just mentioned. Preference shall
not be granted unless (1) “ the application for such preference is, in
the opinion of the court, approved by a majority of those affected by
the award who have interests in common with the applicants,” nor shall
it be granted to any union (2) “ so long as its rules or other binding
decisions permit the application of its funds to political purposes, or
require its members to do anything of a political character.” The
registrar of the New South Wales court, in speaking of this matter,
said: “ There should be such a firm administration of the unions by
the court as to compel them to limit their activity to legitimate indus
trial ends, and prevent their intruding into politics.” However, the
returns of the last election do not show that preference of employment
to unionists has especially strengthened the political labor party in
New South Wales, as compared with other States where this privilege
does not exist.
Another phase of the preference-to-unionists question which occa
sioned considerable unfavorable comment manifested itself in Sydney
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
103
in June, 1904. In December, 1902, the Sydney Wharf Laborers’ Union
entered into an industrial agreement with the Stevedores’ Association
of that city, which was accepted and made an award by the arbitration
court. While the parties were before the court an informal discussion
took place as to the power of the workers’ union to limit its member
ship, the chief point raised being the means to be used in securing
competent men. Waterside occupations are often a recourse of loaf
ers, criminals, and other lawless or undesirable characters, who take up
the business for a few weeks in order to tide over a special emergency
or secure an opportunity to pilfer cargo; therefore discretion in select
ing and rejecting applicants for admission to longshore unions is often
necessary for their good standing and efficiency. In the course of the
discussion the president of the court incidentally made the remark:
“ It may be the union might take the risk and say, 4W e will close our
books now for a month or 6 weeks.’ As a court we have no power to
interfere in that particular matter on this application.” Supported b^y
this somewhat equivocal suggestion, the union did close its books about
18 months later. In the interval the award had been made a common
rule applying to all persons engaged in stevedoring. Three nonunionist
wharf laborers, regularly employed by a steamship owner, applied for
admission to the union, and upon being refused, on the ground that
the books were closed, brought their grievance before the arbitration
court.
According to the secretary of the union, that body took the action
because they understood they were justified in doing so by the opinion
of the judge expressed at the time the award was granted and by sub
sequent legal advice taken by the union upon this point. Evidence
presented before the court showed that not more than 2,000 of the
3,000 members of the union were employed at one time, and that
power to close the union’s books would be one of importance in affect
ing real wages—that is, the average earnings of the men—under the
award, although it would affect in no way the rate of wage that steve
dores would have to pay for the service of wharf men. The secretary
quoted the judge as saying that if such an influx of men into the union
occurred as to change the conditions of employment under which the
award was granted, by rendering work excessively irregular, the
union might be justified in closing its books, so long as there was no
complaint of dearth of labor by employers. The immediate occasion
for closing the books was stated to be that not over 50 per cent of
the members of the union were ever employed at one time, so that the
average worker was not able to earn a living wage under the terms of
the award; that the government has recently closed the harbor to net
fishing, and a large influx of the Greeks and Italians formerly engaged
in that industry was anticipated; and that firms had adopted a practice
of sending any discharged employee or laborer applying to them for
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
assistance down to the wharf, often with a job in his pocket, although
he had never before done any work on the waterside. Such men dis
placed old unionists and then asked to join the union. No complaint
had been made by any employer that the union was not able to furnish
him ail the labor he required, under the conditions of the award.
Another grievance of the union, not referred to by the secretary,
appeared to be that the members insist on every man having an equal
chance at all work offered, and oppose salaried employees engaging in
their occupation or any men holding permanent positions at regular
pay doing wharf laborers’ work. The three men refused admission to
the union, who took their case to court, were permanent employees of a
shipping firm and had been in the same service for a number of years,
although they had not previously joined a union.
The arbitration court ordered the union to open its books and admit
the three workers bringing the complaint, and later to pay costs to
the amount of $15.34 for litigation in connection with the case. The
judge remarked that he considered the action of the union, as disclosed
in the affidavits of the complainants, autocratic and tyrannical in the
extreme. The award was amended to make preference apply only so
long as the union admitted any person of good character making writ
ten application, without ballot, upon the payment of an admission fee
not exceeding $2.92 and annual dues not above the same amount.
Several labor men, including two prominent trade union secretaries,
criticised the action of the Wharf Laborers’ Union in much the same
terms as those, used by the court itself, and said that the exclusive
policy adopted by that organization was likely to prejudice the whole
question of preference to unionists, and injure the labor party politi
cally. One union secretary said: “ I think that every man should
belong to a union, and that by closing books you create a class of compul
sory scabs who will fight union men at every opportunity. ” Many con
sidered the formal closing of a union’s books impolitic, though they evi
dently sympathized with the object which it was thus sought to attain.
The Sydney Coal Lumpers’ Union, another of the longshore trades,
has sought to keep efficient men, who were in regular employment and
therefore unpopular with the casual workers, out of the union by black
balling them on ballot. An incident of this sort, where the lumpers
refused to coal a ship employing nonunion men or to admit the men to
whom they objected to their union, occurred about the same time as
the wharf laborers’ trouble, but in this case no award existed and no
remedy was sought before the court.
Employers in New South Wales were almost unanimous in criticis
ing compulsory preference to unionists as the worst feature of the
arbitration act. “ It causes the chief trouble,” “ It causes all the
trouble,” were expressions frequently heard when that law was under
discussion. The power it gives to union secretaries is dreaded. The
LABOR CONDITIONS' IN AUSTRALIA.
105
secretary of an employers’ union said: “ Even if the unions are for
bidden to engage in political work, as is proposed in the Federal law,
if they are granted preference of employment under arbitration awards,
there is enough power left in the hands of the union secretary, in send
ing men to jobs under the regulations provided in the awards, to make
him a little political boss in his union, with effective power to keepan}Tone not under his dictation out of work.” Another employer attrib
uted the congestion of business before the court, which has become a
very serious embarrassment in both New Zealand and New South
Wales, to the claims for preference to unionists. “ Every union sees
the advantage to be gained by compulsory preference, and realizes that
it only requires a small matter to give them a case before the court,
and so every union has rushed into court with its preference demand
and congested business by artificial disputes. Obviously the original
intent of the act was to bring in preference only when a strike was
imminent otherwise. ” Many of the arguments advanced against grant
ing preference by employers are arguments usually directed against
trade unionism in general—that it robs the individual workman of
ambition, introduces a dead level of work and workmanship into trades,
favors “ ca-canny,” makes the union a close corporation, an aristocracy
of labor, monopolizing the labor supply, and is an infringement of the
personal liberty of the workman.
The miners are so well organized in New South Wales and Western
Australia that in both States their representatives attached less impor
tance to preference than did other labor leaders interviewed. In some
places an attempt has been made to secure preference indirectly. In
New South Wales colliery awards, as already mentioned, managers
have been ordered by the court to dismiss men on the “ last come,
first g o ” principle, which gives the older employees, who are usually
union men, a pretty secure lease of employment, and prevents a gradual
nonunionizing of the force by substituting little by little unorganized
for organized workmen. An attempt was made to secure a similar
rule in the Collie coalfields of Western Australia, but the court refused
to make the order. An objection made to such a provision by employ
ers is that it forces them to retain insubordinate or inefficient work
men, although better men are to be had at the same wages. Especially
in a new country like Western Australia, it is pointed out, where many
industries are just starting, a population of skilled workers is not
always present at the outset of an undertaking, and the men first
engaged may not be competent to carry on the business after it has
been developed. However, the court in New South Wales has not
seen fit to extend the “ last come, first g o ” clause to any industries
where the embarrassment last suggested is likely to be experienced.
The chief argument in favor of granting preference to unionists is
derived from the fundamental theory of the Australasian arbitration
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
laws, and was thus summarized in the New Zealand Report: “ The law
constituting the court is based upon the assumption of unionism, and
its machinery can be set in action only by these organizations. W ith
out them the act itself becomes inoperative. Anything that justifies
the act justifies the existence of the unions and forms a valid argument
for their encouragement. The court is not empowered to deal with
workers as individuals, and the very life of its jurisdiction depends
upon the organization of emploj'ees.” Justice Williams said, in a
New Zealand case: “ The act confers no status on a workman who is
not a member of a union. Giving preference to unionist does not
affect any right of a nonunionist workman. The whole scope of the
act is to give the court jurisdiction to restrain employers on the one
hand and trade unions and their members on the other.”
The practical argument usually advanced by workers in support of
the claim for preference is that inasmuch as they have given up their
right to strike in coming under the act, the law should secure them in
the rights which they formerly obtained by means of strikes; that the
court should be empowered to consider any matter which might form
an essential part of a demand made upon employers under threat of a
strike. Great unions, like the Colliery Employees’ Federation and
the Federated Seamen, who have conducted the most important strikes
in the past, should not be asked to relinquish the preference to employ
ment which they have already secured and maintained for their mem
bers for many years, in order to submit to an award that could not
legally make provision for the maintenance of this privilege. The
men further maintain that preference is no more than equitable,
because only unionists incur the expense of obtaining awards and
are primarily liable for penalties for breaking their provisions. Mem
bers of a union registered under the law can not withdraw with
out notice and payment of all dues. The funds in the treasury of a
union and the dues owed, often representing the accumulation of years,
may be seized in execution by the court for the breach of an award.
Even the rules of the union must receive the approval of the court.
Unionists claim that they are entitled to the consideration of prefer
ence in return for these liabilities to which they submit themselves,
for the rights which they relinquish, and for the expenses which they
alone incur in prosecuting an award. It is also claimed that without
the protection of an award a union can not exist in face of determined
attack from employers. The writer was repeatedly told by labor men
that unless there was preference for unionists in the awards there
was practical preference for nonunionists in the workshops; that
employers weeded out their union employees under various pretenses,
especially if the men had taken a prominent part, either as officers of
unions or as witnesses, in cases before the court. In Western Australia,
where preference is not granted, the specific instances where men were
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
107
said to have been discharged because they testified against their employ
ers in court were very numerous. Cases in four trades were reported
to the writer at one time. It was very difficult to verify such allega
tions, because the testimony of the employer and o f the employee as
to the real cause of the latter’s dismissal seldom accorded. Neverthe
less there were cases where the complaint of the workmen that they
were discriminated against for taking active part in court cases or
union business was evidently justified. In one case an employer testi
fied in court that a witness on the opposite side, who was employed by
him, was a competent and satisfactory workman, and then ordered
his dismissal soon after the award was given. In another instance
men who had been constantly employed for four years in the same
establishment were similarly dismissed. Indeed, an employer some
times admitted that he tried to get rid of men who gave him trouble
in this manner. The president of a trades and labor council said:
44Union officers are boycotted by empk^ers, and therefore unions
have difficulty in getting competent officials and become invertebrate.”
W here preference has once been granted, this fact gives the court
a strong hold over the organization receiving the right for securing
compliance with an award. For the judge is empowered, “ with a
view to enforcing an award,” to cancel the registration of any union,
and thus deprive it of all privileges and standing under the law. It
is sometimes claimed that employers’ interests are considered in other
ways in granting preference. A New Zealand writer thus puts this
aspect of the case: 46Compulsory preference protects employers from
the possible factiousness and aggressiveness of a minority in a trade,
since the demands of a union would be those of a whole or a majority
in a trade—and the common sense of most is always a protection; all
members of a trade being unionists, the employers’ choice of men can
not be restricted by preference; and last, but most important, it is a
boon to those employers who are willing to favor unionism and who
desire to have the awards faithfully kept, but who are sometimes
driven under existing conditions to employ nonunion labor and cut
rates.” Dp to the present time, however, these advantages do not
appear to have impressed themselves upon employers very forcibly.
To an outside observer it would look as if the grievances on both
sides were exaggerated. It is doubtful if the preference clause in an
award works special hardship upon the average employer in the
administration of his business. At least it was very hard to pin any
employer interviewed down to a concrete instance where it had done
so; and even where this was possible, the hardship complained of was
in no case so great as those frequently attending the adjustment of
relations between employers and unions in America. In Sydney a
person qualified to speak of this matter said: 441 have made special
efforts to discover real grounds for the complaints of employers as to
108
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
preference, and have not found a case where the latter’s interests
were prejudiced, except occasionally where preference operated so
as to induce him to discharge some old employee who was too aged to
work.” A fact probably more significant than any testimony (pointing
in this direction) is that out of some 29 or 30 industrial agreements
filed under the arbitration act, 21 contain clauses granting prefer
ence voluntarily conceded by employers, and this is also the case with
two agreements filed under the Western Australian act, where pref
erence is not granted by the court. Although these concessions were
doubtless made in most instances in order to avoid an appeal to the
court, and with the consideration in view that that tribunal usually
favored the workers in their application for this privilege, neverthe
less, had any exceptional hardship been worked by this provision, it
doubtless would have been contested more vigorously.
On the other hand, official statistics of the membership of the
unions belie the statement that when preference is not granted these
organizations are weakened or die out as a consequence. Incidentally,
the same figures tend to show that the influence o f preference in
recruiting unions, and therefore increasing their political power, has
been overestimated. A t least, after allowing for the possible effect of
outside and undetected factors upon the figures, these are the con
clusions that seem to follow from a comparison of the membership
and growth of unions of workers in New South Wales and Western
Australia since the arbitration acts have been in force.
It will be remembered that preference of employment to unionists has
been almost uniformly granted in the awards of the court in the former
State, and has been refused in every instance on the ground of lack of
jurisdiction in the latter State. Therefore we have an opportunity of
comparing the effect of the law upon unionism with this single factor
present in one case and absent in the other. Under both acts the
unions are required to report their membership to the registrar of the
court once a year. The figures thus obtained showing the strength of
the workers’ organizations in each State on or about December 31 of the
years since the laws have been in operation are as follows:
M E M B E R S H IP O F U N IO N S O F W O R K E R S IN N E W S O U T H W A L E S A N D W E S T E R N A U S T R A
L I A , D E C E M B E R 31,1901,1902, A N D 1903.
State.
1901.
]
1902.
1903.
i
N e w S o u th W a le s ...................................................................................................
W estern A u s t r a lia .................................................................................................
58,203 1
8,920
62,384
11,442
70 ,5C0
15,294
Therefore, while union membership has increased but 21 per cent in
New South Wales, where preference is granted, during the three years
during which the act has been in force, it has increased over71 per cent
in Western Australia, where preference is not granted. Western Aus
109
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
tralia, however, has been growing in population more rapidly than
New South Wales, Nevertheless, taking Coghlan’s figures for the
number of inhabitants in each State on June 30, at the end of the years
1901, 1902, and 1903, and comparing with the strength of the unions
at the end of each year, it appears that while in New South Wales
the proportion of the total population enrolled in unions of workers
increased from 4.22 per cent in 1901 to 4.96 per cent in 1903, in West
ern Australia it increased from 4.60 per cent to 6.89 per cent in the
same period. In a new country like the latter State, with a mining
population and larger proportion of males among the inhabitants, the
absolute percentage of unionists is naturally greater than in an old
settled and partly agricultural and pastoral community like New South
Wales. Also a large share of the increase in population in Western
Australia during the last 3 years has been due to the immigration of
persons likely to become enrolled in workers’ unions. These condi
tions account in part for the more rapid growth of unionism in that State.
Yet the figures do not indicate that lack of preference has had a par
ticularly wasting effect upon those organizations. The following figures,
showing the growth of unionism in a single occupation in the two
States, throw another side light upon this question. The statistics are
taken from the census reports upon occupations for 1901, the reports
of the minister o f mines of each State for 1903, and the reports of the
registrars of the arbitration courts.
P E R C E N T O F M IN E R S IN U N IO N S IN N E W S O U T H W A L E S A N D W E S T E R N A U S T R A L IA ,
1901 A N D 1903.
State.
N ew S ou th W a l e s .............................................
W estern A u s t r a lia .............................................
P e rs o n s e n g a g e d
i n m in in g .
1901.
1903.
36,845
19,439
37,559
18,219
M e m b e rs h ip in
m in e r s ’ u n io n s .
1901.
9,687
4,432
1903.
12,953
5,572
P e r c e n t in u n io n s .
1901.
26.3
22.8
1903.
34.5
30.6
In this occupation the unions have gained strength, in proportion to
the total number of persons engaged in the industry, more rapidly in
New South Wales than in Western Australia. Part of the increase in
the older State is in this case to be ascribed directly to preference to
unionists. After the Broken Hill award, previously referred to as an
instance where the preference clause was said to have been sought for
political recruiting purposes, the membership of the Barrier branch
of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association increased more than 1,100, or
nearly doubled in a single year. On the other hand, however, in the
shifting fortunes of the gold fields a single Western Australian union
lost more than 1,200 members, or nearly 20 per cent of the total
strength of miners1 organizations in the State. Had it not been for
this abnormal loss, which appears to have been in no way connected
12425— No. 56— 05------8
110
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOB.
with arbitration court awards, the Westralian unions would have
enrolled more than 37 per cent of the total persons employed in the
industry, and have shown a much higher rate of increase than those
of New South Wales. In short the statistics do not show in any way
that compulsory preference to unionists has a controlling influence
upon the enrollment of unions. Doubtless it does increase their mem
bership in a marked degree in certain instances; but when the effect of
the awards is averaged over the whole body of workers in a State,
there is no evidence as yet that proves preference alone to be a deter
mining cause in the growth of labor organizations. Theoretically it
ought to be such an influence, of course, and it might manifest itself as
such in the course of time; but if we were given the figures just quoted,
without knowing the details of the laws in operation in the two States,
it would be impossible to infer from them which court had granted
and which refused preference of employment to unionists.
The question of rival unions and the so-called “ bogus union” has
played an important part in the history o f arbitration in New South
Wales. Possibly the largest employing industry in the State is wool
growing, and the shearers5 union is prominent both for numerical
strength and on account of its historical struggles with employers.
This organization is opposed by an equally strong and united organi
zation o f graziers, with large financial resources, known as the Pastoralists5 Union. The official name of the shearers5 society is the
Australian Workers’ Union, and it is a composite organization,
embracing in its membership not only shearers and ranch laborers in
general, but also small farmers and even country shopkeepers, who
at some time or other have qualified to join its ranks and remained
members of the society. Shortly after the arbitration law went into
effect a “ Machine Shearers5 Union55 applied for and secured registra
tion under the act. The Australian Workers5 Union also had pre
viously registered. So there were two organizations covering the
same occupation and territory. The older union had some 21,000, and
the new union, by the time its bona tides and registration had been
challenged, about 1,200 members. The new union was formed,
according to its own claims, by men who refused to submit to certain
offensive rules of the original organization. The regulations objected
to included the following:
Political fu n d .— Branches may expend a sum not exceeding Is. (24
cents) per financial member per year for parliamentary purposes, pro
viding always that a two-thirds majority of their members declare
through a plebiscite vote in favor of such expenditure. Branches
deciding in favor of expending Is. (24 cents) per member for parlia
mentary purposes shall place same to credit of a parliamentary fund,
which may be used in connection with either State or Federal elections.
Any branch authorizing the expenditure of Is. (24 cents) per mem
ber for parliamentary purposes shall set aside the sum in a separate
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
Ill
fund after each annual audit without any further vote being necessary,
unless demanded by the branch committee or general meeting. In
such case the question shall again be submitted to a plebiscite of mem
bers of such branch.
The parliamentary fund available at the time of an election shall be
equally distributed amongst the various electorates within the branch
boundaries in which there exists a duly constituted league to assist in
the return of candidates who have been duly selected and indorsed by
the Political Labor League and approved by the union.
Any member of the Australian Workers’ Union voting or working
against the selected labor candidate approved of by the union shall be
fined the sum of £3 ($14.60).
The new union asserted that it was opposed to political work being
undertaken by a trade organization, to the detriment of exclusively
trade-union functions. Further, the machine shearers claimed to be
in favor of contract shearing, or working for shearing contractors,
which was forbidden by the older organization. A contractor moves
from ranch to ranch with a full power-driven machine-shearing outfit,
much as the steam thrasher moves from farm to farm in the United
States during the thrashing season, with a fixed number of hands, who
are provided with regular work and accomplish much more than the
intermittently working hand shearers under the old system. The new
method is considerably more economical and enables a smaller number
of men to do all the work of shearing on the stations. So there is said
to be a phase of the old question of opposition to machinery and
improved organization of industry involved in the dispute of the two
unions. The old union, on the other hand, claimed that the new
organization was not bona fide, and that it was secretly supported and
encouraged by the Pastoralists’ Union In order to lower wages and
defeat the ends of unionism in bettering the condition of the worker.
Both unions having been registered under the arbitration act, there
has been an effort on the part of each union to secure a cancellation of
the registration of its rival, but both organizations still hold their
ground. The old union altered its rules so as to remove those objec
tionable in the first instance, but the new union was by this time so
well intrenched in its position that any action abolishing its rights
was looked upon as questionable by the court.
When the Australian Workers’ Union failed to secure sole registra
tion through the arbitration court, its leaders secured the appointment
of a parliamentary commission, of whom the general secretary of the
union was the first chairman, to investigate the whole question anew.
The constitution of the commission was thrice changed, its partisan
character being modified by dropping the officer of the union just men
tioned from its membership. This commission was later found to be
unconstitutional by the full court of the State on the ground that it was
formed to investigate a private question under the jurisdiction of and
112
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOR.
already decided by a court of justice, and therefore was an invasion of
such jurisdiction. However, before this judgment was given, the
commission made public a report, in which it was shown that the
Machine Shearers5Union had been in all probability formed, officered,
and financed by persons working in the interests of the pastoralists.
The rivalry between the two unions constitutes a condition favorable
to employers, who can play one against the other in the matter of
wages.
The case of the Australian Workers5 Union, in applying for cancel
lation of its rival after repealing the objectionable features in its own
rules, was prejudiced by the fact that in a dispute with the pastoralists,
which will be mentioned later, the union had been held in a suit in
equity to be guilty of a conspiracy to induce certain employees to
break their contracts, an injunction had been granted against it and
some of its officers, costs had been awarded, and the court had seques
trated the funds of the union.
Notwithstanding the fact that two unions are registered, the attorneygeneral of the State, who is the author of the act, points out that there
is nothing in the present situation to prevent the Australian Workers5
Union from applying for and securing an award governing the shear
ing industry, and that the presence of another union in the field does
not affect the probable terms that would be granted in an award the
conditions of which were based upon evidence produced before the
court. In the New South Wales arbitration act the clause relating to
the registration of two unions in the same industry makes it discre
tional with the court to grant or to refuse such registration. But in
Western Australia the prohibition of such double registration is abso
lute. In the latter State, also, it is prescribed that a union granted
registration shall consist of employers or workers in “ any specified
industry or industries in the State.55 In New South Wales any society
registered as a trade union may also be registered as an industrial
union under the arbitration act. The provision as to specified indus
tries in Western Australia has forced the so-called composite unions to
limit their membership to certain occupations. The Australian Work
ers5 Association in that State now admits only “ men working in and
about a mine55 in its gold fields branches. This union therefore comes
into conflict with the Amalgamated Miners, as both cover the same
industry, although with sufficient differences in their membership to
allow o f both being registered under the arbitration act. But in this
State there has been no such contention between the two bodies over
the question of registration as has just been described in New South
Wales, and the two unions appeared jointly in the application for an
award in the eastern gold fields. In fact the question of bona tides was
the principal one involved in the contest between the rival shearers5
unions.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA,
113
A second case involving the respective claims of rival unions arose
in Sydney, where two organizations of builders and general laborers
came into conflict. In this instance an older and apparently stronger
organization was unable to secure the cancellation of the registration of
a competing union, through a technicality; the authority to cancel
such registration being lodged so vaguely in the act that the court
hesitated to assume jurisdiction in the matter. In another case, the
restaurant employees5 union, having priority of registration, was able
to bar out a rival union which attempted to register.
Two rival unions of employers have been formed in the retail trade,
one representing more especially Sydney and the other representing
country interests. The metropolitan union secured prior registration
under the arbitration act and succeeded in defeating an application for
registration by the country organization. It is claimed that a few
department-store proprietors, who compete with small storekeepers
throughout the State by mail-order business and custom drummed up
by retail travelers, and whose interests are otherwise opposed to those
of country traders, control the registered union, and that the mem
bership of that society is largely, though not exclusively, confined to
Sydney merchants. The country organization is said to have some
1,500 members, all of whom are bona fide traders outside the
metropolis.
The prominence of these questions of preference to unionists and
registration of unions in connection with arbitration laws is due to the
theory of the laws themselves. The acts are based upon the assump
tion of unionism, as was pointed out incase of the New Zealand law in
the quotation from the report upon that colony. The Right Hon.
Charles Kingston, previously referred to as the originator of this leg
islation in Australasia and its present strongest advocate, a lawyer by
profession and long and prominently in public life before the labor
party rose to power, thus succinctly summed up his views upon com
pulsory arbitration in relation to unionism, in a personal interview
with the writer: “ Our arbitration laws applied to labor are 6company
law 5 (i. e., corporation law). You subject your capitalistic corporations
to special jurisdiction, so should you do with labor. When you allow
capital to organize, it is subject to certain state requirements, and you
submit the incorporating individuals to special legal liabilities and
restrictions in return for the rights you give them; so should you do
with labor if you allow it to organize. You require capital to incor
porate in order to exercise certain capitalistic powers; you should
require labor to incorporate to exercise certain collective labor powers.
Every argument based on social grounds that you can advance for the
one is equally applicable to the other.55 In viewing the practice and
procedure of the arbitration courts, and the sphere of legal theory
toward which they lean, it is evident that they incline to follow the
114
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
precedents of equity jurisprudence. It is upon these two pillars of
equity and corporation law that the logical construction of the present
acts rests.
An attempt was made at the last session of parliament to pass certain
amendments to the arbitration act in New South Wales, enlarging the
powers of the registrar and the court in the matter of registering and
of canceling the registration of unions, and giving the former certain
judicial rights of calling evidence, analogous to those of a master in
equity, when inquiring into matters relating to the incorporation of
industrial unions. It was also proposed to allow district judges as well
as petty magistrates to hear trials for breaches of awards, at the request
of the president of the arbitration court, and to designate certain fac
tory inspectors as inspectors of awards, with special powers to investi
gate cases of suspected violation. The same trouble of collusion between
employers and employees to defeat the terms of an award that has been
reported in New Zealand, and more frequently in \ ictoria, appears
to have occurred in New South Wales. These proposed amendments,
however, were defeated in the upper house. The action of that body
was probably due to a clause in one of the proposed amendments,
apparently containing retroactive legislation, intended to apply to the
difficulty of the rival shearers’ unions.
One feature in connection with the administration of the arbitration
act in New South Wales that has not manifested itself with the same
frequency in either New Zealand or Western Australia has been the
number of appeals made to higher tribunals for interpretations of the
law and decisions regarding the authority of the arbitration court.
Two of these cases involve the application of the common rule, though
in the first of them other questions of equal or greater importance were
in dispute. Both incidentally throw a certain amount of light upon the
petty intrigues that occasionally breed beneath the mantle of the law.
The New Zealand awards apply to single industrial districts and con
siderable dissension had arisen in that colony from the efforts made by
employers or employees working under what are believed less favor
able conditions in one district to secure an extension of the more favor
able conditions prescribed by the award of an adjoining district to their
own locality, or the conditions of their own locality to a neighboring
district. Cases have occurred where employers and employees in one
district united to resist an effort made by employers and employees in
another part of the colony, suffering from their competition, to force
new conditions upon them through an award of the arbitration court.
Something of the same division of interests has manifested itself between
the metropolitan and the rural, parts of New South Wales, and even
within the ranks of employers in Sydney itself. Men at the head of
large establishments have attempted to secure regulations in their
industry, through entering into an industrial agreement with their
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
115
employees and having it made an award of the court binding upon all
employers, that would seriously hamper their small competitors in
business. Similarly the meat dealers in suburban and residential
parts of Sydney were suffering from the competition of a few city
dealers, who had shops near the central railway station or the ferry
wharves, and had built up a large trade with men employed in the
business portion of the city, who made purchases on their way home
from work between 5 and 6 p. m. In order to cut out this competi
tion the residential dealers, who were a majority of the Master
Butchers’ Association, entered into an industrial agreement with their
employees closing their shops at 5 p. m. four days of the week, 1
p. m. on Wednesdays, and 9 p. m. on Saturdays. Upon application
by the parties this agreement was made a common rule, applying to
all employers in Sydney. A city dealer named Clancy, whose busi
ness was prejudiced by this decision, violated the award. Previously
other dealers in the same position had petitioned the court to be
excused from the early closing provision of the award, upon the
ground of injury to their business, but had been refused. Clancy’s
case was appealed to the supreme court of the State, and thence to
the supreme court of the Commonwealth, upon two issues: That the
award was in contravention to the early closing act, which allowed
dealers to remain open until a later hour, and that although the
defendant kept his shop open after the time fixed in the award, he did
not retain any of his employees in service later than the hour for
closing set by the court, but carried on his business alone or with the
assistance of members of his family not receiving wages. On final
appeal Clancy won upon the latter issue, the supreme court of the Com
monwealth holding that the arbitration court could prescribe in an
award, made upon the terms of an industrial agreement, conditions of
employment more favorable, but not less favorable than those pre
scribed by statute; but that it could not interfere in the common-law
right of a merchant to carry on his business in person, where no rela
tion of employer and employee existed.
The second decision referred to was upon two cases carried to the
supreme court o f the State, and was to the effect that an industrial
agreement could be made a common rule by the arbitration court.
Quite the opposite result follows from the terms of the Western Aus
tralian act, as interpreted in that State, for the court has held that any
award made where an industrial agreement already exists must be in
the exact terms of that agreement, unless all of the parties to the
agreement agree to an amendment; that only an award whose terms
have been determined upon original evidence, and therefore after the
same procedure as if no agreement existed, can be made binding upon
all employers of a district, and that any terms in an agreement relating
«The supreme court of the Commonwealth has since reversed this decision.
116
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
to matters not within the jurisdiction of the court—such as preference
to unionists—are repealed when the agreement is dissolved to make
way for an award. This decision has practically stopped the making
of industrial agreements in Western Australia.
In an earlier case the supreme court of New South Wales was called
upon to interpret the definition of domestic servant as used in the act.
The law is expressly stated not to apply to employment in domestic
service, and a case was brought to determine whether or not this
exemption covered hotels and restaurants. The court held that such
establishments came under the provisions of the act, as they were,
institutions conducted for the purpose of making profit, and therefore
industries in the sense .of the law. The last decision to be mentioned
is more important as indicating the extended jurisdiction held by the
court in the way of regulating business.
In a dispute between the brickmakers and brick carters’ employees
and the employers’ union, the issues settled contained, among other
provisions, the following:
Panmen, one to be employed at each pan, but when 2 pans feed from
1 shoot a boy or man to assist; loft work, one man to be employed at
each shoot on present speed; if speed is increased, another man to be
employed; boy labor, boys to be employed only at wheeling coal, or
as assistant to panmen or machine men; if employed at other work to
be paid men’s wages; no boy under 16 to be employed; minimum
wages to be $1.22 per day; wet weather, the majority of men on out
side work to decide if it is too wet for work; setters’ conditions, four
men to be employed on a Platt machine making 2,000 bricks per hour,
where distance from machine to kiln does not exceed 60 j^ards; if more
than 2,000 bricks are made, or if distance exceed 60 yards, extra men
to be employed; two men on machine making 1,000 per hour, with 60
yards distance; if more than 1,000 per hour, or more than 60 yards
distance, extra men to be employed.
The employers applied to the supreme court of the State to have
these issues struck out of the claims of the applicants for an award, on
the ground that they did not lie within the jurisdiction of the arbitra
tion court. The supreme, court held that the matters protested did lie
within the jurisdiction of the arbitration court, but in giving this deci
sion the chief justice concluded with the following remarkable com
ments:
It is also beyond all question that the arbitration act, as in force in
this State, is an act which is in derogation of the common law. It does
encroach on the liberty of the subject as regards person and property.
It creates new crimes unknown to the common law, or to any previous
statute. It interferes with the liberty of action of both employer
anddnployee. It precludes the one from giving, and the other from
obtaining employment except upon terms settled by the court. It has
the effect of preventing persons from obtaining employment at their
own specific calling except upon terms imposed by the court. It
deprives the employer of the conduct of his own business and vests the
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
117
management in the tribunal formed under the act, and it can prescribe
terms of management which, however injurious they may be, the
employer must comply with, under penalty for any breach of their
order. There are many other matters to which I might refer, such
as the operation of the common rule upon persons who have not been
before the court. Finally, it is an act productive of the most alarm
ing and deplorable amount of litigation, writh its concomitant ill feel
ing and ill will between employers and employees, who are under this
act forced into two hostile camps. I believe the object in passing the
act was to promote peace and good will between employer and employee.
I fear it has not had that effect.
Naturally such strong animadversions upon the act from the supreme
bench were no*t allowed to pass without reply from the friends and
commendation from the adversaries of compulsory arbitration, and a
controversy was aroused in which an entirely j udicial attitude was hardly
maintained by either party. The Sydney labor council in an official
reply asserted that in intrenching upon the common law and the “ lib
erty of the subject” the arbitration law was simply advancing along
the line of all progressive legislation for ameliorating the condition of
the working classes, such as factories’ acts and employers’ liability
laws; that in interfering with the employer in the conduct of his own
business it was simply affirming the principle that labor, as one of
the most important factors in production, is entitled to a voice in
determining the conditions under which production shall be carried on;
that the court does not apply the common rule without giving a fair
opportunity to all persons thereby affected to obtain a hearing, or
after the rule is made, to obtain exemption from its application, and
that the deplorable amount of litigation complained of was due largely
to the presence of lawyers in the court.
In interpreting the limits of their jurisdiction the arbitration courts
of Australia have given attention to the precedents alread}^ established
in New Zealand, and in many purely formal matters they have followed
the practice of the court in that colony. The analysis of awards pre
sented in the report upon labor conditions in New Zealand would hold
good, except as to details and matters affected by terms of the Austra
lian acts already mentioned, of the large body of decisions given by
the courts in Western Australia and New South Wales. Almost any
matter usually included in a collective bargain between employers and
trade unions in the United States, excepting the closed shop in W7estern
Australia, comes within the purview of these tribunals. In addition,
the New South Wales court has entered upon the exercise of many
regulative functions that it would hardly be considered practicable to
discuss between employers and employees in America. Furthermore,
an award is much less flexible than a collective bargain. The latter
agreement can be adjusted to local conditions in any establishment,
with the mutual consent of all parties interested, more readily than an
118
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
award, which is the law of the land, and retains its utility only when
rigidly enforced. Laxness on the part of a union in enforcing every
detail of an award in all the establishments regulated by it might
establish a precedent prejudicial to future claims of that union before
the court. Therefore the amount of control and restriction residing
in an award is considerably greater than is involved in a collective
bargain embodying identical terms, even assuming that the bargain
is honorably observed to the satisfaction of all parties concerned in
its provisions.
The Australian acts borrow their definition of industrial matters,
which defines the jurisdiction of the court, almost verbatim from the
New Zealand law, with the reservation as to preference to unionists
already noted in Western Australia. The authority to grant preference
in the New South Wales act is contained in a special paragraph. All
three statutes have a separate clause empowering the court to fix a
minimum wage, with provision for a lower rate for incompetent
workers.
The theory of the minimum wage has been considered in connection
with the Victorian law. Three classes of evidence are admitted for
determining this issue in New South Wales and New Zealand, and to
a less extent in Western Australia: (1) The customary or average wage
already prevailing in the industry; (2) the cost of living; (3) the con
dition of an industry—the profits it is paying. Evidence of the first
kind is the only evidence now admitted before the Victorian wage
boards, and constitutes the bulk of the evidence presented in all cases.
The second class o f evidence is of relatively more weight in places like
the Westralian gold fields, where rapid development is taking place
and wide fluctuations in the cost of commodities are common. In an
old settled commercial center like Sydney there is more or less agree
ment as to what constitutes a living wage—that is, what it costs to
support a family according to the usual standard of living among
workingmen; and the court always fixes the minimum at or above
that amount.
The third kind of evidence, as to the profits of an
industry, is more often a contentious point than either of the others.
Frequently it is presented by employers to show that their business
will not allow them to carry on under the conditions which would be
established were the claims of the workers granted. Recently the
Sydney tanners attempted to have an industrial agreement, voluntarily
entered into by themselves and the master tanners of that city, made a
common rule applying to country employers. The latter were able to
show to the satisfaction of the court that such an extension of the
agreement or award would compel them to close their establishments
and throw their workmen out of employment. Similarly employers
have produced their books or balance sheets to show the inability of
their business to carry an increased labor cost in a number of cases in
LABOR CONDITIONS IN
AUSTRALIA.
119
both New South Wales and Western Australia. On the other hand
the dividends of companies and other indications of their probable
profits are advanced by the workers as a reason why their wages
should be increased by an award.
The worker throughout Australia defines the minimum wage as a
living wage. A labor representative in Western Australia said: “ We
maintain that an industry that can not afford to pay a living wage is a
menace to the welfare of the community, and ought not to exist. It
depresses the standard of living and prosperity of the whole working
class. The judge here has said, however, that he would never give a
decision that would hamper an existing industry, whether it paid a
living wage or not.” An attorney identified with labor interests in
New South Wales said: “ I believe we have reached in Australia the
bedrock principle that the first charge on every industry shall be a
living wage to all employees. If an industry can’t afford such a wage,
it should collapse.” Something of the same sort is implied in the
clause of the Victoria factories act of 1903, directing the court of in
dustrial appeals, in any application to revise the determination of a
board, to “ consider whether the determination appealed against has
had or may have the effect of prejudicing the progress, maintenance of,
or scope of employment in the trade or industry affected by such price
or rate, and if it is of opinion that it has had or may have such effect,
the court shall make such alterations as in its opinion may be necessary
to remove or prevent such effect, and at the same time to secure a
living wage to the employees in such trade.” Everything depends
upon the definition of a “ living wage,” and the difficulty of the regu
lating authority in interpreting the law is therefore not affected by
formal definitions or commentaries of this character. Practice must
be determined by the special conditions present in each case brought
before the court.
No attempt has been made by the court in New South Wales to define
the minimum wage, but the precedent of the New Zealand court has
been followed in fixing such a rate of pay as seemed from the total
evidence suitable. This has been at times higher, and at times may
have been lower, than the average wage prevailing previous to the
award. The assumption has been, therefore, that u minimum ” as used
in the act, means a minimum mandatory by virtue of the court’s deci
sion, and does not necessarily bear any relation to the lowest or the
lower rates of wages paid in the trade prior to that decision. The
court in Western Australia has taken a different view of the matter,
however, and has struck out on a new and independent line in its
interpretation of this important term. According to the president of
the court, “ The legislature did not direct or authorize the court to fix
a fair average wage, but to ; prescribe a minimum rate of wages or
other remuneration.’ I take it that the meaning of these words is that
120
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the court is to say what is the least rate of wage that shall be paid to
a worker in any particular trade possessing the least skill and experi
ence; a rate of wage that is applicable to the carpenter or the saddler
who has just learned his trade—just out of his apprenticeship. It is
the least rate of wage to be paid to a man able to work at that trade.”
It has been pointed out with considerable show of justice that, as the
words quoted from the act were borrowed by the legislature of West
ern Australia directly from the New Zealand law, after that law had
been in operation for a number of years and had been repeatedly inter
preted by the judges of the colony in a sense different from the one
just presented, the intent of the legislature presumably was to use the
words with the meaning given them in New Zealand. It is also diffi
cult for the labor people to see the equity of a law that forbids them
to strike, upon the ground that a sufficient substitute is provided in
compulsory arbitration, and then denies them the right of using that
court to obtain one of the principal objects of a strike, an increase of
wages. Probably the view taken by the court in W estern Australia is
due to some extent to the exigencies that that tribunal is forced to face.
Cost of living and rates of wages tend gradually to become uniform
in Australia, because the population is mobile and near the coast, suffi
ciently numerous to supply labor for all the enterprises at present
developed, and in a country that normally produces a superabundance
o f the primary necessaries of life. Sea freights are about equal for
all the States of the Commonwealth. A t present Western Australia
retains a portion of her interstate tariff, according to the agreement
when she entered the Federation, but this is diminishing 20 per cent
a year, so as to cease entirely at the end of 1905, five years after Feder
ation was accomplished. Manufacturers are therefore feeling more
severely the competition of old-established industries in the eastern
States, and the importation of cheaper commodities from those parts
o f the Commonwealth is lessening the cost of living. A decrease in
the formerly high rate of wages is consequently demanded in order to
meet these new conditions. So the arbitration court of Western Aus
tralia has been facing a situation different from that encountered by
the courts in New South Wales and New Zealand, because it has been
forced to adjust terms of employment to conditions progressively less
favorable to the workingmen.
In one recent instance the court in New South Wales has been
appealed to by the employers to effect a reduction of wages in the iron
trades. This industry is suffering from an exceptional depression
and is forced to meet considerable competition from England, where
wages in proportion to output are much lower than in Australia.
The case had not been tried when the material for this report was
gathered.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
121
Time and piecework rates are both to be regarded as functions of
wages. The hours of labor are normally 8 throughout Australia,
although some trades have always been exceptions to this rule.
In New South Wales the time of kitchen hands in restaurants
and hotels has been fixed at 77 hours a week, and butcher shop
employees are required to work 54 hours a week. In both instances
the award reduced the time formerly worked. The only case that
came to the attention of the writer where the hours of labor were
lengthened was in the Kalgoorlie gold fields miners’ award, where the
time of underground workers was raised from 47 to 48 hours a week;
but the shorter working time formerly prevailing was in this instance
voluntarily restored by the employers in a subsequent agreement with
their men. Overtime and holiday rates are specified in the awards.
The adjustment of piecework rates to time wages and the allowance
or nonallowance of piecework are among the most tedious and vexing
questions that come before the court. Incidentally the question of
contract may be involved, as has happened in the awards in Western
Australia. All the Australasian arbitration laws and the Victoria fac
tories act empower the regulating authority to prohibit piecework.
As a rule workers attempt to have the awards stipulate that time
wages only shall be paid. In some trades, however, a “ lo g ” or piece
work price schedule is drawn up by or on authority of the court.
This applies especially to tailoring and garment making, bootmaking,
the harness and saddlery trade, and, in some instances, to the furniture
trade. Some of these logs are said to contain 3,000 items, and when
a court or board has once completed such a schedule other courts usually
follow the line of least resistance and borrow the work of their col
league to apply in their own State or districts. For instance, the boot
log drawn up by the Victoria wage board has been adopted in West
ern Australia, with an increase of 12i per cent on account of the
higher cost of living in the latter State.
The court or board sometimes fixes time wages only, leaving to the
parties the adjustment of piecework rates to those wages. Employers
generally favor this arrangement, as it gives them better control o f
their factories; but workers usually oppose it, probably because the
employer tries to proportion piecework pay to time pay, according to
the rate set by his fastest workmen.
The court in Western Australia has refused to regulate contract
working, on the ground that the provisions of the act are not spe
cific enough to justify taking away the common law right of every
man to contract as he likes. This point was mentioned in connection
with the gold fields miners’ award, though that instance did not illus
trate how wide was the application of the principle. The contract
system has been extended to many trades where day wages are cus
tomary under normal conditions, in order to evade paying award terms
122
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
and compensation claims in case of accident. Advertisements appear
in the papers, not for day workmen, but for mechanics to take con
tracts to build so many feet of wall, paint a house, or erect a shed. In
New South Wales many employers in the iron trades assert that the
fact that they can not enforce a piecework and contract system in their
shops is the determining factor in causing the present depression in
that industry, making it impossible for them to compete with foreign
firms.
The economic effect of a statutory minimum wage appears to be to
create a uniform wage, not adjusted closely to the efficiency or produc
tiveness of the workmen throughout an industry. But the degree
of this effect probably varies in different trades and occupations. The
Victorian Commission of 1903, who were favorable to compulsory arbi
tration, say o f New South Wales: “ The marked tendency to reduce
the efficient worker to the minimum wage is everywhere visible, and
employers are emphatic in declaring that while they could, and did,
pay a good tailoress 30s. ($7.50) a week, good as well as indifferent
workers had now to receive the all-round wage of 20s. ($4.87). If,
they put it, they are forced by law to pay too much to some of their
employees, they must, in self-defense, in order to keep working
expenses within reasonable bounds, pay less to others than they
deserve.” Official wage statistics in the States where such regulation
exists are not in a form to allow a satisfactory verification of this fact.
They do not distinguish clearly the different classes of workmen, as
adults and minors, helpers, journeymen, and foremen. Figures pre
sented in the New Zealand report, however, point to the conclusion
that wages do tend to seek the level of the award minimum. Trial
tables, prepared to show the effect in New South Wales and Western
Australia, were found to contain so many sources of possible error as
to be of no value. Sufficient time has not elapsed since these laws have
been in operation in Australia to allow their effect to be clearly shown.
The variation of the tendency in different industries might be consid
erable. In highly skilled occupations the capacity of individual work
men counts for more than it does in mining or lumbering. Testimony
as to the effect of the awards, therefore, varies according to the expe
rience o f individual employers. Wages above the minimum were said
to be paid in the clothing trade in New South Wales, notwithstanding
the statement quoted above. The manager of a boot factory in the
same State said: u We don’t hold our men down to the minimum wage.
Our cheapest men are those to whom I give the most money. I make
the foreman of each room judge of his employees, and he must make
his room pay—and pay wages that will produce that result.” Another
manufacturer said: “ The minimum in the boot trade is £2 5s. ($10.95)
a week. I am paying some of my operatives £2 10s. ($12.17), others
£2 15s. ($13.39), and some up to £3 ($14.60) a week.” A manufactur
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
123
ing saddler and harness maker’s books showed that he was paying from
10s. ($2.43) to £1 ($4.87) a week above the award minimum to several
of his workmen. When the boot trade determination went into effect
in Melbourne, the books of a large factory in that city showed a change
of but 13s. ($3.16) in the total pay roll as a result, although there may
have been a readjustment of wages among different workmen. A
clothing manufacturer in the same city stated that the determination
made no change in.his wage sheet for 900 employees. One of the
larger employers in Western Australia said: 6; The carpenter’s minimum
under the award is 10s. 6d. ($2.56) a day. W e are not paying a man in
our employ, even inferior workmen, under 11s. 6d. ($2.80) a day.”
On the other hand, the clerk of the arbitration court in that State, said:
“ The minimum wage is the maximum wage in large industries.” He
cited the fact that a combine, controlling the important lumbering
industry of that State, reduced its wages quite uniformly to the award
minimum, though the latter was lower than the average wage formerly
prevailing. A colliery manager in New South Wales, said: “ Before
the arbitration act went into effect we always paid our better men a
higher rate than the others, but we can’t do so now without provoking
discord and jealousies that interfere with the work.”
Employers very generally complain that the more uniform wage
established by the awards causes a dead level of workmanship and out
put among workmen, gauged usually by the workmanship and output
of the poorer hands in the establishment. For this reason partly
employers do not like to employ inferior workmen, even at lower
wages, where an award is in operation. Therefore, as in Victoria,
slow workers are thrown out of employment by an arbitration act,
even though the court has made some arrangement by which they may
be employed at a lower rate than the minimum wage. A boot manu
facturer in Sydney said: “ Quite a number of my former employees—
not one or two, but quite a number—have started small shops, where
they work under sweat-shop conditions, because they were thrown out
of work by the award. About 40 or 50 of these small places have been
opened in Sydney lately. One of my former employees was in here
less than an hour before you entered. He was formerly a clicker.
He, with his wife and his son, and one hired boy, can manufacture
some lines cheaper than we can in the factory under our award, and
so we buy those lines from them. When a new agreement, which we
are just concluding, goes into effect I shall discharge a number of
hands who have been in my employ 12 and 15 years. Two are in
delicate health and the others are good enough workmen, but just
naturally slow. 1 can’t afford to keep them at the minimum fixed in
the agreement. 1 do not believe in cutting down the wages of my
better men to the minimum in order to retain slow men. When wages
are on a dead level you sooner or later get a dead level of work, paced
124
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
by the slowest man in the factory. 1 started here in Sydney 30 years
ago as a working journeyman. If our present system of regulated
wages had been in force then, I should still be a journeyman.” A
representative of the saddlers made a similar statement concerning
conditions in his trade in Sydney. An employer in Melbourne said:
“ If we employ slow workers, even at some special wage, as is now
required under conditions imposed by the board, our other men work
down to the slow workers’ level and the efficiency of the whole force
is impaired. When boys get to be 21 or thereabouts they are dis
charged and thrown on the streets because they can not earn the
minimum wage.”
As in New Zealand, the Australian courts have at. times fixed a
graduated scale of wages for apprentices and other minor employees,
according to their age and length of service. The awards also go
beyond the factories acts in limiting employment of children. Courts
have a right to order that apprentices shall be indentured, and work
ers usually try to have this made a requirement in the awards. In
Western Australia the court has refused to regulate apprenticeship and
the employment of minors in several important awards governing
skilled trades, notably in case of the carpenters and joiners, where it
has been customary to do so in New South Wales and New Zealand.
But here again the conditions peculiar to a new country with young
industries and a rather nomadic population have governed the action
of the court.
Where the powers granted a court to regulate industry are compre
hensive and are liberally interpreted by the presiding judge, as in New
South Wales, the provisions as to details in an award m&y become so
numerous &s to cover nearly the whole administration of a business.
Hitherto almost any conceivable matter relating to an industry might
be included in the claim of a union before the court in that State. In
case of the saddlers it is said the union wanted the time book abol
ished, which would have prevented an employer’s knowing the labor
cost of an article made in his shop. As long as these comprehensive
awards were granted a vast amount of technical evidence was intro
duced upon matters often quite beyond the understanding of anyone
not practically familiar with a trade. Although the judge may
appoint expert assessors as advisers of the court in such cases, expe
rience shows that proceedings are not greatly shortened by this
means. Even in instances like the saddlers’ award in New South
Wales, where employers and employees get together and agree on a
number of items before bringing points in dispute to court, a case
may occupy several days and come up intermittently for weeks. This
particular case was one in which the workers fought strenuously
to prevent what they considered excessive division of labor in manu
facture, upon the ground that it “ reduces the standard of the worker
125
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
so that when he is thrown on his own resources he can not earn his
living as a mechanic.” They succeeded, with the result, according to
figures shown the writer in the books of one establishment, that an
employer paying less wages than previously sometimes finds the labor
cost of the articles he manufactures increased. The aggregate wages
of two men working in team before the award, including average
piecework earnings of the stitcher, were $22.51 a week, and after the
award, when time wages were paid both, $19.41 a week; but the actual
cost of making the bridles these men manufactured had increased on
account of the less skilled man being required to do a skilled man’s
work, and vice versa. In a second instance the labor cost of girths
had risen from $1.03 to $1.16, the salary of the cutter remaining as
before; but the stitcher, who was paid by the piece, and previously
earned on an average $11.69 a week, was able to earn but $8.52 a
week under the schedule fixed by the award. Here again the cutter’s
time was wasted stitching and the stitcher’s time was wasted a bungling
at cutting.” In a third case where the output remained stationary the
following was the pay roll before and after the award;
B e fo r e a w a rd .
N um ber
h a n d s.
A g g re g a te
w ages.
A ft e r a w a rd .
N um ber
h a n d s.
A g g r e g a te
w a g e s.
C u t t e r ...............................................................................................
S e c o n d h a n d ...................................................................................
B o y s ...................................................................................................
1
1
2
$13.99
8.52
3.89
1
2
1
$13.99
23.37
1.46
T o t a l.......................................................................................
4
26.40
4
38.82
The labor cost of production was increased over 47 per cent in this
last instance, though no such result would be evident to one reading
the award itself. When a nonexpert court attempts to regulate the
details of a manufacturing industry the effect of such interference is
rather a matter of chance than of exact calculation.
Where an award increases the labor cost of production unduly, how
ever, employers find a remedy in some cases by introducing machin
ery/ Arbitration awards at least were referred to as a reason why
machinery had been introduced by a number of manufacturers and
mine managers, although it may be doubted whether this was the sole
reason for their increasing the mechanical efficiency of their plants.
Workers have also attempted to restrict or prohibit the employment
of female labor through the awards. In the application for an award
in the tobacco trades in New South Wales the union of workers claims
the prohibition of female operatives. The determination of the print
ing trades board in Melbourne threw female compositors out of employ
ment. The same end is being approached indirectly through appren
ticeship regulations in the Sydney boot trades awards. In all the
12425—No. 56—05-----9
126
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
respects mentioned the workers are following the regular trade union
programme, with the object of excluding lower-priced labor from the
trades and thus raising the standard of wages and of living among the
working classes. They argue that as long as a large fraction of the ablebodied adult male workers of a community are unemployed it is bet
ter that they should do the work there is to be done at a wage that will
enable them to support their families in comfort than that the natural
dependents of those ablest workers should be brought into competition
with them, lower their wages below the amount necessary to support
a family, and thus create an artificial necessity for female and child
labor. But state regulation to secure this end increases the cost of
production, often in erratic and unanticipated ways, and may possibly,
at least in its initiatory and experimental stage and under modern com
petitive conditions, limit the sphere of employment and raise the cost
of commodities to such an extent as to neutralize the benefit of higher
wage rates. The main point to which it is desired to call attention in
the preceding paragraphs, however, is this: That no deduction can be
made from the wage clauses of an award as to its total effect on the
labor cost of production—that is, its economic effect on the community.
What appear to be purely regulative clauses and ancillary matters
oftentimes count up far higher in dollars and cents than any expressed
money item in the court’s order.
The power of the court to make the terms of an award or agreement
a common rule applying to all employers in a State has already been
referred to in other connections. An economic effect of the common
rule would theoretically be to centralize at a single point all industries
of the same character having a product capable of wide distribution.
The court prescribes a set of uniform regulations governing this indus
try over a large area. Theoretically there must be some one spot, or
at most two or three spots, in that area where these regulations can
be most economically applied. Under more flexible conditions there
is a give and take. A center of manufacture favored in one direction
takes full advantage of that favorable condition and thereby compen
sates for some local disadvantage under which it suffers. A country
town may maintain a woolen mill or a tannery by virtue solely of the
lower rents and cost of living in the locality, and therefore lower
wages, thereby competing with an urban center having cheaper trans
portation. Were a court to make an absolutely uniform award, apply
ing throughout an entire State, in many industries there would be a
widespread redistribution of industrial plants. On the other hand, if
an award does not apply to a pretty wide area, constant friction and
bickering ensue on account of some party resenting the special privileges granted to another and haling him into court to show reason
why he has been so favored.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
127
Several industrial agreements, notably those of the tanners and the
retail storekeepers in Sydney, have contained a clause stating that they
shall not go into effect until they have been made a common rule
throughout New South Wales. O f course the court tries to use discre
tion in granting applications for the common rule, and hears voluminous
evidence upon the merits of such applications whenever they come up;
but it probably seldom closes a case with a clear conviction that every
consideration worthy of weight has been fairly presented to its atten
tion. In an ordinary suit at law the sphere of evidence and the issues
are limited; in an application for the common rule every issue in an
original award may be multiplied by the number of towns in a State.
When it was proposed to make the retail storekeepers’ agreement a
common rule in New South Wales an attorney held briefs for 300
different suits brought by merchants in as many country towns in
protest. As an attorney said, “ The common rule applies very well
to some staple industries, such as coal mining, where the conditions
are more or less uniform throughout the State; but when it is applied
to small industries and retail traders, where the conditions vary widely
sometimes in the same street, with great difference in product or turn
over, rents, and class of custom, the small man is crushed out. Under
the arbitration act, also, a dealer may enter into a collusive agreement
with his employees, and then bring it into court with an application
that it be made a common rule, with the express object of driving his
weaker rivals out of business. Every person in the business must then
come before the court, or run the risk of having the rule imposed upon
him. It is very hard, and often a matter of great delays to secure an
exemption after a rule is in force. The applicant can not recover his
legal costs under the act in such a case.” However, in coal mining, or
gold mining—as was seen in Western Australia—uniform awards are
impracticable.
Another phase of the common rule principle crops out in a ruling of
the court that an award shall apply to all persons actually engaged in
the occupation regulated irrespective of other working conditions.
Under this ruling a merchant has been convicted and taxed costs for
employing ordinary laborers, instead of journeymen coopers, to open
and head up tallow barrels; the Vacuum Oil Company had to pay a
fine and considerable costs for having boys employed about their ware
house tightening hoops upon casks of oil received from America.
Employers of this class seldom have an opportunity to appear in court
when an application for a common rule is made to protest against its
extension to their own business, as the fact of such extension is often a
matter decided by some subsequent interpretation of the rule.
The enforcement of a common rule over an entire State is often a mat
ter of considerable difficulty; for the detection of breaches even in a
restricted area under close factory and union inspection is not easy,
128
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
and the expense of prosecution and the obstacles to securing evidence
increase very rapidly with the size of a district. The saddlers’ award
in New South Wales covers 879 saddlers, of whom about 50 per cent
employ hired labor; only 6 have more than 10, and 3 have 20 or more
employees. Naturally no union branches exist in the small towns
where these employers carry on business. The exigencies of country
custom require irregular hours of work, wages are normally lower
than in the metropolis, and no regulation of apprenticeship exists.
Most of these employers probably were quite ignorant of the provi
sions of the award and never thought of protesting against its being
made a common rale. By the terms of the award all apprentices
must be indentured in one of the four branches of the trade for a
period of five years, in the proportion of one to two journeymen in
collar, harness, or bridle making, and one to three or a fraction of
three journeymen in saddle making. Under a strict interpretation of
this provision, more than half of the employers in the State could not
employ a boy in their shops. The regulations as to wages and hours,
it is claimed by employers, were equally inapplicable to the condi
tions of country trade.
The measures taken to enforce the common rule in this instance
call attention directly to the serious problem presented by the
administration of the awards. In New Zealand it was found that a
demand had arisen to have special inspectors of awards appointed,
who should investigate and prosecute breaches, and that for lack of
some such provision the union secretaries were at times delegated to
settle claims against employers out of court—a method of procedure
obviously calculated to lead to friction and possible scandal. Under
all arbitration laws, including the new Federal act, unions or officers
of unions are allowed and usually do prosecute for breaches of an
award and recover penalties for such breaches and costs in case the
suit proves successful. The payment of penalties to the unions is
justified on the ground that the unions or their members are the dam
aged or aggrieved parties and incur the cost and trouble of prosecu
tion. In the saddlers’ award therefore it fell upon the Sydney union
to prosecute for breaches throughout the State. City employers in
that business were not averse to, if they did not instigate, having these
country breaches prosecuted, as an enforcement of an award made for
urban manufactures favored them in competition with country makers.
In February, 1904, the secretary of the saddlers’ union reported to
the president of the court that he had notice of 29 breaches at various
points in the country, and had been directed by his union to settle
them; but that he wished special instructions, as i t 46might look like
blackmailing ” to do so. The president of the court said that it was
impossible for the court to visit all the country towns to try these
cases, and that it would be a hardship on the employers to bring
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
129
them to Sydney, and suggested that the secretary carry out the
instructions of his union, and settle as many cases as possible out
of court, and, if possible, secure the cooperation of the employers’
union (a Sydney organization) in enforcing the award. The
secretary of the union appears to have acted conscientiously in the
matter, but his union directed him to settle breaches on a basis of
the return railway fare from Sydney and, in some cases, $2.43 a day
expenses. This naturally aroused some criticism, as in practical opera
tion this method made the cost of a settlement amount to $15 or $20 in
several instances—a sum that looked large to a countiy saddler who had
unintentionally violated the award by working Saturday afternoon to
repair a broken harness or by employing an unindentured boy to stitch
on buckles during the school vacation. The court made a minute with
reference to this action, advising that the amount asked for in settle
ment should be a proportionate fare for the distance traveled from
town to town, with compensation for time lost at each town, coupled
with any costs the union had incurred, the total distributed among the
persons who had committed breaches of an award in the town in ques
tion. However, the union refused to settle on this basis, and voted
to prosecute all breaches subsequently discovered before the court.
In justice to the workers it should be said that they do not as a rule
favor this method of outside settlement, but desire to have every
breach legally tried and penalty imposed by a regular tribunal. The
secretary of the saddlers’ union just mentioned said: “ The act will
never be complete until there are inspectors of awards. The local
police should be appointed local inspectors, with power to examine
books and take testimony of workers under oath, and forward the
same to the court. The court should then fix all penalties or terms of
settlement.” An attorney familiar with the operation of the act said:
“ The present system makes unions spies on employers, and causes
unnecessary irritation. The administration of the awards of the court
should be vested in police and factory inspectors.” An amendment
to effect this was defeated at the last session of parliament in New
South Wales by the vote of the party opposed to the labor people. A
similar amendment to the act in Western Australia is sought by the
labor party in that State,
One of the most embarrassing features in the administration of the
act has been occasioned by the congestion of business in the court.
This has been felt in New South Wales to a far greater extent than in
Western Australia. The difference in the two cases is due partly to
the fact that the latter State is comparatively small and has fewer
industries and less diversity of conditions than New South Wales, and
also to the course that the court has adopted from the first in limiting
the issues it would consider in an award to the fewest possible. Piece
work, apprenticeship, the common rule, preference to unionists, and
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
industrial regulation in general have not been allowed to take up the
time of the Western Australian court, and lawyers have been excluded.
Interpretations, breaches, and technical points have formed the subject
of more cases than have actual applications for awards in New South
Wales. A t the end of June, 1904, the president of the latter court
announced that thereafter that tribunal would limit its attention to 5
major considerations in disputes—wages, overtime, hours, preference
to unionists, and the common rule. The New Zealand court has suf
fered from the same difficulty of overwork; in the Wellington district,
which is but one of the 4 principal districts into which the colony is
divided for purposes of the act, the court was reported to be 136 cases
behind its schedule at the close of June, 1904; and 115 of these cases
were for enforcement of awards. Excluding the more numerous cases
for breach, interpretation, common rule, and applications for recovery
of union subscriptions, the number of industrial disputes or applica
tions for an award or similar regulation of an industry filed for hear
ing before the court in New South Wales was as follows upon the
dates in question: June 5, 1903, 38; October 1, 1903, 46; January 1,
1904, 54; April 1, 1904, 62. In other words, there was a prospect of
the unheard cases of this character about doubling in a single year.
The business transacted by the court during the two years ending
December 31, 1903, was as follows:
Disputes file d ..................................................................................................................................
93
Disputes for hearing.....................................................................................................................
54
Applications to the court filed..................................................................................................... 259
Applications to the court h ea rd .............................................................................................. 171
Applications to recover union subscriptions filed.................................................................219
Applications to recover union subscriptions heard............................................................ 109
Judgments given in disputes..................................................................................................... 22
Days during which the court sat (about)............................................................................. 300
Industrial agreements made common rule........................................................................... 11
Awards made common r u le .......................................................................................................
9
. In addition a large amount of business of a formal character is done
before the registrar. Criminal proceedings were taken before other
courts for violations of the strike and lockout clauses of the act.
This constant litigation, and especially the ever-present threat of
pending awards, doubtless embarrasses employers and constitutes an
element of uncertainty in business. These difficulties were not antici
pated when the act was passed. The delays thereby occasioned are a
source of equal complaint on the part of employers and workers.
The former attribute the congestion of business to artificial disputes
fomented for political ends or as a means of socialistic propaganda
by a minority of the workmen engaged in an occupation, They say
that the preference to unionists’ clause is accountable for many appli
cations for awards not demanded by existing conditions of employ
ment. Indeed these applications are said often to be filed against the
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
131
wishes of a large body of employees. According to a newspaper
report, only 6 persons Were present at a meeting of the New South
Wales Stenographers’ Union when the detailed demands of that
society, to be embodied in an application for an award, were drawn up.
On the other hand the workers say that proceedings before the court
are needlessly protracted by the presence of lawyers as representatives
of the two parties. One labor representative said: 4"Lawyers create
technicalities. They are professional rivals, and each tries to get a poin t
on the other. They don’t know enough about the real merits of the
industrial matters in dispute to employ these effectively in argument;
so they turn off into law points and make technicalities that merely
confuse the real issues between the masters and their men.” The
workers suffer as much inconvenience as employers from delay.
Indeed they claim that employers make them submit to harsh condi
tions occasionally, knowing that they can not strike and that they can
not get an application for an award heard for a year or 18 months to
come. The secretary of one union said: 44 We filed application for an
award in December, 1903, and now (June, 1904) there are still 48 cases
ahead of us.” There was much less complaint on this score in
Western Australia. Although there were 17 cases pending in August,
1904, this was said to be due entirely to the ill-health and the chang
ing of the judges serving as president of the court.
The most usual remedy suggested by workers for this condition is
to increase the number of courts and to exclude lawyers from their
proceedings. Some wish a traveling (circuit) court for the country,
with provisions for a joint sitting with the metropolitan court and a
revision of awards. Another suggestion was that the second court
should deal exclusively with mining cases or one or two specified
industries having the largest extent and most similar conditions of
employment. Several labor men suggested a small court to relieve
the arbitration court of cases for breach of award and the collection
of union dues. It was proposed that the arbitration court should
review the decisions of the lower tribunal in camera if necessary.
The president of the arbitration court remarked, when these suggessions were mentioned, that most decisions would probably be appealed
from a lower court in any case, thus doubling the work, and if two
courts had equal jurisdiction the awards might conflict. Others
thought that a freer use of existing courts, to relieve the arbitration
court of breach cases and similar matters not directly involving indus
trial regulation, would remedy the difficulty. The combination of
legislative and judicial functions in a single tribunal is after all
responsible for much of the embarrassment experienced in attempting
to distribute jurisdiction. Where there is a possibility of doing so,
litigants are never satisfied until the law or award has been interpreted
by its own maker. If there were an appeal from our civil courts to
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR*
the legislature whenever a law was violated, continuous sessions ?md
expedited procedure would be of no avail in clearing away the mass
of business that would come before that body.
Some have suggested that the registrar be given final jurisdiction
in summons cases for breaches and collection of union dues. One
labor official said very aptly: 44 It looks ridiculous for a court that
costs the State $20,000 per annum to spend a day finding out whether
Tom Jones owes his union 36 cents for dues.” One of the largest
employers in New South Wales and the registrar of the arbitration
court in that State suggested independently a remedy that differs very
little from adopting the Victorian wage boards as subsidiary to the
court. The employer said: / 4I favor establishing a conciliation
board in each trade, who shall try to come to an agreement, which
shall be enforced by the court.” The registrar suggested: 44The* con
gestion of business before the arbitration court would be greatly
decreased if the parties were required to appoint a committee, under
a nonpartisan chairman appointed ad hoc by the court, whose duty it
should be to eliminate all noncontentious points from the dispute,
referring only the matters that could not be compromised to the court.
There are conferences at present, but if the conference fails to agree
on a single point at issue, they break up, and every point is contested
in court. If there were an impartial chairman more conferences
would be brought to a successful issue.” No demand for boards of
conciliation was indicated. Extending the powers of expert assessors
has also been proposed. The lack of technical knowledge possessed by
the court is felt to be a difficulty in securing fair and workable awards.
One labor secretary said in this connection: 44The court staggers
through to a well-intended decision, but not a practical one.” A
labor member o f parliament in Western Australia mentioned the same
difficulty in that State, and thought that the representatives of the two
sides on the court ought to be appointed from the trade in dispute,
for every case that came before that body. The same suggestion was
advanced by a union secretary in New South Wales, and has been
adopted in part in the new Federal bill. An employer said in New
South Wales: 441 have seen our court, when 1 was present in a case,
taking silly positions, showing absolute ignorance and misconcep
tion of the real point at issue. This was necessarily so, and no fault
of the court. And our lawyers plead their cases like parrots,
repeating the things we had pumped into them, and sometimes
mixing them so in their arguments as to cause a broad smile to run
round the court room.” A member^of the court in Western Australia
said: 44A judge, accustomed to legal reasoning exclusively, is not well
fitted to interpret and to apply practical economic laws. He is dis
qualified for this by his habits of thought.” A lawyer who had con
ducted many cases in New South Wales said: 441 am in favor of a
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
133
permanent court, in view of the fact that permanent judges become
accustomed to weighing the evidence presented in industrial disputes.
But in special industries assessors should be called in, to have equal
voting power in rendering decisions with the permanent members of
the court. For example, the court was six days hearing evidence of a
technical character in the gas makers’ case, and then acknowledged
such inability to comprehend the special features and conditions pre
sented as to preclude their giving an award. It naturally detracts
from the dignity of a court to have to confess failure of this character.
In the case in question, the men agreed to abide by the decision
of an arbitrator appointed by the court, who rendered a decision
exceedingly unfavorable to the workmen, but which they have been
compelled to obey.”
A manufacturer also thought that assessors
should constitute a part of the court.
In the saddlers’ dispute the employers desired to have the assessors
considered members of the court for the time being, or at least hear
the evidence and report upon that; but the judge decided that they
must be considered as expert advisers and present a report independ
ently of the evidence. Some of the union men seemed to think that
if assessors were appointed as members of the court for each case,
an apple of discord would be thrown into the unions, as a number of
members would probably work to secure the appointment, and that
practical men would not compromise, so that the final decision would
be left to the judge, as at present. The secretary of the employers’
association in Perth, Western Australia, said: “ It is possible that our
association will indorse the recommendation of the Trades and Labor
Council, that the constitution of our court of arbitration be changed.
We want the court so altered that each trade can select a representa
tive to sit in its particular dispute, or all disputes arising at &ny time
in the trade in question. It is bad enough to have one man ignorant
of the matters in controversy in a court, without having three of
them. When our plumbers’ case was on, the labor member, who is a
plumber, refused to sit because he might be suspected to be an inter
ested party, and so had a carpenter sit in his place.” An award some
times provides that a board of conciliation, whose constitution is deter
mined by the court, shall sit to consider any points that may arise in
interpreting the award itself. The Coal Miners’ Association of the
western district of New South Wales made the appointment of such a
board an item in their claim before the court, which was granted.
The expense of litigation is a burden complained of by both
employers and workers. The latter attribute this also to the presence
of lawyers in the court, a view that was supported by some employers.
The president of the Sydney Labor Council said: u A lawyer’s stand
point is not a workingman’s standpoint. Lawyers protract cases and
fight out points that might be compromised without them, in order to
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
earn fees.” The actual expense of carrying a case through court was
ascertained in a number of instances; but of course no account is
here taken of the time lost by employers in court, as it is not customary
for employers’ organizations to pay for time thus lost by their mem
bers. Where the expense of workers is given, this item is included,
as the unions make a practice of paying for the time lost by witnesses.
It cost the employers in the saddlers and harnessmakers’ case $1,120
for court expenses. The expenses of the opposing union of workers
were $563.48, of which $279.83 went to attorneys. The remainder
was paid to witnesses and the secretary, and merely compensated them
for time lost from their shops. The conference with employers that
preceded the case in court, including one-half the stenographer’s fee,
cost the union $35.55. The secretary of the Furniture Trades Union
of workers in Sydney had made an estimate that the probable expense
of securing an award in that trade, including time of witnesses in confer
ence and before the court, printing, and barrister’s fees, would be in the
neighborhood of $750. The secretary of the Federated Seamen said:
“ Although we have had no disputes with employers, and our two
agreements were filed without litigation, the filing of these agree
ments and other minor matters before the court, including two prose
cutions for breach of agreement, have cost the union between $600
and $700. Our last lawyer’s fee was $312.76.” The selling agent of
the Lithgow collieries said: “ The proceedings in connection with the
Lithgow collieries award cost the employers in round numbers $12,000
and 3 weeks’ time, during the actual progress of the case before the
court. Besides that we have had several cases for interpretation of
the award, each of which costs us from $200 to $250. The details of
our award have been obscure and ambiguous, and it contains many
inconsistencies.” The secretary of the opposing union in this case
said: “ In 1899 the colliery employees of this district had a 4 months’
strike. About 430 men were out and their loss in wages totaled in
round numbers $60,000. Their strike pay, to be sure, was $3.04 a
week during that period, but the money came out of the funds of
miners in other districts. Our recent award from the arbitration
court cost us about $915, besides the pay of the secretary. O f this
sum $294.63 was for witness fees, mostly paid to the miners them
selves. W e paid our lawyer $364.98, which was less than the usual
fees. Our arbitration court records cost us $277.59. The miners
obtained a rate of pay equivalent to an advance of 9 per cent in wages,
or about $250 a week for all the workers in the field. This will pay
for our expenses in less than a month.” The Newcastle Colliery
Employees’ Federation, which has. about 6,000 members, spent in
round numbers $3,000 for legal expenses in 1903. In a fight with a
rival union of employers over registration the Country Storekeep
ers’ Association of New South Wales spent about $3,700, and lost
their case.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
135
Besides amendments to the arbitration laws in New South Wales and
Western Australia already specified or suggested in the previous para
graphs, the workers desire the privilege of being represented by some
qualified agent when books and papers are presented for examination
in camera. In New South Wales, and in Western Australia they want
fuller provision made for bringing government employees under the
act. Employers insist upon the equity of two amendments which they
consider essential. The following quotations from interviews with an
attorney representing employers in a case before the court, and with
the manager of a large factory, sufficiently explain the first of these
proposed changes and the grievance it is sought to remedy:
It should be made clear in the act that unless a dispute is a sub
stantial dispute in a whole industry the court should not entertain a
complaint. It has happened to my knowledge that in an industry
having 1,000 employees a case has been brought into court by a union
having less than 200 members, so that 100 members could create a dis
pute, and do so for political purposes.
No demand for an award should receive consideration from the
court unless two-thirds of the members of the union have an oppor
tunity to vote upon the demands previously. I know of a case where
17 out of about 800 members in a union passed a demand made upon
us. These matters are now worked by a little clique and many of the
members of the union have no knowledge of what is being done.
Employers complain that while the awards bind capitalists, on account
of their property interests and responsibilities, they are not equally
binding upon the workers. This will appear later, when some of the
strikes under the act are considered. As a partial remedy for this
several employers suggested that unions should be compelled to pro
vide a guarantee fund or bond for the faithful observance by their
members of any award given by the court. The secretary of the Perth
Employers’ Association suggested that both parties to an award or
agreement be required to deposit security for its faithful observance.
This may be done under the new Federal act.
Practically all the suits for breach of awards brought so far in either
State, however, have been against employers. And some employers
maintain practices that constitute evasions, but not punishable viola
tions, of awards. The practice of contracting out work—selling mate
rials, and buying finished goods from workmen—is not uncommon.
Such outwork has previously been mentioned as the last recourse of
the slow worker thrown out of employment by a minimum wage. But
sometimes it becomes a regular practice, covering a large portion of
competent employees in manufacturing operations, in the same way
that a similar kind of evasion has been found practicable in mechanic
trades in Western Australia. The limitations upon this kind of work,
however, are very narrow. In a majority of employments, and with
a majority o f employers in all lines of business, it is not only more
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
convenient and profitable to observe the terms of the awards givein by
the court, but there is an honest disposition to do so on the part of all
concerned. It is fair to assume, upon the testimony of workers as well
as of employers, that a very large proportion of the breaches are the
result of ignorance of the terms of an award, or of a false interpre
tation put upon those terms by the unintentional offender.
Practical inconveniences are experienced by employers from the
operation of the arbitration law that do not appear from a mere
inspection of the awards. Unions file demands when making an
application to the court that they do not anticipate will be granted, on
the same principle that a man suing for damages in a civil court often
makes his claim larger than he expects will be allowed. But these
demands become, nevertheless, a standard by which workmen not
familiar with the inside management of their labor councils gauge
their rights, and so dissatisfaction is created where content for
merly prevailed. A factory manager said: “ One of our unions put
in piecework claims that would enable men to earn $48 a week—a
demand which they voluntarily withdrew when we pointed out its
absurdity; but that rate is still argued to be a fair one by less informed
workmen, and they have cut down their output occasionally when on
time wages for this reason.” A mining employer said: “ The uncer
tainty as to the decision of the court causes workmen to make exorbi
tant demands. Owners are prone to concede many points in order to
come to an agreement outside of court that they would never think of
conceding on business lines, in order to avoid having to submit to the
uncertain vagaries of the awards.” The inconvenience that individual
employers incur in litigation is not always to be measured by the
time, trouble, and expense of contesting a single award. One large
employer interviewed was already working under 7 different awards,
with more to come. As he had a model establishment, these awards
made very little change in the condition of his employees; but being
prominent, he was always cited before the court by the unions. How
ever, large employers, though they bear a relatively greater pro
portion of the expense of litigation, are sometimes able to turn the
law to their own advantage. This has been suggested when the rela
tions of country and urban employers under the awards were men
tioned. Another difficulty appears in the administration of employers’
unions. Usually employers are assessed for their union expenses
pro rata according to the number of men they employ. Naturally
they insist on having proportionate voting power in the association.
For instance, in the retailers’ union the assessment is $2.43 for each
employee. After a man has joined a union the payment of this assess
ment becomes a legal obligation, and the sum assessed can be recovered
before the arbitration court. Furthermore, if there is a case pending—
and cases do hang fire for one or two years—he can not resign or get
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
137
out of the union until that ease is adjudicated But the voting power
of different employers is not regulated by any law. The association,
as in the Clancy case mentioned above, may take action with the
pretty well defined purpose of securing special advantages for a
majority over a minority of its own members competing in the same
business. The secretary of an employers’ union frankly told the
writer: “ When our men got together to draw up an agreement for
approval by the court, the first question that arose was, 6Shall we
make a fair working agreement, or one that will knock out certain
classes of our competitors?5 Large employers don’t object to these
regulations, as in any log or rule that the workers will agree to there
are almost sure to be conditions unfavorable to small manufacturers.
Under the minimum wage the best men are sure to gravitate to large
shops, where economies of administration make it possible to pay the
wage asked. The large shop also has the advantage in apprentice
conditions.” Several specific instances were mentioned to the writer
where ulterior motives of the sort suggested were imputed to large
employers who had entered into industrial agreements or reached an
understanding with their employees as to the terms of an award.
The existence of these unions of employers, required by the act, and
the preponderant influence of large employers in their councils, may
operate to the disadvantage of the working people and of the commu
nity at large. In the New Zealand report attention was called to the
fact that an effect of the application of arbitration awards to occupa
tions supplying local needs had been to increase the price of commodi
ties and raise the cost of living. So notable has this effect been in that
colony that the secretary of labor has recently addressed an open letter
to the premier upon the subject, in which he states that “ the prices
of necessaries, such as meat, bacon, eggs, coal, firewood, etc., have
risen considerably and have helped to minimize any advance in workers’
wages.” Especial stress is laid upon the increase of rents. It is stated
to be “ beyond doubt that the advantages bestowed by progressive
legislation are gradually being nullified and will eventually be destroyed
by certain adverse influences.” The immediate remedy suggested is
state housing of the citizens. The logical necessity of regulating
prices—and thereby profits—where wages are regulated, was sug
gested in a report quoted on the working of the minimum wage law
in Yictoria. Employers’ unions in both New South Wales and Western
Australia agree to maintain certain schedules of prices, either informally
or by specific rules and contracts. Before the writer are the by-laws
of one of these unions, from which the following is quoted:
That in the event of any store or retailer of bread refusing to sell
bread at union prices, the baker supplying said store shall give notice
to the secretary of the Master Bakers’ Union, and that said store shall
not be supplied by any baker belonging to the union, except from the
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
baker who originally supplied him, and then only on his agreeing to sell
at the union prices. After it has come to the knowledge of the baker
supplying a store that the said store is selling at less than the retail
price, a fine o f £5 ($24.33) shall be inflicted if he should not notify the
secretary of the union within 48 hours, and a fine of £10 ($48.67) will
be inflicted on any baker who supplies the said store under union price
after having received a copy of such notice from the secretary. That
in the event of any member being convicted of selling bread at a lower
rate than that agreed upon at a general meeting, the union shall have
power to deal with such member in accordance with the rules and sub
ject to the provisions of the conciliation and arbitration act of 1902.
Now, if we turn to the act in question (Industrial Conciliation and
Arbitration Act, 1902, Western Australia), we find the following
clause:
All moneys payable to an industrial union by any member under its
rules may, in so far as they are owing for any period of membership
subsequent to registration, be sued for and recovered in the name of
the industrial union in any court of competent jurisdiction by the sec
retary or the treasurer of the industrial union, or by any other person
who is authorized in that behalf by the rules.
A Sydney newspaper says editorially: “ The act’s insistence on
organization compels employers to combine. Whatever differences
there may have been among them are sunk in the presence of a new
condition which they must unite to meet. Having thus comp together
under compulsion, they can safely be expected to use their combination
for the good of the trade by agreeing to raise prices or maintain them
when they could be lowered. Just as the importer adds something to
the customs duty he pa}Ts, so the employer who is ordered to pay
higher wages adds to the new charge that is passed on to the con
sumer.” And again: “ First the employees organize and apply to
the court successfully for higher wages, shorter hours, and other con
cessions. So the cost of production is raised. Then the employers,
who have had to organize in self-defense, say, and truly enough, that
they must raise prices to cover the increased cost of production. But
while they are about it they agree to use their chance to obtain a larger
profit.”
Although New South Wales ships wheat to Great Britain, the cost
of bread is half a cent a pound higher in Sydney than in the latter
country, and nearly half a cent a pound higher in New Zealand, which
also exports wheat, than in Sydney. Meanwhile, as the paper just
quoted suggests, the public has no locus standi before the arbitration
court. “ The court may make awards which will have the effect of
raising the price of food without the party most interested being
allowed a hearing.” The whole question may well be closed by a
quotation from a trade journal, almost every sentence of which was
corroborated by employers a number of times in different interviews:
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA,
139
There is an important point to be kept in mind, namely, that so far
as the members of the Employers’ Association are concerned the arbi
tration court’s regulations under which they work are mainly of their
own making. They are mostly concessions which employers have
made to employees on condition that the court made them a common
rule for nonmembers, who were likely to be more seriously prejudiced
by their enforcement than members, which thus enables members to
pass their full weight, and a little more, onto the public. The act
encourages the formation of rings among traders by putting them in
possession of powers of exploiting the public and oppressing their
small competitors.
The court can modify the price of a commodity indirectly, or rather
the fluctuation in prices, in other ways than by defining conditions of
employment. In the Newcastle Colliery awards the court ordered
that managers should determine the selling price of coal, so far as the
sliding scale of wages was dependent thereon, twice a year, at intervals
of six months. Previously the Colliery Owners’ Association had been
in the custom of regulating prices according as the demand for the
commodity and the supply of coal on hand varied, without regard to
fixed dates. Naturally the effect of the award has not been to annul
the effect of demand and supply upon prices, even in a country so
remote as Australia, but the statutory maintenance of a fixed hewing
rate throughout six months is said indirectly to regulate the movement
of prices.
A considerable class of merchants, middlemen, and professional men
in Australia either approve of the arbitration laws or are neutral toward
such enactments. Mr. Wise, formerly attorney-general of New South
Wales, and author of the act in that State, said that the law had fully
met his expectations and had conciliated support where opposition
formerly existed; that it had been opposed by extreme socialists and
labor agitators, but had received the support of the sober body of
workingmen; and that it had prevented sympathetic strikes and fur
thered industrial peace without hampering industry. Most employers
in Australia oppose compulsory arbitration, at least as enforced by the
present laws, and their hostility is rapidly becoming a more or less
partisan class sentiment, which manifests itself in a uniform coloring
in all testimony received from them as to the operation of the act. As
one of them said: “ Industrial matters are discussed in Australia, not
upon economic grounds, but upon grounds of political expediency.”
As far as detailed testimony regarding the general influence of the
law goes, the same opinions were expressed, in almost the same words,
by different individuals three thousand miles apart, the same objec
tions were voiced, and the same general features of party alignment
upon the question were apparent. The workingmen as a body being
committed to such legislation, there are few dissentient voices in their
ranks. One used to hear at every turn the reported words of some
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
labor leader in New South Wales who claimed that the working-men
were being sold under the act “ like bullocks at Smithfield.” This is
the catch quotation of adverse labor sentiment, and one generally
hears it in the mouth of those who oppose the labor party. There are
many trade unionists who do not consider arbitration a panacea for
labor troubles, or advocate its universal application. One labor man
said: 44The well-organized unions, like the boiler makers, stone masons,
and shipwrights, don’t want arbitration; because they can gain their
point quicker by laying oft* work than by going to court. Mushroom
unions, organized since the law went into effect, where only 2 or 3
men work in one place, have got most of the awards and the chief
benefit from the act. The coal miners are an instance of a strong
union that has been assisted by the law.” A member of the Sydney
bricklayers’ union said: 44The building trades don’t need the arbitra
tion law. They get what they want without it. The bricklayers,
stone masons, plasterers, and 1 think the slaters, haven’t asked for an
award. But I believe the act has done a vast amount of good in the
manufacturing trades. Practically all workingmen, all over the State,
favor the law.” When the writer was interviewing a contractor erect
ing the largest office building then in process of construction in Syd
ney, the latter pointed to the work and said: 44There is not a man
working on this job who is under an award.” The president of a
labor council when spoken to on the subject, said: 64If we had as good
trade union organization as you have in America, we could get twice
as much as by arbitration. The arbitration law helps especially
workers who are too cowardly to come out into the open. Our
stronger unions are not always benefited by arbitration.” The secre
tary of a typographical union said: 44 While I favor arbitration, the
act deprives us of our virility as a union. W e are imposed upon in
cases where it would not happen if we could strike. When we have
a case, we get 4blue-moldy’ before it comes off.” The secretary of
one of the oldest and strongest unions in Sydney said: 441 never was
in favor of the arbitration act. I look at it from the point of view of
a union that got all it wanted without the act. It is a good thing for
unorganized workmen and weak and poorly organized unions; but
the well-organized trade unions are worse off than before the law was
made. For 25 years before the act was passed our society never had
a serious strike to get what it asked for. W e believe that if we go
into court we will get less satisfactory results than in the past. It
takes all the money a union has to get an award or to defend itself
against employers who are trying to get an award against its interests;
and then it takes all the money a union can scrape together afterwards
to see that the award is kept.” This officer belonged to a union that
was about to defend itself against an application of employers to have
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
141
the cou rt reduce the union rate o f wages 10 per cent. Such outspoken*
opposition to the act is v ery exceptional am ong trade unionists, and*
should n ot be understood as representing a widespread general senti
m ent am ong w ork in g people. E ven the secretary o f a socialist ta ilo resses5 union, w ho was on p rincip le opposed to arbitration laws o r any*
other legislation that recogn ized the w age system , said: “ The act
must be given credit fo r having kept up the wages o f tailoresses who**
had w ork during the last tw o bad }rears. W ith o u t the law, the girls<
w ould have had to take anyth in g.55
Som e o f the u nfavorable com m ents made b y em ployers in discussingthe act w ere as follow s. A con tractor and bu ild er: u I do not approve*
o f the law. I t creates disputes. W orkm en are like p eop le w ho g o
to a m edical lecture in the best o f health, and return fan cy in g they*
have every disease described b y the lecturer. The constant recourseto the cou rt creates im aginary evils and grievances. N ever in the his
to ry o f N ew South W ales w ere there half as many legitim ate trade
disputes as there are cases now pending b efore the court. I should*
fa v o r the act i f it really b rou gh t us industrial peace, but it does not*
do that. I believe that a m a jority o f the w ork in g p eople in this:
State know v ery little accurately about the act and its effects; but theyhave a general idea that it is labor legislation, and so must be in th eirinterest. T h ey consider that the act has been devised en tirely f o r
their benefit, and n ot that it is f o r the benefit o f both em ployers and
em ployees. U nder the arbitration act no consideration is given todifferent arrangem ents and administrative a bility in different shops...
Th e cou rt practically fixes a hard and fast m axim um o f ou tput in a .
trade, although the same exertion in one shop m ay turn ou t 50 p e r
cent m ore than an equal amount o f exertion in an u n progressive, ou tof-date establishment. Th e form er loses all the advantage o f im p rove
ments, and so p rogress in an industry is ch eck ed.55 T h e last remarkm igh t apply in some occupations, p ossibly v ery d irectly in the b rick m akers5 award already m entioned, but the effect o f an award is theop posite o f that suggested in other cases, and leads to the substitution
o f m achinery fo r men. Th e president o f the S yd n ey Cham ber o f '
C om m erce said: “ A s a b od y the cham ber o f com m erce is w hollyop posed to the arbitration act. W h en the act was p roposed, I, withmany others, favored it— at least its general principles. W e w ere
given to understand that it was a rem edy to be resorted to on ly in
case o f real grievances o r serious disputes in v olv in g a strike o r som e
sim ilar interruption o f industry. Instead, a little coterie o f labor
leaders m anufactures disputes, and b y means o f preferen ce to union
ists use the cou rt as a machine to increase the num ber and enrollm ent
o f unions, and so their ow n influence.55 A sh ippin g em p loy er saidr
“ The act is not fa ir at present. I fa v o r com pu lsory arbitration, but*
12425—No. 56—05----- 10
142
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the act is one-sided. The workmen have -a hold on their employers,
but the employers have no hold on their men. I f the men want to
strike, they can evade the law.” A boot manufacturer said: “ The
mechanical nature of the awards works constant injustice and
hardship.” A woolen manufacturer said: “ I am opposed to the pres
ent law. There is no finality in the demands of the workers and the
obligations imposed by the court. I think the act in some form will
remain. In theory compulsory arbitration is all that can be desired,
but in practice up to the present it has proved quite the reverse. I
don’t think the difficulties that present themselves are to be remedied
by amendments to the act or by reforming its administration. They
arise from the misuse of the act by the unions.” A tanner said:
“ We have tanneries in both New Zealand and New South Wales.
The New Zealand act is administered more fairly and judiciously
than the act in New South Wales.” A boot manufacturer said:
“ Arbitration is a good thing, but it is misused. I would be in favor
of the act if it were not used to create difficulties.” A steamship
owner said: “ la m opposed to the act. The main objection is to
compulsory preference to unionists, which creates an artificial labor
market. I would not so much object to the act if the question of
unionism were left out of it altogether. Its intent is laudable.” A
harness manufacturer said: “ I believe we should be far better off
without any act at all. I could be in daily controversy with the court,
and am compelled to break the law a dozen times a day.” Another
employer in the same business said: “ I would see the act repealed.
I should be sorry to see it improved to be made more tolerable than
it is, because it is fundamentally bad. W orkmen are rendered dis
satisfied and fractious^ and their product is decreased. They expect
the court to do for them what they formerly recognized depended on
their own efforts.” An employers’ representative said: “ As a nativeborn American, I should be very sorry to see our act in the United
States.” A mine owner said: “ Even your Colorado trouble is not so
bad as our arbitration law. Your outbreaks settle things for a time.
The arbitration law is our Colorado beetle; it is always with us and
we can’t exterminate it. Employers are constantly putting up with
injustice rather than go to law.” A woolen manufacturer said:
“ W e rather court a fairly regulated wage; but we oppose this con
stant tinkering with wages, and we must have authority to employ
whom we like, without hindrance from outside.”
On the other hand, one of the largest mine proprietors in New
South Wales said that he was very well satisfied with the award under
which he was working, and had no complaints to make. Another
employer, with a large manufacturing establishment in Sydney, said:
“ Although the act has not been altogether successful here, 1 rather
favor arbitration, and think it might be used to stop strikes. I have
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
143
seen a great deal of trouble in the manufacturing districts of central
England, where industries and communities were ruined by strikes.”
These neutral or favorable opinions were very rare among employers;
probably rarer than opinions adverse to the act among workingmen.
The practical difficulties of administering such a law are much greater in
a State with considerable manufactures, competition from neighboring
States within the same tariff boundaries, and a large urban center, like
New South Wales, than in an autonomous colony where rural condi
tions prevail, like New Zealand. The president of the New South
Wales court said: “ Arbitration is certainly a bigger problem than we
anticipated.”
While both the Australian laws prohibit strikes unconditionally,
they do not specifically provide for cases where employees refuse to
begin work and hold off for higher pay. An instance of the latter sort
occurred in New South Wales in 1902, when the shearers, under the
direction of the Australian Workers’ Union, formed a camp of several
hundred men at the opening of the season in order to prevent shearers
from going to work at a lower wage than that demanded by the union,
and even used force to intimidate nonunion workmen. O f course,
there was no contract, even implied, in this case between the shearers
and their employers, as the season’s work had not yet begun, and the
arbitration court consequently did not intervene. Its authority to do
so appears to have been a disputed question. The employers secured
an injunction against the union leaders, and eventually an order of
a court of equity sequestrating the funds of the union, thus breaking
the u strike.” The employers now ask for an amendment to the law
to provide for this case, that, in its ultimate implications, might be
construed to go much farther than the labor leaders have yet ventured,
in the way of regulation; for it might be interpreted as not only a
provision compelling men to go to work, but conversely compelling
employers to provide work. The form such an amendment would
take, as advocated officially by the Pastoralists’ Union, would be as
follows: “ No organization o f employees shall order its members to
refuse V ork for the purpose of enforcing compliance with demands
made by them or other employees on an employer, and no organization
of employers shall order its members to refuse to give employment
for the purpose o f compelling their employees or aiding„ another
employer in compelling his employees to accept any term or condition
of employment.” This simply means more regulation solicited by the
advocates of freedom from government control in industrial matters;
but it is a regulative remedy to cure an evil arisen under a regulative
act, and does not involve an indorsement of the principle of the act
itself. As sheep have to be shorn at a certain time in order to get the
full returns of the clip, it is extremely improbable that the pastoral
ists would ever attempt to force down wages by refusing employment
144
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
to shearers; and as the court fixes a minimum and not a maximum
wage in case any industry is under an award, the power of the employ
ers to force down wages is already limited; so the restriction nomi
nally placed upon them by the proposed amendment is only apparent.
Another cessation of work involving the same principle occurred in
the shipbuilding industry in Sydney. A company had opened a new
dock at some distance from their principal works. The men demanded
a quarter of an hour extra time, for travel pay, when they were sent
to this dock, claiming that it was the same as working on a ship in
stream; the company disputed this, and asserted that the new dock was
an integral part of their works, and men going to it were not reported
until they arrived at the scene of their labors. The works were tied
up two weeks over this dispute, but the men deny that there was
a strike, as they had not begun work at the new dock.
Two unquestionable strikes, one of them of some magnitude, have
occurred in the colliery employees working under an award of the
court. The first and principal of these happened at Teralba, a coal
mining settlement a few miles from Newcastle. The facts of the case,
presented from a labor standpoint by the secretary of the Colliery
Employees’ Federation, were as follows:
In accordance with the award of the arbitration couH an accountant
had ascertained the selling price of coal at Rhonda and Northern Extend
ed collieries for the previous 6 months, upon which wages for the fol
lowing 6 months were to be based. The piecework price would accord
ingly be 42 cents a ton, for coal hewn and filled by the miner and weighed
in the gross at the pit’s bank. The men had anticipated a better rate.
The Pacific Colliery, in the same neighborhood and with the same
conditions of working, had been paying for some time a higher rate
(62 cents a ton). The general reduction taking place over the district
amounted to 8 cents a ton for coal weighed at the bottom of the screen,
and an equivalent where coal was filled in the gross. The Pacific Col
liery was one of those benefiting by the reduction made under the
award. The men in this colliery were willing to accept the propor
tionate reduction prevailing throughout the district. But the com
pany had filed a case in court and wanted wages fixed near the level
prevailing in Rhonda and Northern Extended collieries. (These col
lieries are all within one-fourth of a mile of each other.) Without
waiting for the case to be decided in court, they ceased to work the
mine, asserting they had no trade. They offered their men a tonnage
rate slightly better than that at Rhonda and Northern Extended col
lieries (amounting to 47 cents a ton), and were willing to pay any dif
ference the court might award later (in favor of the men). This the
Federation declined to do, as the case had not been properly before
the court, and therefore was not parallel with that of the neighboring
collieries, which were under an award. So the men were idle till May
10, when a temporary settlement was made pending a decision of the
court. (This dispute began January 1,1904, when the new scale went
into effect.) About 200 miners were involved. There is no doubt
that the action of Pacific Colliery, by keeping the men thus idle, had
a tendency to cause unrest, especially in the adjoining collieries of
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
145
the Teralba district. (It cost the Colliery Employees5Federation sev
eral thousand dollars to support these idle men.)
The selling price of Rhonda and Northern Extended coal having
been ascertained to be low, and not giving the results (on the sliding
scale) that the miners expected, they suddenly stopped work, at
Northern Extended after 2 days, and at Rhonda after 5 days5 work at
the reduced rates. There were 200 miners in these two collieries and
a small neighboring, colliery also affected. I went up and attended a
meeting and strongly protested against the action of the men. I
pointed out to them that no matter how distasteful the award might
be it was yet an award of the court that had been deliberately made,
and should be respected by them; and that they would best conduce to
their own interests by working on until such time as an opportunity
might be given to appeal to the court to have the award reviewed.
The men refused to take my advice, and doggedly remained out of
work. They had no help from the union, and received no assistance
from its funds. The men were out nearly 2 months. In the mean
time they had been making appeals for aid to the workmen of the
various collieries on pay days. This aid when given was purely i^oluntary and was outside the Federation. It was strictly individual, and
there was no compulsion or organized effort in behalf o f the men.
The contributions were very limited, and the disastrous result for the
men could not have been otherwise than it was. By the end of 2
months all the men were in at Rhonda, with the exception of 5, to
whom the management objected. The workmen at Northern Extended
were not so fortunate. I believe that 40 or 50 men were left out, the
company alleging that they had not trade to employ all hands. At
the present time upward of 20 of these are receiving aid from the
Federation, on account of the action of their employers in declining
to put them to work.
A t the time many papers pointed to this incident as a breakdown of
the arbitration act, when it really was nothing of the kind. It was
simply an impulsive move on the part of a mere handful of men, who
no doubt repented their act a few days later. The other stern fact was
overlooked that, apart from these 200 men, close on to 6,000 miners
had loyally obeyed the award of the court, in the judgment given in
December, 1903, for a reduction of wages amounting to 8 or 9 per cent
to go into operation January 1, 1904. These little spasmodic and
erratic actions of a handful of men in no way detract from the utility
of the arbitration court, nor do they prove that compulsory awards
can not be enforced, or that men will not loyally abide by such rules.
This statement was confirmed, as to all essential matters of fact, by
the newspaper accounts of the affair published in Newcastle at the
time, and by information derived from employers. The total number
thrown out of employment by the strike was stated by one of the
employers to have been 615, including laborers and other surface men.
Employers also asserted that the moral support of the union was given
to the strikers, although official support was denied, and that the
practical aid extended to the men by the pay-day collections was con
siderable. The employers brought an action before the arbitration
court to secure damages from the Colliery Employees5Federation, to
which the Teralba lodges engaging in the strike belonged; but the
146
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
court decided that as the award violated chanced to contain no specific
provisions to the effect that work should continue until employment
was terminated after customary notice, no breach had been committed.
It will he noticed that this was not a prosecution for a strike, under
the penal clauses of the act, as the proceedings taken by the employers
were for violation of an award already in operation. The men were
criminally liable, under the master and servants’ act, for leaving work
without customary notice. In February the arbitration court granted
leave to prosecute 12 of the ringleaders among the miners, under the
clause of the arbitration act prohibiting strikes, but the men resumed
work, and the prosecution was dropped.
There is no doubt that this difficulty, and the failure of the employers
to secure a sufficient remedy through the arbitration court, strength
ened the distrust already existing as to the efficacy of the act to bind
employers and employees equally, or to assure the continued operation
of an industry during the pendency of a dispute. The court evidently
held that the men could refuse work by giving the fourteen days’
notice, customary in the fields, without incurring any penalty under
the act or the award. An employer said: “ Our award is virtually
stated by the court to be worth but fourteen days’ purchase, and we
spent $15,000 last year in industrial litigation.” It was never claimed,
however, by the proposers of this or any other compulsory arbitration
act in Australasia that such legislation assured the continuance of
employment in an industry under all conditions. Neither men nor
masters can be forced by law to follow an occupation or to carry on a
business against their will and to their own disadvantage. In case of
workers this would amount to slavery, and in case of employers it
might amount to direct confiscation of property; but the point where
these rights are limited by the arbitration law is not well enough
defined by practice and precedent as yet to be instinctively understood
by either party to a dispute.
On the other hand, a general strike was possibly avoided in a dis
trict where such disturbances have been serious in the past. During
the ten years ending with 1898 the total idleness in this field, on account
of the four large strikes during that period, was nearly ten months.
When the writer was last in Newcastle, in July, 1904, American
coal-cutting machinery was being introduced in the mines that had
been affected by this strike. The introduction of machinery in the
Maitland district, in New South Wales, was the occasion of some dis
agreement between employers and men. A short strike that occurred
in this field in July, 1904, however, was due to a reduction of wages,
according to the sliding scale fixed by the award. The average selling
price had been $1.95 a ton for the previous six months, as against $2.07
a ton for the last six months of 1903, and the hewing rate was conse
quently reduced from 58 to 55 cents a ton. The miners struck against
LABOB CONDITIONS IN AUSTBALIA.
147
the reduction, but were persuaded to resume work a few days later.
The officials of the Colliery Employees’ Federation were active in
this instance, also, in urging the men to go back to work.a
Western Australia has seen two strikes under the present and one
under the former act. The earliest strike was a rather serious affair,
but was not illegal, as the act of 1900, like the New Zealand law, pro
hibited only strikes engaged in by unions registered under the act.
A strike had occurred among laborers employed by the state railway
department at the port of Fremantle, in June, 1901, which was
attended by some violence. This strike had the sympathy of the
Association of Railway Employees, but appears to have been only a
preliminary indication of unrest among the railway men, culminating
in a general strike on July 4 of the same year, which tied up the
government roads and threatened to cause a famine in the gold fields.
The strike was for an advance of wages in certain branches of railway
service. The men were out eleven days, and resumed work after refer
ring their case to an arbiter. They could not appeal to the arbitration
court, as their organization included persons engaged in clerical
service, who were not allowed to register under the provisions of the
law. The act of 1902 is extended to cover employees of this character.
The coal miners of the proprietary collieries in the Collie field, in
Western Australia, who were working under an award of the arbitra
tion court, struck, in August, 1904, because 18 of their number had
been discharged. The dismissal of the men was due to the introduction
of coal-cutting machinery. The workers objected to the older men
being sent away, and tried to enforce the “ first come, last g o ” rule,
which had been refused in the award covering their industry, though
stated in the claim of the miners. The matter was adjusted out of
court, though it was rumored for a time that the management would
prosecute some of the men under the strike clause of the arbitration act.
A more serious strike than any of the others mentioned occurred in
the timber industry in Western Australia, in December, 1903. The
Millar Karri and Jarrah Company, which controls the principal tim
ber limits and owns the largest mills in the State, had asked for a con
ference with their men to arrange wages; but the workers preferred
to appeal to the arbitration court. The award given fixed a minimum
wage—presumably under the less liberal definition of a minimum
referred to previously in this report—which was higher for some
classes of work, but on the whole lower than the average rates pre
viously prevailing. On December 1, 1903, the date the award went
into operation, the company posted a notice to the effect that the
« Under date of January 16, 1905, Mr. F. W . Goding, the U. S. Consul at New
castle, reported a strike of 300 wheelers, throwing out of work 4,000 coal miners,
together with many hundreds of coal trimmers, wharf laborers, and others. The
strike was the result of a failure to come to an agreement as to wages.
148
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
award would be enforced in its entirety—that is, that all workers
would be paid the exact rates stated in the award. The men stopped
work—not en masse, but gradually—so that by December 9 four of
the largest mills of the company, in different parts of the State, were
closed, and 8,000 men were idle, besides forest hands and outside
laborers. Three mills remained in operation. The company claimed
that it was justified in the action it took in reducing wages to the
minimum set by the court, on account of the condition of the indus
try; that no dividends had been paid on the preferred stock for the
previous year, and working expenses must be reduced in the interest
of continued employment for the men as well as for the managers.
The men stated, through their leaders, that they did not take excep
tion to the award itself, but to the interpretation placed upon it by
the company; that some men’s wages had been reduced $1.08 a day,
which clearly was not the court’s intention. The conservative news
papers, while criticising the workers, accused the managers of the
company of acting without discretion and net following the intent
of the court. The general executive of the Australian Workers’
Association, to whose branches the timber employees belonged,
passed a resolution repudiating the action of the men in striking and
"ordered them to resume work. On December 10 the matter had
been so far adjusted at a conference between the company and the
delegates of the workers that the men returned to work. An agree
ment was entered into by which the wage scale existing previous to
the award was adopted with a reduction of 8 per cent. The arbitra
tion court later confirmed this agreement. The secretary of the com
pany said in a public interview, when the affair was over, that as far
as the course taken by the men, the procedure of the company and the
men in conference, and the whole settlement of the difficulty were con
cerned, matters took exactly the same course as if no arbitration law
had been in existence. The employers could not put 8,000 men in jail
for violating an award. Practical experience had changed him from
an advocate to a skeptic as to the value of compulsory arbitration.
He concluded with the remark: “ I think the awards will be adhered
to as long as they benefit the men; but when the latter are affected
adversely by an award they will slide away from it.”
Such incidents can be viewed from two positions. Those favorable
to state control of disputes will say that arbitration laws are not
expected to be any exception, to the rule that all statutes, even the
most stringent, are occasionally violated; that the acts are new, and
not thoroughly understood, so that men take chances under them that
they would not if there were the example of a number of convictions
incurred in their enforcement at hand to record their definite interpre
tation and proclaim the determination of the community that their pro
visions should be observed. And even opponents of these acts admit
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
U9
that they lessen, even if they do not utterly abolish, strikes. One
generally gets a long and dreadful record of might-have-been strikes
whenever one interviews an ardent supporter of this legislation. But
conservative employers in some of the largest industries of Western
Australia made such remarks as this, which is quoted from an interview
with the principal representative of employing interests in gold mining
in that State: 4‘ The act has prevented strikes, but it has increased dis
putes and antagonism between employers and their men.” Always
the admission is qualified with some such reservation. Labor men do
not always admit that they can not strike under the acts in force at
present, and threats to do so are occasionally heard in their councils.
But as a body the workers are disposed to observe an award, unless
the margin between what they expect to get from the court and what
they do get is very great. It is doubtful whether any workers would
observe every award that might conceivably be made by a sane and
normally competent court. There is always the possibility of the error
in an award exceeding any limit that the workers think at all fair
and equitable; and then it becomes almost impossible to retain them
in employment. If they do not strike, they evade the provisions
imposed upon them. The benefit of the act is that it prevents an
open rupture and cessation of work in that great majority of cases
where an award, while not exactly satisfying either party, is not intol
erable to either.
The other position is that of employers who argue that the law
should be equally binding on both parties to the dispute, or should
not exist at all. In these strikes they see evidence of the fact that
they can be compelled to do many things by an arbitration court that
workers can not be compelled to do. The court can and does enforce
its awards as regards employers in practically every instance where a
violation is brought to its notice. Neither court in Australia has done
this as regards employees. People who take this view argue that
while it is true that all laws are violated occasionally, other laws are
equally enforced against all members of society. Here is a statute
that by its very nature can not be enforced with equal effectiveness
against the two classes of people who are subject to its provisions.
Though opportunities to do so have occurred, in no instance yet has an
arbitration court proved its ability to cope with any serious resistance
to its orders by a body of workers. As regards employers the law is
armed with a legal sanction; as regards employees it must depend to a
great extent on moral suasion.
One of the objections most often advanced to arbitration legislation
by opponents is that such laws discourage the investment of capital
and check the industrial progress of a country. Sometimes the state
ment is made that they drive capital out of a country. No specific
instance was discovered by the writer where money had been with
150
Bu l l e t i n
of
the
bueeau
of
laboe.
drawn from an industry because of labor legislation in any Australian
State. As employers occasionally intimated, there is a possibility that
some enterprises that would otherwise have been closed down are
continuing because they are unable to liquidate to advantage under
prevailing conditions. A large boot manufacturer in Sydney said:
“ I have spent $130,000 within 18 months in enlarging my factory here,
and have closed my Brisbane (Queensland) place. I wish I had my
money out of the business. I would not reinvest it in manufacturing
under the present laws.” This was an instance where the investment
had been originally made after the arbitration law had been in opera
tion over a year, O f course there were cases where men were with
drawing capital from business in order to retire, or because they were
personally dissatisfied with existing conditions; but where the business
was continued on the same basis as before by other parties this could
not be regarded as a withdrawal of capital from the country, though
originally reported as such. A hat manufacturer in Sydney said:
“ If I had known as much about labor legislation as I do now, I should
not have gone into the business I am in at present.” A second boot
manufacturer said: “ I have business to justify extending my factory,
and have acquired land for the buildings; but I shall not put any
more money in because of the present laws.” A harness and saddle
manufacturer made a similar statement. In one case a man intending
to transfer his business to Sydney from another State was deterred
from doing so by the arbitration act. It was reported to the writer
b}r several persons in a position to be informed that the Bovril Com
pany was prevented from erecting a plant that would have involved
the investment of several million dollars in New South Wales by the
labor legislation of that State. This company ultimately located the
plant in question in Argentina. The investigation made by their
representative in New South Wales, however, was undertaken toward
the close of one of the worst droughts that the State bad ever expe
rienced. The way prospective investors from abroad are impressed
by conditions in New South Wales is well expressed in the following
memorandum of an interview which the writer had with the represent
ative of one o f the largest industrial corporations in America:
We were considering the advisability of making investments that
probably would have aggregated $2,000,000 in a steel plant in New
South Wales, but gave the project up on account of labor condi
tions. W e do not object to the present rate of wages and general
terms of labor contracts; but the uncertainty created by labor
legislation makes the whole management and administration of
business subject ^to the caprice of party politics and absolutely
deadens the spirit of investment and stops development. The situa
tion is as it might be in the United States if we had a Presidential
election every jTear. So far as I have observed, or been able to inform
myself, there is no practical way of holding men to compliance with
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
151
an award. That was shown in the Newcastle (Teralba) trouble. An
award is a one-sided contract, to which the employer is held by his
property obligations and responsibilities, but which the workingman
may evade in a dozen different ways. Then the spirit behind the labor
policy, in this State at least, has been to bleed the employer to the
limit. The profits that constitute the incentive to risk capital in a new
enterprise are not recognized as legitimate by the labor people. But
unless you offer some such profit, there is no motive for investing.
There are not many sure things in business—especially in new under
takings—and unless you allow a margin as compensation for these
inevitable uncertainties, you won’t get capital. The workingmen and
the arbitration court say: “ You stand sure not to make more than
what we consider a fair thing, and we shall probably judge a fair thing
in your business by the profits made in old and established indus
tries—and we may cut that fate down at any time. On the other
hand, we offer you no guaranty that you won’t lose your whole capital
through some miscalculation or unanticipated turn of events. The
only sure thing in your deal is that you won’t make much. You won’t
be allowed to judge what a fair profit is, or under what conditions you
are to make it.”
The remarks just made apply to new industries, and more particu
larly to investors from outside the country. Those already engaged
in business and living on the ground are better able to appraise actual
conditions and predict future changes. They are therefore more
ready to place their capital in productive enterprises regulated by the
court. When interstate free trade and a uniform tariff were inaugu
rated throughout Australia as a result of federation, a great incentive
was given to such local investment in manufacturing enterprises. A
parliamentary return laid before the legislative council of New South
Wales in 1903, shows that from the date of the introduction of the
Federal tariff, October 8,1901, to the end of 1901, £378,400 ($1,841,484:)
was invested in factory buildings in Sydney, exclusive of machinery.
Eleven of these buildings were for new plants, and 13 represented
additions to older establishments. During 1902, £424,418 17s.
($2,065,434.33) was invested in the same city in 143 buildings used
for factories or for store and factory purposes, besides £85,353
($415,370) in other important business buildings and clubs, and
£119,140 ($579,795) in power houses, railway shops, lighting and
traction plants, and garbage works owned by the public. No simi
lar figures for 1903 were obtainable, but presumably there has been
some falling off after the impulse given to manufacturing industries
by the Federal tariff. The wider market resulting from interstate
free trade occasioned some concentration of manufacturing at Sydney
from other States. An unofficial review of building operations in
Sydney during 1903, published by a leading and reliable morning daily,
affords the following statistics of investments:
Sydney, like London, is an aggregation of municipalities around a
business center, which alone constitutes the “ city ” proper. About
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
500 buildings of all sizes were commenced, and in most instances com
pleted, in the city, and 3,500 in the suburban municipalities during
1903. Their total cost was estimated at £3,020,793 ($14,700,689),
of which £2,489,500 ($12,115,152) represented private, and £531,293
($2,585,537) public investment. Of the latter, £27,759 ($135,089) was
for public schools. These improvements include repairs and recon
struction. The figures are not from official records, as no sj^stem of
building permits similar to those in American cities exists, but in the
city proper the estimates are made up in part from returns made to the
water and sewage board. These show that in the city itself 52 ware
houses and stores, 44 shops and offices, and 7 factories were built dur
ing the 3rear. No fewer than 2,379 one-story cottages and 611 houses
of more than one story were erected in the suburbs. It is difficult to
compare Sydney with any American city. In population it officially
ranks with Boston, but Boston with its suburban towns has nearly
double the population of Sydney if we include equal areas from their
respective centers. In 1903, 2,841 permits were taken out in the city
o f Boston for buildings whose total valuation was given as $15,264,940.
It is usually to the interest of persons applying for building permits
in the United States not to overvalue proposed improvements. St.
Louis, a city 20 per cent larger than Sydney, issued 4,802 permits for
buildings estimated to cost $14,544,030, and San Francisco, with about
three-fourths the population of Sydney, issued 2,136 permits for
improvements valued at $17,264,245 in 1903. Therefore. nothing in
these records tends to show any special stagnation of industry and
investment as a result of labor legislation in New South Wales.
Individual industries suffer from errors in the awards, or because
competitive conditions are such that a slightly increased cost of pro
duction, induced by award conditions, covers the margin between profit
and loss. This is especially true, as was pointed out in case of New
Zealand, of manufactures of interchangeable merchandise, such as
boots and shoes, clothing, and other articles imported easily and cheaply
from abroad, or from other States. A manufacturer of this sort in
New South Wales said: “ Three years ago we were developing the
manufacturing side of our business, and putting more capital into that
branch each year; but since the awards have come in our policy is to
manufacture as little as possible or get out of it altogether. Three
years ago we employed over 150 skilled operatives. To-day we employ
about 45. Instead of employing workmen in Australia to make the
goods we need in our business, we are giving employment to workmen
in England and America. However, the law is not quite as bad as
the court has made it. Parliament did not contemplate raising wages
beyond the point making domestic production possible in competition
with foreign production.”
When conditions are averaged for a whole State, however, the total
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
153
effect of the award does not appear to be to drive many men out o f
employment or to increase importation at the expense of local produc
tion. The statistics of manufactures in New South Wales for 1903
show a slight decrease in the number of persons employed in manu
factures, but this is largely to be accounted for by the condition of the
iron trades alone, which are suffering from an almost equal degree of
depression throughout the Commonwealth. The same sort of a decrease
has occurred in Victoria, where amendments to the factories act sought
for by employers have recently been enacted after several years of uni
form manufacturing progress under more stringent industrial regu
lations. Of the 66,269 workers employed in manufacturing in New
South Wales in 1902, 31,693 were engaged in industries, the products
of which came into competition with imported goods. In Western
Australia, which has a growing population, but where manufacturing
industries compete with less protection from the eastern States each
year, the number of establishments has increased from 662 in 1901 to
696 in 1903, and the number of employees from 12,198 in 1901 to
12,569 in 1903. This does not represent normal development, unless
we take the exceptional tariff relation with other parts of the Com
monwealth into consideration. So many similar reservations have to
be made in any other statistical comparisons showing the influence of
labor legislation on trade and industrial conditions, that such figures
have as yet very little worth. Ten years under a uniform tariff may
be required to show the people of Australia just where they stand in
competitive relations among themselves and with foreign countries.
This one element of uncertainty at present discounts the full value of
any statistical conclusions as to the effect of state legislation upon
local industries.
Many thinking people in Australia say that the arbitration laws will
be entirely inoperative in bad times, and the partial failure of the law
during a period of depression and falling wages in the coal fields o f
New South Wales is cited in support of this opinion. On the other
hand, advocates of this legislation point out that during the whole
existence of the act in Western Australia wages have been falling very
uniformly in the industrial centers of that State, in several instances
more rapidly than prices have fallen. The New South Wales act was
put into operation in the midst of a severe depression, occasioned by a
natural calamity of the first magnitude. The employers’ representa
tive on the court in that State said: “ The great difficulty under wThich
the present act has labored has been that it was put into operation in a
period of great depression—the worst I remember in forty-two years o f
residence in the State. So these applications for industrial awards by
workers have been felt severely by employers.” Workers have prob
ably been better off during these hard times, because they had the
act, and employers may have suffered. The theory that the act would
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
fail in hard times seems to be based upon the assumption that employ
ers would benefit—at least equally with the workers—thereby, and
secure reductions in wages. If this has not been the case in New
South Wales, of course no conclusions can be drawn from the exam*
pie of that State.
The two principal States of the Commonwealth are, therefore, work
ing two different schemes for state regulation of wages and industry
side by side. It was interesting to obtain opinions as to the relative
merits of the two systems from workers and employers. Ordinarily
a large margin must be allowed for the personal equation due to local
rivalry when taking testimony in either New South Wales or Victoria
regarding any matter affecting both States. But in this case there
was almost absolute unanimity among employers and employees, respec
tively, on both sides the border. The workers favored an arbitration
court; employers favored, in comparison with the court, the wage
boards. The preference for a court expressed by the workers was
chiefly due to the fact that the board system of regulating wages takes
no note of unions or unionists. But it was also to be accounted for in
part by the less liberal authority granted the boards in the matter of
industrial regulation. The same considerations determined the favor
able attitude of employers toward the boards. The Victorian system
has some real advantages, however, that were admitted on both sides,
or were to be inferred from the suggestions of workers as well as
of employers regarding amendments to the existing arbitration acts.
These advantages center about the fact that the boards are composed
of experts, and avoid the friction of legal procedure in adjusting indus
trial disputes. Neither party likes the law court and lawyer atmos
phere of an arbitration tribunal. A government official of strong
labor sympathies in Sydney expressed without hesitation his prefer
ence for the Victorian boards, on the grounds that they were less
likely to give erroneous decisions; that they decided a dispute with
less delay, and that they cost less than an arbitration court. A factory
manager in Sydney, who had been promoted from the workbench and
had labor sympathies, said: “ The Victorian wage boards are much
better instruments for attaining the ends of arbitration than our court.
I would not hesitate to use an argument before the 3 members of our
court—a judge, a sailor, and a civil engineer—that I would not think
of using before a board of employers and workmen in my own indus
try.” A large boot manufacturer in Melbourne said: “ W e have a
small factory in Sydney. W e prefer the Victorian law to the arbitra
tion act in New South Wales, because the wage boards are composed
of men who know the trade thoroughly. Our system is also more
effective than that in New South Wales, because it is administered by
the Government, while the arbitration awards are administered by the
trade unions.” Other boot manufacturers in both Sydney and Mel
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
155
bourne expressed identical views. A clothing manufacturer in Mel
bourne said: “ Our boards are better than an arbitration court,
because we get together with the men and establish conditions that are
mutually advantageous,” and expressed the opinion that the awards
more usually represented a defeat for one of the parties than a com
promise between them.
A Federal arbitration bill became a law in December, 1904. This
act possesses significance as the latest project for such legislation
in Australia, one that has been through the fire of nearly two
years’ parliamentary debate and caused the fall of two ministries, and
because it represents an embodiment of elements from the 3 acts
already in force in Australasia, and thus furnishes to some degree a
resume of the experience of their administrators.
The sphere of jurisdiction allowed to the Commonwealth Govern
ment in the matter of the arbitration of industrial disputes is defined
to some extent by the general powers conferred upon the central Par
liament by the constitution and by the enacting law of the Imperial
Government. The right to enact such a law is specifically granted by
the following clause of the constitution: “ Conciliation and arbitration
for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending
beyond the limits of a single State.” There is also another clause,
previously quoted, by which the central Parliament is given authority
to legislate in regard to any matter referred to it by any State or
group of States, such legislation to affect only the States consenting
thereto. The central Parliament also has power to legislate with
regard to “ trade and commerce with other countries and among the
States.” By the imperial act constituting the Commonwealth, the
British Government expressly delegates powers to the Federal Govern
ment to make laws which shall be in force “ on all British ships, the
Queen’s ships of war excepted, whose first port of clearance and whose
port of destination are in the Commonwealth.”
The aggregate authority thus conferred upon the Federal Govern
ment in the way of industrial legislation is therefore considerable; but
it is not yet defined and delimited by court interpretation and judicial
decisions. Among the expressed objects of the arbitration law as
embodied in the bill is “ to enable States to refer industrial disputes to
the court, and to permit the working of the court and the state indus
trial authorities in aid of each other.” The principle of the New
South Wales law has been observed in providing an absolute prohibi
tion of strikes and lockouts, under penalty of £1,000 ($4,867). There
is an ultimate penalty of three months’ imprisonment for any violation
of the act.
The machinery set up by the law in the earlier drafts has been
modified in the law as finally enacted. The court consists of a single
judge who must be a justice of the supreme court of the Commonwealth,
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
appointed by the Governor-General. There are no boards or repre
sentatives of the two parties to disputes elected or nominated by their
respective organizations, as in the State and colonial acts. The court
may appoint any state supreme court justice his deputy, exercising the
powers and functions of the Federal court, during the pleasure and
subject to the superior jurisdiction of the latter. The court is
charged with the duty “ at all times by all lawful ways and means
to reconcile the parties to industrial disputes, and to prevent and
settle industrial disputes, whether or not the court has cognizance
of them, in all cases in which it appears to him that his mediation
is desirable in the public interest.” The same action is enjoined
upon the court during the pendency of any reference. In this
respect the precedent of the dormant South Australian law has
been followed, and in the injunction to offer to reconcile disputes,
whether the court .has jurisdiction over them or not, Mr. Kingston,
who drafted the original Federal bill, may have had in his mind his
failure to secure the cooperation of the governments of other colonies
in such an attempt at the time of the seamen’s strike in 1894. The
court shall have cognizance in its judicial capacity and with compulsory
powers of any dispute referred to it by the registrar of the court, by
an organization of employers or employees registered under the act,
or by any state industrial authority. Individual employers seem not
to have the power to bring disputes before the court, though it is pos
sible that the registrar would consider an employer having 100 men in
his service eligible to registration under the act. The court may refer
the questions in dispute to a conciliation committee, consisting of an
equal number of employers and employees, or to a trial board, which
may be any state industrial authority, or may be a special body con
sisting of an equal number of representatives of employers and
employees, and a chairman who shall be a judge of the high court or
the supreme court of a State. The court has the same jurisdiction,
limited by the extent of Federal jurisdiction in industrial matters, that
the state courts have, and may grant preference to unionists. A Fed
eral award supersedes any conflicting state award or wage board deter
mination, or order of a state authority. The court may require the
unions party to a dispute to give security not exceeding £200 ($973.30),
for the faithful observance of an award. It may refer a point of law,
in writing, to the supreme court of the Commonwealth for its decision,
without the necessity of the parties to the dispute involving the
question bringing special suit. Preference to unionists can be granted,
as has been mentioned earlier, only to nonpolitical organizations;
and with a second important reservation, that “ no such preference
shall be directed to be given unless the application for such preference
is, in the opinion of the court, approved by a majority of those affected
by the award who have interests in common with the applicants.”
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
157
Many interesting questions relating to the respective spheres o f
state and Federal rights under the constitution have arisen during the?
discussion of this bill in Parliament, but they still are purely academic,,
pending the practical application of the law. Mr. Kingston resigned
from the Barton cabinet because the ministers refused to make the*
awards applicable to British and foreign shipping trading between*
CommonweaJ^h ports. The Deakin ministry was defeated over the?
question of making state employees subject to the act. The Watson
or labor cabinet resigned because of the restrictions placed upon
preference to unionists.
Probably the main consideration that induced the members of the*
constitutional convention to introduce the arbitration clause in the
Federal constitution was that it might confer authority that would
prevent in the future a recurrence of any such industrial outbreak asthe maritime strike of 1890. The seamen were the principal class of
workers whom it was sought to include under the act. During the
debate upon the bill, however, it was developed that the labor party
anticipated securing an interpretation of the law that would allow
almost any industrial dispute occurring in any State to come under the
jurisdiction of the Federal arbitration court, by virtue of the fact that
the unions of the different States were federated, and therefore could
extend a dispute purposely beyond the boundaries of any single politi
cal division. This was first suggested in case of the shearers, but the*
principle thus brought to public attention was evidently of much
broader application.
However, one of the leading labor members in the Federal Parlia
ment said, in discussing the bill: “ A Federal court will have but few
cases before it. W e know of but 3 important applications likely tot*
be made for Federal awards. That is one reason why we do not need
representatives of the two sides upon the court. The representatives:
of the employees on local arbitration boards will be safer from moles
tation by emplo}Ters than they would be if it were a state court.55
Some employers, in places where labor is more plentiful and the cost
of living is lower than in other parts of the Commonwealth, rather
favor the idea of a Federal court to regulate wages, and it is barely
possible that these parties may bring cases before the court, either to
get away from vexatious state awards or to secure an advantage over
competitors in other States. The court can make any award a com
mon rule; but it is not required to do so, as its authority extends ter
defining the district within which any order or agreement or regulation
prescribed by the court shall apply. Some of the objections to tho
bill voiced by employers were as follows: u W e oppose the provision
o f the present Federal arbitration bill which allows the registrar prac
tically to decide when a dispute becomes interstate. W e say that such
12425— No. 56— 05------11
158
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
disputes ought either to be clearly defined in the act or be interpreted
as interstate only when a majority of the interested parties so agree.
In applying the common rule there should be no differential awards
allowed in competing trades, though they might be granted in the
building trades.” The Perth Chamber of Commerce passed a resolu
tion protesting against the common rule, as its application to foreign
shipping would increase freight rates between WesternJLustralia and
her eastern neighbors. The workmen in that State have also been
uneasy over the possibilities of this provision, fearing that it might be
used to force down wages to the rates prevailing in the eastern part of
the Commonwealth. It is certain that in the application of the law a
number of practical difficulties will have to be met that have not
appeared in the administration o f state acts, and that the problem of
standardizing conditions of employment throughout a country nearly
as large, if not so populous, as the United States, can not be solved
without doing violence to many local interests.
A person who has not studied conditions on the ground, in a country
where government regulation of industry has been attempted, can
hardly form an adequate idea of the number and the complicated
character of the difficulties that present themselves in the way o f such
legislation. No inventor ever faced mechanical problems more puz
zling than the social and economic problems that the semisocialist law
maker must encounter. He introduces into his regulator wheels that
won’t turn around, bearings that jam or play too freely, movements
that counteract each other and work at cross purposes, adjustments
that can not be reached without taking down the whole machine, and then
can call himself happy if there is not some false mechanical principle
involved that vitiates his theory of construction. Nevertheless, the
arbitration and wage boards laws of Australasia are going concerns.
Probably they are rude beginnings, but they represent an advance
upon the earliest acts. There is more or less of an organic connection
among the different laws in force. Each has been modified by the expe
rience of its neighbors and their predecessors. The total body of
precedent included in the arbitration court awards and wage boards
determinations is vast in bulk and valuable as a record of experimental
industrial regulation. Forms of procedure have been crystallized.
The community has been educated in arbitration. In some instances
the employers have footed the bills, in others the general public. If the
workers have not paid their fair share yet, they may be required to do
so at some time in the future.
The experience of Australia in industrial arbitration is of qualified
value for Americans, No other country is so like the United States
in many respects. Neither has yet inventoried its natural resources.
Both are federal republics of great territorial extent. The people are
akin, not only racially, but in many ways temperamentally. How
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
159
ever, the conditions under which arbitration laws would be applied in
the two countries are vastly different. These differences are both
industrial and political.
Australia does not export manufactures. The extent of her market
is controlled by her own tariff. If she regulates wages, she can also
regulate competition. America could not do this. She must compete
under terms prescribed, to some extent, by conditions of employment
in other countries.
In Australia regulation of some sort exists in both the great manu
facturing States. Interstate competitive conditions are similar, if not
exactly uniform. Much greater diversity o f competitive conditions
exists among the States of the Union. The adjustment of relations
between employers and employees in Illinois, working under compul
sory arbitration, would have to be conditioned by similar relations in
Ohio, working under free contract. The diversity o f interests between
town and country, between city and city in the same State, between
large and small employers, all would multiply a hundredfold the
complexity o f conditions to be considered by an arbitration judge in
America.
There is hardly a State in the Union that could adopt a workable
compulsory arbitration law without amending its constitution; and it
would probably have to reenforce the original by subsequent amend
ments before its organic law and the courts that interpreted it were
faced around in the desired position. An arbitration award can not
control conditions in an industry without abolishing, or at least
greatly limiting, the right of private contract. The New Zealand
court has held that it can intervene to annul a contract between
employers, against the will of both parties, although the contract was
entered into prior to any order of the court, and there was no indus
trial dispute existing locally in the industry in question. No award
could maintain itself, nor would industrial agreements be entered into
under an act, without the power of the court to make such awards or
agreements a common rule, thus making the order of the court super
sede every contract existing at the time between employers and
employees affected by the court’s order. Only in case of preference
to unionists, which it is not compelled to grant, has the court in New
South Wales provided that “ This condition shall not affect any exist
ing contracts for employment during the currency of such contracts;
but should they be for an indefinite period, they shall be deemed to
have terminated in the month from the commencement o f this award.”
Otherwise the court’s order supersedes private contracts in the indus
try and district affected unconditionally.
The theory o f the law requires unions. The logic behind granting
them preference is irrefragable, though the practical advisability of
doing so may be questioned by many people. An arbitration court
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
in the United States could not give such an order without exercising
authority to pass 66special and class legislation.” Indeed, the clauses
prohibiting such legislation might be invoked with fair show of suc
cess against any arbitration law devised on Australasian lines without
making a special issue of this point.
Our State constitutions do not usually contain any provision for
delegating legislative authority. But the arbitration court, as has
been mentioned before in this and the New Zealand reports, is a legis^lative body. It amends and revises existing industrial statutes and
creates new factory legislation.
Due stress has been laid upon the weak points in the arbitration laws
of Australia in the above review. All have not been enumerated, but
the others are of relatively minor importance or involve contentious
issues, where either the facts themselves or interpretations of the law
are in doubt. Many of the criticisms of the act are really criticisms
of the awards, and impugn the law itself only in as far as they show
that arbitration courts are liable to error, and that their decisions niay
work mischief in an industry. The strongest testimony in favor of
these laws is the very fact of their continued existence. Does the
public opinion of Australia approve such legislation, we may ask, and
the answer must be, Yes. The gains of the labor party in recent
elections indicate this. Still more significant is the fact that no politi
cal party opposes these laws. Men of different shades of political
opinion have different ideas as to how comprehensive the powers of
the court should be, and as to the way it should be constituted; but
practically all men of weight in public affairs approve of compulsory
arbitration in principle, at least in their public utterances. The Federal
bill has been carried through the house by four ministries, represent
ing all three of the political parties, and has been passed by that body
with the labor party in direct opposition, and by a premier who is at
present and from the logic of his position the most outspoken antago
nist that the labor politicians have. In Western Australia the arbitra
tion law was passed by the party and drafted by the premier, who went
out of power when the labor cabinet gained control. In New South
Wales, where this legislation has been put to the severest test that
any law of the character has as yet undergone, although the labor
party gained at the recent election, all members of the party which
passed the law were swept out of power by that event. The present
premier, elected as an antagonist of the laborists, has thus expressed
himself in a public interview: UI do not go to the extent of saying
that the arbitration law is an unmitigated blessing. It is the lesser of
two evils, and while disputes in some shape or form are not to be
avoided, arbitration is better than brute force. I do not believe in
the provision which deprives the employer of much of his discretion
as a business man in the conduct of his own business. That, however,
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
161
is not so much a defect in the act as a defect in its administration. I
am a thorough believer in the principle of arbitration being applied in
industrial disputes. I must say that the sixteen years of experience I
have had since 1888 has only tended to confirm my belief in the prin
ciples of arbitration. I broad-base my advocacy of any act of legisla
tion on the public need and the public good. Much that is complained
of in the arbitration act, in my opinion, lies at the door of its admin
istration. I am in favor of giving the act a fair trial, and of amend
ing it as a result of the experience gained during that trial.” Possible
amendments are foreshadowed, rather than definitely suggested, in
the interview, curtailing the right of the court to grant preference to
unionists, and confining the intervention of the court to real disputes,
where issues important to society at large are at stake. I f possible
the following quotation is still more significant. There have been no
more vigorous and consistent opponents of the arbitration act, as
applied in New South Wales, than the two leading Sydney papers. Yet
in an editorial commenting upon the recent miners’ strike in Colorado,
the Daily Telegraph says: “ No society can hang together without law,
injury to which, therefore, is also injury to the whole public, and
should be promptly and sternty stopped in the public interest. And
for that reason, as far as its industrial aspect is concerned, this is
precisely one of those struggles in which compulsory arbitration could
be practiced to the general benefit.” The point of this quotation is
not that it is inconsistent with the opposition of the editor to the
arbitration law as administered in Sydney, but that almost every where
in Australia, even in the camps of extreme opponents of the labor
party, the idea that the State should intervene to settle by compulsion
serious industrial disputes is accepted. There is no theoretical objec
tion to compulsory arbitration from an}^ but a very small minority, so
small as not seriously to disturb the unanimity of opinion upon that
subject. No one in Australia soberly proposes to go back to strikes.
The people have struck a lead in their arbitration laws that they
intend to follow out to a final issue. They may amend, but they show
no disposition to repeal them.
There are two kinds of radical legislation, a kind that conquers
attention and commands support from the time it stands on the statute
books, that becomes a question of vital interest around which parties
rise and fall; and a kind that depends for its existence upon a momen
tary wave of moral enthusiasm, and is forgotten and allowed to lapse
when this has passed. Much of our Sunday observance and more
advanced liquor legislation represents the latter, and the arbitration acts
of Australia seem to represent the former class of laws. The Austra
lian laws have taken root, and while no man can predict with certainty
their future, and a popular reaction may possibly cause their repeal,
every tendency at present observable in the country points the other
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
way. They doubtless will be greatly modified by future amendments.
They may not always be administered by those in sympathy with labor,
but their central principle, compulsory state intervention to adjudicate
serious industrial disputes, promises to persist
An irresistible conclusion, even to the least sympathetic observer, is
that these laws must have accomplished something to command this
support. They have not simply “ bluffed” their way to their present
position. They are reported to have secured for the laborer a clear
definition of his right to a living wage, reasonable security against
involuntary interruption o f employment by the caprice, either of his
own leaders or of arbitrary employers, and to have checked sweating
in certain lines of manufacturing. They have also assured employers
in a great majority o f instances, though not in all, against a cessation
of industry by strikes. Business men have been able to take contracts
and make plans for future operations with this particular element o f
uncertainty left out. Above all—and here may be the secret o f the
growing power o f the labor party—the general public has not been
worried or put to inconvenience and loss by the industrial dissensions
o f other people. Facts something like these must be assumed to
account for the support arbitration laws, notwithstanding their defects,
have won in Australia.
OLD-AGE PENSIONS.
The third plank of the federal labor platform calls for old-age pen
sions, and this, like compulsory arbitration, is a partially realized por
tion o f the workingmen’s political programme. New South Wales and
Victoria, with more than half the population of the Commonwealth,
already have such laws upon their statute books, and Federal legisla
tion of this character is proposed, with the prospect that it will shortly
be enacted. Specific power is given the Federal Parliament to pass
such laws by the constitution. The principal obstacle to the imme
diate passage o f a Federal law arises from questions of revenue. The
Commonwealth constitution provides that for ten years after the estab
lishment of the Federation, and thereafter until Parliament otherwise
provides, three-fourths of the customs duties collected by the Federal
Government shall be returned to the States, subject to certain reserva
tions and in accordance with provisions of the constitution regulating
the proportioning o f these funds. Therefore, if the central Govern
ment were to incur any extraordinary expenditure like that for a
national old-age pension system, such a measure might involve raising
four times the revenue necessary for this purpose. The ministry in
power proposes (September, 1904) to resolve this difficulty in a con
ference with the authorities o f the different States.
Both o f the present Australian laws were passed in 1900. The New
South Wales act establishes two classes of beneficiaries— persons over
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
163
60 years of age who are incapacitated by illness or injury from earning
a livelihood, and persons over 65 years of age without regard to inca
pacity. In both cases this is subject to the condition that the pensioner
shall have been a resident of the State for £he preceding twenty-five
years, and, if not a native citizen, a naturalized citizen for not less
than ten years. The amount o f the pension is £26 ($126.53) a year,
diminished by £1 ($1.87) for every like amount of income over £26
($126.53) a year and by £1 ($1.87) for every £15 ($73) of property the
pensioner possesses. Where a husband and a wife living together are
each entitled to a pension, the amount each can receive is fixed at £19
10s. ($91.90) per annum. The pensioner, by his own exertion, may
supplement his income by not more than 10s. ($2.13) a week without
prejudice to his pension rights.
The Victoria law is much less liberal. The maximum pension allowed
is 8s. ($1.95) a week, and may be fixed at a lower rate if the commissioner
believes that the applicant is capable o f earning a portion of his liveli
hood. The statutory maximum is diminished by 6d. (12 cents) a week
for every £10 ($18.67) of property the pensioner possesses, or by the
value of the board and lodging he may receive. Relatives of the first
degree are required to prove their inability to support the pensioner
before state aid will be granted. A residence of twenty years in the
State is necessary to qualify for a pension. The principle of chari
table assistance is much more closely followed in the Victorian than
in the New South Wales statute.
It is proposed, however, to revise the law in New South Wales and
to introduce more stringent regulations. Instances o f flagrant imposi
tion under the law, where well-to-do or even wealthy persons have
foisted a parent upon the State for support, have been made public.
Some of the offenders in this respect were officials drawing good sala
ries from the government. It is proposed to force these persons to
reimburse the State for the money so obtained. An abuse not specifi
cally mentioned in New South Wales, but which has occurred in New
Zealand, is for persons voluntarily to deprive themselves of their
property in order to become state pensioners.
The argument in favor of a Federal law is that it would make the
condition of pensioners uniform throughout the Commonwealth and
simplify the problem of administration, and that it would enable many
old residents o f Australia, some o f them native born, who are in all
justice equally entitled to pensions with others receiving this gra
tuity but who are at present excluded because they have not resided
continuously in one State for a sufficient period, to receive the benefit
of the law.
Out of the 49,000 persons over 65 years o f age in New South Wales,
22,884 are receiving old-age pensions; in Victoria the figures are
respectively 67,200 and 12,067. The smaller relative number of pen
164
BULLETIN 0 F THE BUEEAU OF LABOE.
sioners in the latter State is due to the greater stringency of the
law. The tendency has been to start this legislation upon a more lib
eral basis than the finances of the State could stand, with the necessity
o f retrenching afterwards. If the more liberal New South Wales
scheme were adopted in the Federal law, the cost to the Commonwealth
would be about £1,735,000 ($8,443,378) annually. But if only persons
65 years of age and over were to receive the benefit of the law, the
cost would be reduced to £1,568,000 ($7,630,672) per annum. Aus
tralia, however, has been receiving a portion of its population from
abroad, and with longer development the number of persons 65 years.
of age or over will form a constant^ growing percentage of the pop
ulation, while the proportion of aged people qualified to receive pen
sions by virtue of their long residence in Australia will also in all
probability increase. Therefore an estimate of the ultimate cost of
old-age pensions based upon present population statistics can have
only temporary validity, and the cost of this institution is almost
certain to increase more rapidly than the number of inhabitants in the
country.
The burden of old-age pensions would at present be no heavier for
Australia to bear, in proportion to her population, than is the average
cost o f army pensions to the people of the United States. In the
year ending June 30,1901, our pension expenditure amounted to about
$1.80 per capita for the population, according to the census returns of
the previous year, and this was less than the average per capita expend
iture during the previous decade. The estimated cost of old-age pen
sions, if made universal throughout Australia, would be $1.96 per
capita for the population in 1903, upon the New South Wales basis,
and about $1.39 per capita were the provisions of the law the same as
those in New Zealand.
STATE INDUSTRIES.
The fourth plank of the labor platform, calling for the “ nationali
zation o f monopolies,” has not been realized in any legislation due
especially to the propaganda conducted by that party. Government
ownership of railways, posts and telegraphs, irrigation works, and of
certain shops for manufacturing cars, locomotives, and water pipe,
was established long before the party came into existence, and the
present trend of land legislation is determined as largely by rural as
by workingmen’s interests. The Federal labor ministry proposed to
nationalize the tobacco industry, which is controlled by a trust or
combine in Australia, but this project was dropped when the coalition
came into power. Labor and socialist influences are behind less com
prehensive measures and policies for government exercise of indus
trial functions. But some enterprises that have been undertaken by
the State in Australia, and have attracted considerable notice because
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
165
it is assumed they were inspired by a socialistic motive, were really
undertaken to meet practical emergencies, and are regarded from a
very conservative attitude by the authorities administering them.
The director of the government export department of South Aus
tralia, one of the most notable of the distributive experiments, said:
46Our department was started because private enterprise was not
ready to take up cold storage; first for butter, then for mutton,
wine, apples, and rabbits. W e slaughter animals, and manufacture
fertilizer. The latter is sold under analysis, largely to fertilizer
factories which employ it in manufacturing artificial manures. Our
butter output is now sold to the Manchester Cooperative Wholesalers.
W e send crate and paper, and advance freights to apple farmers,
charging against sales, but are now trying to get a cooperative society
to handle this fruit in the interest of more careful production and
higher standards. We did advance 24 cents a gallon on wine, charg
ing against sales, but a private syndicate has taken up this branch of
our business. Most of our creameries are still proprietary.” This
department was established in 1895, and for the last season reported,
1902-3, showed a slight profit of about $4,000, which paid about 1 per
cent interest on the loan for constructing the government plant. The
State maintains a sales depot in London. The value of the total turn
over for the year reported was about $370,000. Some States provide
state batteries for the reduction of ores sent in by small mines and
individual miners. Those of Western Australia are fairly representa
tive. A Huntington mill, a tin-dressing plant, and 16 batteries, 7 with
cyanide plants, are in operation. In 1903 they treated 49,233 tons of
ore, yielding 58,305 ounces of gold, an increase of 25 per cent over
the tonnage of the previous year. The value of gold produced was
£249,583 ($1,214,596). The charge for crushing is based upon a sliding
scale, according to the value of the ore treated. The batteries are
run as nearly as possible at cost, and are erected wherever there is
enough ore in sight to justify building a plant, provided private bat
teries are not at hand. These batteries represent an investment of
£149,557 ($727,819), and the net earnings in 1903 were £2,359 ($12,356),
or 1.7 per cent. The State is also erecting a public smelter for copper
ore in the Phillips River district, to be conducted on the same principle.
The government also subsidizes private batteries up to 49 cents a ton
for crushing ore belonging to small miners in districts where there is
no public battery and charges would otherwise be prohibitive. The
minister of mines said: “ Our object is to encourage the small man,
and to enable the miner without capital to work up a reef claim until
it becomes profitable.”
The last 3 planks of the national platform of the labor party are
noncontentious, and do not especially concern present labor conditions
in Australia.
166
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Up to the present time attempts at direct government production
or distribution have not proved particularly successful in Australia,
The Victorian export and butter inspection department was involved
in a malodorous scandal, under investigation by a royal commission,
in 1904; and an investigation of the Fitzroy Dock, a government dock
ing and repairing establishment at Sydney, the previous year, revealed
many abuses, inefficient administration, and political interference in
labor appointments and control. In neither State, however, was the
labor party in responsible possession of the government. Like the
government supported sugar mills in Queensland, and the abortive
attempts of the government to institute cooperative settlements and
village communities in some of the other States, these official under
takings appear to have resulted so far in loss to the taxpayers. Where
such undertakings have been established with the primary object o f
encouraging private industry, as in shipping farm produce from
South Australia, or crushing the ore of small miners in that State and
in Western Australia, the possible benefit to the community is not to
be measured by the balance sheet of the State at the end of each year.
F or these enterprises, like our postal system, may distribute their
profits imperceptibly to thousands of recipients.
D A Y LABOR.
As a step toward government administration o f industry, the labor
party is strenuously seeking to enforce the day-labor policy, as
opposed to the contract system, in the construction of public works.
In some States this question yields in immediate importance in the
field o f controversy only to that of compulsory arbitration. The foci
o f this discussion are just at present in New South Wales and West
ern Australia. Some public works have cost an unnecessary sum on
account o f administrative difficulties incurred in attempting to carry
them out under the day-labor system. A classical instance of this is
the great pipe line that carries water 350 miles to the eastern gold
fields o f Western Australia. The report of a commission appointed
to investigate the construction of this work, composed partly of mem
bers of the labor party, stated that a pipe-trench and manhole
excavation had cost about 73 cents a yard, against 36 or 37 cents
a yard by private contract. “ How much of this excessive cost was
due to weak supervision, and how must to government stroke, this
commission is unable to decide.” New South Wales attempted to
determine experimentally the relative advantage of the day labor and
contract systems, by providing that two symmetrical pavilions of the
Prince Alfred Hospital, in Sydney, should be erected simultaneously,
one by each method. The Builders’ Association, on account of certain
conditions proposed by the government, decided not to tender bids for
167
LABOR OONDOTONS IN AUSTRALIA.
the contract. So the entire building was started on the day-labor plan.
The results were so unfavorable that a special investigation of the
labor conditions prevailing on the work was made by the Public
Service Board—a body corresponding to our Civil Service Commission,
The testimony showed that while the work done—and this applies
especially to stonework—was fully equal to other work in Sydney,
the cost was considerably higher; and that workmen did not, as a rule,
do as much in the same time and for the same pay for the government
as for private contractors. The method of selecting labor, by rota
tion, according to the date of application for employment, by which
good and bad workmen were put together on the same job and all
tended to work down to the slowest man, was criticised more vigor
ously than the day-labor system itself. The report of the commission
states in its conclusions that “ the total cost of the work will not be
excessive.”
The day-labor system was introduced in New South Wales about
1894. The minister o f public works in that State said that about onehalf of the works were still given to private contractors; that bridges
requiring several special plants for their construction, tank sinking,
and public buildings in small towns, were better done under contract,
while railway and tram construction, harbor works, large irrigation
works, public buildings, and some bridges were cheaper when done by
day labor. Government contractors must pay a minimum wage fixed
by the State. The following list o f public works, allowing a partial
comparison of the cost of the two systems, is taken from a leading
daily paper:
COST O F D A Y L A B O R A N D C O N T R A C T SY S T E M S O N C E R T A IN P U B L IC W O R K S .
W o rk .
C h a ra cte r o f w o r k .
B y r o c k -B r e w a r in n a .............................
N y n g a n -C o b a r e x t e n s i o n ...................
K o r r o w a th a -G r e n f e l e x t e n s io n ___
P a r k e s -C o n d o b o lin e x t e n s io n < 1 ). .
L o n g C o v e C r e e k ...................................
L o n g C o v e C r e e k ...................................
B r o k e n H ill p o lic e s t a t i o n ...............
B r o k e n H ill p o l i c e s t a t i o n ...............
M u d g e e p o s t a n d t e le g r a p h o f f i c e .
M u d g e e p o s t a n d t e le g r a p h o f f i c e .
R o a d m a k in g (S y d n e y r e l i e f ) .........
R o a d m aking (Sydney x e l i e f ) ........
R a ilw a y g r a d i n g .
R a ilw a y g r a d i n g .
R a ilw a y g r a d i n g .
R a ilw a y g r a d i n g .
S to rm c h a n n e l . . .
S to rm c h a n n e l . . .
P u b lic b u ild in g . .
P u b lic b u ild in g . .
P u b lic b u ild in g . .
P u b lic b u i l d i n g . .
G r a d in g , e t c ..........
G r a d in g a n d m e t
a llin g .
S ystem u s e d .
D a y la b o r ...............
C o n t r a c t ...................
D a y l a b o r ..............
C o n t r a c t ..................
D a y l a b o r ...............
C o n t r a c t ..................
D a y l a b o r ...............
(L o w e s t t e n d e r ) ..
D a y l a b o r ..............
(L o w e s t t e n d e r ) . .
D a y l a b o r ...............
C o n t r a c t ...................
C ost.
$0.16 c u . y d .
$0.36 c u . y d .
$0.21£ c u . y d .
$0.30 e u . y d .
$15.83 lin . ft.
$14.98 l i n . I t .
$8,301.87.
$9,477.59.
$6,711.13.
$6,097.93.
$43.18 c h a in .
$32.14 c h a in .
In March, 1901, 7,063 men were in the employ of the New South
Wales Government on the day-labor plan.
The minister o f public works in Western Australia, who is a member
of the labor party, said: “ Everything depends on supervision and
freedom from political influence in the day-labor system. I intend, if
possible, to use the system here, selecting able foremen who regard
this method sympathetically, and letting it be known that any letters
168
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
received by the foreman or myself, from persons of political or busi
ness prominence, for the purpose of influencing appointments of
employees upon public works, shall be filed in this office and laid
before Parliament. The trades hall at Kalgoorlie was built by day
labor, and is the best piece of work of that kind in the gold fields.”
The new trades hall at Freifiantle was also built by day labor.
Opponents of the system base their objections not solely upon the
alleged higher cost of works constructed by day labor, but upon the
unhealthy political effect o f having an army of 10,000 men or more,
dependent on government employment, exerting the influence of their
vote in support of new and unnecessary undertakings and a policy of
extravagant public exoenditure.
LABO R LAW S.
The demand for uniform industrial legislation, forming the final
plank of the “ general platform” of the party, is interesting, as indi
cating the tendency of the labor interests to favor Federal at the
expense of State control. The political leaders of the labor class are
the loose constructionists of the present generation of public men in
Australia. This is a logical outcome of the preponderating govern
mental sentiment among them. Because of the uniform and more
liberal Federal franchise and the relatively more democratic constitu
tion o f the Commonwealth Senate, the labor party wields a securer
influence in the central than in the state governments. Regulative
legislation, moreover, in order to be successful to its fullest extent,
must be uniform legislation, territorially coextensive with the area
protected by the tariff. Otherwise more or less mobile industries like
manufacturing will move to States or jurisdictions where they are
unhampered by industrial laws, but from which they can command
with practically equal facility their former markets. Even industries
like mining, that are fixed to one spot by their very nature, are sub
ject to competition from those working under more favorable condi
tions on account of the freer industrial atmosphere in which they
exist. There is a close interdependence between minimum wage and
factory legislation and fiscal legislation for these reasons. So from
idealistic motives resulting from his general attitude toward state
control, and from practical considerations derived from experience,
the labor legislator is usually favorable to extending Federal at the
expense of state authority.
The presence of labor in politics has naturally been an influence in
shaping state factory laws and other similar acts, though a favorable
trend of general public sentiment has contributed largely to the suc
cess of the party in getting acts of this kind, embodying its ideas,
upon the statute books. The existing labor laws of the different States
are a resultant of several forces, chief among which has been the labor
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
169
vote; but aside from the minimum wage and arbitration acts, the
opposition to such laws has been unimportant, and many of them have
been received with equal favor by employees and by a large class of
employers. In securing the passage of such acts the representatives
of the workingmen have been obliged to overcome inertia rather than
hostility.
The factory legislation of Australia began in 1873, when a short act
was passed in Victoria prohibiting the employment of females in fac
tories for more than eight hours a day. Subsequent legislation affect
ing the conditions of employment or relating to the working classes,
passed in the colonies prior to 1890, followed closely English precedents.
Through a policy of self-help, organization, and public agitation, an
eight-hour day had been established without public enactment in most
skilled trades and occupations throughout Australasia. In 1890, there
fore, the principal Australian colonies began to build up a new system
of workingmen’s legislation upon a basis not essentially different from
that prevailing at the time in England and America.
All the States of the Commonwealth, except Tasmania, have a sys
tem of shop and factory inspection and special factory legislation.
Tasmania passed a women and children employment act in 1884, pro
hibiting the employment of children under 12 years of age in any
factory, and of children between 12 and 14 years of age for more than
eight hours a day, except during the four months of the fruit season,
when they are allowed to work nine hours a day in the jam factories.
Women are not to be employed for more than ten hours a day. The
enforcement of this act is in the hands of the chief police officer, and
it has fallen practically into abeyance. Later legislation of this nature
has been attempted in Tasmania, and several bills have passed the lower
house of parliament, but they have always failed in the legislative
council. In the larger towns shops close voluntarily at 1 p. m. on
Wednesdays.
The Victorian factories act has been partially considered in connec
tion with the provisions which it contains for minimum wage boards.
The beginning of the legislation still on the statute books in that State
was in 1885, but no acts earlier than that of 1890 are now quoted. The
latest amendment was added in 1903. To all practical intents and pur
poses, therefore, modern factory legislation in Victoria dates from
the last decade or thirteen years, and is contemporaneous with the
presence of the labor party in politics. The existing factories and
shops act of New South Wales became a law in 1896 and that of South
Australia in 1894, though this act was copiously amended in 1900;
the Queensland act was passed in 1900 and went into effect in 1901,
and the Western Australian law went into operation in 1904. The
definition of factory is very comprehensive as a rule. In Victoria it
includes all industrial establishments where four or more hands are
170
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
employed, all furniture factories and all Chinese establishments where
one or more hands are employed, besides expressly including laundries,
bakeries, clay pits, quarries, and similar enterprises not popularly
considered factories. The New South Wales definition is practically
the same, though special exception is made of dairy factories, ships,
and shearing sheds. The last are subject to special supervision under
the shearers’ accommodation a ct The South Australian law defines a
factory as “ any manufactory, workshop, or workroom in which the
owner employs anyone.” The Queensland act includes bakeries and
laundries and any industrial establishment where two or more persons,
including the owner or occupier, are engaged, but it excludes ships
and mines, shearing sheds, industrial schools, dairy factories, and any
private home where all the persons employed in the work of the
establishment are members of the same family. Each act provides
for the appointment o f inspectors with full powers to investigate the
working and records o f any factory, and for the registration of all
factories within the inspection districts; and compels factories to keep
books showing age, sex, wages, and overtime worked by each
employee, or so much of these data as the requirements of the official
report of the inspector may demand. Inspection districts do not
include the rural portions o f the different States, and the jurisdiction
o f the act extends only to territory expressly described therein.
The provisions concerning the employment of women and minors
are broadly similar in all the States mentioned. In Victoria and
South Australia the minimum age at which children may be employed
in factories is 13 years, and in New South Wales and Queensland 14
years; with the reservation that in South Australia any child who has
passed the compulsory education standard may be employed upon an
inspector’s certificate, and in New South Wales and Queensland a child
may be employed upon a special permit issued by the minister in
charge of the department, but no such permission shall be granted to
a child under the age o f 13 years. There are the usual provisions as to
duration of employment without meals, which is limited to five hours
in ease o f females and young persons. Women and children are not
allowed to work more than forty-eight hours a week, with certain
exceptions as to overtime. There are the usual restrictions upon the
employment o f females and young persons where dangerous processes
are conducted. Sanitary and machinery inspection are to some extent
combined in certain of the acts. In Victoria there is a provision,
probably directed against the Chinese, prohibiting the use of a work
room as a sleeping apartment, and special regulations are made for
sleeping apartments in connection with bakeries. Subject to certain
qualifications, the Victorian, New South Wales, and Western Austra
lian acts prohibit the taking o f meals in a room where a manufacturing
process is carried on, and the South Australian act makes it illegal for
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
171
a woman or young person to work during the meal hour. In addition
to the usual requirements, there is a provision requiring the interiors
of factories to be frequently painted or whitewashed. It is incum
bent upon the inspector to investigate accidents, and to require the
fencing of dangerous machinery, and in some cases the inspection of
steam boilers is under his jurisdiction. The Victorian act has a special
provision prohibiting work in any furniture factory or in any factory
where Chinese are employed before 7:30 a. m. and later than 5 p. m.,
and requires that all furniture manufactured shall be legibly stamped
in such a way as to indicate whether it was made by European or by
Chinese workmen.
Closely associated or combined with the factories acts is the early
closing legislation o f Australia. The inspector of factories is charged
with the enforcement of these laws. They are similar in all the
Australian States except Tasmania. The present Western Australian
act was passed in 1002. All stores, with a list of exemptions, are
required to close at an hour fixed, usually 6 p. m. There is provi
sion for a weekly half holiday, and stores are allowed to keep open
until 9 or 10 p. m. one evening of the week. The exemptions include
such places as pharmacies, restaurants, fruit stands, and places for
the sale of fish and other perishable food products. Elaborate pro
visions exist in some cases for taking a local ballot to decide what day
of the week shall be observed as the half holiday in the different towns.
In connection with the shop and factories act, South Australia made
provision, in 1900, for the establishment of minimum wage boards in
that State, similar to those in operation in Victoria. It was specified
in the act, however, that the appointment of such boards should be
upon a resolution of parliament and that they should be elected in
accordance with regulations approved by that body. To the present
time the upper house of the South Australian parliament has not seen
fit to concur in any action likely to lead to the establishment of these
boards, and so this part of the act is still dormant. It seems to be the
fate o f South Australia to have its regulative industrial legislation
stillborn. On account o f the growth of sweating in the clothing trade,
active effort is being made to have a wage board authorized in that
industry.
In 1890 Victoria consolidated her laws relating to masters and serv
ants, mechanics’ liens, and employers’ liability in a single statute.
This act, like the factories act, was passed for a limited term, and has
been continued in force without amendment, except for the addition
in 1891 of several provisions relating more especially to procedure, by
a series of reenactments continuing to the present date. South
Australia covers the same ground with a workmen’s liens act, passed
in 1893, and by a series of acts comprising an employers’ liability
act, passed in 1884 and amended in 1889, and a workers’ compensation
172
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
for accidents act, passed in 1900. The last law applies only to what
are classed as dangerous occupations, and does not require the injured
worker to establish negligence on the part of the employer in order
to recover compensation. Western Australia passed an act similar to
the last mentioned in 1902. These two laws follow the precedent of the
English statute, and are to an extent similar to the New Zealand law.
New South Wales and Queensland have employers’ liability acts.
The latest was passed in 1886, and provides that where negligence is
proven employees injured in the service of their employer may recover
not to exceed three times their estimated annual earnings. No con
tracting out is allowed, but if the employer pays not less than onethird the premium upon the employee’s insurance, he may deduct the
amount of any insurance so received from the sum for which he is
liable to the injured employee. The New South Wales act was con
solidated in 1897. It limits compensation to three years’ earnings, and
gives the employer credit for insurance effected by him. Negligence
must be proven. Seamen are included under the protection of the act.
The Victorian act limits the amount of damages recoverable for
injury to, the same amount as the Queensland law, and contains no
provision with regard to contracting out. The same limitation of
damages is made in the original South Australian law, but there is a
provision preventing contracting out. An amendment in 1889
extended the protection of the act to seamen. The South Australian
compensation act o f 1900 applies to railways, waterworks, tramways,
electric-light works, factories, mines, quarries, and to engineering and
building works. It may be extended to any other occupation by
proclamation issued pursuant to an address from both houses of par
liament. Only injuries disabling a workman for at least one week
enable him to have recourse to the law, and, in case of death, compen
sation is limited, where there are dependents, to a sum equal to his
earnings during the 3 years preceding the injury, or the sum of £150
($730), whichever of these sums is the larger, but not to exceed £300
($1,460); or, if there are no dependents, to the reasonable expenses of
his medical attendance and burial, not exceeding £50 ($243). In case
of partial or total disability payments under the act are not to exceed
in the aggregate £300 ($1,460), payable in weekly installments not
exceeding £1 ($4.87) nor less than 7s. 6d. ($1.83) and not exceeding 50
per cent of the average weekly earnings of the injured employee dur
ing the previous twelve months or any lesser period that he may have
been in the service of the employer paying the compensation. The
Western Australian act is practically the same as that of South Australia
in its general provisions, but an injury must disable an employee for
at least two weeks to enable him to recover compensation, and the
amount o f compensation recoverable is larger.
LABOB CONDITIONS IN AUSTBAL1A.
173
Workmen complain that the compensation acts do not make suffi
cient provision for the protection of casual employees, 50 per cent o f
whose weekly earnings may be a very small sum. In Western Australia
eases were mentioned where disabled workers were receiving $1.09, and>
in one case but 81 cents a week under this law. The act does not bar:
the workman from bringing action either under common law or employ
ers’ liability acts. If such an action fail, the judge may assess dam
ages under the workers’ compensation act without further trial, and
the employer sued can recover costs from this amount. Employers
admit that they are less harassed by impecunious litigants than before:
the law went into effect. Formerly they were often put to the expense^
of defending themselves against actions, where if they won they had
no chance of recovering costs from the unsuccessful plaintiff. But
they assert that accidents have increased since the act went into effect,,
and that casualty insurance rates have risen from one-fourth of 1 per
cent to as high, in some instances, as 1% per cent on the annual pay
sheet. Some of the rates of premium charged in South Australia arer
For employees in hardware and wholesale stores, 0.375 per cent; im
clothing factories and retail stores, 0.5 per cent; in bakeries, farms,
where power machinery is used, and stationers’ establishments, 0.675><
percent; in newspaper and printing offices, 0.75 per cent; in butcher
shops, 0.875 per cent; in breweries, foundries, and smelting works, 1
per cent; and reach a maximum of 1.25 per cent in blacksmith shopsy
building trades, and laundries.
An effect o f the compensation law is said to be that employers dis
criminate against both unskilled and aged laborers in selecting men..
Organized workmen are at an advantage under the law, because their
claims are prosecuted by the union. Unorganized men are said some
times to be intimidated by their employers, so that they allow the two
weeks within which they must bring action to pass without availing"
themselves of the legal remedy at their disposal. The practice of the
Amalgamated Miners’ Association in Western Australia is to requireevery member, at the time he draws his second week’s accident pay7
from the society, to sign at the same time as his receipt for this money
an application for compensation under the act. The union at once
settles or prosecutes the claim.
The mining laws of the different States prohibit the employment o f
women and children in mines, or of young persons in responsible posi
tions about mines. The New South Wales acts prohibit novices from
working alone in coal mines, provide for committees of inspection,
consisting of a government inspector, one owners’ representative, and
two miners; provide that payment shall be by weight where based on
amount o f product, that the miners may employ a check weigher, and
that payments shall not be made in a public house. The provisions of.
12425— No. 56— 05----- 12
174
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the recent Western Australian act are practically identical with these.
In 1900 New South Wales passed a miners’ accident relief act,
w‘hich was amended the following year. The act as it stands at pres
ent creates a body corporate, consisting of a chairman and represent
atives, respectively, of (a) the department of mines, (b) the employers
in coal and shale mines, (c) employers in other mines, (d) employees in
coal and shale mines, (e) employees in other mines, for the purpose of
administering a fund, raised by an assessment of about 9 cents a week
on each miner’s wages, and deducted from his pay by the manager; an
assessment upon the owners of each mine of one-half the total sum
contributed by the employees of the mine, and a sum contributed by
the State equal to that paid by the owners. Provision is made for
committees at each mine, representing employers and employees, and
having a mine inspector as ex-officio member, who administer the
fund locally. This local board is authorized to pay a weekly sum of
12s. ($2.92) to an employee disabled by an accident in the working of
the mine. In case of death a weekly sum of 8s. ($1.95) is to be paid
to the widow and 2s. 6d. (61 cents) to each child under 14 years of age.
If the deceased was unmarried the dependent parents or sisters are
entitled to receive 8s. ($1.95) a week. An allowance of £12 ($58.40)
is made for funeral expenses. The income for the year 1903 was
approximately $217,000. A t the end of that year the board had about
$384,000 invested, and it was anticipated that this reserve fund would
have reached $500,000 by the end of the following year. One hundred
and forty-five mines and 21,989 employees were under the act. The
number of fatal accidents was 32, and of nonfatal accidents, 3,626. The
average amount of relief paid in cases of disablement was <£2 8s. 5d.
($11.78).
The Queensland law makes a miner’s wages a first lien against the
mine, and the wage protection act of that State, passed in 1871 and
amended in 1884, makes a mortgagee liable for wages for all work
done upon a piece of property within 6 months of foreclosing. New
South Wales and Western Australia have truck acts which indirectly
protect the rates of wages. The Victorian consolidated act, already
quoted, provides that a workman may recover wages due him from a
contractor against any money due him from the contractee by secur
ing a certificate of court to the effect that such wages are due, which
upon presentation to the contractee becomes tantamount to an order
of an assignment of the wages to the workman from the money thus
due to be paid the contractor. I f the contractee neglects or refuses
to pay such wages, and thereafter pays the money due to the con
tractor whom he owes, he becomes personally liable for the debt to
the workman. South Australia, in her workmen’s liens statute, gives
workmen a priority claim against any property upon which work has
been done by them for wages not to exceed the sum of £12 ($58.40),
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
175
or four weeks’ pay. There are the usual trade-union statutes in Aus
tralia, legalizing these associations and providing for their registra
tion. Such registration has not been made compulsory, and this
legislation, being modeled almost entirely upon English precedents
and dating from a time when there was little labor influence in Par
liament, possesses no distinctively characteristic features in Australia.
LABOR ORGANIZATIONS.
In Queensland there are 16 workers’ unions registered, including the
board of management of the Trades and Labor Hall, which represents
indirectly a number of organizations. The membership of the regis
tered unions was reported at the end of 1901 as 4,590, a decrease of
350 from the previous year. The figures, however, have no signifi
cance, as many organizations did not register. The funds of the reg
istered unions, not including buildings and lands valued at $5,000,
amounted to nearly $25,000, and the annual income to as much
more. Between $3,000 and $4,000 yearly are distributed as benefits,
of which nearly $1,400 was given by the Amalgamated Engineers and
$1,200 by the Carpenters and Joiners. The only other benefit organi
zations were the stone masons, iron molders, and shipwrights.
The Sydney Labor Council represents 70 unions, whose contribu
tions amount to about $1,230 annually. The labor men own a com
modious building in that city, and also one in Newcastle. The strength
of organized labor in New South Wales has been mentioned in connec
tion with the arbitration law. The Melbourne Trades Hall has some
88 affiliated organizations, whose contributions to that body amount to
about $2,350 annually. The assets of this council, including a very
fine building, amount to $250,000. In Ballarat, Victoria, also, there
is a thriving Trades Hall owning a substantial building. The Amal
gamated Miners’ Association has about 1,200 members in this district.
The Adelaide Trades and Labor Council includes 21 organizations, and
a number of unaffiliated unions meet at its hall. The.annual income of
that organization is less than $1,000, showing that finances are largely
managed by the constituent unions. In Melbourne, and presumably
in other cities, the central council has no authority to assess unions or
members of unions without their individual consent. There are at
least three active trades and labor councils in Western Australia—at
Perth, Kalgoorlie, and Fremantle. The last two own very good
buildings, recently erected by the unions. In some trades there are
two unions—as, for instance, the carpenters and joiners, one of which
is militant and agitates under the arbitration law, and the other, like
the Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners, is chiefly a benefit organi
zation. There has been some rivalry between composite unions—like
the Knights o f Labor in America—and regular trade unions in this
176
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
State. The first branches of the Amalgamated Miners gradually
became composite, and changed their name in order to meet the pres
sure for admission from unorganized mechanics and laborers who
were not numerous enough to form independent organizations at the
different mining camps. The new union became a rival of the
branches of the Amalgamated Miners, formed later. It has about
6,000 members in Western Australia. The Amalgamated Miners have
3,500 members, all miners. They pay £ 1 10s. ($7.30) a week accident
pay and £50 ($243.33) in case of fatal accidents, plus a levy of Is. (24
cents) on each member. They also pay £30 ($146) in case of natural
death and prosecute all accident claims. A composite union, like the
Australian Workers’ Association of Western Australia, has grown up
in the Moonta copper fields of South Australia. It has 700 members,
pays 18s. ($4.38) a week in case of accident, and £25 ($121.66) in case
of death, plus a levy of Is. (24 cents) on adult and 6d. (12 cents) on
minor members of the union. Negotiations for an amalgamation of
the two Western Australian unions were in progress*when the material
for this report was gathered.
While the trades and labor councils are not quasi-public corpora
tions in any sense, they are officially recognized to some extent,
especially in the matter of finding relief for the unemployed and rec
ommending men for positions on public works. The Melbourne Hall
is represented in the board of governors of the state subsidized W ork
ingmen’s College. These bodies possess buildings that stand upon
ground granted them by the public. But they are quite autonomous
in their management, and indeed are often politically antagonistic to the
government in power. It has been mentioned earlier that at one time,
just as the labor party was beginning to take form, it was proposed to
make these councils corporations somewhat similar to the trusts estab
lished in Australia for the exercise of certain public and semipublic
functions, such as the control and management of parks, waterworks,
educational funds, and other public property or interests. This was a
movement that never attained realization, and has probably been ren
dered impracticable by the closer alliance later entered into between
the trades halls and the political organizations of the labor party.
THE UNEMPLOYED.
Unemployment is a more serious evil in Australia than in America,
if a judgment is to be formed from the public discussion, the measures
for relief, and the government expenditure devoted to its remedy.
Reasons exist why this should be so. A great part of the arable land
is tied up in the hands of large proprietors, and this outlet for
unoccupied energy, that has been a most potent influence in main
taining a high standard of wages and living in America despite our
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
177
large immigration, has not been available for Australians. Uncer
tainties of rainfall over extended areas occasion acute depression and
distress in agricultural districts from time to time, and suddenly
throw a large number of rural workers into the urban labor market.
Possibly the genial climate invites to idleness, when opportunity and
inducement to work are not pressing. A habit of waiting openmouthed for the government spoon has made the unemployed clamor
ous and prominent in public attention. The remedial measures
adopted fall into two classes: Government relief works and state-aided
land settlements.
There is a government labor bureau for the purpose of finding
work for the unemployed in every Australian State except Tasmania.
The municipalities seem not to have taken this matter up in the same
way as the State governments. In Queensland the clerks of petty
sessions, corresponding somewhat with our county clerks, report
openings for employment and the names of those needing work, with
their qualfications, to the state authorties, who act as a sort of
labor clearing house, and from the data thus obtained the officer in
charge and his assistants distribute labor as needed and obtained
throughout the State. Assistance is given men to reach places where
work is to be had, and a general supervision over the distribution of
relief funds is usually in the hands of this department. The South
Australian bureau now publishes no reports, partly because the
director considers it unwise to give much official prominence to the
charitable aspect of this public department. The Queensland bureau
reported 3,306 unemployed in that State on July 31, 1902, an excep
tional number, in consequence of the drought, the full effects of which
were then being felt in many portions of the country. During the
previous year 6,520 unemployed had registered with the bureau, of
whom 4,659 either obtained engagements or reached localities where
work was obtainable. As a measure of relief, from 1,500 to 2,000
men were employed on the government railways, at wages ranging
from 5s. to 7s. ($1.22 to $1.70) a day.
New South Wales has probably devoted more attention and money
to the attempted solution of the unemployment problem than any
other State of the Commonwealth. Although relief appropriations
had been made earlier, modern unemployment measures in that
State date from the crisis of 1886. From May, 1887, to April,
1889, $1,253,776 was spent on relief works, mostly in road building,
under a casual labor board. A commission appointed to investigate
the results of this policy reported: “ It has appeared to us that many
of the works entered upon were not of the nature of relief works,
either necessary or useful to the public interest; that many persons,
and in particular carters, with their plant and ordinary laborers, were
employed at full rates who were not in pressing need or from the
178
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
ranks of the so-termed unemployed; that to a considerable extent
there is nothing left of benefit to the community to support the large
outlay of public money, and that the expenditure throughout has not
been guarded with that care and consideration which the public was
entitled to expect.” A system of free railway fares to unemployed
laborers offered work in the country was abused by employers, who
used this state aid to crowd the labor market in their vicinity. A labor
bureau was established in 1892, which attracted large numbers of unem
ployed, who formed leagues and levied contributions, with the object of
getting employment through political pressure. The registrations at
this bureau averaged nearly 10,000 a year during the eight and one-half
years of its existence. In 1899 an unemployed advisory board was
appointed to investigate the whole question anew. Eight thousand
unemployed were reported by the labor bureau, and of the 8,000
men in public charitable institutions about one-half were able to
do at least part of a day’s work. The board commented upon the
difficulty which a man of small capital had in making a home on
the public lands. Among the measures of relief recommended were
employment on public works, assisted settlement on the land, a
compulsory labor colony, and a government labor intelligence bureau.
In 1901 a board of labor commissioners was appointed, which has
remained in charge of this branch of government activity since
that date. The commissioners conduct a state employment bureau.
Under the new system registrations fell off considerably. The num
ber of different persons registered decreased in the head office
from 8,634 to 2,854, and in the country branches from 1,252 to
218 between 1902 and 1903. On the other hand, the number of
cases where employment was found for persons registered at Sydney
increased from 5,151 to 6,498 during the same period. In the country
branches, where registration fell off so remarkably, the number sent to
employment fell from 238 to 65. At the female registry office 1,685
applied for work, and 1,357 were found employment during the year
ending June 30,1903. In seasons of especial distress the labor commis
sioners provide a night shelter for men in Sydney. They also administer
a labor depot near Sydney, and a casual labor farm at Pitt Town, upon
the site of one of the unsuccessful cooperative settlements attempted
by the government. A t the labor depot, which was opened on unim
proved land at Botany Bay, in 1902, two classes of laborers are
received— casual men, who are required to work one hour for a meal
and one hour for lodging, and are supposed to be seeking employment
when not working at the farm, and about 40 permanent men, who are
aged or partly incapacitated, who work regularly, and receive a
weekly wage not exceeding 5s. ($1.22) for laborers, and 10s. ($2.43)
for mechanics. Casual men are not received more than seven days in suc
cession, and permanent men not for more than three months. They
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
179
are amply fed and comfortably housed. About 50 persons are usually
in residence. The farm is not yet fully developed and stocked, but
already supplies a portion of the food used by the institution, and is
being rapidly improved. The average weekly earnings of the inmates
for the last year reported were 3s. 5id. (85 cents), and the cost of their
maintenance 5s. 5d. ($1.32). The casual labor farm at Pitt Town is
an older institution, established in 1897, and receives laborers for a
longer period than the labor depot. The admissions during the year
ending June 30, 1903, were 229, and the average time spent on the
farm was eleven and one-half weeks; There was paid as wages £566
Is. ($2,755), much of which represents labor employed in development
work. The value of the food raised was £86 2s. 9d. ($419), and of
the food purchased, nearly $3,700. TJiis does not include forage sold
and used by stock. Firewood to the value of nearly $8,000 was sold
from the place. A t the time this farm was visited by the writer a
dairying department was being installed, which it was hoped would
help largely toward making the institution self-supporting. The
deficit was reported to be less than $500 per annum.
Victoria appears to have concerned herself less about unemploy
ment than New South Wales. The government does not conduct
relief works, provide female registry, or systematically attempt to find
public remedies for unemployment. A bureau somewhat similar to
that in New South Wales is conducted, where men may register for
employment upon public works. Incidentally private employers desir
ing men may obtain them through this office. In this State also
railway passes are furnished men to the place where work has been
obtained for them under an agreement for repayment from their
wages. From October, 1900, to July, 1904, the value of fares so
advanced was $12,093.66, and the repayments were $6,117.40, or
slightly over 50 per cent. As a matter of public economy and gen
eral convenience, public works not of an urgent character are built, as
far as possible, during the slack season for agricultural and pastoral
labor. This is especially true of railway and road construction. 44Piece
work,” or the small contract with butty gangs is employed to some
extent in road and railway building. Registration at state labor
bureaus, where employment is usually found upon public works, does
not indicate accurately the actual amount of unemployment. About
50 per cent o f those registered in Victoria do not respond to offers of
work and are therefore presumably wholly or partly employed. The
registration in Victoria fluctuates in accordance with the public works
provided for in the estimates, rising rapidly when any special under
taking is made public. In June, 1903,1,506 were registered, of whom
835 were laborers. The corresponding month of 1904, the number
registered had risen to 2,055, but the number of unskilled laborers
had fallen to 822. During the year 1,025 men were given employ
180
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
ment on government works. According to the government statist the
total number of persons receiving out-door charitable relief in V ic
toria during the year ending June 30, 1903, was 114,341, while the
inmates of institutions numbered 70,540. During the following year
139,771, or more than 10 per cent of the people of the State, received
aid from government institutions, and the state inspector of charities
estimated that the proportion of persons receiving charitable relief
from both public and private sources 44would reach nearer one-fifth
than one-tenth of the total population.”
The Western Australian labor bureau has its head office at Perth, with
branches at Fremantle and Kalgoorlie, and agents throughout the
State. There is also a female registry department. In 1903 there
were 6,850 individual registrations of men and 608 of females at the
various offices of the department, and employment was found for 2,996
men and 260 women. W ork was therefore found for 44 per cent of
all the applicants.
According to the census of 1901, the number of unemployed was
relatively larger, in proportion to the total number of wage-earners
in New South Wales than in any other State of the Commonwealth.
On account of the recent gold rush, the proportion of wage-earners to
the total population was larger in Western Australia than elsewhere,
and for this reason the proportion of unemployed to the total population
is relatively large in that State, though in comparison with the labor
market it was less than in New South Wales and Victoria. Figures
from Queensland are not available, but the percentages of unemployed
in the other 5 States were as follows in 1901:
P E R C E N T O F U N E M P L O Y E D O F T O T A L P O P U L A T IO N A N D O F T O T A L W A G E -E A R N E R S
IN 5 A U S T R A L I A N S T A T E S , 1901.
State.
P o p u la
t io n .
W ageearn ers.
U nem
p lo y e d .
P er cen t
unem
p lo y e d
am ong
p o p u la
t io n .
N e w S o u th W a l e s ...............................................................
V i c t o r i a ...................................................................................
S o u th A u s t r a l i a ...................................................................
W e s te r n A u s t r a lia ...............................................................
T a s m a n i a ...............................................................................
1,354,846
1,201,170
362,604
184,124
172,475
362,477
321,600
102,245
71,117
46,324
24,403
16,442
4,045
3,589
2,165
1.80
1.37
1.12
1.95
1.26
P er c e n t
unem
p lo y e d
am ong
w agee arn ers.
6.73
5.11
3.96
5.05
4.67
An investigation of unemployment made by the Bureau of Labor
in the United States, showing the heads of families unemployed in the
course of a year and the length of time idle, for 25,440 families of
workingmen in 33 different states, gave an average period of 4.7
weeks unemployed. This would give a proportion of 9 per cent idle
among wage-earners. These statistics, however, are confined to those
engaged in industrial pursuits, while the Australian figures include
agricultural and mining labor. The figures for Australia were taken
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
181
at the end of March, corresponding with the end of September in
America, a period when the demand for labor is usually active, while
those for America extend throughout the year and cover seasonal
periods of slackness due to climatic conditions.
ASSISTED SETTLEMENT.
The government has intervened in nearly all the States to encourage
the settlement of labor upon the lands, and several interesting experi
ments of this character, involving the application of communistic or
cooperative principles, are recorded in the work of Mr. W . P. Reeves,,
of New Zealand, upon State Experiments in Australia and New Zealand.
This book is the most readable and exhaustive account of what is
locally termed “ advanced legislation,” its historical antecedents and
present results, that has yet appeared. It is written rather from the
prosocialistic point of view, and Mr. Reeves was the initiator of com
pulsory arbitration legislation in New Zealand, facts that should be
considered, though they appear not to have materially biased the pre
sentation of facts in the book mentioned. Returning to the land ques
tion, Queensland in 1893 passed a cooperative land settlement act
under which several agricultural colonies were started. None has suc
ceeded as originally planned. Poor selections of land were made in
some instances, in others internal difficulties arose in the colonies.
The Alice River settlement begun under this law still exists, but the
original cooperative principle has been dropped. The act allowed a
body of citizens to form a colony for taking up land, who might, if
desired, register under the friendly societies’ act. An area not exceed
ing 160 acres for each member was then set apart from the public
lands for the colony by proclamation, for a period of six or twelve years,
at a specified rental. It was required that not less than 10s. ($2.43) an
acre should be expended upon the land during the continuance of the
lease. No member possessed an individual interest in the property or
improvements, but the society upon paying a proclaimed price, if any
was demanded by the* government, became fee-simple owner of the
land, which it might then divide among its respective members. Pro
vision was also made for labor colonies to be conducted by 5 trustees,
who might be granted not to exceed 10,000 acres of public land, and a
subsidy not to exceed £1,000 ($4,867), either conditionally or other
wise, for the purpose of conducting any trade or industry. This pro
vision seems not to have been taken advantage of during the eleven
years the law has been in force. Queensland also has provisions for
village settlements, where each member holds one acre in a central
village and a farm of 80 acres in the vicinity. But this law also is
said to be inoperative at present.
New South Wales has an act for the establishment of labor colonies
182
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
similar to that just mentioned, which was passed in 1893 and entirely
revised by a consolidated act ten years later. The trustees or board of
control are made a corporation with authority to select members for
the settlement, apportion work among the members, provide for the
maintenance of members, and distribute among them wages or profits.
The government is to advance upon application an approximate sum
of from $75 to $125 for each single or married adult member, respec
tively, or $100 if the member be married but without children, which
must be repaid gradually from the revenue of the colony with 1 per
cent per annum interest. Three settlements were formed under the
original act, one of which is now used as a casual labor farm. All
proved social and financial failures. The consolidated act appears not
to have been availed of by settlers.
Victoria was one of the pioneer States to enact legislation for the
purpose of encouraging village and labor settlements. Her labor
colony law provides for a state subsidy of $2 for every $1 received by
the trustees from private subscription. This State also has a village
settlement law, and has made provisions for the resumption of large
estates voluntarily sold by their owners for closer settlement. A cornpulsory resumption law will probably be passed the present session of
parliament. The village settlement law provides for small leasehold
blocks to be let to individual holders or homestead associations, sub
ject to certain requirements as to improvements, cultivation, and resi
dence. In 1902 there were 78 such settlements, with 1,914 settlers
residing on the land and 153 not residing but making improvements.
The total acreage leased under this law was 55,077 acres, and the total
value of improvements was estimated at nearly $1,000,000. During
the eight years the law had been in operation state aid to the amount
of about $335,000 had been granted to settlers, of which only $600
was allowed the last year reported. The only labor colony established
at Leongatha has now become a casual labor farm, and is conducted
in much the same way as the labor farm at Pitt Town. There are
from 100 to 175 men in residence, the number varying according to
the season. They are allowed to remain until they have earned
£2 ($9.73). The annual deficit from operation, not including value of
improvements made, is about $3,000.
South Australia has a compulsory resumption law, by which the
State can acquire large estates at the unimproved value of the land,
plus the price of the improvements, plus 10 per cent for resumption.
There is also a village settlement act, which stands about half way
between similar acts on other States and the labor colony provisions
in point of public control. Each proposed village is administered by
the state commissioner, and the land is held individually by the mem
bers under a perpetual lease. The direct control of the association,
which is registered with the commissioner, is vested in trustees. Any
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
183
member of the association may be expelled for violation of the rules,
or any trustee may be removed by the commissioner, who also has
authority to advance government aid to the association to the extent
o f not more than £100 ($487) for each member. Settlers are allowed
individual holdings of 10 acres, which they can work at their own con
venience and discretion; but the labor of the colony as a community is
regulated by a superintendent. Seven irrigation colonies were formed
in semiarid lands along the river Murray under this law with partial
success. •
A new feature of South Australia’s land legislation has recently
been introduced at the demand of the labor party, providing that
certain tracts o f public land, some of which are in the vicinity of
Adelaide, may be surveyed into blocks exceeding 20 acres in extent, so
long as the unimproved value does not exceed £100 ($487), and leased
with right of purchase to persons gaining their livelihood by their own
labor. The lessee or his wife is bound to reside on the land at least 9
months in each year. Such leaseholds are not subject to purchase if
they are within 10 miles of the Adelaide post-office. A somewhat
similar law is in operation in New South Wales, but has not proved
very effective. O f an assignment of 560 residential blocks for working
men on an electric line near Sydney, averaging from one-fourth to 1 acre
in area, and renting on an average for $15 to $20 a year, only 7 were
applied for and 3 or 4 actually occupied. In Western Australia home
stead blocks, or residential lots, are rented to miners for a nominal
sum. Western Australia has resumed several large estates for closer
settlement, and has two experimental land colonies. One at Hamel
is in a district of heavy rainfall, suitable for intensive cultivation. The
allotments are from 10 to 15 acres. The second is at Nangeenan,
where the clearing is lighter and the rainfall less, with allotments of
about 400 acres for sheep and wheat farming. The value of clearing
the land is assessed beforehand, and the settler allowed to earn wages
not exceeding £10 ($48.67) a month deforesting and grubbing, accord
ing to the amount he clears. Settlers usually clear for a time, stop to
put in a crop, clear during the waiting season, and then stop to harvest,
thus supporting themselves until their land is on a paying basis. The
cost of clearing is added to the original price of the land, and the
whole repaid by the settler on time payments. The government now
proposes to extend further inducements to settlers of small means by
a plan which was thus outlined by the director of agriculture:
Our object is to get city people, such as clerks and mechanics, out
on small but paying country properties. W e propose to set apart
blocks of about 1,000 acres in selected localities, which the government
will ring fence. After deducting a common and a necessary building
site for business or public use, the remainder will be surveyed into 10
and 20 acre allotments. These will be sold to city residents of the
184
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
class mentioned on time payments, at about $5 an acre, and planted in,
orchard fruits by the agricultural department. The department will
also keep the land under cultivation until the trees come into bearing,
charging the owner with the cost of cultivating and fertilizing, if
necessary, which must be paid yearly or half-yearly, and crediting
him with the proceeds from any crops raised. When the orchard is
giving a fair return, the city owner can move out to his property and
make a modest income—enough to support him in his old age. This
idea was suggested, because as soon as a man begins to get gray hairs
in this country he can’t find employment.
Notwithstanding these commendable efforts of the government to
favor the settlement of people of small means upon farms, as a whole
the land policy of the different States has failed to accomplish this object*
The spirit behind the administration of public lands laws in Australia
has been, historically speaking, monopolistic. The capitalist has been
favored at the expense of the worker. The large estates created at an
early date seem to have but whetted the appetite of their possessors for
exclusive territorial control. Proprietors are said to have shaped the
land policy of the government with the express intention of preventing
the laborer from becoming a settler and the settler from becoming a
freeholder. A writer of authority, in a position to be free from
present party bias, ascribes the excessive urban population of Austra
lia to bad land legislation. As early as 1831, prior to the gold excite
ment, Sydney contained one-fourth the population of New South
Wales. While the squatters favored convict labor they opposed free
immigrants. The writer just mentioned, whose views were confirmed
from other sources, says: 66In short, the squatters, who then ruled the
colony, had no desire for the settlement of the country with a numer-.
ous, industrious, and virtuous population from the United Kingdom.
They desired to have it reserved exclusively for their sheep and cattle.”
Prior to 1831 public lands were granted to settlers free or against a
nominal quit rent; from 1831 to 1839 they were sold for 5 shillings
($1.22) an acre; from 1839 to 1841 the price was 12 shillings ($2.92), and
after the latter date one pound sterling ($4.87) an acre, except in 1842,
when the old price of 12 shillings was temporarily restored. This last
increase in price was in response to a petition from the squatters in
which it was stated that such a measure was needed in order to prevent
laborers from acquiring land and thus creating a scarcity in the labor
market. A prominent gentleman in Sydney, identified with farming
interests, said: “ Our laws have been made by the large landholders,
who have striven in every way to keep the cultivator off the land. I
remember personally of a case where an old squatter went home (to
England) for a year, leaving his station in the hands of an energetic
manager. When he returned he found a fine field of oats growing on
the estate. He caused it to be destroyed at once, fearing the knowl
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
185
edge that the land could produce crops might attract settlers to the
neighborhood.”
The early railwa}^ enterprises of the States, undertaken at the expense
of the government, were often determined by private land interests;
and later, when it was necessary to provide transportation facilities to
the country still open for occupation, the cost of reaching ouch inte
rior or outlying districts was often excessive; so that most of the
States are burdened with a heavy railway debt incurred by building
and operating unproductive lines and branches required to bring their
own lands into market.
Although these evils are now a thing of the past their effect still
remains. Liberal land legislation has been attempted repeatedly,
especially in New South Wales, where settlers were allowed to go out
and select holdings prior to the government survey under the Crown
Lands Act of 1861. But no such generous policy has ever been
attempted in the eastern States of Australia as that adopted by the
Governments of the United States and Canada in their homestead and
preemption laws; and bureaucratic administration seems even yet to
hamper in this freedom, and at times entirely to discourage the intend
ing settler. Nevertheless, under the New South Wales Crown Lands
Amendment Act of 1903, 1,609,768 acres had been acquired by select
ors before the end of May, 1904. A considerable portion of this was
in comparatively large areas under pastoral leases. Western Aus
tralia passed a public land act containing provisions practically identic
cal with the American homestead law in 1898, and 573,585 acres o f
farm land had been taken up under this law by July, 1904.
IMMIGRATION.
The immigration question in Australia is closely related to the
land question. In the early days the land owners did not want free
settlers, but did want convict labor. The urban artisans opposed the
introduction of convicts and, deprived of the outlet for their energy
natural to a young country on the land, viewed jealously even the
arrival of free immigrants to compete with them in the crowded labor
market of the cities. In 1831, when 50 or 60 families of Scotch
mechanics arrived in Sydney, they were assailed in the streets by the
resident workmen, with remarks and taunts to the effect that they had
come to take the bread out of the colonists’ mouths.
There appears to have been a sort of “ know-nothing” spirit preva
lent in Australia that has not entirely disappeared at the present time.
Although the political leaders of the labor party profess a desire to
encourage immigration, it is doubtful if they are supported in this sen
timent by any considerable portion of their followers. Except during
the gold rush to Western Australia there has not been immigration
186
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
worthy o f mention into the States of the Commonwealth for a num
ber of years. Recentty in Victoria more people have left the State
than have entered.it, and the slight increase of population has depended
solely upon excess of births over deaths. In that State the rate of
annual increase was but 6.59 percent in 1901-2, while the excess of births
over deaths was about 1.22 per cent of the population. The annual
rate of increase of population for the Commonwealth for the decade
ending 1901 was 1.8 per cent, while the average annual excess of births
over deaths for the same period was 1.59 per cent, showing an increase
of population due to excess of immigration over emigration of only
0.21 per cent, although this period covered the years of the gold rush
to Western Australia. Between 1861 and 1902 Tasmania lost 982 more
people by emigration than she received from other countries. The
total excess of immigration over emigration during these forty-two
years was only 785,674 for the Commonwealth, and o f these 645,456 were
assisted immigrants, As most of the arrivals came from Great Britain,
the Australians are of nearly pure Anglo-Saxon stock. A larger infu
sion of European blood might add to the virility of the race. The birth
rate is rapidly decreasing, so as to become a matter o f concern and
investigation with the governments of some of the States. The mean
annual excess of births over deaths for the ten years ending with 1902
was only 15.92 per thousand in the Commonwealth and 16.88 in New
Zealand. However, the most potent influence in lessening the rate
o f natural increase in Australia is probably the excess of urban
population.
Although Queensland and Western Australia still assist immigrants
from Great Britain, the excess of arrivals over departures was only
6,187 for the entire Commonwealth during 1901 and 1902, the last years
for which figures are available. Indeed, the two States just mentioned
were the only ones having an excess of immigrants. More people left
than entered all the other States, the excess of emigrants being 15,060
for Victoria, 4,919 for South Australia, 1,823 for Tasmania, and 12 for
New South Wales. The remoteness of Australia from Europe is of
course a prime cause of the small movement of population to that
country, but the absence of free amble lands has contributed to check
such immigration as might otherwise have occurred. The attitude of
a large section of the people toward immigration is another factor not
to be disregarded. Wage-earners disapprove of foreign competition
and look upon the alien with distrust. He can not become a member
of a labor union, as a rule, until he becomes a citizen of the country.
This practically disqualifies him for employment in many places. The
Italian comes in conflict with mining regulations* contract-labor laws,
and a general policy of exclusion, and he is the only European who
has shown a disposition to prospect the field of possible employment
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
187
in Australia. A few Germans and Scandinavians have gone upon the
land, sometimes where native whites thought cultivation impossible,
and have almost always been successful. In some sections, as in por
tions of the Wimmera wheat district of Victoria and fruit-growing and
vineyard townships in South Australia, they are the backbone of the
community.
ACCUMULATION.
No complete statistics of industrial insurance in Australia are avail
able, but in 1901 the 3 largest home companies carried 236,389 policies,
with a face of about $25,000,000, and annual premiums of about $970,000.
There are 163 friendly societies in Australia, with a membership of
289,051, and funds amounting to <£3,056,780 ($14,875,820), or an
average of slightly over $50 per member. These societies enjoy many
special privileges under the different state laws; their funds are a first
claim against the estate of an insolvent officer; if a society invests
money in mortgages, such mortgages can be discharged by mere
indorsement, without reconveyance; disputes can be legally settled
according to the society’s own rules; and members may dispose of
their funds at death by written nomination, without a will, a right
which extends to youths of 16, although a will can not be made until
the person is 21. A society also has certain special privileges in the
way of summary remedies for defending and enforcing its property
rights.
The total life insurance in force in Australia in 1901 amounted to
approximately $600,000,000, making it one of the best insured— if not
the very best insured—country in the world. Savings banks of the
Commonwealth have 1,037,759 depositors, with total deposits amount
ing to £33,860,100 ($164,780,177), or an average of $158.78 for each
depositor, and $43.67 per head of population. In the United States
the average deposit in savings banks is about $420, but the propor
tion of depositors to the whole population is smaller than in Australia,
so that the deposit per head of population is less than in that country.
LO CAL GOVERNMENT.
The local government of Australia differs historically from that of
the United States in the fact that in the latter country State govern
ment grew up out of the township, and the local organization is the
oldest, the primary, and in many parts of the country the government
in the eyes of the citizens; while in Australia local government
grew down out of a central colonial authority, and is therefore a
secondary and more or less accidental development of political life.
The relatively greater preponderance of the rural element in the
United States also strengthens the township and the county organiza
tions. Education in Australia is supported and administered by the
188
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
state government; public works are largely conducted by that body,
and there is close control over village and township administration.
Nevertheless, an active and vigorous local civic life exists in Aus
tralia, and the larger municipalities appear to be very well governed.
Sydney and Melbourne follow the London precedent, and, like the
urban center around Boston, consist of a number of independent
municipalities, each of which controls its own rates, ordinances, and
local affairs generally, has its own municipal building and corps of
officers, and elects from its council a mayor, who is the political head
of the town. But in both centers mentioned, these independent munici
palities are included in a single metropolitan district, within which
certain boards and trusts have independent jurisdiction in all matters
referred to their special control. Thus there may be a metropolitan
lire brigade, a metropolitan board of waterworks, a similar park trust,
police board, tramways trust, etc., each confining itself to its own spe
cific sphere of duties and coming not at all or only slightly into contact
with other boards and trusts of the district, or with the local govern
ments of individual municipalities. The municipal franchise is re
stricted, and there is plural voting by property holders. Both Mel
bourne and Sydney have a “ lord mayor,5- who is the chief executive
officer of the “ city 55 proper.
In Melbourne both water and electric light are supplied for public and
private use by municipal departments, though the expense of the electric
light, it is sometimes complained, is higher than the conditions of the
service justify. The municipality succeeded some years ago in making
a bargain by which it exchanged the tramways franchise for a limited
period of years for the permanent way plant at the end of that period,
when the franchise will be resumed by the city. The city also con
ducts extensive freezing works, partly for the use of local merchants
using cold storage, and partly leased to the state authorities, who
receive, inspect, stamp, refrigerate, and export goods received on con
signment from the citizens. The same service is rendered by the gov
ernment in South Australia. From the Melbourne works as many as
3,000,000 rabbits, 175,000 sheep, and 16,000 tons of butter have been
exported in a single year.
PR IM A R Y EDUCATION.
Primary education in Australia is secular and compulsory, and is
free except in New South Wales and Tasmania, where small fees are
charged. Secondary and higher instruction is assisted, but not pro
vided free, by the State. The statutory school age is from 7 to 13 in
some States, and from 6 to 14 in others. The statistics of state schools
for the year 1901 are as follows:
189
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
TEACHERS AND PUPILS IN STATE SCHOOLS, 1901.
State.
cent
Enroll Per
popula
Schools. Teachers. ment of of
tion en
pupils.
rolled.
New South Wales..........................................................................
Queensland....................................................................................
South Australia..............................................................................
Tasmania........................................................................................
Victoria...........................................................................................
Western Australia.........................................................................
2,818
960
706
388
1,948
242
5,073
2,310
1,318
660
4,562
577
212,725
89,510
57,744
19,236
194,125
20,484
15.50*
17.74
15.9011.08
16.13*
10.92
Commonwealth....................................................................
7,012
14,500
593,824
15.61
This shows an enrollment of 15.6 per cent of the population in the
public schools, as compared with 19.6 per cent of the population in
the United States, a comparison probabty affected somewhat adversely
for Australia by the scattered settlement in the back blocks of the
pastoral country. On the other hand, 3.95 per cent of the population
of Australia were enrolled in private schools, as compared with 1.6
per cent of the total population in the United States. Part of these,,
however, were probably secondary school pupils, who are not included
in any of the American figures given. O f the teachers employed in
the state schools, 6,693 were males and 7,807 females. The average
number of pupils in a school was 61, and to a teacher 31. The per
centage of average attendance in the public schools varied from a min
imum of 72.6 in New South Wales to a maximum of 80.2 reported in
Western Australia. Exclusive of subsidies to private schools, the
net expenditure of the States of the Commonwealth upon administra
tion and maintenance of state schools was £1,791,242 ($8,717,079) ixt
1901, or $2.31 per capita and $14.68 per pupil enrolled. The expendi
ture on school premises the same year was £178,073 ($866,592), or
23 cents per capita* The cost of the schools per pupil enrolled was;
$21.41, or 27 cents per annum more for primary education in the
Commonwealth than in the United States. Secondary education is in
the hands of a number of private and church schools, which are in
most cases assisted by the Government. Secondary courses, for which
moderate fees are charged, are also given in some state schools^
There are universities, organized upon the English system, in Sydney,.
Melbourne, Adelaide, and Tasmania, with a total matriculation of
1,957. There werealso 625 auditors attending lectures, but not matric
ulated. The aggregate income of these four institutions is about
$450,000, of which some $180,000 is derived from government aid,
$140,000 from fees, and the remainder from endowments and other
sources.
The percentage of illiterates of the total population of the Common
wealth—children under 5 years of age being considered unable to
read—was as follows in the years in question: 30.44 in 1861; 29.93 in
12425— No. 56—05---------- 13
190
BULLETIN
OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
1871; 21.55 in 1881; 21.15 in 1891; 17.81 in 1901. It is thus seen
that there has been a steady decrease of illiteracy in each decade, and
although no explanation for the figures is offered in the official statis
tics, the decrease evidently points to a constant improvement in school
facilities and an ever-decreasing proportion of illiterate immigrants.
Doubtless there is also a steadily decreasing proportion of native
adults whose school period of life was passed in Australia at a time
when pioneer conditions were more largely prevalent, and educational
facilities, in proportion to the whole population, much scantier than
at present. Free and compulsory state primary education is also of
comparatively recent introduction in Australia.
TECHNICAL EDUCATION.
Technical education, while not free, is partty supported and is admin
istered by the State in Australia. About $150,000 per annum is expended
by the 6 States of the Commonwealth upon this branch of instruction.
The first parliamentary grant for this purpose was made in New South
Wales in 1878, and in 1883 the Sydney Technical College, which had
been gradually built around classes given in the school of arts of that
city, was made a government institution. From these beginnings a
most admirable system of technical instruction has been built up, which
is conducted through 4 main channels—the Sydney Technical College,
suburban technical classes, country technical colleges and classes, and
certain classes connected with high schools and public schools. The
Sydney Technical College and Technological Museum, which occupy
an imposing group of buildings in that city, represent an invest
ment of over $550,000. Country colleges at Bathurst, Broken Hill,
Goul burn, and the College and .School of Mines at Newcastle, are also
housed in substantial buildings erected by the State for their use.
Several other technical schools in country towns occupy rented build
ings or are accommodated in public schoolhouses. The suburban
technical classes and classes in high schools and public schools have
as yet undertaken only courses included in the manual and industrial
training usually forming part of the public school curriculum in
America. In New South Wales these subjects are under the super
vision of the technical education branch of the department of public
instruction, and are reported together with the higher technical classes.
Excluding these classes and confining considei’ation to those subjects
only which are either taught in exclusively technical schools or belong
to trade and technical instruction, the enrollment statistics were as
follows in 1903:
191
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
STATISTICS OF SYDNEY TECHNICAL COLLEGE AND COUNTRY TECHNICAL COLLEGES, 1903.
Number of classes.................................................................................
Number of individuals.........................................................................
Number of enrollments.......................................................................
Weekly average attendance................................................................
Number of teachers..............................................................................
Number of male students....................................................................
Number of female students..................................................................
Male students over 21 years of ag e ....................................................
Fees paid................................................................................................
Sydney
Technical
College.
Country
technical
colleges.
98
3,986
6,260
3,917
73
2,814
1,172
752
$26,878
249
3,282
4,200
2,117
81
(«)
(a)
(a)
$13,991
Total.
347
7,268
10,460
6,034
154
(«)
(a)
(a)
$40,869
a Not reported.
There were 1,407 students examined in 21 subjects, of whom 3,160
passed. Fifty-one students took the City and Guilds of London Insti
tute examinations, of whom 27 passed. The subjects offered include
agriculture and wool classing, engineering trades, mechanic trades,
natural sciences and mathematics; art, architecture, and decoration;
commercial branches, and mining. Fees vary from $1 to $5 a term,
according to the number of lessons a week. A full year, three lessons
a week, costs about $12, except for a few special subjects. The Tech
nological Museum is probably the finest institution o f the kind in the
southern hemisphere, and is equipped for both exhibition and research
work.
Classes were also visited at Newcastle College. * There were about
800 enrolled in this population center of some 70,000 people. Twentyfive per cent of the students were women. The evening courses were
largely trade classes for apprentices and mechanics, supplementing
their shop training, and the day classes visited were composed of public
school children, doing work in carpentry similar to that in a manual
training department in the U nited States. A regular set of models
was followed, illustrating the different features of woodworking in a
progressive order, though there was no direct adoption of sloyd
methods and designs. Drawing was taught in connection with wood
working. One of the most popular day departments appeared to be
the girls’ sewing and dressmaking class.
Victoria has profited more than New South Wales from the liberal
ity of her private citizens in establishing and endowing this form of
education. The Workingmen’s College of Melbourne, one of the most
extensive and efficient in the Commonwealth, is in large part the gift
of a single public spirited benefactor. There are in all 18 schools of
art and technical colleges in Victoria receiving aid from the State.
The school of mines at Ballarat is the oldest institution of the kind in
Australia. In the schools at Melbourne, Bendigo, Bairnsdale, and
Stawell mining and metallurgy are taught. A cooking class was visited
in one of the public schools of Melbourne. The girls prepared a
good plain meal, which was served in a public dining room attached
192
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
to the school kitchen, at a moderate fee (12 cents), and the fact that the
place was well patronized by public school teachers and apparently by
a number of townspeople indicated that the work of the class was not
a failure. The teacher said that the price paid for the meals about
covered the cost of the materials used in the school. There is one les
son a week for each pupil, so that a number of classes rotate through
the school, and the benefit of the instruction given is quite widely
extended.
The enrollment at the Workingmen’s College in 1902 was 2,364, of
whom 455 were males over 21 years of age, 1,316 males under 21 years
of age, and 593 women. The income of the school for that year was
£15,770 ($76,745), of which £2,377 ($11,568) was granted by the Gov
ernment. The State gave in addition £6,000 ($29,199) the same year
for new buildings. The fees amounted to £6,251 ($30,420), or nearly
$13 for every pupil enrolled.
This institution is, unfortunate^,
hampered just at present by want of funds. Fees for regular courses
range from £5 to £6 ($24.33 to $29.20) for a term of 12 weeks. Per
sons under 18, persons under 21 earning less than 25s. ($6.08) a week
and indentured apprentices receive a reduction in fees. The curric
ulum covers most of the arts, crafts, and trades followed in the city,
ordinary secondary school sciences, rural industry and wool sorting,
engineering, household economy, elocution and music, and may include
nearly any subject that contributes directty to a student’s earning
capacity. The average number of students receiving technical instruc
tion in Victoria throughout the year (1902-3) was 3,173, and the State
appropriates for these subjects about $80,000.
South Australia has an excellent school of mines and industries at
Adelaide, occupying the newest and probably the finest building
devoted to technical education in Australasia. This school has been
fortunate in receiving much assistance from private citizens. There
are four smaller technical schools in other parts of the State. In the
Adelaide College, including the agricultural school, 1,913 pupils were
enrolled in 1902, of whom 483 were over 21 j^ears and 22 over 45 years
of age. All but 370 report themselves as engaged in some wage-earning
occupation. There are preparatory, science, and technical and com
mercial classes. The technical division includes 17 subjects, ranging
from bookbinding to wool sorting. Students in the last subject are
taken out to the ranches and given practical experience in their pro
fession during the shearing season. In all the States reduced railway
fares are granted to students attending technical courses. The annual
revenues and expenses of the Adelaide College are about $37,000, of
which $20,000 in round numbers is derived from government grants.
The fees received from students totaled £2,756 ($13,412), or $7for each
student enrolled. Tuition ranges all the way from 5s. ($1.22), for some
school children’s classes, to £17 17s. ($86.87) for certain professional
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
193
courses. These fees are for a 12-week term. One of the interesting"
features of this institution is a prospectors’ class, where instruction is
confined as far as possible to practical methods of recognizing and
testing ores in the field, and the technical aspects of mineralogy are
avoided.
Queensland also has taken an active interest in technical education*
although the government has not assumed control of this instruction*
except indirectly in Brisbane. There are 15 schools in the State where
technical courses are given. These schools are subsidized at the rate of
dollar for dollar for the total sum received from pupils’ fees. About
$55,000 is spent annually by the State in this manner. In 1901 5,465
individual students were receiving technical instruction in the State*
of whom 2,853, or more than one-half, were women. That year the
Brisbane Technical College moved into a new building, erected for its
special use, but leased from a private owner. This institution had a
fixed annual endowment* from the government from 1882 until 1892*
when the dollar for dollar rule was extended to cover its grants.
This change reduced its subsid}^ in 1892 from $3,650 to less than
$2,200, and has hampered the work of the school. The most recent
statistics are not published, but in 1901 there were 1,588 enrollments*
which, according to information received from the director, had risen
to 1,656 in July, 1903. The annual receipts and expenses in 1901
were nearly $34,000. Of the former over $16,000 was derived from
students’ fees in 1901, or about $10 for every pupil enrolled. More
than half the students in this college, as of the total number enrolled
in technical courses in the State, are women. About 30 per cent
report their occupation as “ home duties,” 25 per cent are wage-earn
ers, and about 16 per cent report clerical and mercantile employ
ments. Manual training courses for public school children are given*
and there are classes in the subjects usually taught in the schools
mentioned in other States. A large part of the attendance in all the
Australian technical schools is in the night divisions and the trade
classes.
Western Australia spends about $21,000 a year upon technical edu
cation, and supports three technical institutions, at Perth, Coolgardie*
and Kalgoorlie. The last of the three is under the administration of
the department of mines and is especially devoted to mining instruc
tion. The Perth technical school is well equipped for science and
trade instruction, and had 292 students enrolled in 1903, of whom 39
were women. One interesting feature in the administration of this
school is the effort being made to cooperate with, trade unions in
the matter o f apprentice instructions. The director of the school said:
W e are trying to come into agreement with the trade unions, in the
trades taught in our school, so as to harmonize our courses and regu
lations with those of Ihe unions. For instance, we admit only appren-
194
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
tiees to our trade classes, and require a certain amount of apprentice
experience for each year in our course, and do not give certificates
until the apprenticeship required by the union is completed. W e
already have an agreement of this sort in effect with the plumbers,
and are negotiating similar agreements with various branches of the
woodworking and engineering trades. After these voluntary agree
ments have been tried in practical operation we hope to get legal
sanction for the regulations they include. Probably we shall soon be
able to do this in case of the plumbers. Some shops are now paying
the class fees of their apprentices, W e will not accept students who
are not regularly in the trade, or train u improvers” to pick the eyes
out of regular artisans’ business.
The Carpenters’ Union, of Perth, offers a prize of £5 ($24.33) to the
best student in carpentry. Western Australia is also conducting inter
esting experiments in the way of giving technical instruction by cor
respondence. This is rendered necessary by the scattered popula
tion, and the need of providing theoretical training for artisans and
engineers in isolated mining camps. The technical courses o f this
State are conducted under an affiliation arrangement with Adelaide
University, in South Australia. In addition to the 3 schools men
tioned, courses of technical instruction are given at a number of other
towns. There is a technical college at Hobart, Tasmania, with a branch
at Launceston. About 700 students are enrolled in technical subjects
in that State.
Commercial education is not as yet separated from technical
Instruction in Australian curricula. A number of private business
colleges are found in the larger cities. The Sydney Chamber of Com
merce has, for a number of years, maintained a commercial education
committee, which gives examinations and grants “ junior certificates”
and prizes to the best students in commercial branches presenting
themselves from the public schools. During the 6 years ending with
1903, 344 candidates had come up for examination, of whom 128
appeared during the last year reported; 139 passed, of whom 63 were
from those presenting themselves for examination in 1902-3. The
chamber of commerce of Melbourne has recently cooperated with
educational authorities in that city with a view to giving similar
encouragement to commercial education. A faculty o f commerce has
been established at Adelaide University, with 70 or 80 students in
attendance. A wide range of commercial subjects, not only formal,
like arithmetic and bookkeeping, but more general, such as commer
cial law and geography, is taught. The Sydney University Extension
Board conducts a course of lectures upon commercial subjects, in con
junction with the Sydney Chamber of Commerce. This course was
begun in 1904. Two series of lectures, upon economics and commer
cial history, are provided. The Perth Chamber of Commerce and the
Fremantle Chamber of Commerce, in Western Australia, are establish
ing a system of examinations similar to those at Sydney.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
195
Agricultural colleges exist in New South Wales, Victoria, and South
Australia, and instruction in agricultural subjects is given in all the
States. New South Wales has a model institution of this character at
Richmond, conducted on much the same lines as the better schools of
agriculture in the United States. The college farm contains 3,500
acres. About 50 students are taking full courses, besides a number
registered in dairying, orchard, and special courses. The annual cost
of instruction and maintenance is about $150. All students are
required to do a considerable amount of practical work. A portion
of the farm is used as an experiment station. A limited number of
students are received at four other state experimental farms, but the
work at these places is largely of a practical character. Special
classes for dairy managers are also conducted by the department.
Victoria has an agricultural college at Dookie, a school of viticul
ture, and conducts what might be called agricultural college extension
courses. The last courses are unique, and have been developed along
original lines in Victoria, though they resemble in some respects the
farmers’ institutes and grange meetings held in many American States.
But the work in Victoria is more systematic and designed to attract
a younger class of students. Courses are at present conducted at 7
centers, and are being extended to new points in order to meet local
demands. Fifteen expert instructors are employed. Lectures and
practical demonstrations are given and examinations are conducted at
the close of the 4 weeks’ course. The minimum enrollment required
to form a class is 40, but classes have averaged above that number.
The subjects covered are: Manures and animal nutrition; agricultural
botany and viticulture; veterinary science; insect pests and plant dis
eases; sheep breeding and wool classing; poultry breeding and man
agement; stock and dairy management; agricultural chemistry; the
chemistry and bacteriology of milk; the miscroscope and its use on
the farm; demonstration in shoeing; demonstrations of poultry dress
ing; land surveying; cattle spaying, and gelding colts. The courses
are given during the winter season; but in order to keep the instruct
ors engaged throughout the year, their time is employed during
the busier seasons in holding evening classes of two weeks’ duration
at farmhouses. The cooperation of 10 or 12 farmers is required to form
a class. The lectures are held four days a week, in the evening, and
last about an hour and a half. A half hour is then devoted to ques
tions and discussion. In addition to this strictly agricultural instruc
tion, Victoria has a dairy expert who gives instruction to practical
cheesemakers 3 terms of 3 months each during the year, and follows up
his pupils at their factories the other 3 months. The department also
prepares courses in gardening for the public schools. To crown the
system, Melbourne University is forming a department of agriculture,
which is to occupy a building now being erected on the campus at a
196
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
cost of $130,000. Farmers interviewed in Victoria commended the
teaching work of the state agricultural department most highly, and
much local interest is shown in the classes. The methods used to dis
seminate scientific information regarding agriculture among farmers
in this State appear to be eminently practical and effective.
Queensland has an agricultural college and experiment farm at
Gatton, founded in 1896. There are four scholarships, supported by
the State, entitling holders to free board and instruction for a 3 years’
course. South Australia has an agricultural college at Roseworthy,
which was visited. An experimental farm of 1,655 acres is connected
with this school. The usual courses are given, and practical work is
required. The farm connected with this institution is more than selfsupporting. The last year reported the net earnings amounted to
$3.26 an acre cultivated, and in less than 3 years it has earned for the
State about $17,000.
Western Australia has not yet established an agricultural college,
but has opened 2 experimental farms, where pupils are received for
practical instruction under the managers. The agricultural depart
ment also conducts a course of popular lectures at Perth, upon such
subjects as fruit culture, stock, poultry, and bee breeding, and insect
pests. On account of the profitable markets in the .gold fields and
the extent of arable land conveniently situated still in the hands of the
government, farm interests are growing rapidly in that State, and it is
anticipated that provision for more formal agricultural instruction
will soon be made.
COOPERATION.
Distributive cooperative societies are fairly numerous in Australia
among both farmers and working people, but cooperative production
has been successful only in certain rural industries like butter making
and in a few urban bakeries, usually conducted in connection with dis
tributive societies. One of the larger societies makes boots and clothing
and two others conduct a dairy. The Manchester wholesalers have an
office in Sydney, which indents goods for some of the distributive asso
ciations, but devotes itself chiefly to purchasing for the cooperative
market in England. This society alfeo manufactures tallow and oil for
the home office, and makes oil cake and fertilizers to utilize the waste;
but it does no speculative business and confines itself as closely as
possible to supptying the demand of its own British trade. Incident
ally the society does a little informal propaganda work in Australia.
There are very small cooperative clothing factories or tailor shops in
Adelaide and Sydney. A cooperative boot factory is being organized
in Perth. A cooperative laundry is running in Melbourne. The
Cooperative Fishermen’s Association of Victoria controls a stall or
auction platform in the city fish market at Melbourne and handles*
LABOR CONDITIONS IN
AUSTRALIA.
197
stores, and sells fish caught by its members at a fixed commission
charge of 10 per cent, distributing the profits to the cooperators.
As long ago as 1892 there were 49 nominally cooperative societies
in New South Wales, according to a special report made at the time
of the Chicago Exposition. But successful societies conducted on
truly cooperative lines are still comparatively rare—almost in their
pioneer stage in most localities—so the enumeration thirteen years ago
must have classified these organizations by their name rather than by
their rules and policy. A t present the colliery districts are the strong
hold of these associations. In the Newcastle district there are the
following thriving societies that have long passed the experimental
period: The Wallsend, West Wallsend, Stockton, Merriwether, Lambton, and Newcastle and Suburban. There is also a small society about
12 years old at Helensburg, a mining town south of Sydney, and one
at Lithgow, in the iron and coal center of the western district of New
South Wales. The Sydney societies have not been so successful as
those among the miners, but one in the suburb of Balmain, though
founded as recently as 1899, is on an established basis. Waterloo and
Wonoona also have small societies. This may not exhaust, but about
completes the list of active distributive associations in that State.
In Queensland there is a successful cooperative bakery at Rockhamption and a society at Grympie. The Charters Towers Cooperative
Industrial Society is also registered from one of the northern mining
camps. Victoria has several thriving societies in the mining cities of
Bendigo and Ballarat, and in a number of smaller towns throughout
the gold fields. The oldest and largest society in Australia is at
Adelaide, and a smaller society is doing business at Port Adelaide.
In Western Australia there are societies at Perth and Fremantle, and
a cooperative restaurant at Boulder City, in the eastern gold fields.
The strongest society in the State is in the Collie coal fields. Alto
gether 6 societies are registered in Western Australia, and the applica
tions of others are pending.
While the rules of these organizations vary in detail, most of them
follow true cooperative principles in their regulations and administra
tion. They are descendants of the English societies. Usually the
number of shares any member may hold is limited, and sometimes a
minimum is also fixed. Credit is usually restricted to an amount pro
portioned to the paid-in capital of the member. Members can join by
depositing 5 per cent of the face value of their shares, a shilling in the
pound, and allow the accumulated dividends on paid-in capital and pur
chases to apply on further installments. They are generally required
to pay in 5 per cent a month until their shares are paid for; but there
are no forfeitures. Some societies have even a benefit feature, in that
the managers are authorized to render necessary assistance to members
in distress. Several societies pay a dividend—that is, share profits—on
198
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
the purchases of noninembers, though this is always less than the divi
dend paid on members’ purchases. The dividend on capital is usually
fixed in the rules of the society. Special legislation covering these
organizations exists in most of the States. The latest of these laws is
that of Western Australia, which provides that any association of 7 or
more persons may register under the law, by complying with the pro
visions of the act, as a cooperative and provident society, and enjoy
all the privileges of a corporation for the purpose of carcying on any
industry, business, or trade (including dealing in land) specified in its
rules, except the business of banking. No member is allowed to have
a claim or interest in the shares of a society exceeding $973. The
rules of the society must provide for an annual audit of its accounts,
and the balance sheet shall be sent to the registrar. The rules must
also specify how the profits of the society are to be divided. The
society has a lien on the shares of a member for any debt due by him to
it, and has special privileges in administering and distributing to the
heirs shares and undistributed profits of persons who have died intes
tate. Any association organized under the act may provide that its
shares shall not be transferable.
The Adelaide Cooperative Society is the oldest and most successful
distributing association conducted on Rochdale principles in the Com
monwealth. Judging by certain commodities, where the total sales
in the State are known, this society does about 3 per cent of the entire
retail grocery and provision business of South Australia. The associ
ation operates a bakery, doing a business of about $45,000 per annum,
and a dairy, with 154 head of cattle and sales to the amount of nearly
$10,000 annually. It may be of passing interest to farmers to know
that the average yearly yield of milk per cow is 510 gallons. There
are 3,575 members, who receive nearly $25,000 per annum in interest
and dividends. The annual business done amounts to about half a
million dollars.
As in all other countries, a few successful cooperative enterprises
survive at the cost of a large number of failures. Three principal
causes account for the nonsuccess of many undertakings in Australia,
extravagant or incompetent management, the shifting character of the
population and impermanent nature of some industries like mining, and
the almost universal prevalence of credit in retail trade. Much of this
implies, of course, lack of understanding of the true principles of
cooperative trading. An English cooperator, the Sydney manager of
the Manchester Wholesalers, said: “ Before cooperation can flourish
in Australia, much propaganda work needs to be done—as was done
in South England. Australians want too much credit. They are also
impatient of small things, and want immediate success with inadequate
capital. You must have loyalty and an intelligent understanding of
where the true benefit of cooperation lies before that system can sue-
199
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
ceed. Members can not carry a society forward to success, if they take
their trade to the next private competitor every time they find a line in
his shop a half penny cheaper than in their own.” The manager of a
small society in a colliery district said:. “ All our members don’t under
stand the principle of the society. One of them, who came in hard
up lately, was very much surprised to find that he had $15 accumulated
profits to his credit.”
The following list includes probably about half of the successful
distributing societies, organized among wage-earners and people of
small or moderate means in Australian cities and towns; but as these
include some of the largest associations, they transact more than half
the cooperative business done in the Commonwealth.
The figures
are taken from the printed balance sheets for the last half year or
quarter, with the exception of one or two items in case of individual
societies where estimates by the managers were taken. Certain items,
such as the reserve and contingent fund, are incomplete, and on
account o f the different methods of bookkeeping and presentation of
balances employed by different societies, such items as assets, operat
ing expenses, and net profits are not based upon exactly the same
classification of accounts, though they are sufficiently uniform to show
quite fairly the standing of the associations.
STATISTICS OF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN AUSTRALIAN CITIES.
Maxi
Par mum
Year
value
shares
Mem
Assets.
Name of society. found bers.
per
of
ed.
shares. mem
ber.
Adelaide Coop
erative a ..........
Adelaide Coop
erative (dairy
department)® ,
Ballarat Coop
erative Distri
bution (b a kery, boots, and
shoes) o ............
Balmain Cooper
ative « ..............
Bendigo Cooper
ative a ..............
Bendigo Coopera t iv e M ea t
Shop ® ..............
Fremantle Coop
erative (bak
ery)® ................
Helensburg Co
operative®.......
Ivy Cooperative rf
Lithgow Cooper
.........
ative®
Perth Coopera
tive®................
W a lls e n d and
Plattsburg Co
operative d ___
186*
3,575
$4.87
1868)
1896 1,050
4.87
-'I
Sales.
Divi
Operat
Re
Divi dends
ing ex
on
serve
dends
penses, Net
mem
and
on
includ
bers’ con
ing de profits. shares
pur
tin
(per
precia
chases
gent
cent). (per funds*
tion.
cent).
$315,696 $239,810 $32,042 $11,439
!
4.00
3.00
(&)
1 25,954
4,450
3,878
706
4.00
3.00
(*)
200
29,634
43,036
11,283
2,984
2.25
6.67
$6,871
27,228
<*641
2,346
5.00
6.67
311
(&)
7.50
7,879
(»)
12.50
(ft)
277
(&)
(*)
5,148
1890 1,780
4.87
(*)
32,275
(*)
(&)
5,754
1896
(*)
<*)
(&)
(*)
(*)
(b)
(*>)
1896
217
4.87
100
3,730
6,966
2,407
681
5.00
8.75
278
1892
1900
120
71
4.87
(*>)
(*)
(6)
(»)
1,375
17,000
2,150
(*>)’
213
(*>)
175
7.50
10.00
5.00
7.50
(10
195
(*)
(*)
1901
1902
300
(»)
(*>
( b)
(»)
12.50
(&>
1902
323
4.87
10
5,864
14,768
2,117
149
(»)
(»)
(*)
1887
491
4.87
200
27,673
36,376
3,831
3,936
(*0
10.00
a Figures are for 6 months.
b Not reported.
(*>)
c Figures are for 8 months.
d Figures are for 3 months.
534
200
BULLETIN OF THE BUKEAU
OF LABOR.
The following societies paid a dividend—that is, shared profits—upon
nonmembers’ purchases: Balmain, Si per cent; Ivy, 3 f per cent, Wallsend and Plattsburg, 5 per cent. The Adelaide Society has reserve and
contingent funds amounting to over $11,000, in addition to interest
paying investments. It is probable that the assets of all the coopera
tive distribution societies in Australia amount to nearly $600,000 or
$700,000, their annual sales to well toward $1,000,000, and the net
profits which they distribute among their members and purchasers to
approximately $75,000.
Several large business associations in Australia are nominally cooper
ative, and were in some instances originally started upon cooperative
principles, but have developed into corporations hardty to be distin
guished from other limited trading companies, except in their profitsharing features. Shares are transferable like stock in ordinary cor
porations, and there is no limit to the amount that may be held by a
single person. The Mutual Stores in Melbourne, one of the largest
retail corporations in the city, developed out of a cooperative society
o f this kind through the gradual accumulation of stock in the hands
o f a few individuals. The same process of centralization of interests
has occurred in some producers’ associations. The Civil Service
Cooperative Society of Sydney originated along Rochdale lines, and
was intended to include all classes of public employees, down to track
men on the railways. The rules of the society, however, do not pro-~
hibit free transfer of share or limit the number held by any one person.
As a large part of the profits are distributed to share-holding pur
chasers, however, according to the amount of their purchases from the
association, the maximum benefit of owning shares is derived by the
small holders. The directors of the association must be active or
retired civil servants. It was found impossible to cater to all classes
of trade satisfactorily, so the society has gradually specialized to meet
the demand of those who require a high grade of goods; and the store
at present keeps probably the finest stock in Sydney. The business
has risen from $120,000 per annum in 1872 to over $900,000 in 1904.
The capital stock, on account of the large reserve accumulations, has
recently been increased from $35,000 to $70,000. The assets are over
$260,000, and the working expenses about $140,000 per annum. In
spite ,of the recent increase in capital, the reserve fund still exceeds
$35,000. A dividend of 10 per cent on shares, and 10 per cent on
members’ purchases was allowed last year, in addition to a discount
o f 3.75 per cent on the monthly accounts of shareholders trading at the
store. The Brisbane Civil Servants’ Society does a business of about
$130,000 annually. A similar society in Melbourne began operations
in 1903.
Cooperative production is a vigorous and growing movement among
the farmers in certain parts of Australia. By this term is meant
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
201
cooperation for the marketing of produce, and for the manufacture of
bacon, butter, and other farm commodities requiring preparation for
market. These societies also purchase at wholesale rates for their
members. They do not, so far as was ascertained, limit the transfer
of their shares, except that holders.must be farmers or producers
cooperating with the enterprise. The number of shares one member
may hold is limited in the best associations—in the Coastal Farmers’
Cooperative Society of New South Wales, to 75 shares of a par value
of 14.87 each; and in the South Australian Cooperative Union and the
Western Australian Producers’ Cooperative Union, to 200 shares of
similar value. The first of these associations has about 1,300 mem
bers, of whom 592 are corn growers. The company does no specula
tive business; it will not buy supplies except for members; it will not
purchase supplies competing with supplies produced by members; and
in making sales of produce received from members, gives preference,
other things being equal, to members desiring to purchase. Produce
of members,is sold entirely on commission, and business is done under
a trust account, so that proceeds of sales are at no time liable for the
debts of the society. Half of the work of the society at present is
propaganda. Permanent progress is made, as when the farmers have
once given the society their support they are very loyal. The object
is not merely to work economically, but also to bring producer and
buyer into direct connection and eliminate the speculative element in
business. Special efforts are devoted to improving the grade of pro
duce. O f 15 butter prizes at the New South Wales state fair the
society’s members received 11. Produce is sold on commission, and
after paying expenses and a dividend on shares, the remainder is dis
tributed to the members pro rata according to the amount of business
they have done through the society—in fact, as a rebate on commis
sions. The turn-over of the society last year was about $1,600,000,
and the net profits were nearly $15,000. A 6 per cent dividend was
paid on capital, a 20 per cent rebate was assigned on commissions paid
by consignors of dairy produce, and $1,500 was carried to the reserve.
The society is now four years old. The South Australian Cooperative
Union was started in 1894, and in 1902 had 3,633 members. It handles
about 1,700,000 bushels of wheat annually, besides a large quantity of
wool. This union has reduced the price of binders from $275 to $190
for its members. Its annual turn-over has been about $2,000,000 on
average years. Besides rebates, it pays about 6 per cent dividends on
shares. The Western Australian Producers’ Cooperative Union was
formed in 1902, and now has 421 members. The turn-over for the
year ending June 30, 1904, was over $43,000—nearly four times that
of the previous year—and the profits about $2,500. These profits
were directed to be employed in propaganda work, especially in
increasing membership. In addition to the profits, members saved
202
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
more than $4,000, or about $10 each, in the purchase of fertilizers
alone. The .society has just started daily auction sales at Perth. As
showing the purpose and policy of these associations, the following
quotation from a directors’ report may be of interest: “ The Union is
primarily in existence to cheapen all farmers’ requisites and to obtain
the fullest market values for produce. If, however, the prices quoted
should be used as a lever wherewith to depress the prices of ordinary
trading firms, the slight temporary advantage which may be gained
by individuals must be injurious to producers as a body. The direct
ors in fixing their prices do so in the first instance with the idea of
making those prices reasonable and fair to all concerned.”
Some of these unions publish agricultural papers, and there are
numerous cooperative weeklies or bulletins issued by the distributive
associations. These associations all deal with each other, as far &s
possible, and some of them own shares in English cooperative societies.
Melbourne also has an association known as the “ Industrial E x
change,” registered under the friendly societies act. The member
ship fee is $1.22. Farmers may bring produce and working people
the products of their handiwork to the headquarters of the society,
where they are given certificates representing their value, receivable
for any other goods that may be in stock. In this way an exchange
is effected without the help of money, though the primary object of
the association is to secure a market for articles of home production.
In. this respect it is similar to the women’s exchanges common in
America. In the beginning of 1904 the society had 464 members,
an increase o f 163 during the preceding year. At irregular intervals
a paper is issued, called the Industrial Gazette. The exchange had
been in operation about 4 years when its premises were visited, in
August, 1903, and seemed to be doing a fair though not extensive
business in the manner contemplated by its founders.
W AGES, PRICES, AND OCCUPATIONS.
Broadly speaking, Australia is normally a land where the cost of
living is low and the price of labor high. But it is a country that has
been afflicted with severe industrial depressions, due either to natural
causes, like protracted droughts, or to overspeculation, and, it is
claimed, to vagaries of public finance and government. What is com
monly reported to have been the severest and most widely extended
drought during the century of settlement had just ended when the
material for the present report was gathered, millions of head of stock
had perished, employment in the back country had almost ceased for
a time, agriculture had suffered severely, and every avenue of produc
tion and exchange, with the possible exception of mining, had felt its
adverse effect in an increasing number of unemployed. Mining in
LABOR CONDITIONS IN
AUSTRALIA.
203
Australia, like agriculture in tlie United States, is always the recourse
of the industrious seeker for employment in a time of industrial dis
aster. But in spite of the drought the cost of living remained low in
the large cities of Australia, and union rates of wages were fairly
maintained, even where they were not protected by statute. The
8-hour day was uniformly observed in the usual trades. Evidence of
widely diffused comfort among the better class of workmen was every
where noticeable. There were numbers of idle men and boys upon
the streets in all the larger cities, the conditions in this respect
reminding one of those prevailing in northwestern American or east
Canada towns when the men come out of the woods and lumber camps
in the spring. While a considerable share of those out of work gave
evidence by their demeanor and personal untidiness of belonging to
the class of professional idlers, the bona fide unemployed appeared to
predominate. There was less profanity, less spitting upon the side
walks, and, as a rule, less objectionable behavior than would usually be
expected in an American city under similar conditions.
For a review of the earlier industrial history o f Australia the writer
is under obligations to the chapter on Industrial Progress in the Seven
Colonies of Australasia, by Mr. T. A. Coghlan, the government
statistician of New South Wales. Prior to the discovery of gold in
1851, Australia was a country almost exclusively devoted to pastoral
industry, and while real wages were low and their purchasing power
apparently no higher than at present, except for certain local products,
people probably suffered little from real destitution. In times of
stagnation sheep are said to have brought but 6d. (12 cents) a head at
forced sales, cattle realized only 7s. 6d. ($1.83) a head, and a good
horse could be bought for less than $15. Farm hands were paid from
10s. to 12s. ($2.13 to $2.92) a week; miners, in the South Australian
copper mines, 7s. ($1.70) a day. The highest paid mechanics received
from 5s. 6d. to 6s. ($1.33 to $1.46) a day, while plasterers, painters,
and blacksmiths were paid only 4s. (97 cents). These were the maxi
mum average wages paid in Australia, in the mining center of South
Australia, where there had occurred the first development of mineral
resources on the continent. In New South Wales wages usually ruled
about 20 per cent lower than those quoted. But in a Historical and
Statistical Account of New South Wrales, by L. D. Lang, we find that
a number of Scotch mechanics taken to Sydney by the author in
1831 readily found work at $9.74 a week, and were able to support
their families comfortably on half that sum. Immediately prior to
the gold discoveries the wages of skilled workmen in Australia appear
to have been declining.
In 1841, two years before the period covered by the table of wages
given on a following page, the pay of mechanics had ranged from
7s. 6d. to 8s. ($1.83 to $1.95) a day. Farm hands were receiving
204
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
£25 ($121.66) a year, with board and lodging, as against £18 ($87.60)
in 1850. While convict importations had ceased in the principal popu
lation centers, there was a constant stream of assisted immigration
flowing into the country, which supplied all the demands of the grow
ing pastoral industry. In the cities there was some distress, and
common laborers in towns were obliged to work for 65 and 70 cents
a day at times, and seldom received as much as $1.25. In 1848 the
number of manufacturing establishments in Australia and Tasmania
is given as 479. There were 224 grain and feed mills, supplying
the local market, and 51 breweries, 62 tanneries, 30 soap and candle
works, and 5 meat-preserving establishments occupied themselves with
the partial handling of ranch products. The other industries were
o f smaller importance, and included iron foundries, machine shops,
yards for the repair and rebuilding of boats, and 8 woolen mills. An
earlier whaling industry was at this time just vanishing from statis
tical importance in Australia.
With the gold discoveries and the series of rushes as each new field
was discovered, labor was drawn away from its accustomed channels,
and wages rose abnormally in almost every occupation. Provisions
also increased in price from 20 to 75 per cent. After considerable
disorganization and unevenness of wages for a period until the market
had adjusted itself to new conditions and the first excitement had sub
sided, the rate of pay for workers settled down to something like a
systematic basis. A rise of nearly 200 per cent had occurred during
the 5 years ending with 1855. The building trades were especially
stimulated, for house rents rose rapidly for a time and many people
were forced to live in tents—no considerable hardship in the mild
Australian climate. In 1856 there were 709 houses in Sydney occu
pied by families though still in the hands of the builders. While a
stimulus was given to agricultural industry, and the area under tillage
more than doubled in 8 years, farm labor was so scarce that for a short
time farmers were almost entirely dependent in some districts upon the
native blacks for harvesting their crops. After a momentary decline,
due also to a lack of labor, manufacturing rapidly increased; and,
following the reaction after the first crisis of the gold fever was over,
there was an influx of people into the pastoral industries, and occupa
tion and settlement were pushed farther into the interior of the conti
nent. This was a movement furthered by the building of railways,
which began during this decade.
Routine industrial development, however, did not come until after
1860, when the country had fairly settled down again to the idea of
working for a living. There was an active demand for land, so that
agrarian agitation became a prominent feature of politics, and resulted
in legislation intended to facilitate the settlement of unoccupied coun
try. A gradual decline took place in both wages and cost of living.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
205
During the subsequent decade Victoria and South Australia devoted
themselves largely to agricultural development, and New South Wales
to the extension of pastoral industry. In the first colony mentioned
one-fourth, and in the last less than one-thirtieth, of the lands newly
occupied were devoted to crops. While mining remained important, it
fell back to a relatively secondary position, and even in Victoria, meas
ured by value of product, was subordinate to agriculture and grazing.
But the field of mineral development was considerably widened, and
was carried into a wholly new part of the continent by the discoveries in
Queensland. Coal mining had meanwhile become an important indus
try in New South Wales, attaining a position which it holds to the pres
ent day. While the area under cultivation in Australia about doubled
during the 10 years ending with 1871, this growth was not regular,,
being interrupted by alternations of flood and drought in several por
tions of the colonies. During this period Melbourne established its.
prestige as the financial center of Australasia, and by its close was a
city of more than 200,000 inhabitants. While manufacturing had
developed to a considerable extent, and employed the labor of nearljr
50,000 people, most of the establishments in the four less populous
States were small, and the average number of hands in a factory was not
more than three or four. Melbourne had a relatively more extensive
development in lines of secondary production proper, while Sydney
and New South Wales, as a whole, were characterized by industries
devoted more largely to the partial treatment of raw materials—
b y ’such enterprises as sawmills and tanneries. During the next 20
years there was a gradually rising tide of prosperity in Australia,
marked by a well-proportioned development of all her industries,
though agriculture, considering her circumstances as a new country
with a small population and large tracts of unoccupied arable land,
lagged somewhat behind the rate of progress that might have been
expected. Wages continued to rise, and the last part of this period
was perhaps the golden age of labor in the colonies. This epoch o f
expansion closed with a disastrous reaction in 1893, and for a few years
the effects of the depression that followed weighed most heavily upon
the working classes. Wages fell much more rapidly than the prico
of commodities. After reaching the nadir during the years immedi
ately following the boom, conditions gradually began to improve, and
since 1901 the real wages of the workingmen have been about what
they were during the previous prosperous period. A degree of unem
ployment caused by the recent drought may be considered a tem
porarily depressing factor in labor conditions, but it is manifesting
itself in emigration to the Westralian gold fields, to South Africa, and
in a less degree to New Zealand and Canada, rather than in lower wages
and other attendant circumstances unfavorable to the well-being o f
the working classes.
12425— No. 56— 05----- 14
206
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
AVERAGE MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM WAGES IN AUSTRALIA, IN SPECIFIED YEARS, 1843
TO 1895.
1855.
O c c u p a tio n .
1843.
B l a c k s m i t h s ...........................
B o ile r m a k e r s .........................
B r i c k l a y e r s .............................
C a r p e n t e r s ...............................
P a i n t e r s ...................................
P la s t e r e r s .................................
S ton e m a s o n s .........................
U n s k ille d l a b o r e r s ...............
1850.
|
1860.
1871.
1880 to 1890.
1895.
M in i-{Maxi-1 M in i M a x i M in i M a x i M in i M a x i M in i M a x i
m u m ., m u m . m u m . m u m . m u m . m u m . m u m . m u m . m u m . m u m .
$1.22 $1.10 $3.41 $3.89 $2.56 $2.68 $1.58 $2.43 $2.31 $2.84 $2.03
(a )
(a )
(a)
3.41 3.89
2.31 2.88 2.03
(« )
(« )
(« )
1.22 1.10 4.38 6.08 2.56 2.92 1.46 2.43 2.19 2.76 1.83
1.22 1.10 2.92 3.65 2.56 2.80 1.58 2.43 2.07 2.68 1.80
(a) 3.16 3.41 (« )
2.15 2.43 1.61
(« )
(a )
3.41 3.89 2.57 2.80
2.43 2.74 1.87
«)
1.22 1.10
2.80 3.41
1.58 2.43 2.23 2.64 2.07
(« )
(a )
1.46
1.83
.97
1.46 1.95 1.46
1.34
(« )
(«
$
8
8
Ja)
$2.43
2.5 5
2 .3 5
2.1 7
1.95
2.15
2.72
1.46
« Not reported.
The maximum and minimum wages given in the above table are
average maximum and minimum wages, the variations being repre
sentative of different rates prevailing at the same time in different
colonies and cities, rather than a range of wages existing in a single
center. The locality of maximum wages has shifted at different
periods from one portion of the continent to another, and is highest
at present in the Western Australian gold fields. As a rule wages in
skilled occupations have been lower in South Australia than else
where on the mainland, though the rate for unskilled labor was as
high as in other colonies. For a time wages in the building trades
averaged higher in the northern than in the southern States, while in
the iron trade they were relatively higher in Melbourne. But with
federation, the improvement and cheapening of intercommunication,
and the attainment of a more uniform stage of development through
out the continent, the tendency is for wages and prices to keep on a
more even level in all parts of the Commonwealth.
The following table of average retail prices of commodities is com
piled from estimates published by Mr. T. A. Coghlan, in the work
already mentioned, and represents the result of a careful and exhaust
ive investigation of the subject, not only from official publications, but
also from private publications and other sources:
COMPARATIVE RETAIL PRICES OF STAPLE COMMODITIES, 1850 TO 1900.
Commodity.
Bacon..................................................... ...................lb..
Beef (fresh)........................................... ...................lb..
Bread.....................................................
Butter................................................... ...................lb ..
Cheese................................................... ...................lb..
Coffee..................................................... ...................lb..
Eggs........................................................
Oatmeal................................................ ...................lb..
Potatoes.................................................
R ice....................................................... ...................lb..
Soap.............................................. . —
Starch................................................... ...................lb..
Sugar..................................................... ................. .lb..
T e a ........................................................ ...................lb..
Tobacco (Colonial)............................. ................... lb..
1850.
1860.
1870.
1880.
$0.17
.04|
.09
.30
.14
.28
.32
.12
.97
.08
.11
.24
.07
.45
.63
$0.24
.08
.13
.37
.45
.37
.30
.12
1.83
.10
.14
.24
.11
.55
.55
$0.21
.07
.07
.30
.12
.28
.32
.08
1.22
.06
.08
.14
.08
.49
.30
$0.15
.07
.06
.20
.14
.34
.32
.06
1.03
.06
.06
.11
.08
.49
.49
1890.
$0.25
.08
.07
.24
.16
.49
.37
.06
1.46
.08
.07
.10
.07
.37
.97
1900.
$0.15
.07
.06
.22
.15
.37
.22
.04*
1.64
.04*
.06
.07
.04*
.33
.97
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
207
The table does not take into account improvements in the quality
of the articles quoted, such as sugar; and, of course, during the
past 50 years there has been a gradual change in the standard of
living and in the different relative proportions of commodities con
sumed. These factors count in a final estimate of the cost of living,
especially in a country where a large fraction of the population is
always just emerging from pioneer-conditions of life, and where, in pro
portion to the total num berof inhabitants, there has been a very large
urban development. Taking as a basic price level or index the pre
vailing prices of beef, beer, bread, mutton, potatoes, rice, sugar, tea,
and tobacco for the five years ending with 1900, the average price
level of the same commodities for corresponding 5-year periods in the
previous decades is as follows: For period ending 1890,113 per cent;
period ending 1880, 117.5 per cent; period ending 1870, 116.6 per
cent; period ending 1860, 178.5 per cent, and period ending 1850,
103.6 per cent. Prices are therefore lower at present than at any time
recorded in the figures during the past 50 years. Presumably the
cost of living is now lower than at any time during that period,
though the cost of maintaining a family in accordance with the* pre
vailing standard of living may have risen considerably during the past
half centurjr.
Reviewing now representative groups of occupations at the present
time, it must be premised that a large part of the information with
regard to wages contained in this report is derived from official docu
ments, and is therefore of a secondary character. The same is true,
though to a less extent, of statements with regard to the general con
ditions of labor. A visit of slightly under 8 months, to a country
with a territorial extent nearly equal to that of the United States and
with distances requiring a greater time to travel, with many distinct
political and industrial centers, and presenting great diversity of
climate, natural resources, development, and predominant occupations,
permits only a cursory direct investigation of conditions of employ
ment, and one chiefly valuable for the interpretation rather than for
the collection of original evidence.
According to the returns of the census of 1901 the total population
of the Commonwealth wTas 3,773,248, of whom 1,642,677 were engaged
in gainful occupations. Thus 43.64 per cent of the population were
breadwinners, as compared with 50.3 per cent in the United States.
The proportion engaged in gainful occupations in the two countries
classified by sexes, was as follows: Males—Australia, 65.25; United
States, 80 per cent; females—Australia, 19.88; United States, 18.08
per cent. Classified by groups of occupations and by States, the
employments of the people of Australia were as follows.
208
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
PERSONS ENGAGED IN GAINFUL OCCUPATIONS IN EACH STATE AND IN THE COMMON
WEALTH, BY GROUPS, 1901.
New
South
Wales.
Group.
Vic
toria.
41,384
Professional..........................................
Domestic service.................................. 72,818
Commerce.............................................. 77,664
43,867
Transportation.....................................
Industrial.............................................. 146,688
Primary proiuction............................. 172,854
9,524
Indefinite..............................................
35,224
66,815
79,048
31/516
146,233
165,147
10,066
Total............................. .............. 564,799
534,049
i
Queensland- S tralia.
i
13,608 iI 8,857
24,192 | 17,981
20,165
26,474
12,850
18,086
41,233
51,489
82,503
49,161
3,049
1,816
218,168
j
153,296
West
ern
Tas Common
Aus mania. wealth.
tralia.
7,067
11,303
11,803
10,992
21,810
35,572
324
4,997
7,937
7,497
4,848
18,750
27,899
1,566
98,871
73,494
I l l ,137
201,040
222,651
122,150
426,203
533,136
26,345
1,642,677
i
1
Under industrial occupations many unskilled and unclassified labor
ers are included, besides building mechanics and a considerable num
ber of other workers outside the class of factory operatives. The
latter numbered 66,230 in New South Wales and 66,529 in Victoria
at the time of the last census. There is nearly one miner for every 3
farmers and graziers in Australia.
In 1902 the total products of agriculture, including poultry, dairy,
and bee farming, were valued at £20,207,000 ($98,337,366). The value
of the products of pastoral industries was £21,813,000 ($106,152,965),
closety followed by mining, with an output valued at £21,732,000
($105,756,778). Forestry and fisheries added £2,937,000 ($14,293,911)
to the country’s wealth, and the value of manufactured articles pro
duced in the Commonwealth was £32,118,000 ($156,302,247).
The number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits in the
Commonwealth in 1901 was 276,095, of whom 24,703 were females.
Exclusive of the State of Queensland, whose returns do not give this
information, the number of wage-earners was 87,396, nearly all of
whom were males. Therefore 37 per cent of those engaged in agri
cultural pursuits are hired servants, a proportion that would proba
bly be somewhat increased if the figures from Queensland, with its
sugar plantations, were included. The wages of agricultural labor
are reported to be as follows in 5 of the States. No compilation of
average wages for the Commonwealth has been made. These figures
are compared with the average wages in the United States as given in
the bulletin, u Wages of Farm Labor in the United States,” recently
published by the Agricultural Department.
WAGES OF FARM HANDS AND HARVEST HANDS IN 5 AUSTRALIAN STATES AND IN THE
UNITED STATES.
State.
Farm
Harvest
hands per hands per
month with month with
board.
board.
Queensland.................................................................................................................
New South Wales.......................................................................................................
Victoria........................................................................................................................
South Australia............................................ .............................................................
Western Australia.....................................................................................................
$18.46
16.90
19.13
14.56
21.10
$18.46
United States..............................................................................................................
16.40
34.84
29.78
26.89
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
209
The pastoral industries give employment to a relatively larger num
ber of wage-earners and casual hands than do grain farming and
other forms of agriculture pursued in Australia. One of the two
shearers’ unions is reported to have 21,000 men on its rolls, including
all classes of ranch employees, and it is doubtful if this organization
has more than one-half, or at most two-thirds, of those engaged in
these classes of occupations among its members. The shearer proper
is not regularly employed, and he works upon a piecework basis,
making very high earnings occasionally for a short period. In as far
as his occupation is intermittent and he foregathers in camps, he more
closely resembles the lumbermen of Michigan and Minnesota than any
other class of labor in America; but even here the resemblance is not
a very far-reaching one. Station hands do not board with their
employers or associate with them in such a way as to allow much
community of sentiment to grow up between them. In this respect
there appears to be a difference between the relations of employers
and employees in this class of occupations in Australia and America.
A skillful shearer may earn as much as $12 a day for a time. At least
one hears of the expert who sheared 250 sheep a day during a season’s
clip at some particular station; but an average* tally of 10, with a
maximum of 60, a day is about what most stations show. The union
rate, which is fairly well maintained, varies somewhat in different
States. In New South Wales the price is $1.87 a hundred sheep for
hand shearing. Unskilled shed hands get about $5.50 a week, and
wool pickers, and rollers, and penners up, from $6 to $7 a week.
These wages are exclusive of rations and lodging—the former ample
but plain, and the latter often of the rudest description. About the
same rates prevail in Queensland.
The pastoral areas of these two States are lands of magnificent dis
tances, involving long journeys to reach a place where work is to be
found. Union wages, as fixed by agreement, rule about the same in
South Australia, except that the shearing price is $4.38 where rations
are given. In the more closely settled parts of Victoria, however,
the price is but $3.65 when rations are furnished, and ordinary
unskilled laborers get about $4.87 for shed work. The prevailing rate
for unmarried shepherds or hut keepers is $121.75 a year in South
Australia, and ranges from $91.40 to $250 per annum in Victoria.
This is in addition to rations. Near the larger towns in Victoria,
upon small ranches, not more than $3 or $3.50 a hundred is paid for
shearing. The men in the back blocks complain of the high price
charged for provisions where rations are not given, and that a extras ”
of one sort and another reduce their profits from a clip. In some
cases men report that their average earnings during a season do not
exceed a dollar a day clear—in addition to rations (not board) and
lodging.
210
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Mining is an industry in Australia that presents the most varied
conditions, from those characterizing the prospecting stage of gold
exploration and placer mining to the old settled routine of coal getting
in the deep workings of the coast collieries. Victoria shows a steady
decrease of from 1,000 to 2,000 men annually in the number employed
in gold mining. O f the 25,208 thus engaged in the year 1903, 14,150
were employed in quartz and 11,058 in alluvial workings. The only
other mining enterprises of appreciable importance in that State
were the collieries, with a total employment of 1,303 men and an
output of 225,164 tons, in 1902. This is a growing industry in the
State mentioned. The weekly wages reported as prevailing in the
different districts and occupations, by the secretary of mines, are as
follows: Mine managers, £3 to £12 ($14.60 to $58.40); mining engi
neers, £3 to £7 ($14.60 to $34.07); locomotive engineers, £2 5s to £3
($10.95 to $14.60); pitmen, £2 10s to £3 ($12.17 to $14.60); black
smiths, £2 5s to £3 ($10.95 to $14.60); carpenters, £2 5s to £3 ($10.95
to $14.60); foremen of shift, £2 10s to £3 ($12.17 to $14.60); miners,
£2 to £2 10s ($9.73 to $12.17); surface men, £1 10s to £2 5s ($7.30
to $10.95); boys, 15s to £ 1 10s ($3.65 to $7.30).
Tributing or taking contracts upon payments based on the clean-up
of gold is common in the Victorian gold mines, and is opposed by most
of the miners.
About one-third of the underground men in the
Ballarat district work under this form of contract. Testimony as to
average earnings under this system varies. In a number of instances
men earn double wages. The writer interviewed a number of miners,
however, who had found themselves out of pocket for living expenses
at the end of their contracts. An act was passed in 1897 to regulate
tributing, but was inoperative, as men contracted out from under its
provisions.
Queensland has about 13,000 of her less than 17,000 mining employees
engaged in gold workings. While her coal mines produce over half a
million tons annually, this branch of the industry uses the labor of
about the same number of men as in Victoria. The number working
in 1901 was reported as 1,223. This probably indicates relatively
shallower mines, and a product more easily won. The average wreekly
wages of mine managers are given as £6 ($29.20); of locomotive and
stationary engineers as £3 15s ($18.25); and of miners as £2 15s
($12.38). These averages include the workers in the gold mines of
northern Queensland, well into the Tropics, where the general condi
tions of life and the cost of living are unfavorable to the workingmen.
South Australia’s mineral industries are confined largely to copper
mining, the product in 1901 being about 6,700 tons, valued at about
$2,340,000. In 1903 the number of miners in the Moonta field was
1,876. With the exception of one mine, the men work under a
contract system. The average pay of underground men, including
LABOB CONDITIONS IN AUSTKALIA.
211
foremen, is $9.25 a week. The average wage of surface workers,
including artisans, is $1.58 a day. The French mine at Yelta pays a
daily wage, amounting to $9.71 a week, to underground men. There
is a system of tributing, or payment by mineral results in the ore
taken out, against which the miners struck for 26 weeks on one occa
sion, but without success. As long as a certain quantity of ore is
broken out each day the tributers are paid a subsistence wage of
$1.87 a week, with additional pay according to the amount of metal
found in the ore at clean-up. Contractors, who are more numerous,
work by the cubic yard or linear fathom of drive, usually on 13-week
contracts. They are paid a subsistence wage, with a settlement upon
the completion of the contract, which includes timbering.
The mineral production of New South Wales in 1902 was valued at
nearly $28,000,000, over 10 per cent of which was coal. In gold pro
duction this State ranks behind both Western Australia and Victoria;
but there were 10,610 men engaged in gold mining, although the prod
uct per miner was only about $315 in 1902. There was a decrease of
8,738 in the number o f gold miners employed in the three years ending
with 1902. Silver and lead mining returned in 1902 over twice the
value of output of gold in New South Wales, but employed only about
one-half the number of men. Wages in this industry range from $2.65
a day for engineers and skilled mechanics, down to $2 for toolmen
and porters, and $1.82 for truckers. The highest paid underground
men are the timbermen, who average about $2.15 a day. Regular
miners receive $2.19; bracemen and platmen, $2.07. In copper min
ing 1,699 were employed in 1902, and in tin mining 1,288. In min
eral getting, exclusive of coal and petroleum shale, 20,581 men
were employed in the State. The coal output of New South Wales
was 5,912,011 tons in 1902, or over 86 per cent of that of the entire Com
monwealth, and the number of men employed was 13,111. Therefore
the average amount of coal raised per man employed, including sur
face hands, was somewhat over 150 tons per annum. In the United
States, including lignite and shallow workings, the amount is 536 tons
per man per annum, the highest average of any large coal-producing
country. The value of coal raised per man employed in New South
Wales is nearly 85 per cent greater than the amount of gold returned
per miner. The Newcastle district is an old mining center, and the
workers in the collieries were organized as early as 1872. The drought
helped coal mining in New South Wales, because ships bringing cargo
to Australia returned with coal as ballast; but this has been followed
by a sharp depression in the industry in 1904. For 15 years relations
of employers and employees in the 40 mines of this district have been
governed by agreements or collective bargains, not without an occa
sional rupture, however; but recently awards of the arbitration court
have taken their place. Pony trucks are used, and miners generally
212
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
hew and fill, though in some pits there are the three classes of employees,
viz, miners, fillers, and wheelers. If a man sends out refuse, fines are
imposed. These formerly went to the miners’ accident fund, but since
that has been taken over by the government they have been turned into
the local funds of the unions to pay branch expenses and the salary of
the check weigher. There is a fixed deduction for dirt, an agreed
amount being allowed free, and &ny amount over that charged for
after screening. Some companies pay for fine coal separately, but
the men prefer gross payment. The arbitration awards give prefer
ence of retention to the oldest hands when a reduction is made in the
force employed. There was considerable discrepancy in the statements
as to actual earnings of miners. One company stated that its men
worked 8-hour shifts, from surface to surface, or about 7 i hours at the
face, the men entering the mine at 6 a. m. and leaving at 2 p. m. The
pay sheets of this mine were inspected by the writer. On one tally the
lowest earnings of any member of a gang were $2.04 for a shift, and
the highest, $5.61, less the cost of powder and fuse. On another
sheet, 17 men averaged $3.45 a shift, subject to the same deductions.
These figures were seen in the summer of 1903. The following year
figures were obtained from the Pacific Colliery, in the Teralba dis
trict. An average was taken of 18,229 shifts of 8 hours; the average
product per man per shift was 5.76 tons, and the net earnings of the
miners, after deducting for powder and fuse, were $3.41 a shift. Since
1877 the selling rate of coal in the Newcastle district has varied from
a maximum of $3.40 a ton up to June, 1880, to a minimum of $1.70
a ton in 1881 and from 1895 to the end of 1898. The highest hewing
rate paid miners was $1.22 a ton up to June, 1880. It then fell to 91
cents a ton, and dropped to 71 cents between 1896 and 1898. The
recent fall in prices has depressed wages below the rates just given,
which are those prevailing to the end of 1903. Under the award,
miners in the western district of New South Wales were receiving 53
cents a ton for hewing in June, 1904. In a small colliery, not under
the award, the average net earnings of miners, according to repre
sentative pay sheets, varied from $2.80 to $2.82 a day of 8 hours.
At day wages laborers are paid from $1.58 to $1.70 a day, screenmen
and boys from 80 cents to $1.72 a day, wheelers the same as laborers,
banksmen $1.46 to $1.95 a day, and shiftmen $2.19 to $2.44 a day.
The arbitration court has shown a disposition to favor sliding-scale
rates for hewing, based upon the market price for coal. In one award
the price is fixed at 61 cents a ton for best screened and 43£ cents for
shovel-filled coal, with one cent a ton additional for every inch under
5 feet that the seam is thick, when coal sells for an average price of
$2.19 a ton. The rate decreases or increases 2 cents and 1^ cents for
the two grades of coal named, respectively, for every 4 cents in the
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
213
first 24 cents rise or fall from the selling price standard, and for every
6 cents of rise or fall thereafter. But a minimum hewing rate of 49
and 34 cents, respectively, for the two grades of coal is set, below
which the pay shall not fall irrespective of the selling price of the
product. The court declined to grant a uniform 8 hours. The aver
age daily earnings of miners in the Pennsylvania anthracite fields,
according to testimony presented before the recent strike commission,
were between $2.40 and $2.50 a day, with a minimum of $2.38 in some
collieries and a maximum of $2.75 in others.
Western Australia is the principal gold-mining State of the Com
monwealth. In 1903 the amount of gold won was valued at nearly
$44,000,000, and formed 47.84 per cent of the total output of Australia
and New Zealand combined. Twenty thousand seven hundred and
sixteen men were engaged in gold mining in the State that year, of
whom 17,329 were in reef or lode mines and the remainder in alluvial
workings. There wrere 890 men engaged in winning other minerals, of
whom 402 were employed in coal mining. Conditions of empk^ment
in the gold fields have been sufficiently described in connection with
the arbitration court awards governing this industry in Western
Australia.
Of the 426,203 industrial workers in Australia probably about
one-sixth are engaged in building trades. O f 7,376 persons thus
occupied in Queensland, 4,203 were carpenters and 706 stone masons.
But of 98,737 habitations in that State, including tents, in 1901, only
2,548 were reported as brick or stone. In South Australia, on the
other hand, of the 75,854 habitations, including tents, the same year,
58,615 were of masonry and 2,664 of concrete. While these two States
represent the two extremes of prevailing construction, there is more
brick and stonework in proportion to the total number of houses in
Australia than in America. This follows partty from the large concen
tration of population in capital cities, partly from lack of a local tim
ber well suited for domestic construction, and partly, perhaps, on
account of traditions brought from the mother country, which there
has never been inducement to change. In the old files of the Sydney
newspapers, at a time when all the countiy back of that city was for
ested, there are advertisements of shiploads of timber from America
just arriving, and this trade still continues. A rather peculiar feature
of the Western Australian building statistics for 1901 is that over 18,000
of the habitations of that State, or nearly 37 per cent, were tents.
There are nearly 10,000 tents occupied as homes in Queensland and
nearly 9,000 in New South Wales. Victoria has one masonry house
for every two and a fraction wooden houses, while New South Wales
has two and a fraction masonry houses for every three of frame
construction. The proportion of bricklayers and stone masons
214
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
engaged in the building trades is, therefore, normally larger than
in the United States outside of urban centers. Little “ modern”
construction is to be observed in city buildings, and the use of steel
frames has not been introduced, except in a few isolated instances by
American insurance firms. In fact, in the erection of the only build
ing of this character in Melbourne, one of very moderate dimen
sions, 18 lives are said to have been lost. According to an occupant
o f this building, “ ten lives were lost through inexperience in han
dling the machinery and girders.” However, the public buildings and
larger business houses of the Australian cities are substantial and fairly
imposing structures, illustrating traditional principles of construction
and following English schools of design. The brickwork, therefore,
means more from a structural standpoint than it does in the United
States, and the rapidity with which a building can be inclosed securely
is much less than in America. Brick walls having an outside expo
sure are usually surfaced with cement. A rather friable but not inor
nate sandstone is used in public buildings in Brisbane and S}^dne3T.
Melbourne is not so fortunate in quarry material, her only local stone
being a durable but depressing bluestone, the use of which is largely
confined to foundation and first-story work. Granite is imported from
Tasmania.
Machine joinery is not nearly as perfect and accurately finished as
the better class of work in the United States, and more hand work is
therefore required upon the more pretentious buildings. Neither are
labor-saving devices used to the same extent, either for heavy work
and hoisting, or for such purposes as floor planing and finishing.
Upon the whole, therefore, the labor cost of construction is probably
higher in Australia than in America, though wages are about one-half
what they are in San Francisco. Possibly for this reason, and possi
bly, too, for want of easily worked and suitable domestic timbers,
interior woodwork is often of inferior quality and impresses one as
out of keeping with the fine exteriors of many of the larger buildings.
All kinds of plumbing are to be found in Australia, the poorest being
of a character to warrant one in assuming that this feature of con
struction is not made the subject of very rigid inspection in all the
cities, while the best is equal to really high-grade work anywhere.
In general sanitation and cleanliness many of the Australian cities
equal, if they do not excel, places of the same population in the United
States.
The 8-hour day is uniformly observed in the building trades. The
pay of mechanics, according to information received directly from
employers and workingmen in most instances, averaged as follows in
1904.
215
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
DAILY WAGES OF MECHANICS IN CERTAIN CITIES OF AUSTRALIA, 1904.
Occupation.
Bricklayers..........
Builders’ laborers
Carpenters..........
Painters................
Plasterers............
Plumbers..............
Stone masons.......
a 1902.
Brisbane.
Syd
ney.
$2.68-$2.92
1.46- 1.70
2.43
2.19
2.68
62.19
2.92
$2.68
1.82
2.32
2.19
2.43
2.68
2.68
Melbourne.
Public.
Private.
$2.43 $2.43-$2.68
1.95
2.19 2.19- 2.43
1.95 1.46- 1.95
2.19
2.43 2.43- 2.68
2.26
Ade
laide.
Perth and
KalFreman
goorlie.
tle. («)
$2.43 $2.92-$3.16
1.70
2.43 !
2.19
2.80
1.95
2.19 2.92- 3.16
!
2.43
2.43 2.92- 3.16
$3.89
2.43
3.65
&Not organized and no standard rate.
It would appear to be exceptional, therefore, for a building mechanic
to receive $3 a day while the average pay in these occupations is nearer
$2.50 a day, or about one-half union rates in San Francisco at the pres
ent writing, for the same number of hours. A good bricklayer at
Brisbane or Perth is said to lay between 600 and 700 brick a day upon
an average taken over a whole business building. A builder in Syd
ney said his men averaged 800 brick in heav}^ walls. Upon the new
supreme court building at Perth the men averaged under 600 a day
for 3,000,000 brick for a private contractor. The actual dimensions
of brick were not reported the same by different parties, but gener
ally were given as 9 by
by 3 inches. There is probably less inter
ruption o f labor in the building trades for climatic reasons than in the
cities of the Eastern States in America.
A larger proportion of the factoiy operatives in Australia and New
Zealand are females than in the United States. The proportion in
1901 was 21.8 per cent of females in New Zealand, 20.5 per cent in
Australia, and in 1900 the proportion was 19.1 per cent in the United
States. These percentages do not afford an absolute basis for com
parison, however, as they apply to wage-earners only in the United
States, and in Australia to all persons employed. The number of
females employed as relatives assisting in smaller establishments might
change these percentages somewhat if they were included in the
American figures, though the difference would not be great on account
o f the larger size of factories in America. The same sort of reserva
tion applies with even greater force to figures showing the relative
employment of children. Such figures have not been compiled for the
Commonwealth; but in New South Wales the number of children under
15 years of age employed in manufacturing industries was 1.6 per cent
of the total number of employees in 1901, while in the United States the
proportion of children under 16 years of age was, in 1900, 3.2 per
cent of the total number of employees. In Massachusetts, where the
employment of minors is decreasing, the percentage of the total num
ber of factory employees under 21 years of age in 80 industries was
13.1 per cent in 1900, while in 1903 22.1 per cent of the factory
216
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
employees in Queensland were under 18 years of age, and in
1902 20.1 per cent of the employees reported by the factory
inspector in New South Wales were under 18 years of age. In South
Australia 8.7 per cent of the factory operatives were reported to be
under 16 years of age in 1901. Although the statistical bases for these
figures are not uniform enough for very accurate comparisons, when
supported by other facts, such as the larger percentage of women
reported as engaged in gainful occupations, they seem to indicate
that the lower earnings reported in Australia may be due to some
extent to a relatively larger employment of women and children in the
factories of those countries.
The treatment of raw materials that are the product of pastoral pur
suits engaged in 1901 the labor of 6,271 persons in Australia, of whom all
but 17 are males.
These industries include tanneries and wool-scour
ing establishments, which employ 5,510 of the hands enumerated, and
the relatively minor industries of refining tallow and of manufactur
ing artificial manures, glue, and oil products. The average pay of
the 43 tanners employed in South Australia, including boys over 16,
is reported as $6.67 a week. In New South Wales tanners earned upon
an average $10 a week at daily pay, and as high as $12.17 at piecework.
The best-paid hands in the wool-scouring sheds, the sorters and pressers,
earned from $9.87 to $12.17. Foremen averaged about $15 a week.
The highest paid employee listed in this industry in New South Wales
is a “ chrome expert,” who received $24.33 a week. The average
wages of the 138 tanners reported in Queensland are given as $1.22 a
day. The tanners in Victoria are under a determination of the wage
board governing their trade. One apprentice or improver is allowed
for every 3 men, and wages for this class of labor rise from a minimum
of $1.46 a week the first year to $7.30 a week during the sixth year
of service. Boys from 13 to 17 years of age are allowed to be employed
as strainers at wages ranging from $1.46 to $4.26 a week. Laborers
are paid $8.27 a week. Journeymen’s wages range from $9.73 a
week for scudders to $11.68 a week for shavers and operators of
band-splitting machines. The writer was present when a deputation
of employers in this industry waited upon the state minister of labor
to petition that parliament exempt them from board jurisdiction.
They stated that the standard of wages set by the board in their trade,
and the limitation of apprentices, had checked the progress of the in
dustry. One employer said his output had fallen from 1,050 to 650
hides a day under the operation of the law, and another testified that
he had lessened his force by 20 men in consequence of the terms of
the determination. The force of the testimony was not such as to cause
the minister to give the deputation any encouragement that they
would be relieved from the restrictions of which they complained.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
217
The average wages of the 590 adult males employed in tanning in
Victoria in 1901 were $10.02 a week, and of the 845 tannery employees
of all ages $8.58 a week.
Industries connected with food and drink employed 29,432 males
and 3,704 females in the Commonwealth in 1901. Sugar mills
employed 3,782, all of whom were males. The ruling prices of labor
in this industry have been given in a previous section of this report.
Jam making, fruit canning, pickling, and vinegar making, consid
ered together, employ 3,778 persons, of whom 1,309 are females.
Fruit canning is relatively of less importance in Australia than jam
making. More women and girls are employed in this group than in
any other of the food and drink industries, confectionery and biscuit
making following in the order named, each with only about half as
many female operatives. Over half of those employed in this group
are in Victoria, where wages are regulated by a board. The hours,
of work are 48 a week, and wages are, for males and females under 16
years of age, $2.19 a week; for females between 16 ,and 18, $2.68,
and over 18, $3.41 a week; for boys between 16 and 18, $2.92, and
between 18 and 21, $4.14 a week; and for all males over 21 the mini
mum wage is $7.30 weekly. The wages of the 133 adult males actu
ally employed in this occupation in Victoria averaged $8.27 a week, and
of the 132 adult females reported, $3.51 a week. Tasmania has a large
number engaged in this industry in proportion to the number of fac
tory workers in that State, 575 being reported at the time of the last
census. New South Wales is th$ only State except Victoria that
exceeds this number, with 749 operatives. The highest wages
reported in this State were of two fillers, who averaged at piece
work $13.99 a week. Ten foremen averaged $13 a week; boilers
averaged $6.77, and assistants and bo}7s ranged from about that sum
down to $1.95 a week.
Breweries employ 3,625 hands in the Commonwealth, of whom 9 are
women, and grated water factories employ almost as many more, the
exact number in 1901 being 3,415, of whom 161 were women. Vic
toria leads again in this industry, with New South Wales a close
second, both States employing over a thousand hands in each of the
two lines of manufacture mentioned. In the former State a board
regulates wages, which range from $3.65 and $4.87 weekly for labelers
and wirers, to a minimum wage of $10.71 for journeymen brewers,
for a 48-hour week. In New South Wales the average wages paid
in breweries range from $2.92 for boy assistants in the brewing
houses and cooper shops, to $11.09 for brewing hands. One maltster
foreman receives $2.4.33 a week, which is the highest wage reported
in the industry. South Australia has 126 adult males employed in
brewing, whose average weekly wages are $9.31.
218
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Butter and cheese making employ 3,589 hands, the center of this
industry being again Victoria, with 1,546 employed, against New
South Wales with 1,012, and Queensland with 703. In the first State
the average wages for butter makers are $8.68 a week for adult males.
In New South Wales the average weekly wages of 43 male butter
makers is given as $9.06. N o’ sufficient data are at hand as to aver
age wages in other States, except that the South Australian statistical
register reports “ good” cheese makers as receiving $3.65 a week
with board and lodging.
Meat preserving and refrigerating give employment to over 3,000
hands, Queensland leading in this industry, with New South Wales
second. In the former State slaughtermen receive an average wage
of $10.96 weekty, with board and lodging. The highest wage
reported was for one chilling and freezing hand, who received $14.60
a week. The wages of 6 retail butchers’ employees in South Australia
averaged $9 a week.
In the districts of Victoria under the supervision of the factory
inspector 163 operatives are reported in meat-preserving works, whose
average wage is given as $9.90 a week. Flour mills in the Common
wealth, supplying the local market principally, employ 2,540 hands.
New South Wales shows the largest employment in this industry, with
Victoria second and South Australia third. In the first of these States
the average pay of millers is $12.37 a week; wheat samplers get
$12.17, and the highest wages paid in the industry are to 4 foremen of
millers, whose average salaries are $24.33 a week. The 263 males
employed in this occupation in the factory districts of Victoria receive
an average wage of $9.55 a week. In the same State there is a mini
mum wage of $12.17 for a 48-hour week for bakers, and the average
wage of the 485 adult males employed in this occupation is $12.59 a
week. The average wages of 314 operatives receiving journeymen’s
pay in New South Wales are $12.63 a week, but in that State the hours
are not yet limited. South Australian reports record 263 adult male
bread bakers, whose average weekly wage is $7.36.
The clothing and textile trades present a greater variation of condi
tions of employment than do those in the class of occupations just
reported. There is still considerable sweating in some of the cities,
according to the reports of inspectors and others in close touch with
the working people. According to the secretary of the workingwomen’s trade union of Adelaide, women in that city were being paid
in July, 1903, 6 and 8 cents a pair for making up boys’ and men’s trou
sers. As a typical instance of how workingwomen lived when depend
ent entirely upon their own exertions in these trades for support, she
mentioned in a public interview one girl who made underclothing, who
paid 97 cents a week for her room, bought a pound of treacle (molas
ses) a week, a quarter of a pound of tea, and two or three loaves of
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
219
bread. She then had only a few pence left for extras, and once a
fortnight might be able to afford a few chips for a fire. The average
w'ages of 923 tailoresses in this State are $8.57 a week; 64 of these are
under 16 years of age. Male tailors, of whom there are 183 reported,
average $9.02 a week. As in New Zealand, the lowering of compensa
tion in certain trades arises partly from the competition of well-to-do
women, who take in work at very low rates in order to earn pocket
money. It is claimed that the factory regulations and minimum wage
determinations in Victoria have alleviated sweating and other harmful
outworking in the Melbourne clothing trades, where these evils for
merly were very aggravated. Ten years ago a system of subletting
and undercontracting was in vogue in the clothing trades of that city,
by which women workers were beaten down to wages ranging from
$1.83 to $3.12 a week for from 70 to 84 hours5 work. There is now a
minimum wage of $4.87 for tailoresses and $10.95 for tailors, with a
sliding scale for improvers and apprentices, according to their length
of service. The average weekly wages of 503 males employed at
time rates in clothing making is given in the inspector’s report for
1902 as $13.02, and of 5,155 females employed under similar condi
tions as $5.58 a week. The New South Wales tailoresses are under
an award of the arbitration court fixing a minimum wage of $4.87 a
week, with $6.08 for coat machinists. This is for 48 hours’ work.
The average wages of 474 males employed in ready-made clothing
manufacture in Sydney are given as $9.39 a week, and of 755 males
in custom work as $9.81 a week. The average pay of 983 females
over 18 years of age working on ready-made clothing was $4.28 a
week, and 843 on custom-made clothing, $5.50. In St. Louis, a city
slightly larger than Melbourne or Sydney, in garment making the fol
lowing wages were paid: To 360 male employees, working an average
of 9.47 hours a day, $10.19 a week; to 1,026 females, working 9.34
hours a day, $5.31 a week.
In 1902 Victoria had 5,101 persons employed in the manufacture of
boots and shoes, New South Wales had 4,098, Queensland, 1,045, South
Australia, 1,368, Western Australia, 284, and Tasmania, 298. The
annual value of the product is not obtainable, but is probably between
$9,000,000 and $10,000,000. Besides 772,654 pairs of slippers, 8,916,293
pairs of boots and shoes were manufactured during the year specified,
or more than two pairs per annum for every inhabitant of the Common
wealth. Nevertheless there are considerable importations, and the trade
is one in which American manufacturers have a large interest. In V ic
toria wages are regulated by a board, which has fixed the following
minimum rates for a 48-hour week: Females, $4.87; male assistant stuff
cutters, lining cutters, and miscellaneous hands, $9.73; and for princi
pal hands, clickers, cutters, machine operators, and hand clpsers, $10.95
a week. The average wages reported by the factory inspector of that
220
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
State for 1901 were, for 1,592 adult males employed, $10.85 per week,
and for 542 adult females $5.27 a week. In New South Wales the high
est wages reported were for 12 foremen, clickers, who earned on an
average $14.82 a week; while 165 clickers averaged $10.67 a week, 21
lasters averaged $10.14 a week, and from this wage the pay ran down
to that of boys employed at $1.34 a week. The average weekly earn
ings of 2,424 males of all ages engaged in these trades was $7.97 a week,
and of 1,069 females of all ages, $3.20 a week. These wages compare
unfavorably with those reported for the same industry in Massachu
setts, where less than 13 per cent of all employees of all ages and sexes
receive less than $5 a week. In Brisbane the wages of adult males
range from $7.30 to $10.38 a week. There are very few females
employed in this trade in Queensland. In South Australia 86 males
of all ages in this industry earned $7.35 and 30 females $3.51 a week.
In the woolen mills of New South Wales female spinners are
reported to average but $2.31 and male (head) spinners $8.64 a week.
Male weavers receive $4.91 a week, and females earn on piecework an
average of $4.83 weekly. The average earnings of 54 male employees
in this industry, including dyers, engineers, and foremen, are given as
$6.61 a wreek for employees of all ages, and the average wages of all
females employed are given as $3.32 a week. A comparison of weavei\s’ wages in Ballarat, Victoria, and in England shows that in weav
ing worsteds, for instance, the Wellington (England) weaver works 2
looms 56 hours a week for $2.92, while the Ballarat weaver works 48
hours a week at one loom Only for $8.03. The relative difference in
the price for weaving tweeds is equally great.
Victorian manufacturers stated that while employees did not openly
oppose the introduction of machinery into these industries, it was
impossible, especially in the boot trade, to get a full turn-out from
new appliances introduced in the factories. One manufacturer, speak
ing from observation in both countries, said the output of a machine
in Victoria was from 30 to 40 per cent less than the output of the
same machine in the United States. An experienced manager said
that he usually found it profitable, when introducing new machin
ery, to engage a new and inexperienced hand to run it, paying wages
proportionate to the amount of work got out of the machine.
Employers admitted in some instances that the smaller machine prod
uct was due partly to the fact that no incentive, in the way of higher
wages, was placed before workmen to induce them to increase their
product when mechanical improvements were introduced in a factory;
but that there was a tendency to consider that all the advantage of
new machinery shouldjgo to the proprietor alone. The clothing and
textile trades together, including boots and shoes, employ the labor of
15,582 males and 29,049 females in the Commonwealth.
The various manufactories concerned in the production of building
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
221
materials afford employment in the aggregate to 23,611 persons in*
Australia, of whom all but 77 are males. It has been remarked that
brick and masonry construction predominate in some States, and that
buildings of this character form a much larger proportion of the total
number than is usual in new countries, with an extensive and sparsely
settled frontier. But the timber industry employs the larger number
of hands, as far as the manufacturing of materials alone is concerned,,
or 17,178 persons, as compared with 6,484 engaged in clay, cementy
and stone working. The statistics include with the clay working*
occupations makers of earthenware and pottery, not an important
industry, however, in Australia. The sawmills cut about half a billion
feet of timber per annum, and the brickmakers turn out in the neigh
borhood of 300,000,000 brick.
In Victoria the wages in urban sawmills and sash factories are reg
ulated by a board, which has established for a 48-hour week a scale o f
wages ranging from $10.22 and $10.95 for men running mortising*
machines and shingle saws to $13.87 for band sawyers who sharpen and
braze their own saws. The highest minimum wage of foremen, who
are classified according to the size of their gangs, is placed at $16.06 a
week. These rates are for urban workmen and are probably higher
than those paid in country mills. The average wage of 1,149 adult
males employed in this work in Victoria was $12.15 a week. In>
New South Wales the average wages of 76 sawyers were $10.75 a weeky
and of 143 laborers, $8.09 a week. There were 561 males of all ages
employed in mill occupations, earning upon an average $8.52 a week.
The average pay of general hands in Queensland is reported as $9.65a week and of machine hands $11.54 a week.
Under the determination of the board regulating the wages of brickmakers in Victoria, the lower paid hands must receive a minimum wage
of 18 cents an hour for 48 hours a week, or more exactly $8.76 a week.
The highest minimum established is $15.57 a week for burners employed
on patent kilns for 64 hours’ work. First-class engineers, employed
57 hours a week, receive about $14.45. The average weekly earnings
of 345 adult males employed in the urban districts of Victoria were$11.05. The average earnings of 916 male employees of all ages, of
whom but 51 were under 18 years of age, in the factory inspection dis
tricts of New South Wales are given as $11.44 a week, the highest
wages, except for supervision, being those of engineers, 21 of whom
averaged $17.54 a week, and of burners, 62 of whom are reported to
have received $14.60 a week. The number of hours worked is not
stated. An average of the weekly earnings of 90 laborers employed
in the industry is given as $9.53. There were 133 adult male hands
in this industry in South Australia whose average wages were $8.3T
a week.
12425— No. 56— 05----------15
222
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Engineering and metal-working trades give employment to 37,257
persons, of whom but 69 are females. General iron working employs
nearly half of these, about one-fifth are in the various government
railway shops, and one-sixth are engaged in smelting works. Accord
ing to distribution in the different States, New South Wales leads with
nearly 14,000, and Victoria comes second with 9,656 in these trades.
South Australia has over 6,000 employed, and Queensland, Western
Australia, and Tasmania follow in the order mentioned. The leader
ship of New South Wales over Victoria is due almost entirely to the
smelting industry, which employs oyer 3,000 men in the former State,
as against 59 in the latter. South Australia also has 2,443 persons in
the smelting industry, which explains her high rank in proportion
to population among the 6 States. Victoria almost monopolizes the
manufacture of agricultural implements with 1,057 employees of the
1,451 engaged in this business in the Commonwealth. One harvester
manufacturer at Ballarat employs 550 men, values his output at $30,000
a week, and ships extensively to the Argentine and Algiers. This
industry is also thriving in South Australia. In Victoria the average
weekly wages of iron molders were, for 678 adult males, $11.58, and
for 960 males of all ages, $9.21 a week.
In the general engineering trades in Victoria wages are reported to
be for 2,793 adult males $11.03, and for 3,914 males of all ages $8.78.
In New South Wales the average wages of 962 males of all ages,
under the heading “ iron works, foundi*ies, and boilermaking,” are
given as $10.02, while under the head “ engineering” 1,534 males of
all ages are reported to receive an average wage of $8.84. The highest
wages reported for some half dozen foremen, including a “ specialist,”
are $19.34 to $19.47 a week. Brass molders and finishers earn $10.71
and $11.76 a week, respectively; 43 iron molders average $13.83, and
225 fitters and turners $11.03 a week. Pattern makers average $14.80.
Car builders earn about $13.34 weekly, the highest wage in the shop
being paid to a foreman painter, who receives $24.33 a week. There
is no material variation from these rates in the figures reported from
Queensland. Statistics of railway shop mechanics5wages are given in
connection with transportation. Shipbuilding and repairing employ
2,367 workmen in the Commonwealth, nearly three-fourths of whom
are in New South Wales. The general range of wages conforms
roughly with that prevailing in the engineering trades just reviewed.
The manufacture of furniture and bedding employs 4,426 men and
420 women in Australia, and the industry is centered mainly in Victo
ria and New South Wales. The Chinese competition in this class of
occupations has already been mentioned. In New South Wales the
average wages of males employed in the industry is given at $8.25, and
of females, $4.12 a week. As stated in a previous connection, the
determination of the wages board in Victoria places the minimum
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
223
wage of females at $4.87 a week, and of males at $11.19 a week in
that State. This is for adult employees. The average wages paid
541 adult male European cabinetmakers are $12.31, and those paid to
435 Chinese, $11.88 a week. The accuracy of the latter figures is
questioned by the authorities who present them.
Printing trades employ 13,558 males and 2,924 females in the Com
monwealth, Victoria leading and New South Wales standing second in
these occupations. The wage board determination in the former
State gives compositors a minimum of $12.65 for 48 hours a week,
proof readers a dollar a week more, and linotype operators $17.03 for
a 42-hour week. Adult male feeders get $8.76, and female feeders
over 18 years of age $4.87 for a 48-hour week. Lithographers and
stereotypers are given the same rate as compositors. The average
pay of 1,144 adult male printers in the metropolitan district of Victo
ria was $12.42, and of the 263 reported outside of that district, $10.67.
But few females are employed in this occupation in Victoria. The
average weekly pay of 2,068 males of all ages employed in these trades
in New South Wales was $9.35 a week, as compared with $9.04 a week
for 1,782 males of all ages empk>3Ted in the metropolitan district of
Victoria. In Brisbane compositors were being paid $14.60 a week on
the labor paper, $13.63 in the government printing office, and $12.17
on the daily papers. Linot3rpe men receive 6 i cents a thousand
u ens,” and hand compositors 24.3 cents a thousand u ens” for day
and 26 cents for night work. No u fa t” is allowed.
Vehicle building, saddlery, and harness making are fairly important
industries in Australia, and employ a total of 7,855 men and 117
women. Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland lead in these
occupations in the order named. Wages range about the same as in
the furniture trades, the minimum set in the two occupations of saddleiy and cabinetmaking being identical in Victoria. The average
wages of adult male saddlers in that State are given at $12.27 a
week, and the average wages of all males of all ages in that occupation
are reported to be $8.37, as compared with $7.89 a week in New South
Wales. Adult male saddlers and harness makers in Brisbane are
reported to earn $10.16 a week, and in Adelaide, $8.11 a week. The
wages of coach builders, C3rcle repairers, nave and spoke makers, etc.,
average within a few cents of the same as those of saddlers.
Miscellaneous factory production gives employment to between
13,000 and 14,000 people in Australia, but none of these branches is
important singty. The tobacco trades employ 1,632 males and 1,347
females, and are relatively far more important than an37 other indus
try under this head. The average pay of 624 males employed in New
South Wales is $7.60 a week, and of 390 females, $3.73. Empk>37ers
in this industry in Victoria complain of the operation of the minimum
wage board, stating that it has affected the trade adversety, and that
224
BULLETIN OF THE BUKEAU OF LABOB.
the determination has been so framed as to discourage or prevent the
use of machinery. In one determination, covering special factory
brands, for instance, there is a regulation made by the board that,
“ The lowest prices for covering machine-made cigars (except6Bonan
zas’), shall be two-thirds of the piecework price for making right
through.” The factory in question removed its machinery to Ade
laide in order to defeat the provisions of the board. It is claimed that
in this trade it is necessary practically to get a new determination
whenever it is proposed to introduce a new brand or quality of goods,
and that as the boards contain members and employees of rival firms,
this prejudices the chance of an enterprising manufacturer of getting
a taking line of goods upon the market before his competitors. The
piecework price established by the board ranges from a maximum of
$1.46 a hundred for hand work, down to 60 cents a hundred for cheap
quality cigars made in molds. For sorting and packing prices range
from 60 cents to $1.33 a thousand, according to quality of goods and
sizes of boxes. Cigars are used less in Australia than in America,
pipes and cigarettes replacing them to a great extent. The average
earnings of all male employees in the industry in Victoria were $8.96
a week, and of females, $6.43. In South Australia the average wages
of males were $9.81, and of females of all ages, $2.80 a week.
The following rates of wages have been tabulated from data con
tained in the chapter upon industrial wages in the New South Wales
statistical registers for the years in question and from information
contained in the report of the chief inspector of factories of Queens
land. The wage statistics of other States, while in some instances
almost as complete, are not classified in a manner to allow a comparative
showing with those here given, or are only approximate averages,
worked down to even shillings or sixpences a week, and showing very
little variation from year to year. The table shows the number of
employees whose wages were averaged a nd the average weekly rate
of pay for three successive years.
A V E R A G E W A G E S IN V A R IO U S O C C U P A T IO N S IN B R IS B A N E , Q U E E N S L A N D , A N D S Y D N E Y ,
N E W SO U T H W A L E S , 1900 T O 1902.
B risb a n e , Q u e e n sla n d .
O c c u p a tio n .
1900.
1901.
S y d n e y , N e w S o u th W ales.
1902.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1
Num-*
N um
N um
N um
N um
N um
W ages
W a g es
W ages
b er. W a g e s b e r . W a g e s b e r.
ber.
b e r.
b e r. W a g e s
MALES.
B a k e r s ...........................
B l a c k s m i t h s ..............
B o i l e r m a k e r s ..........
B o o k b i n d e r s ...............
B o o tm a k e r s ..............
B o o t c l i c k e r s .............
B o o t fin is h e r s .............
B r i c k l a y e r s .................
C a b in e t m a k e r s .........
117 $11.48
67 11.48
53 13.49
58 12.21
150
8.72
84
9.98
91
9.50
80
16.04
114 $11.53
111 11.43
74 13.42
62 12.33
166
8.60
81
9.69
76
9.23
14.60
89
9.67
131 $11.86
121 11.23
46 13.89
59 12.25
134
8.88
62
9.67
63
9.06
13.87
73
9.96
297 $12.48
313 12.89
234 14.46
72 12.04
8.88
305
8.33
196
192
8.70
58 13.97
100 11.61
272 $12.30
350 12.38
224 14.34
84 11.13
267
9.12
215
9.06
193
8.76
18 15.37
68 11.16
315
310
189
62
315
165
257
31
79
$12.62
12.94
14.75
12.11
9.14
10.67
9.10
15.09
11.61
225
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA,
A V E R A G E W A G E S IN V A R IO U S O C C U P A T IO N S IN B R IS B A N E , Q U E E N S L A N D , A N D S Y D N E Y ,
N E W SO U T H W A L E S , 1900 TO 1902— C o n c lu d e d .
B risb a n e , Q u e e n s la n d .
O c c u p a tio n .
1900.
S y d n e y , N e w S o u th W a le s.
1902.
1901.
1900.
1901.
1902.
N um
N um
N um
N um
N um
N um W a g es
W a g es
W ages
W a g es | be r. W ages ber. W ages
ber.
be r.
b er.
be r.
m a l e s — c o n c lu d e d .
C a r p e n t e r s and
j o i n e r s .......................
C o m p o s it o r s ..............
C o o p e r s .........................
E le c t r o t y p e r s ............
L a b o r e r s .......................
M old ers, i r o n .............
P ainters, g e n e r a l___
P ainters, c o a c h .........
P ain ters, s i g n .............
P a ttern m a k e r s ........
P la s te re r s .....................
P l u m b e r s .....................
P ressm en , p r i n t i n g ..
S a w y e r s .........................
S h ip w r ig h ts .................
S ton e m a s o n s .............
T a ilo r in g :
C utters, c u s t o m .
C utters, fa c t o r y .
C oa t h a n d s, c u s
to m .....................
Pressers, fa c t o r y .
T a n n e rs a n d c u r r i
ers ...............................
T in s m ith s .....................
W a tc h m a k e r s .............
191 113.26
188 13.18
48 11.85
4 15.40
776
7.87
40 13.39
54 11.26
31 10.31
527
161 $12.57
546 $13.04
509 $13.18
431
233 12.55
396 11.38
428 11.38
72
114 11.56
24 12.11
95 11.78
35
34 13.44
7 14.72
28 13.32
433
7.97 1,601
9.77 2,317
8.99 2,245
206
45 12.84
191 11.96
217 13.09
129
45 11.25
133 10.34
123 10.34
63
78 11.19
77 10.58
25 10.30
26
42 11.16
13.14
63 11.62
69
9 13.95
59 14.69
56 15.50
3 13.14
5
14.60
144
12.94
i? 6
13.87
170 13.31
202
8.94
45 12.11
209
246
9.67
24 11.54
109
91 10.28
94
9.58
136 16.28
130
88 16.67
64 12.33
58
18 12.06
80 12.06
141 $ 12 . 69
232 13.20
34 12.41
9 14.42
8.02
578
45 13.22
53 10.91
32 10.40
14
13.34
15
13.16
14.60
47
15
12.23
12.31
53
16
12.29
12.84
17
12.07
21
12.57
26
25
20.13
14.12
24
27
19.95
14.13
'25
30
21.09
13.71
25
88
22.87
13.69
39
76
20.74
13.63
38
63
21.98
13.48
39
32
11.52
8.49
34
29
11.98
8.52
27
35
12.29
8.23
*116
88
11.80
10.58
123
101
11.44
9.85
97
93
11.56
10.54
75
81
a 37
10.21
9.78
12.68
81
82
33
9.73
9.67
12.90
86
70
11
9.55
9.25
14.70
59
129
19
9.73
10.62
11,19
135
145
23
9.67
9.79
10.77
125
168
26
10.12
10.03
12.43
48
57
232
3.95
5.17
4.25
60
62
303
3.89
4.93
4.14
64
59
310
3.83
5.15
4.14
44
93
303
2.86
6.69
4.08
57
143
379
2.98
5.17
3.77
37
98
318
2.4 1
5.82
4.06
122
4.97
151
4.66
97
4.75
359
3.95
371
4.32
329
4.46
120
•24
41
3.99
3.79
3.89
154
28
3.83
3.83
247
138
33
3.10
2.74
3.41
73
86
70
4.54
3.81
3.81
88
4.52
97
5.29
111
4.32
52
5.17
FEMALES.
B o o k b in d e r s ..............
C oatm a k ers, c u s t o m .
D r e s s m a k e r s ...............
M a c h in e o p e ra to rs:
B oots a n d s h o e s .
F a c to r y c lo t h
i n g .......................
S h ir t s .....................
U n d e r c l o t h i n g ..
T rou ser h a n d s, cu s
to m .............................
$13.70
11.80
12.20
13.79
9.25
12.94
10.86
10.79
11.80
15.21
12.70
13.36
11.66
10.33
16.71
12.53
98
16
19
3.89
3.71
3.65
140
18
25
3.97
3.81
3.79
97
4.42
84
4.52
i
aI n c lu d in g
i
je w e le rs .
The transportation industry engages the labor of over 109,000
persons, a large proportion of whom are employed in the railway and
marine service. In the coasting trade the average rate of pay of sea
men in New South Wales is given as $24.33 a month on sailing vessels
and $31.63 on steamers. Chief engineers receive $116.80 a month,
first officers on steamers $73, and second officers $58.40 a month.
On sailing vessels first officers are stated to receive $38.93 and second
officers $27.98 a month. Firemen are paid between $40 and $45.
Stewards receive all the way from $30 to $60, according to their rank
and to the class of the vessel upon which they are employed. Australia
is still in the throes of adjusting her coastal trade laws to the new
demands and possibilities of federation. Though there is no disposi
tion, partly out of recognition of the rights of the Empire, to follow
the precedent of the United States, and to confine coasting trade to her
226
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR
own vessels, the competition of foreign and British liners and freight
vessels, paying low rates of wages and carrying goods and passengers
between Australian ports in connection with their through voyages, is
severely felt. This matter is at present the cause of lively discussion
in certain labor circles especially affected, but it is naturally of only
temporary importance, in view of projected and probable legislation,
and hardly deserves more than passing reference in this report for
that reason.
The railway employees constitute a strong body of government
servants, and in most States are thoroughly organized, both as benefit
and as trade organizations. Their relation to the public in the dual
position of employees and citizens is the occasion of some embar
rassment, especially where a dispute arises over conditions of labor.
Indeed, the problem of reconciling these rights and interests is a
serious one in case of all public emploj'ees in countries like the
Australian States, where a democratic form of government pre
vails and the body of public servants is very large in proportion
to the population. Jn every State visited civil servants were found
to be well organized and using pressure, both as labor unions and
politically, to maintain wages during the period of retrenchment
necessitated by the drought, or to better their conditions of employ
ment. In Victoria it is stated that they were able to turn elections by
political influence and thus to increase very largely the salary expendi
ture of the State. In any case, a situation was created that led to the
passage of laws partially disfranchising them, by giving them sep
arate and limited representation in parliament. The regulations
enforced in case of railway employees in that State forbade their
unions from belonging to a political organization. The relation of
the Melbourne Trades Hall to politics has already been described in
another part of this report. In the spring of 1903 certain organiza
tions of railway servants resolved to unite with that body. Some
branches of the society, especially those including less skilled employ
ees, had been members of the Hall for a considerable period without
objection from the government. The railway authorities, however,
interfered when this new move was planned, objecting especially to
the action of the locomotive engineers, whose affiliation with the
Trades Hall, it was claimed, might involve them in some general strike
and thus paralyze the public traffic. The engineers had a number of
previous grievances relating to the retrenchment policy pursued by
the government. (It should be remarked bj' way of parenthesis
that the railways of Victoria have been running at a heavy loss, which
has to be made up out of general revenues.) So the engineers’ society,
against the advice of the Trades Hall officials, who considered a strike
over this question inopportune at the time, decided to fight the issue.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
227
The minister of railways had given an order for the suspension
of the executive officers of that union if the body did not withdraw
from the Hall, and in reply to this the strike was declared on May 8,
1903. The men were overconfident, and by their action antagonized
the public. The}r made the fatal mistake of deserting their engines
wherever they chanced to be at the strike hour, stranding train loads
of passengers and goods in remote localities, and endangering life and
traffic. While organized labor supported an action of which there
seems to have been far from unanimous approval in their own ranks,
the hostility of the mass of the public appears to have been very
bitter. A t least this is an inference from the sentiment displayed by
people of all classes three months later, when the writer first visited
the State. This inference is further confirmed by the fact that the
government was able to bring in, without serious opposition, a bill
providing that any person leaving the state railway service without
fourteen days’ previous notice, without proving good and sufficient rea
son for so doing, should be considered to have struck. The penalty for
this offense, or for any violation of subsequent provisions of the act for
which there were not severer penalties, was a fine not to exceed $487,
or imprisonment not to exceed 12 months, or both. AH pensions,
increases of pay, and other rights acquired by the present strikers
under existing regulations were declared forfeited.
Any person
advising or soliciting men to strike was liable to arrest without a war
rant, and without bail. Any person collecting or receiving strike
funds was guilty of an offense against the act, as was any person pub
lishing any news or article intended to encourage the strike. The
issue of publications containing such articles was subject to confisca
tion. Any meeting of more than 6 persons, to discuss or encourage
the strike, whether in a building or in the open air, was an unlawful
meeting, and any person attending was liable to fine and imprison
ment. Police had full right of entry, without a warrant, to any
building where such a meeting was suspected to be held. Such a bill,
brought forward by a responsible government in a democratic parlia
ment, suggests a state of public opinion extremely adverse to the
strikers, and as a matter of fact the latter were utterly beaten, and
the position of the government was probably strengthened politically
by reason of the conflict.
The wages and hours of employees upon the New South Wales
government railways are representative of those prevailing through
out the eastern States of Australia. In Western Australia the rates of
pay are from 10 to 20 per cent higher, and in the gold fields trackmen
are allowed 24 cents a day, and other employees $L70 a week, special
allowance.
228
AVERAGE
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
D A IL Y
RATES
O F W AG ES ON T H E
R A IL W A Y S .
O c c u p a tio n .
F ir e m e n ............................................................................................
C l e a n e r s ...........................................................................................
T u r n e r s .............................................................................................
M a c h in is t s .......................................................................................
P a tte r n m a k e r s .............................................................................
G as fitte r s .......................- ................................................................
G as m a k e r s ................................................................. ...................
C arria g e a n d w a g o n b u ild e r s .................................................
C arria g e a n d w a g o n e x a m in e r s .............................................
C a r p e n t e r s ...............................................
P a in te r s .............................................................................................
S ta tio n a ry e n g in e d r iv e r s .........................................................
F u e l m e n ...........................................................................................
O ilers
, ................................................................. ...................
P u m p e r s ..... .....................................................................................
G u a rd s .............................................................................................
A ssista n t g u a rd s - ............ ................................................... . . . .
P o rte rs
...................................................................................
J u n io r p o r t e r s ................................................ - ..............................
S i g n a l m e n .......................................................................................
S h u n t e r s ...........................................................................................
G a n g e r s ..................................................................... - ......................
F e ttle r s a n d l a b o r e r s ............................................................. ..
S ta tio n m a s t e r s ........................................... .................................
O fficers i n c h a r g e .........................................................................
______________ - _____ . . . . . . . . ____ ____
N ig h t o ffice rs
p ifirk s
.....................................................................................
J u n io r c le r k s ...................................................................................
O p e r a t o r s .........................................................................................
N E W SO U TH
N u m ber,
582
694
589
355
112
75
172
125
39
86
124
7
5
29
19
173
91
10
79
40
154
19
47
406
47
980
547
212
232
431
1,998
144
196
204
173
133
29
W ALES
GOVERNM ENT
M in im u m
w a g e s.
M a x im u m
w a g e s.
$2.68
1.95
.79
1.95
1.95
1.46
1.95
1.62
2.47
1.70
1.46
2.43
2.60
1.95
1.95
1.95
1.83
2.11
1.70
1.70
1.58
1.58
1.70
2.07
1.95
1.46
.61
1.70
1.70
2.07
1.58
ft 929.98
6 632.65
e.583.98
<?608.31
c 146.00
<*608.31
S3.65
2.43
2.43
3.89
3.08
2.43
3.41
2.07
3.41
3.89
2.07
2.68
2.96
3.04
2.84
2.92
3.16
2.56
2.68
2.56
2.31
1.95
2.43
2.92
2.07
2.80
1.22
2.80
2.68
2.92
2.07
ft 1,946.60
6900.30
<*973.30
c 2,189.93
c 5 8 3 .98
c l , 021.97
A v era g e
w a g e s.
S3.21
2.21
1 .3 6
2 .5 4
2 .5 2
2 .0 9
2.4 9
1.74
2 .5 2
2 .6 2
1 .7 3
2.54
2.7 2
2.41
2 .2 8
2.43
2.25
2 .3 8
2 .1 7
1.98
1.70
1.76
2.0 3
2.44
2.05
1 .6 5
.9 5
2.24
1.99
2.19
1.7 5
61 ,036.32
6720.71
e 662.11
<*898.90
c 377.26
<*813.05
« I n c lu d in g s p r in g m a k e r s a n d O liv e r w h e e l a n d s t e a m -h a m m e r sm ith s,
ft P e r a n n u m , a lso h o u se .
cP er annum .
In South Australia engine drivers, firemen, guards, and maintenance
men work 8 hours for a day’s pay (i. e., 48 hours per week), and
the porters at a number of stations do the same, the remainder work
ing 9 i hours for a day’s pay.
In Victoria enginemen and firemen work 9 hours, and guards and
maintenance men 8 hours, for a day’s pay. As regards porters the 8hour system applies at the metropolitan stations, but at the suburban
and principal country stations 9 hours, and at the small country sta
tions 10 hours is worked for a day’s pay.
In New South Wales the locomotive-running men work 108 hours
per fortnight. Traffic porters generally work 9 hours, but a number
work longer, for a day’s pay. Eight hours constitutes a full day’s
work for the maintenance men.
In Queensland the locomotive and traffic men work 9 hours for a
day’s pay, the 8-hour system applying to the maintenance men.
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
229
COST OF LIVIN G AND COM PARATIVE CONDITION OF
LABOR, AU STR ALIA AND UNITED STATES.
Comparing Australian labor conditions in general with those of the
United States and Canada, certain broad differences at once present
themselves. One of these is the greater uniformity of compensation
prevailing in the former country. Not only are wages more even
throughout the extent of the Commonwealth, but they vary less as
between different workers in the same trade or as between workers
in different trades in the same place. Consequently no such high
wages are to be found in Australia as in the leading American
cities. In the skilled occupations, and in case of factory operatives,
both nominal and real wages are lower than in America in cities of
equal relative importance and population. Nowhere are there build
ing mechanics receiving $5 and $6 a day, as in the larger towns of the
United States in the case of organized trades, and nowhere in Aus
tralia are there mechanics doing $5 and $6 worth of work in an 8-hour
day. An instance came to the attention of the writer in Australia
where the cost of laying 461,413 brick in an electric power house and
car shed was $4,098.08, or $9.31 per thousand. If this were a piece
work rate, a good New York bricklayer, in the same class of con
struction, would earn about $16.75 in a 9-hour day. In Sydney it
was noticed that bricklayers often, if not usually, worked with their
pipes in their mouths. In other words, partly, doubtless, for climatic
reasons, a slower rate of work is maintained in Australia than in
America.
All that was said of New Zealand workmen in this connection might
be repeated with some modification of those in Australia. There is
less premium put upon exceptional competency, there is more of the
lock step in the way men work, and there is more of the class spirit
among workmen than in the United States. The potent forces and
incentives of an environment favorable to industrial evolution are to
some degree lacking. On the other hand, there are nowhere the
depressing and depraving surroundings of our worst city slums,
nowhere the same systematic and inveterate sweating that can be
found in certain trades in New York and Chicago, nowhere perhaps
as much industrial oppression as is reported in parts of our mining
regions. In proportion to the standards for skilled labor, the unskilled
laborer in Australia is paid more for his wrork than is his fellow in the
United States; and his absolute wages are higher in country districts
than they are in our Eastern and Southern States. In nearly every
instance, also, this common laborer is of the same race and language
as his employer; frequentty he is a native of Australia; while in
America the unskilled worker is usually a foreigner by birth, speak
ing a different tongue and accustomed to a different standard of living
230
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
than his employer and workmen of higher grade. The relatively
greater influence of the craftless classes has had much to do with
shaping the polic}^ of organized labor in Australasia. But in that
country there is a limited demand for labor, and one that fluctuates
violently with climatic and general economic changes. Australia is
remote from great employing markets. There is not the same chance
of continuity of employment as in America, and when work is lacking
thousands are sometimes obliged to desert their own country to seek
occupations abroad. This is what chances to be occurring at present,
and the population of some States in this almost virgin country is
either decreasing or is not increasing as rapidly as the excess of births
over deaths would imply. Laboring men oppose immigration, and
the development that would ensue in all probability upon an influx of
new population is a matter upon which they are not enlightened.
Probably this is because they still remember the contests of the past
to keep out convict labor, and later to abolish a system of assisted
immigration that was turned to the advantage principally of large
employers. There is therefore no competition of rival nationalities
in Australian workshops, and this great force in favor of industrial
progress is lacking. The tendency to governmentalism, inherited, it
may be, from the earlier systems of settlement, which brought assisted
colonists rather than a natural selection of individualists to many
Australian colonies, probably weakens individual enterprise and the
self-help spirit to some extent. Industrial establishments are largely
controlled by individual owners or collectively managed by their pro
prietors, and there is therefore less promotion of men from the ranks
to positions of control and trust than in the United States where com
bination and corporate control have put the administration of indus
trial capital so largely in the hands of promoted workmen. This fact
probably accounts in part for the presence of a greater class spirit,
which, apparently, at least, seems to exist in Australia, though it is
a spirit out of harmony with the general sentiment of the country.
Evidences are not lacking of an intelligent desire, on the part of
employers, inspired by considerations of purely business utility and
to a degree by more beneficent motives, to further the sense of com
mon interest between employers and employees. In one large iron
working establishment, where locomotives are constructed for a State
railway system, many permanent hands are shareholders in the com
pany. The Colonial Sugar Refining Company, one of the largest
industrial corporations of Australasia, maintains among its employees
a partially self-supporting provident fund, and also subsidizes a benefit
society at an aggregate annual expense of nearly $28,000; besides
which the company has given 66donations” of over $60,000 to the
provident fund within the last 12 years. A large mercantile firm in
Melbourne, with nearly 60 branch stores in Victoria, distributes a con
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
231
siderable sum annually in bonuses to its employees, based upon their
faithfulness and efficiency of sendee. Some of the large employers
are not wholly unsympathetic toward the political labor movement,
though this sentiment has been rather modified since the railway strike
in Victoria.
Upon the whole, however, there is a mutually distrustful attitude
on the part of employers and employees in Australia that is more evi
dent to a casual observer than the latent antagonism engendered by
the trade-union movement in America. In the latter country the
atmosphere is periodically cleared by sharp discharges and the tension
of opposing interests relieved; in the former there is a more uniform
but continuous sense of mutual irritation. This is natural, for the
political labor party attacks in principle the very existence of private
capital in industry, while the trade union organizations merely drive
the best possible bargains with their employers and frankly recognize
the present industrial system. The Australian employer sees no hope
o f satisfying his employees short of turning over his business to the
State, while the American employer is subject simply to a business
demand from his employees, not differing in principle from many
other demands made upon him in the conduct of his affairs. The dis
tinction is one between reconcilable and irreconcilable differences of
opinion and policy.
In factory occupations and in the building trades in the smaller
towns hours of labor are shorter in Australia than in America. The
8-hour day, as yet limited to certain trades and certain districts of
the United States, is all but universal in the Australasian countries.
The origin of the movement for shorter hours dates back to the time
of the gold excitement. There is a tablet in Auckland in honor of the
founder of the movement in New Zealand, and a monument in Mel
bourne to signalize the practical attainment of this labor ideal in V ic
toria. In the Trades Hall of Melbourne there is a framed programme
of the sports and games which formed part of the celebration of the
first anniversary of the organized campaign for 8 hours in Victoria,
dated April 21, 1857. Eight-hour organizations exist and an annual
8 hours’ festival is held in most Australian cities—a sort of workers’
May day in that countiy. A weekly half-holiday is required by law,
as already mentioned, in many establishments, and in some wage board
determinations and arbitration court awards overtime is allowed for
any work done on one particular afternoon of the week.
The relative cost of living in Australia and America has already
been indirectly referred to in connection with the retail prices of
commodities for a series of years previously given. First-class board
costs as much in Melbourne or Sydney as in New York or Boston,
from $10 to $15 a week, and clerks and salesmen and other moder
ately paid employees of mercantile establishments secure passable
282
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
accommodations for $5 and $7.50 a week. There is a 6-pence (12-cent)
meal given in cheap restaurants patronized by working people that is
said to correspond to the 15-cent meal in the United States. Occasion
ally one sees an 8-cent meal advertised in the poorer portions of Mel
bourne. The shilling (24-cent) lodging house is common. In the
suburbs of Melbourne small laborers’ cottages can be had for about
$7 a month, but the accommodations or surroundings are inferior to
those demanded usually by industrious laborers either in Australia or
America. From $10 to $15 a month would appear to be about what
the average Australian urban workman pays for rent. His fuel bill is
comparatively small. The many-storied tenement house, with its
conveniences and atrocities, is unknown. One really gets more
indoor comfort and conveniences, better baths and plumbing and
heating and cooking arrangements, in a $10 or $12.50 “ sanitary tene
ment” in Washington, or a model tenement flat renting for $16 in
New York, than the writer saw in any of the cheaper Australian cot
tages; but this is at the sacrifice of the bit of yard and garden that
often makes even the workingmen’s suburbs of an Australian city
attractive.
For the same quality most manufactured articles are slightly, though
not materially, dearer in Australia than in America. This applies to
furnishing goods and clothing. Foods are upon the whole fully as
cheap, if not cheaper, than in the United States, though the balance
is turned in favor of Australia by the lower price of fresh meats
alone. Australia is normally a wheat-exporting country, and in V ic
toria that grain has varied in price from 16 cents a bushel in 1894 to
$1.28 a bushel in 1897. In 1902 the average price was 70 cents. A
drought or hot winds at a critical period of the year may cause impor
tation of cereals and high prices, while in an abundant season prices
must be low enough to enable the commission merchant to pay for
the long ocean carriage and still sell in the English market. But
these variations do not seriously affect the price of bread, and it is in
this form that the wheat is purchased by urban workmen. The cost
of groceries, meats, and provisions does not appear to vary greatly
throughout the four eastern States of Australia, and the following
representative prices, taken at random from merchants in the four
capital cities, may be assumed as those normally ruling in the retail
market: Meats, by the pound—bacon, 13 to 19 cents; ham, 20 to 22
cents; mutton leg, 6 cents; mutton chops, 7 cents; veal ribs, 6 cents;
pork sausage, 20 cents; corned beef, 5 cents. Fresh vegetables—cab
bage, 4 and 6 cents a head; cauliflower, 6 cents a head; potatoes, 35
and 40 pounds for 25 cents. Flour, white, 65 cents for a 25-pound sack;
oatmeal, 30 and 35 cents for a 7-pound sack; “ Quaker Oats” and
“ Force,” 18 cents for a 2-pound package; bread, 12 and 14 cents for
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
233
a 4-pound loaf; Australian “ ITneeda” biscuits, 12 cents a package.
Canned goods—fruits, and jams, 18 cents for a 2-pound tin; tomatoes,
12 cents for a 2-pound tin; salmon, 15 and 18 cents for a 1-pound tin.
Dried fruits, etc., by the pound—apricots, 14 and 16 cents; peaches, 18.
cents; prunes, 16 cents; peas, 5 cents; white beans, 5 cents. Japan
rice, 5 cents; tea, 31 to 40 cents a pound; milk, 8 cents a quart; eggs,
25 to 33 cents a dozen; kerosene, by the 4-gallon can, 20 to 23 cents a
gallon.
In 1899 the female inspector of factories at Sydney reported that
where two workingwomen occupied a room together the cost of their
board and lodging was about $2.43 a week. An unfurnished room
cost $0.97, food $1.70, and clothing and extras $0.97 a week. This
was the cost of living for tailoresses who were earning on an average
$3.70 a week. Since that date the cost of living is said to have
increased in all parts of Australia except the goldfield districts. A
working harness maker in Sydney said: 44With my wife and 4 children
and a 4-room house my family expenses are 42 shillings ($10.22) a
week.” A union officer in the western coal fields said: 44My family
of 10 costs me $3.41 a week for groceries, about $3.89 for the baker,
and altogether, though I have no rent to pay, it costs me an even
$14.60 a week.” In the mining districts the men usually build shacks
or live in tents until they can build a little cottage costing $500 to
$1,000; so rent is seldom paid. The cost of maintaining a miner’s
family in the Newcastle colliery district was given by several parties
as about £2 ($9.73) a week. According to testimony received among
the longshoremen in Melbourne, the cost of maintaining a laborer’s
family in that city was about the same as in Newcastle. A 44decent
4 or 5 room cottage in a workingmen’s suburb rents for $11 or $12 a
month and often higher. In Ballarat, a gold-mining district, work
ingmen’s board and lodging costs from $3.89 to $4.38 a week. A
working miner said, “ I have never got along on less than $10.95 a
week for family expenses. That gives a decent living fora family of 4
or 5 persons.” The manager of a cooperative society in that city, who
had followed expenses in his own and workingmen’s families pretty
closely, had made an average containing the following items: Rent,
$1.70; bread, $0.49; meat, $0.97; groceries, $2.43; boots and shoes,
$0.73; clothing, $1.46. This was for a man, wife, and two children.
The estimates in South Australia did not vary materially from those
already given for other States. A miner said, “ It costs a miner with a
family not less than $9.73 to live comfortably, though some are forced
to do it for $7.50 or even $6.94 a week and what the children earn.”
A union secretary in Perth, after calculating out his general expenses,
said,46It costs me about $14.60 a week for family expenses. I pay
no rent. The least price for a decent cottage in the suburbs here is
234
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
$3.04 a week.” Single men pay $5.35 a week for board and lodging,
or $5.60 if their laundry is included. A workman out of employment
said, “ It costs me, with my wife and one child, $8.52 to squeeze
along. I pay 4 cents for 3 carrots, 18 cents a head for cauliflower, 2
cents a pound for potatoes, 28 cents a dozen for packed eggs, and 7
cents a pound for meat.” A workingman’s board and lodging in
Fremantle costs $4.87 a week. A family can live for $11.69 a week,
but it costs $14.60 to keep a family “ respectably.” In Kalgoorlie a
workingman’s table board costs $6.09 a week, and the estimated cost
of keeping a family, without rent, is about $17.03 a week. Many
miners have their families at the coast or in Victoria. An itemized
account of the expense of a common laborer, with a wife and one
child, without rent, totaled $10 a week.
The following statistical comparison of wages and cost of living in
Australia and in the United States is based, as far as cost of living is
concerned, upon data contained in Coghlan’s Statistical Account of
Australia and New Zealand for 1902-3, and upon those in the Sixteenth
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor upon Cost of Living
and Retail Prices of Food in the United States. The United States
report is based upon direct data gathered by agents of the Bureau of
Labor from 25,440 workingmen’s families in the principal industrial
centers of 33 States of the Union as to the details of family expendi
ture and income, the relative consumption of different commodities,
the nativity and size of families, home ownership, and similar items,
checked by an extensive investigation of the retail prices of commod
ities extending over 13 years, the final results of which have recently
been summarized. The wage statistics for Australia are taken from the
Statistical Register of New South Wales for the year 1902, since that
publication contains the results of the most exhaustive annual inves
tigation of wages made in the Commonwealth. The American figures
are selected from the special report upon wages and cost of living in
Bulletin No. 53 of the Bureau of Labor.
The first table gives the wages per hour in 57 occupations reported
under the same designation in the Statistical Register of New South
Wales arid the bulletin just mentioned. Ships’ carpenters and ship
wrights, bottle blowers and green-glass blowers are assumed to be the
same. 'Tanner is a designation of but one of 11 occupations of leather
making reported in the United States. The Australian figures are for
tanners and curriers. In order to obtain the hour rate in Australia the
weekly wages as reported in the Register have been divided uniformly
by 48, the average number of working hours a week. In a few occu
pations 47 hours may be worked, and in others, as in baking and flour
milling and country tanning, men work somewhat more than 48 hours,
so that this appears to be the nearest possible approximation, as hours
of work are not reported in the Australian statistics.
235
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
W A G E S P E R H O U R IN 57 O C C U P A T IO N S IN N E W S O U T H W A L E S A N D IN T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S .
I n d u s tr y a n d o c c u p a t io n .
A g r ic u lt u r a l im p le m e n t s :
B la c k s m it h s .............................
F itters .........................................
B r e a d b a k in g :
B a k e r s .........................................
B o o ts a n d sh oes:
H e e l t r im m e r s .........................
L a s te rs .........................................
B r ic k m a k in g :
M a c h in e m e n ...........................
L a b o r e r s .....................................
M o ld e r s .......................................
B u ild in g tra d es:
B r ic k la y e r s ...............................
C a r p e n te r s .................................
H o u s e p a in t e r s .........................
P la s t e r e r s ...................................
P l u m b e r s ...................................
S to n e m a s o n s ...................: . . .
C o n fe c t io n e r y :
D ip p ers ( f e m a l e ) .....................
C a rriage a n d w a g o n .m a k in g :
B l a c k s m i t h s .............................
B o d y m a k e r s .............................
P a i n t e r s .....................................
T r im m e r s ...................................
C lo th in g , fa c t o r y :
C utters, h a n d ...........................
C utters, m a c h i n e ...................
P res sers.......................................
M a c h in is ts ( m a l e ) .................
M a c h in is ts ( f e m a l e ) .............
C lo th in g , c u s to m :
C oat m a k e r s .............................
C u tte rs.........................................
P a n ts m a k e r s ( m a l e ) ...........
P a n ts m a k e r s ( f e m a l e ) ___
C oop era ge:
C o o p e r s .......................................
F lo u r m illin g :
M i l l e r s .........................................
P a c k e r s .......................................
F o u n d r ie s a n d m a c h in e sh o p s:
B l a c k s m i t h s .............................
B rass fin is h e r s .........................
M o ld e r s , b r a s s .........................
M o ld e rs, i r o n ...........................
P a tte r n m a k e r s .......................
F u r n itu r e :
C a b in e tm a k e r s .........................
U p h o ls t e r e r s .............................
G\ass:
B lo w e r s , g r e e n g l a s s .............
H a rn ess m a k in g :
H a rn ess m a k e r s .......................
L e a th e r :
T a n n e r s .......................................
L iq u o r s , m a lt:
B o t t le r s .......................................
C o o p e r s .......................................
P o tte r y :
D ip p e r s .......................................
P re s s e rs .......................................
P r in tin g a n d p u b lis h in g :
B o o k b i n d e r s .............................
C o m p o s it o r s .............................
L in o t y p e r s .................................
P r e s s m e n ...................................
S h ip b u ild in g :
B o ile r m a k e r s .........................
C a r p e n t e r s .................................
F itte r s .........................................
J o in e r s .........................................
T obacco:
P lu g m a k e r s .............................
C ig a r m a k e r s ...........................
W o o le n m ills :
W e a v e rs ( m a l e ) .......................
W e a v e rs ( f e m a l e ) ...................
A m ount
per hou r
h ig h e r in
U n ite d
States.
W ages p e r
h o u r in
N e w S ou th
W a les.
W ages p e r
h o u r in
U n ite d
States.
§0.2868
.2366
80.2364
.2453
80.0087
.2632
.2808
.0176
.2218
.2112
.3507
.2797
.1289
.0685
.2205
.1985
.2433
.1960
.1365
.2291
.3346
.2890
.2737
.3012
.3346
.3346
.5471
.3594
.3450
.5268
.4371
.4486
.2125
.0704
.0713
.2226
.1025
.1140
.0414
.0872
.0468
.2449
.2501
.2289
.2434
.0117
.0072
.0042
.0081
.2797
.2797
.2197
.2361
.0946
.3983
.2616
.1954
.2867
.0923
.1186
.2408
.4579
.1855
.1077
.3528
.5593
.3041
.1280
.2344
.2577
.1639
.2774
.2414
.2725
.2230
.2881
.3084
.2962
. 27C 8
.3016
.3036
.3225
.2404
.2285
.2426
.2955
• .2450
.2594
.6078
.1876
.2241
80.0502
.0245
.0620
.0142
.2332
.2429
.2247
.2353
.2505
A m ount
per hou r
h ig h e r in
N e w S o u th
W a le s .
.0506
.0181
.0243
.0023
.0161
.2091
.1463
.1639
.2552
.1967
.3058
.0328
.0506
.2332
.2078
.5297
.3781
.2965
.1703
.2522
.2459
.4360
.2429
.3125
.3162
.4328
.3172
.0603
.0703
.3261
.3042
. 3092
.3096
.2568
.3179
.2647
.2950
.0137
.2366
.2273
.1703
.2839
.0567
.1115
.1005
. 1849
.1565
.0734
.0560
.0628
.0032
.0743
.0693
.0445
.0146
.0658
236
BULLETIN OF THE BUKEAU OF LABOR.
In 43 of the 57 occupations reported the rate is higher in America,
and the average margin for these 43 occupations is $0.0786, while the
margin of larger pay for the 14 occupations in which a higher rate is
paid in Australia is only $0.0301. If an employer had in his service
one person in each occupation quoted in Australia and in the United
States, his pay roll would be $2.9585 an hour more in America than in
the Commonwealth. The only industry reported where wages are
uniformly higher in Australia than in America is brickmaking.
Moreover, in considering the earnings of industrial workers in the
two countries, it must be kept in mind that the American workman is
employed on an average one hour or over a day more than the Austra
lian in similar occupations except in the building trades; therefore
his relative earnings are 12i to 20 per cent higher than the table
indicates. In those trades that have an 8-hour day in the United
States wages are most markedly above the Australian rate. The dif
ference is also greatest in the most highly skilled occupations. If a
comparison of the wages of common laborers could be made, it is
possible that the rate of payment on a time basis would prove higher
in' Australia than in America.
Any comparison of the cost of living in Australia with that in the
United States must be defective because of insufficient data as to cost of
commodities in the former country and of the relative weight of different
commodities in determining total family expenditure. In the United
States the average income of 25,440 workingmen’s familes was found
to be $749.50 per annum, and the average family expenditure for all
purposes was $699.24, leaving an average annual surplus of $50.26.
Total average savings somewhat exceeded this, as payments upon
homes owned, including principal on mortgages, are reckoned part of
the current expenditure. Food constitutes the largest single item of
expenditure, forming 44.75 per cent of the total. A comparison of the
relative cost of articles of food for which verified prices can be given
is presented in the following table.
237
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
R E T A I L P R IC E S O F F O O D IN A U S T R A L I A A N D I N T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S .
A r t ic le .
B a c o n ................................................... .....................................l b . .
B e e f ( f r e s h ) ....................................... .....................................l b . .
B r e a d ................................................... ..................................... l b . .
B u t t e r ................................................. ..................................... l b . .
C h e e s e ................................................. .....................................l b . .
C o ffe e ................................................... ..................................... l b . .
C orn m e a l........................................... ..................................... l b . .
E g g s ..................................................... ....................................d o z . .
F lo u r ( w h e a t ) ................................. .....................................l b . .
O a t m e a l ............................................. .....................................l b . .
P o t a t o e s ............................................. ..................................... b u . .
R i c e ..................................................... .....................................l b . .
S u g a r ................................................... .....................................l b . .
T e a ____________________________________ ____________________ lh_ _
R e ta il
p r ic e i n
A u stra lia .
$0.2028
.1217
.0330
.2839
.2028
.3650
.3650
(a)
.0457
1.0950
.0507
.0507
.3041
R e ta il
p r ic e in
U n it e d
States.
$0.1457
.1470
.0545
.2644
.1634
.2445
.0230
.2194
a.0250
.9908
.0837
.0587
.5455
A m ount
h ig h e r in
U n ite d
States.
A m ount
h ig h e r in
A u s tr a lia .
$0.0571
$0.0253
.0215
.0195
.0394
.1205
.1456
(« )
.1042
.0330
.0080
.2414
a B y t h e t o n flo u r c o sts 1.63 c e n t s a p o u n d in A u stra lia , a n d b y t h e b a r r e l a b o u t 1.93 c e n ts in th e
U n ite d States.
Six of the commodities quoted are dearer in Australia and five are
dearer in the United States. But any figures such as these require a
multitude o f qualifications. The relative importance of different arti
cles varies in the two countries. In both of them fresh meat is the
most important single item. The average workingman’s family in
America consumes 349.7 pounds of fresh beef a year, and this costs
him 15.3 per cent of his total expenditure for food. Butter, cheese,
and milk, however, if taken together, are relatively more important
than fresh meat in his bill of fare. While fresh meat is cheaper in
Australia, dairy products cost less in America. Salt meats are cheaper
in the United States. Baker’s bread is relatively a much more impor
tant item in the expenditure of an Australian than of an American
workingman, because the housewife is the latter’s baker. Some work
ingmen in Australia estimated their baker’s bill as about equal to their
grocer’s bill. It is probably not far out of the way to say that an
average workingman’s family in that country consumes 15 to 19
2-pound loaves a week. The average American workingman’s family
consumes 2.43 such loaves, or less than 5 pounds of baker’s bread a
week. On the other hand his family uses over 13 pounds of flour and
meal weekly. Coffee is the staple drink of the workingman in Amer
ica, and tea of the workingman in Australia. The former’s family
consumes 4.6 pounds of coffee for every pound of tea. In both coun
tries the more usual drink is the cheaper. Vegetables are probably
cheaper and more extensively used in America than in Australia,
though we have the price of potatoes only for purposes of comparison.
No positive conclusion can be arrived at, therefore, as to the relative
cost of a family’s food in the two countries, but the indication is that,
allowing for the different proportions of articles used, the difference
in cost is not material either way.
12425— No. 56— 05---------- 16
238
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The following percentage expenditures are based on estimates for
all persons in Australia, by Coghlan, and for 2,567 workingmen’s
families only in the United States:
P E R C E N T O F E X P E N D I T U R E F O R E A C H O F T H E P R I N C I P A L IT E M S E N T E R IN G I N T O
COST O F L I V IN G IN A U S T R A L I A A N D IN T H E U N IT E D S T A T E S .
P e r c e n t o f t o ta l e x
p e n d itu r e in —
It e m .
A u s tr a lia .
F o o d ......................................................................................................................................................
C l o t h i n g ..............................................................................................................................................
P a y m e n ts o n h o m e ........................................................................................................................
F u r n it u r e a n d u t e n s ils ..................................................................................................................
F u e l .......................................................................................................................................................
l i g h t i n g .............................................................................................................. ...............................
S ic k n e s s a n d d e a t h ........................................................................................................................
I n s u r a n c e ............................................................................................................................................
I n t o x i c a t i n g l i q u o r s ......................................................................................................................
A m u s e m e n t s a n d v a c a t i o n ........................................................................................................
T o b a c c o ...................................................................................................................................... .........
L a b o r a n d s o c ie t y f e e s .................................................................................................................
R e lig io u s p u r p o s e s ..........................................................................................................................
C h a r i t y ................................................................................................................................................
B o o k s a n d p e r i o d i c a l s .................................................................................................................
T a x e s ( d i r e c t ) ................... ..............................................................................................................
L o c o m o t i o n ................................... .............................................................................. ......................
O th e r p u r p o s e s ..................................................................................................................................
U n ite d
States.
38.03
12.26
« 1 1 .3 1
1.10
b3.13
(« )
2.72
8.94
2.6 0
2.11
<*1.68
1.09
1.07
3.94
10.02
100.00
aI n c l u d i n g
bI n c lu d in g
v a lu e o f b u ild in g s .
lig h t in g .
cIn c lu d e d in fu e l.
dIn c lu d in g c h a r it ie s
42.54
14.04
12.95
1.58
3.42
4.1 9
1.06
2.67
2.73
1.62
1.60
1.42
1 .1 7
.9 9
.31
1.09
.75
5.87
100.00
a n d e d u c a t io n .
The expenditure in Australia, inasmuch as it includes the cost of
living for families of large as well as of small incomes, shows con
siderable variation from that in the United States, especially in the
proportion spent for miscellaneous purposes. The relatively larger
value of this item, which includes wages of domestic servants, makes the
other items, such as fuel, clothing, rent, etc., less than they would be
if only workingmen’s expenditure were given in Australia. Climatic
conditions account for the larger share of expenditure devoted to such
items as fuel, lighting, and rent in America. The most remarkable
variation is in the relative amount spent for intoxicating liquors in
the two countries, and this item is probably subject to correction.
In the Seven Colonies of Australasia, Mr. Coghlan estimates the
aiterage annual per capita expenditure in Australia at $185.05 in
1900, as compared with Mulhall’s estimate of $159.66 in the United
States; and that in Australia 37 per cent of the per capita expenditure
is spent for food and drink, as compared with 25 per cent in America.
Deductions from the figures presented in these connections in the
book referred to would make the average per capita income in Austra
lia about $222, as compared with $190 in the United States. A ll esti
mates of this sort are largely guesses based on partial evidence, but
taking into account in the United States the Negroes and the mountain
whites they probably possess a certain validity in as far as they show
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
239
that the magnitude of income or expenditure, considering national
averages, is relatively greater in Australia than in this country. As
far as cursory personal observation can determine the standard of liv
ing of city workmen in America and Australia is about the same. But
the United States is an agricultural country, with much small thrift
and neighborhood investment of local capital, while Australia is chiefly
a pastoral and mining country, with its industries still, to some extent,
upon a speculative basis, and employing a relatively larger amount of
borrowed capital. It is possible that for these reasons there is a more
“ out W est” liberal view of money in some country districts of Aus
tralia than in those of the Union. These conditions would react to
some extent upon the comparative expenditure in the two countries.
One person in four in Australia is a savings-bank depositor,.as com
pared with one person in 12 in the United States, though the average
deposits in the former are less than two-fifths what the}r are in the
latter country. However, in most Australian States there are postoffice savings banks, and in all States the Government controls and
encourages this form o f savings more than does the Government in
America. No comparative statistics of home ownership are available,
but the number of owner occupiers was estimated by an official at 28
per cent in Victoria, a State, with the possible exception of South
Australia, where the general conditions of industry and development
would be most favorable to home proprietorship. In the United States
46.5 per cent of the householders own the homes they occupy, a con
dition due in large part to the predominance of agricultural industries
in that country and the turn it gives to accumulation. But the build
ing-society capital of Philadelphia is more per inhabitant than the
savings-bank deposits per inhabitant in Australia. It would seem,
therefore, that small realty investments are more sought after in the
United States. It is evident that the trend of local investment in the
two countries is on the whole so different as to prevent any very effec
tive comparison, based upon statistics at present available, 7>f the r e l
ative accumulation and form of wealth distribution prevailing among
the working people.
A judgment as to the effect of the political labor propaganda upon
the industrial condition of Australia, and upon the welfare of the
workingmen themselves, would be premature. Neither could it well be
formed by a temporary visitor to that country. The effects of social
istic theories and ideals are more profound than their explicit state
ment might indicate. They react to some degree upon the character
of the person holding them, and upon his attitude toward every prob
lem of life. To a certain extent they weaken individual energy and
self-reliance, and to that extent subtract from the joy of living. Possi
bly the fact is due to temporary causes, possibly it may be a condition
of which socialistic views are a result and not a cause; but one’s
240
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
impression is that the working classes of Australia are not as happy as
those of America. There is certainly more pessimism among their
leaders. A certain humorous hopefulness, a kind of chronic expecta
tion o f good luck, that one is hardly conscious of until one misses it,
appears to be absent among Australian workers. And yet this is
hardly characteristic of the people, with their sunny skies and with
their sanguine temperament.
One must remember in comparing conditions in the two countries
that practically every part of Australia has nine or ten months sum
mer, with only the ghost of an autumn in between, and that manual
labor is really more onerous for a white man than in cooler climes.
There is no rest period in the year, no tonic of sharply contrasted sea
sons. Generally where nature works long hours men want short hours.
The essence of the labor movement in Australia is less work, while in
the United States it is more wages. These conditions incline men to
regard labor as essentially an evil—not consciously and admittedly, but
subconsciously and as a fundamental assumption in all their social rea
soning. It is not suggested that labor is popularly regarded as a bless
ing anywhere—but it certainly is not alone the desire to conciliate the
“ boss” that makes many American workingmen exert themselves well
toward the limit of their capacity from sheer restlessness of tempera
ment, desire for action, or a certain pleasure in doing things. Aus
tralasian workingmen would consider the wage-earner who boasted of
the amount of work he turned out in a day a sort of labor heretic.
Such sentiments would soon be silenced in that country by hostile
class opinion. Yet without something of the sentiment described the
life of the workman must be joyless. He can not derive pleasure in
following an occupation that he considers the badge of a 66hereditary
bondsman” —to quote a trade hall circular. O f course the theory of
the iniquity of private employment is not practically and universally
accepted, and it has not deprived Australian workmen generally of
their pride in their craft and their individual skill; but it has tinged
the atmosphere of the labor movement, created discontent with the
existing order, and whether or not it is a necessary condition of social
progress, it has not as yet made toward the attainment of individual
happiness.
In the sense just suggested the spread of socialistic sentiment among
the working classes of Australia has not stimulated their industrial
morality—to use the term as indicating accepted canons. It does not
encourage thrift, frugality, and strenuous industry. Few would admit
that work, like virtue, is in a certain sense its own reward. Labor
leaders also appeal to a new theory of property right, and to one that
disintegrates all old standards of thought and belief upon the subject.
The radical and profoundly revolutionary character of these doctrines,
whether they are right or wrong, is never fully appreciated from their
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
241
doctrinaire or literary statement. They go ultimately clear to the root
o f private morals, and while professedly social, possibly react most
strongly upon the individual.
The men who are at the head of the labor movement in Australia,
however, are the equals of their colleagues in the other political par
ties, possibly their superiors in conscientious devotion to certain ideals.
As a rule their standard of private morality is high. A large percent
age of them are total abstainers and the labor party rather inclines
toward restrictive temperance legislation. Most of them favor women
suffrage, and this is a plank in state platforms where the franchise has
not already been granted. The labor movement is not anti-Christian
in Australia. The working class of that country is really a middle
class, and its party organization possesses, aside from its economic
theories, middle class rather than fourth estate moral standards and
ideals. Indeed the political labor movement of Australasia might be
denominated the revolt of a socialistic bourgeoisie.
CONCLUSION.
The statistical bases for a thorough-going study of labor con
ditions in the Commonwealth do not yet exist, though satisfactory
data may be obtained from individual States. The effects of recent
labor legislation have not had time to manifest themselves, nor can
they at present be distinguished from other effects due to federation
and outside causes. Public opinion has not yet matured and crystal
lized in regard to the chief features of the labor propaganda; in fact
people are still only half aware what the underlying theory of that
movement is or whither it leads. Employers view with misgiving
the effects of laws lately enacted or in prospect. The system of
party politics is in a state of transition, both as to platforms and align
ment and as to tactical organization. The impermanency of present
conditions impresses itself everywhere upon the visitor. Predictions
as to political developments or legislation made by those most compe
tent to speak upon such subjects are falsified almost before they are
uttered. Under such circumstances it would certainly be presump
tuous for a stranger in Australia to draw final conclusions as to the
meaning and the probable results of present economic tendencies in
that country.
What has been attempted is to give some impressions and statistics
with regard to labor conditions with as much history of the part of
the labor movement that differentiates Australia from other AngloSaxon countries as is necessary in order to see the forces behind the
experimental legislation recently enacted or now proposed.
The ultimate outcome of the labor movement—as far as the attain
ment of its practical ideals is concerned—may depend upon the atti
tude of the farmers. The latter have many old grievances against the
242
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOB.
employing class. A considerable percentage of the small settlers in
the pastoral States, like New South Wales, have at some period of
their lives been shearers or station workmen, and members of trades
unions. The labor party appeals to the farmers by its positive pro
gramme. It is easier to elicit interest among the politically apathetic
rural classes by promising to do something definite than by promising
indefinite generalities or merely insisting upon the sanctity of the
status quo. Mr. Watson, the labor Federal premier, represented a
country district. The president of the largest farmers’ society in
Australia, with more than 7,000 active members, said to the writer:
“ The labor party is the true democratic party of this country, and
gives us all our true democratic legislation. But the trade-union
leaders must broaden the labor platform and take in their country
friends. The one point on which we now differ is on their programme
of land nationalization.” It is doubtful whether the two interests will
ever agree upon this last point, and the general testimony of farmers
and those familiar with the farmers was that as a class they oppose
the labor party. This is especially true in Victoria, where farmers’
leagues have been organized and an active campaign is being conducted
antagonistic to socialism and labor doctrines.
Until the influence of the farmer has had time to be felt in Austra
lia we shall know very little as to the relative forces at work for and
against socialistic legislation. The prediction one would naturally
venture is that the result will be practical compromises, upon the
whole satisfactory to a majority of the workingmen, which will throw
over man}- of the theoretical ideals and principles of the socialist polit
ical economy.
The labor movement represents a centering inward of Australian
life. It has nothing to do with wider world interests. It is intensely
local, and perhaps more self-confident in its policies than if Australia
were not so remote from other civilization centers. There is no chance
to compare home conditions with corresponding social conditions else
where. And, what is strange in a race so akin to our own and placed
exteriorly in such similar circumstances, the national ideal of the
Australians is almost the converse of ours. A speaker in the Westralian parliament said: “ W e have to choose between two ideals—
between the ideal of rapid progress, large population, and, possibly, a
very considerable residuum of poverty, and the ideal of a slower rate
of progress, almost stationary population, and happily very little pov
erty.” By protection and exclusion and formal regulation the labor
party would raise the standard of life of the working people. Ameri
cans have sought the same end by reverse methods, by inviting the
world into national partnership, and by an almost anarchic struggle of the
fittest to survive. Our system may breed a more aggressive, energetic,
and masterful race, but at the expense of more suffering and injustice
LABOR CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA.
243
to the weak. There is danger in both systems. Extreme individual
ism may produce lawlessness, and lawlessness strain to the severing
limit the bonds of society. Extreme socialism may make of a nation
a social hypochondriac and injure the constitution of a country by
too much doctoring.
An individual acknowledgment of the many hospitalities and helpful
courtesies extended to the writer during his investigations in Australia
would add materially to the length of this report. Without exception
every facility was placed at his disposal, both by public authorities and
by private parties, for obtaining information upon the matters which
were the object of his visit. An American feels very much at home
in the Commonwealth. He is apt to view its ultimate future almost
as enthusiastically as a native citizen. And he is certain to regard
with the most cordial sympathy and satisfaction the growing power
and prosperity of this kindred Federation of the South Pacific.
AGREEEMENTS BETWEEN EHFLOTEBS AND EMPLOYEES.
[It is the purpose of this Bureau to publish from time to time important agree
ments made between large bodies of employers and employees with regard to wages,
hours of labor, etc. The Bureau will be pleased to receive copies of such agreements
whenever made.]
JOINT INTERSTATE AGREEMENT OF OPERATORS AND
MINERS.
It is hereby agreed between the representatives of the Southwestern
Interstate Coal Operators’ Association and the representatives of Dis
tricts 14, 21, and 25 of the United Mine Workers of America, that the
existing interstate, district, and Texas agreements be continued with
out any change or addition whatever, except as follows:
Day wage, yardage, dead and deficient work to be reduced through
out 5.55 per cent, except the day-wage scale in Texas mines, which
shall be reduced one-half the above amount.
Interstate and district scales to be signed simultaneously at Pitts
burg and to expire March 31, 1906.
INSIDE DAY-WAGE SCALE.
Tracklayers........................................................................................................... .......................$2.42
Track layers’ helpers............................................................................................................... 2.23
Trappers......................................................................................................................................... 1.07
Bottom cagers.............................................................................................................................. 2.42
D rivers........................................................................................................................................... 2 .4 2
Trip riders....................................................................................................................................
2.42
Pushers........................................................................................................................................... 2.42
Water haulers and machine haulers...................................................................................
2.42
Timber men, where such are employed............................................................................. 2.42
Pipe men for compressed air plants.................................................................................... 2. 36
A ll other inside day labor....................................................................................................... 2.23
Spragging, coupling, and greasing, when done by boys................................................ 1.65
Shaft sinkers................................................................................................................................
2.64
Shot firers under normal conditions.................................................................................
2. 83
OUTSIDE DAY-WAGE SCALE.
First bl cksmiths............................................................................. ..........................................$2.83
Second blacksmiths.................................................................................................................... 2.60
Blacksmiths’ helpers.................................................................................................................. 2.23
Carpenters..................................................................................................................................... 2.30
(Provided that in no case will there be any reduction from the rate
o f wages now paid to carpenters of more than 5.55 per cent.)
A ll other outside day labor not enumerated...................................................................$1.91
Provided that any class of* outside day labor now receiving $2.02£
or more per day shall be reduced 5.55 per cent. This provision only
applies to outside day labor not otherwise enumerated.
244
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
245
SCALE FOB ENGINEERS.
Engineers, first class, 500 tons and over, per m onth................................................. $74.62
Second class, 300 to 500 tons, per month......................................................................... 68.95
Third class, 300 tons or less, per m onth......................................................................... 61.40
Tail rope and slope engineers shall be reduced 5.55 per cent below
present wages.
The minimum rate for tail rope and slope engineers shall be $2.25
per day, or $58.56 per month; provided, further, that the maximum
rate for tail rope and slope engineers shall be $2.55 per day, or $66.12
per month. Twenty-six days to constitute a month’s work and nine
hours to constitute a day’s work. All overtime in excess of nine hours
to be paid for at a proportionate rate per hour.
The tonnage shall be determined by the average for the month of
November, 1902, and based upon mine-run coal; but in no case shall any
reduction from the present wages be made.
This scale of wages applies only to mines in operation at least one
year, and in all new mines the wages of the engineers shall be advanced
with the increased tonnage until the maximum rate is reached; pro
vided, that in no case shall engineers employed at new mines receive
less than $2.25 per day; also that in no case shall engineers, firemen,
or pumpers be interfered with or asked to cease work by any local
committee or local union official during the life of this contract.
The mining prices inside and outside day-wage scale (except engineers)
provided for in this contract is based upon an eight-hour work day.
RULES AND REGULATIONS.
EIGHT-HOUR DAY.
All classes of day labor are to work full eight hours, and the going
to and coming from the respective working places is to be done on
the day hands’ own time. All company men shall perform whatever
day labor the foreman may direct. An eight-hour day means eight
hours’ work in the mines at the usual working places, exclusive of
noon time—which shall be one-half hour—for all classes of inside day
labor. This shall be exclusive of the time required in reaching such
working places in the morning and departing from the same at night.
, Drivers shall take their mules to and from the stables, and the time
required in so doing shall not include any part of the day’s labor; their
time beginning when they reach the change at which they receive
empty cars—that is, the parting drivers at the shaft bottom and the
inside drivers at the parting—and ending at the same places; but in no
case shall a driver’s time be docked while he is waiting for such cars
at the points named. The inside drivers, at their option, may either
walk to and from their parting, or take with them, without compensa
tion, either loaded or empty cars to enable them to ride. This pro
vision, however, shall not prevent the inside drivers from bringing to
and taking from the bottom regular trips, if so directed by the opera
tor, provided such work is done within the eight hours.
When the stables are located outside the mine the companies agree
to deliver the mules at the bottom of the shaft in the morning and
relieve the drivers of the mules at the bottom of the shaft at night.
When the men go into the mine in the morning they shall be entitled
to two hours’ pay whether or not the mine works full two hours; but
246
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
after the first two hoars the men shall be paid for every hour there
after, by the hour, for each hour’s work or fractional part thereof.
If for any reason the regular work can not be furnished the inside
day laborers for a portion of the first two hours, the operators shall
furnish other than the regular labor for the unexpired time.
PENALTIES FOR LOADING IMPURITIES.
In order to insure the production of clean, marketable coal, it is
herein provided that if any miner shall load with his coal sulphur,
bone, slate, blackjack, or other impurities, he shall, for the first offense,
be notified by the mine foreman; for the second offense he may be
suspended for one day; for the third and each subsequent offense
occurring in any one month he maybe suspended for three days; pro
vided, that if in any case it is shown that a miner maliciously or know
ingly loads impurities, he shall be subject to discharge. It is further
agreed that if any miner has been suspended and claims that an
injustice has been done him, the matter shall be taken up for investi
gation and adjustment in the manner provided in section three of this
agreement.
DUTIES OF PIT COMMITTEE.
(a) The duties of the pit committee shall be confined to the adjust
ment of disputes between the pit boss and any member o f the U. M.
W . of A. working in and around the mines, arising out of this agree
ment or any district or subdistrict agreement made in connection
therewith, when the pit boss and said miner or mine laborer have
failed to agree.
(b) In case of any local trouble arising in any mine through such
failure to agree between the pit boss and any miner or mine laborer,
the pit committee and the pit boss are empowered to adjust it, and in
the case of their disagreement it shall be referred to the superintendent
of the company and the district president of theU. M. W. o f A ., or
such person as he may designate to represent him; and should they
fail to agree it shall be referred to the commissioner of the South
western Interstate Coal Operators* Association and the district presi
dent of the U. M. W . of A. for adjustment; and in all cases the mines,
miners, mine laborers, and parties involved must continue at work,
pending an investigation and adjustment, until a final decision is
reached in the manner above set forth.
(c) If any day men refuse to continue at work because of a grievance
which has or has not been taken up for adjustment in the manner pro
vided herein, and such action shall seem likely to impede the operation
of the mine, the pit committee shall immediately furnish a man or men
to take such vacant place or places at the scale rate, in order that the
mine may continue at work; and it shall be the duty of any member
or members of the United Mine Workers who may be called upon by
the pit boss or pit committee to immediately take the place or places
assigned to him or them in pursuance hereof.
(d) The pit committee, in the discharge of its duties, shall under no
circumstances go around the mine for any cause whatever, unless called
upon by the pit boss or by a miner or company man who may have a
grievance that he can not settle with the boss. Any pit committeeman
who shall attempt to execute any local rule or proceeding in conflict
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS. AND EMPLOYEES.
247
with any provision of this contract, or any other made in pursuance
hereof, shall be forthwith deposed as committeeman. The foregoing
shall not be construed to prohibit the pit committee from looking
after the matter of membership dues and initiations in any proper
manner.
(e) Members of the pit committee employed as day men shall not
leave their places of duty during working hours except by permission
o f the operator, or in cases involving the stoppage of the mine.
(f) The right to hire and discharge, the management of the mine, and
the direction of the working force are vested exclusively in the oper
ator, and the U. M. W. o f A. shall not abridge this right. It is not
the intention of this provision to encourage the discharge of employees
or the refusal of employment to applicants because of personal preju
dice or activity in matters affecting the U. M. W . of A. If any
employee shall be discharged or suspended by the company and it is
claimed that an injustice has been done him, an investigation, to be
conducted by the parties and in the manner set forth in paragraphs
“ a ” and “ b ” o f this section, shall be taken up promptly, and if it is
proven that an injustice has been done, the operator shall reinstate
said employee and pay him full compensation for the time he has been
suspended and out of employment; provided, if no decision shall be
rendered within five days the case shall be considered closed, in so far
as compensation is concerned, unless said failure to arrive at a decision
within five days is owing to delay upon the part of the operator, in
which case a maximum of ten days’ compensation shall be paid.
LOCAL DEMANDS.
There shall be no demands made locally by either operators or min
ers which are in conflict with this agreement or any district or sub
district agreement made prior to September 1, 1904; and there shall
be no provision imposed violating the same. Any local member, offi
cial, or committee shutting down a mine without orders from the dis
trict president or district executive board shall be fined in the manner
provided for in the national constitution of the U. M. W . of A ., and
such additional penalties may be imposed as are now or may be pro
vided for in the constitutions of the various district organizations.
All such fines are to be collected by the companies and paid into the
district treasury o f the U. M. W. of A. Should any operator violate
this agreement, or any provision hereof, such operator or company
shall be fined one hundred dollars ($100), said fine to be paid into the
treasury of the Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators’ Association.
PAYMENT OF WAGES.
The operators agree to pay twice a month, the dates of payment to
be determined by the district joint convention; and these payments are
to be made at the office nearest to the mine wherein or at which the
employees are employed; provided, however, that this office shall be
located not more than two miles from such mine.
CHECK-OFF.
The operators will recognize the pit committee in the discharge of
their duties, as provided in this agreement, and agree to check off dues,
248
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
assessments, fines, and initiations from all miners and mine laborers
when desired. In order to protect the companies, the U. M. W . of
A . agrees, when the companies so demand, to furnish a collective and
continuous order authorizing the companies to make such deductions.
The companies agree to furnish the miners’ local representatives a
monthly statement showing separately the amount of dues, assess
ments, fines, and initiations collected. In case any fine is imposed the
propriety of which is questioned, the amount of such fine shall be
withheld by the operator until the case has been taken up for adjust
ment and a decision reached.
It is agreed that the miners may employ a check weighman to see
that coal is properly weighed and a correct record made thereof,
and when such check weighman is employed the companies shall fur
nish him a check number, and he shall credit to his number such por
tion of each miner’s coal as he may be authorized to do by the local
union. It is understood that the above provision shall not affect the
arrangements now existing at any mine where a check number is
issued in the name of the local union, and dues, assessments, fines, and
initiations collected by this method.
MEASUREMENTS.
It is agreed that measurements of entries, brushing, room turning,
and deadwork shall be made semimonthly, and payment in full shall
be made for such work in the same manner as that in which other
wqrk is paid for.
EQUAL TURN.
The operator shall see that an equal turn is offered each miner and
that he be given a fair chance to obtain the same. The check
weighman shall keep a turn bulletin for the turn keeper’s guidance.
The drivers shall be subject to whomever the mine manager shall
designate as turn keeper in pursuance hereof.
DEATHS AND FUNERALS.
In the event of an instantaneous death by accident in the mine, the
miners and underground employees shall have the privilege o f discon
tinuing work for the remainder of that day; but work, at the option
of the operator, shall be resumed the day following and continue
thereafter. In case the operator elects to operate the mine on the day
of the funeral of the deceased, as above, or where death has resulted
from an accident in the mine, individual miners and underground
employees may, at their option, absent themselves from work for the
purpose of attending such funeral, but not otherwise. And whether
attending such funeral or not, each member of the U. M. W . of A.
employed at the mine at which the deceased member was employed,
shall contribute fifty (50) cents and the operator twenty-five ($25)
dollars for the benefit of the family of the deceased or his legal repre
sentatives, to be collected through the office of the company . In the
event that the mines are thrown idle on account of the miners’ or other
employees’ failure to report for work in the time intervening between
the time of the accident and the funeral, or on the day of the funeral,
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
249
then the company shall not be called upon for the payment of the
twenty-five ($25) dollars above referred to.
Except in cases of fatal accidents, as above, the mine shall in no
case be thrown idle because of any death or funeral; but in the case of
the death of any employee of the company or member of his family,
any individual miner may, at his option, absent himself from work
for the purpose of attending such funeral, but not otherwise.
DOCTOR.
No deduction shall be made for doctors, unless such deduction is
authorized by the individual employee.
CONDITION OF THE MINE.
The company shall keep the mine in as dry condition as practicable,
by keeping the water off the road and out of the working places.
When a miner has to leave his working place on account of water,
through the neglect of the company, they shall employ said miner
doing company work when practicable, and provided that said miner
is competent to do such work, or he shall be given another working
place until such water is taken out of his place.
PROVISIONS FOR INJURED.
The operators shall keep sufficient blankets, oil, bandages, etc., and
provide suitable ambulance or conveyance, readily available at each
mine to properly convey injured persons to their homes after an
accident.
POWDER.
The price of powder shall be $2.00 per keg during the term of this
contract.
1906 JOINT CONVENTION.
It is agreed that the Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators’ Asso
ciation and the representatives of the United Mine Workers of
America shall meet in the city of Indianapolis, Indiana, on the 25th
day of January, 1906, at 10 o’clock a. m.
APPENDIX.
HARNESSING MULES.
In regard to taking the mules into the mine where the mules are
kept on top of slope opening, the mules are to be taken to and from
the tipple to the mouth of the slope. In shaft openings the mules are
to be taken down and up the shaft by the company, either by the
drivers on the company’s time, or by the company employing a man
to do so, and it may employ any man, or number of men, it chooses to
do this work.
250
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Where mules are kept in the mine, if the mules are harnessed by
the company, the driver must be at the pit bottom, or the parting
where be commences work, ready to begin at starting time. If the
driver harnesses the mules he does so on the company’s time.
PENALTIES FOR LOADING IMPURITIES.
The interpretation of, or the construction to be placed upon, that
paragraph relative to penalties for loading impurities in the agreement
between the U. M. W. of A. and the Southwestern Interstate Coal
Operators’ Association, entered into at Pittsburg, Kansas, July 27th,
1903, having been referred to the undersigned, is ruled upon as follows.
The paragraph reads:
“ In order to insure the production of clean, marketable coal, it is
hereby provided that if any miner shall load with his coal sulphur,
bone, slate, blackjack, or other impurities, he shall for the first offense
be notified by the mine foreman; for the second offense he may be sus
pended for one day; for the third and each subsequent offense occurring
in any one month he may be suspended for three days; provided that
if in any case it is shown that a miner maliciously or knowingly loads
impurities, he shall be subject to discharge.”
The question is upon what constitutes “ one month” within the
meaning and the intent of this contract.
It was clearly intended by the parties to this contract that if it
became necessary to insure the production of clean coal, the penalties
provided in this agreement should be and could be inflicted. It is also
clear that if the operation of this agreement is to be limited and con
fined to each calendar month for the period it is in effect, the penalties
can not be inflicted as contemplated by the parties to the agreement,
and the offender must be allowed to go unpunished.
For example, suppose a miner is notified on the first or any subse
quent day of the calendar month that he has loaded dirty coal, that is
the extent of his punishment for that offense; and suppose he is
notified on the first or any subsequent day of the calendar month fol
lowing that he has loaded dirty coal, that is the limit of his punishment
for the second offense, notwithstanding the second offense may have
been committed on consecutive days—that is to say, on the last day of
one calendar month and the first day of the calendar month following.
Again, the first offense may be committed on any day subsequent to
the first day of the month; the second offense on any day subsequent
to the first offense, and the third offense on the first day of the suc
ceeding month or any subsequent day, and the offender go practically
unscathed, because no penalty other than that provided for the second
offense could be inflicted. Again, if the second offense occurred on
the last day of any calendar month on which the first offense occurred,
the offense is condoned, because of the application, as lawyers would
say, of the “ statute of limitations” interfering to save the offender
from the infliction of the punishment provided as just and necessary
to the consummation of the intent and purpose of the contract—the
“ insurance of the production of clean, marketable coal.”
Now, in my judgment, that could not have been the intent and
purpose of the parties to this agreement, because they clearly intended
that the penalty should be inflicted if the offenses were committed
AGEEEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
251
within the specified time, “ one month,” i. e., thirty days. Nor would
this impose any hardships on the miner, or give the operator any undue
advantage.
The ruling is, therefore, that “ one month” in this agreement means
thirty days.
If either of the district presidents disagree with this ruling, they
will please submit their reasons therefor in writing.
B ennet B rown,
Commissioner.
Copies sent to and endorsed by—
George Colville, district president No. 25.
George Richardson, district president No. 14.
Pete Hanraty, district president No. 21.
Thomas M. King, vice-president district No. 21.
P i t t s b u r g , K a n s a s , August 19, 1901^.
A difference of opinion having arisen in regard to whether or not
the brushing question in the northern part of Kansas is to be taken up
and adjusted by the president of District 14 and the operators’ com
missioner, the representatives of the miners and the representatives
of the operators agree to refer the matter to T. L. Lewis, national
vice-president of the U. M. W. of A ., and W . C. Perry, vice-pres
ident at large for the Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators’
Association, for settlement.
Executed at Pittsburg, Kansas, this 19th day of August, 1904.
In behalf o f the Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators’ Association.
B . F . B u s h , President.
S. W . K n i f f i n , Sewetary.
In behalf of the miners:
J. G. R i c h a r d s o n ,
President D istrict 11±.
P ete H
anraty^
President D istrict 21.
G
eo.
C o l v il l e ,
President D istrict 25.
R obert G
il m o u r ,
Secretary Joint Convention.
T. L. L
e w is ,
National Vice-President.
DISTRICT AGREEMENT, ADOPTED AUGUST 19, 1904, BY
SOUTHWESTERN
INTERSTATE
COAL
OPERATORS’
ASSOCIATION AND THE UNITED MINE W ORKERS OF
AM ERICA, DISTRICT No. 14.
Article 1. That the following prices per ton of two thousand pounds
shall be paid by the parties of the second part and received by the
parties of the first part for mine run coal free from slate, dirt, bone
sulphur, black jack and other impurities for a period of time begin
ning September 1st, 1904, and ending March 31st, 1906.
252
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Article 2. Cherokee and Crawford counties, Kansas, and Barton
County, Missouri. Shooting coal per ton for mine run, 72 cents.
Article 3. That the uniform price of dead work shall be as follows:
Entries 12 feet wide, $1.06 per yard.
Entries less than 12 feet wide, $1.59 per yard.
First crosscut in rooms, $1.59, or $1.06 per yard, according to width
o f same, based on width and price of entries. That in all cases where
miners are unable to secure necessary width in rooms, being prevented
b y horseback or other unavoidable obstacles, the prices to be paid for
such work shall be the same as above stipulated. Where the width
obtained in rooms is less than 12 feet and over six feet, price shall be
determined proportionately. The price for turning rooms shall be
$2.13 where the room neck is six feet; $4.25 where they are 12 feet.
That brushing shall be paid at the rate of 85 cents per yard for five
feet above the rails and $1.06 for six feet above the rails. Horse
backs, $1.06 per foot. Stowing dirt, 11 cents per car; 53 cents per
yard or to be taken away by the company.
Article 4. When entries are double shifted or when two men work
together in entries on same shift 27 cents per yard additional shall be
paid.
Article 5. The price for making wall for room through gob in
entries shall be $1.59.
Article 6. Conditions governing shot-firers:
Shot-firers shall have but one job in mines employing forty men or
more, and no shot-firer shall perform his duties while in the mine
alone. Two shot-firers shall not fire shots for more than eighty men
without extra compensation at the rate of 7c. per place for each addi
tional man, but when there are a hundred and five men employed there
shall be one additional shot-firer, and same conditions to apply when
additional shot-firers are needed.
Article 7. The use of squibs and fuse shall be left to the men of
each mine. Where one is voted the use of the other shall be excluded,
with this provision, that when the men vote to use fuse the company
shall make no charges for squibs, but in any event, when necessary to
use dynamite in brushing or horseback shooting, the use of fuse is
permissible, and in no event shall any shot-firer shoot more than one
working place at a time.
BATES AND VERNON COUNTIES, MISSOURI.
Article 1. That the price for digging shall be as follows for minerun coal:
Coal four feet and over, per ton, 62 cents.
Coal three feet six inches and over, per ton, 67 cents.
Coal three feet six inches or less, per ton, 72 cents.
Article 2. That prices for bottom grading be paid the same in rooms
as in entries, and the price for removing bone coal or rock shall be
determined by the miner and mine foreman.
Article 3. That rooms be 24 feet wide when roof will permit, and
in no case shall two men be required to work in a room less than 16
feet wide, the mine foreman to be judge of conditions.
Article 4. That the same rules and customs in regard to first cross
cut in rooms in Cherokee and Crawford counties, Kansas, shall also
apply to these counties.
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
253
Article 5. That the prices for entries shall be, for 1 2 -foot entries,
$1.59; for six-foot entries, $2.13 per yard.
Article 6 . That prices for top brushing be 80 cents per yard for
five foot two inches above the rails, the existing custom. That bottom
grading from six inches to one foot in thickness shall be 53 cents, and
for each additional six inches in thickness the price to be 27 cents.
When less than six inches the price to be determined between the
miner and the mine foreman.
Article 7. Room turning and all other dead work not enumerated
shall be reduced 5.55 per cent.
PLEASANTON DISTRICT.
Article 1 . The price for mining shall be 95 cents per ton of two
thousand pounds, under the condition now in operation.
Article 2 . Brushing in entries shall be paid for at the rate of $1.75
for six feet above the rails. All dead work not enumerated shall be
reduced 5.55 per cent.
OSAGE COUNTY.
Article 1 . That the price per ton for mine-run coal shall be as
follows:
Osage City, per ton, $1.60.
Burlingame, per ton, $1.55.
Scranton, per ton, $1.55.
Article 2 . That room turning be paid $5.67 as a uniform price for
Osage County, miner to put away dirt. That the distance of room
turning shall be 1 2 feet from the corner of the rib of said room, and
no room shall be considered turned until such distance is obtained.
A ll yardage beyond the specified distance of 1 2 feet shall be paid at
the rate of $1.42 per yard.
Article 3. All gob entries shall be paid at the rate of $1.59 per
yard, said entries to be four and a half feet wide and three and a half
ieet high in Osage County. For narrow entries five feet wide and
three and a half feet high, $1.97 per yard, the miner to have the coal.
For entries 14 feet wide, $ 1 .8 6 per yard, the miner to have the coal.
For one-sided entries 4he price to be $1.33 per yard, the miner to have
the coal.
Article 4. That rib-room turning be paid the same as other room
turning.
Article 5. That all rock brushing shall be paid at the rate o f 94 cents
per yard of one foot in thickness and 47 cents for each additional six
inches, help to be furnished by the company when drilling in rock.
Article 6 . Cutting corners in rooms where rooms are full width, 53
cents per yard.
Article 7. That whenever a mine foreman desires two men to work
together in one place, they shall be paid 14 cents extra per ton above
the regular mining price, provided it is not the fault of the miner
working in said place or his inability to keep up the working face.
Article 8 . Where shooting is necessary, the company to be required
to furnish drilling machines and other necessary materials for blasting,
and that such necessities shall be delivered at the miner’s platform or
switch.
12425— No. 56—05----------- 17
254
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Article 9. That no room be driven over 185 feet without extra pay
for pushing, said extra pay to be determined by mine foreman and pit
committee, and that in any steep pushing the driver or pusher shall
be required to assist in pushing.
Article 1 0 . That mule brushing shall be contracted when desired,
the price to be agreed upon by the mine foreman and the parties doing
the work.
Article 11. All deficient work shall be paid extra, the price to be
determined by the mine foreman, miner, or miners affected, but should
they not agree, then the price shall be determined by the mine fore
man and pit committee.
Article 12. It is hereby understood and agreed that all coal shall be
accepted at the miner’s switch or platform.
Article 13. Miners shall at no time load or send out dirt, in case
of dispute, without the consent of the pit boss and pit committee.
Article 14. That whenever a room or entry caves in or abnormal
conditions exist, the operator shall take the dirt at miner’s switch or
platform and the miner’s turn for coal shall not be affected thereby.
Article 15. Where the blacksmith is hired by the company to sharpen
tools for the men, the charges will be 1 per cent. When men sharpen
their own tools, no charge shall be made.
Article 16. That each operator in Osage County shall furnish their
employees domestic coal, during the six winter months commencing
September 1 and ending February 28, at the September market quo
tations for Osage County coal, and during the six summer months at
the actual market price at the mines.
INSIDE DAY-W AGE SCALE.
(Driver for each additional mule, 9 cents extra.)
Machine runner_____________________________________________ $2.83
Machine h elp er_____ ______________ ________________________ 2.60
Loading and drilling after machine________________ __________
2.42
Wages of motormen to be reduced 5.55 per cent below present
wages. The company shall have the right to work any part or all of
the mine by machines if they desire.
The men working with the machines shall be subject to the mine
foreman’s order, and do any work he may direct other than machine
work; provided, however, there shall be no reduction made in the rate
of wages paid. When either side to the agreement desires to do min
ing by the ton, the matter shall be taken up and adjusted.
Digging coal by the day........ ........................................... ............... $2.65
GENERAL PROVISIONS.
Article 1. That the bimonthly pay days shall fall on the 2d and 4th
Saturdays of each month.
Article 2 . Any miner desiring to leave the service of the company
shall give notice to the clerk of the company’s local office and receive
his money in full not later than 5 days after such notice.
A rticled. That all required timbers and rails shall be delivered
when necessary at the working switch of the miner.
Article 4. That the color, line shall not be a bar to employment.
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
255
Article 5. That the erection of head frames, buildings, scales,
machinery, railroad switches, etc., necessary for the completion of a
plant to hoist coal, all being in the nature of construction work, are
to be excluded from the jurisdiction of the U. M. W. of A. Exten
sive repairs to and rebuilding of the same class of work shall also be
included in the same, provided that any or all members of the U. M.
W . o f A. who may be employed at such work shall not be asked to
work in conflict with the terms of this agreement.
Article 6 . There shall be no unjust discrimination against any day
laborers in so far that the work shall be as nearly as possible equally
distributed, provided the parties are competent to do the work.
Article 7. All half turns shall be furnished a check number.
Article 8 . That the check weighman shall have a check number to
receive his pay, the same as miners.
Article 9. That the price of nut coal at the mines for household
purposes to the employees shall be $1.35 per ton for the entire year
where bought by the head of the family (except Osage and Pleasanton).
Article 10. When entry or horseback dirt is wheeled or pushed,
extra compensation shall be paid when it is required to wheel or push
same over 126 feet. (This applies to Cherokee and Crawford coun
ties, Kansas, and Barton County, Missouri.)
Article 1 1 . When rock brushing is necessary to be done the regu
lar brushing price shall not apply, but the compensation for the same
shall be mutually agreed upon between the miner and mine foreman.
(This applies to Cherokee and Crawford counties, Kansas, and Barton
County, Missouri.)
Article 1 2 . Faulty coal shall be considered deficient work, and any
miner hired to work the same shall be paid by the day, the company
to furnish the powder and tools when required, or the man to be given
another place, the mine foreman to determine whether the man is to
be employed by the day or given another place.
* Article 13. in opening new mines the work shall be done by the
cubic yard or by the ton, and the price per cubic yard for the coal
shall be the price per ton under the scale for that width of work. This
rule to apply after the first parting on each side of bottom of shaft
and air connections are made.
Article 14. That when a miner is prevented from work by reason of
his switch not being laid in his turn or through neglect o f the com
pany, or in the event of a fall of rock in his place not otherwise pro
vided for, he shall notify the mine foreman and if the same is not
remedied at the expiration of twenty-four hours, he shall proceed as
in paragraph A and B of the interstate agreement; and provided fur
ther, that if any miner or mine laborer absents himself from work for
more than one day without a justifiable cause, the operator shall have
the right to fill such vacancy, but if the miner or mine laborer believes
that he is unjustly dealt with, he shall have the right to appeal to the
pit committee for investigation.
Article 15. That the price for blacksmithing for the ensuing year
be based on 1 per cent of the gross earnings o f the miner. Where
squibs are used the price shall be 25 cents per month.
Article 16. That the wage of blacksmiths at mines where construc
tion work is being done shall be $2.83 per day, and the wage of mine
blacksmith at mines where repairs and sharpening of tools only is being
done shall be $2.60 per day, based on an eight-hour day.
256
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Article 17. The prices for draw slate shall be:
24 cents per lineal yard where draw slate is 6 inches thick.
38 cents per lineal yard where draw slate is 9 inches thick.
52 cents per lineal yard where draw slate is 12 inches thick.
9 cents increase for each additional three inches in thickness.
These prices are for draw slate when it is necessary for the miner to
handle same across full width of room when room is standard width.
A proportionate price per yard based on actual width of room where
room is less than standard width. When draw slate is less than 6
inches thick the price to be determined by miner and mine foreman.
(Except Osage and Pleasanton.)?
Article 18. That the price for bottom brushing shall be $1.12 per
yard in Cherokee and Crawford counties, Kansas, and Barton County,
Missouri.
Article 19. That all road and sump coal be placed on a check num
ber and when wrecked cars are allowed they are to be deducted from
the coal on such check number. At the end of each month the coal to
be divided between the local union and the company, two-thirds to the
local union and one-third to the company, the company to pay all labor
in cleaning and loading such coal.
Article 20. When there is not enough cars at the mine to run with
in the morning, that no local rule concerning this question be effective
until 30 minutes after starting time, giving the company 30 minutes
after starting time to get empties in at the mine to run with before the
mines shall be thrown idle, but.in no event shall the thirty minutes be
taken advantage o f when the company knows that no empties shall be
received that day, and when the company knows that no cars will be
received the men shall be notified either at the office, company store,
or at the mine.
Article 21. It is agreed that on the first Monday in March, 1906,
that representatives of the Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators’
Association and the representatives of District 14, U. M. W. of A.-,
parties to this agreement, respectively, shall meet on that day in Pitts
burg and go into session and continue in session to agree upon and
formulate a new contract, and all clauses that can not be amicably set
tled between the operators and miners’ representatives shall be settled
by a board of arbitration, consisting of two operators chosen by the
operators and two miners chosen by the miners, these four to choose
the fifth member o f this board, and the decision of this board shall be
final and binding upon all parties to said arbitration.
W e, the undersigned, respective parties to said contract, have read
the same and fully approve of the conditions contained therein and
bind ourselves to the faithful performance of the same.
In behalf of the Southwestern Interstate Coal Operators’ Association:
B . F. B u s h , President.
S. W . K n i f f i n , Secretary.
In behalf of the miners:
J . G . R ic h a r d s o n ,
J o h n B il l in g s ,
John L enon.
AGREEMENTS BETWEEN EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES.
257
APPENDIX.
SHOT-FIRERS.
In regard to shot-firers, the men who fire shots will be paid daily for
men actually at work in the mine, or it may be agreed upon between
the employer and the shot-firer that the enumeration of the men
employed in the mine may be taken on the 1st, 7th, 15th, 2 0 th, and
25th, and an average taken from the numbers so ascertained, the enu
meration on the 15th to apply to both the first and last days of the
month.
STOWING DIRT, AND ONE-SIDED ENTRIES, OSAGE COUNTY.
Miners are required to stow dirt in any gob-road in the entry in
which they work. Where necessary to move dirt from the entry in
which the dirt is made, the miner will go to any gob-road within 700
feet, and stow the dirt. I f there is no gob-room within 700 feet, the
miner will wheel the dirt to the shaft bottom, provided the distance
does not exceed 700 feet, under ordinary conditions.
That one-sided entries mentioned in the contract scale for Osage
County, means where rib is cut; and such entries are entitled to $1.33
per yard, and when all the coal is taken out by room and entry, men
working through upon each other is short entry, and shall be paid for
at the rate of $1.15 per yard, the miners to have the coal. Whenever
the rib is cut $1.33 must be paid, as per contract.
RECENT REPORTS OF STATE BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS.
MASSACHUSETTS.
Thirty-third Annual Report o f the Bureau o f Statistics o f Labor.
March, 1903. Chas. F. Pidgin, chief, v, 260 pp.
The present report consists of four parts, as follows: Part I, annual
report of the chief to the legislature, 1 2 pages; Part II, labor chro
nology (for year ending September 30, 1902), embracing strikes and
lockouts, wages, hours of labor, trades unions, and social and indus
trial benefits, 67 pages; Part III, mercantile wages and salaries, 49
pages; Part IV , sex in industry, 127 pages.
S t r i k e s a n d L o c k o u t s . — Under this title is presented a chronolog
ical record, by cities and towns, of the 276 labor disagreements occur
ring in the State during the year ending September 30, 1902. O f the
total number of strikes, 105 were for increase or against decrease of
wages, 25 were for reduction of working hours, 36 were for both
wages and hours, 31 were for wages, hours, and some other grievance,
and 79 were for causes into which the question of wages or hours did
not enter. Considering the results of strikes, 76 succeeded, 23 suc
ceeded partly, 42 were compromised, 106 failed, 5 were still pending
at the close of the period, and for 24 the results were not stated. For
all strikes, the approximate number of strikers involved was 42,400,
and the number of working days lost 569,400. In the case of 2 strikes,
the duration was 5 months and 1,770 work people were involved.
W a g e s . — Chronologically arranged by cities and towns, there is here
shown the principal instances reported of increases in wages through
out the State during the year covered by the report. Wherever pos
sible to do so the number of operatives affected by the changes in rates
and the extent of change are given.
H o u r s o f L a b o r . —The information relative to hours of labor
presents chronologically for the different cities and towns of the State
the action of organized labor upon the question of. reducing the num
ber of hours per day of working time. The changes in working time
secured are given, showing the establishment or class of employment
affected, together with the number of hours established under the new
arrangement, or the special change in working time which was insti
tuted.
258
REPORTS OF STATE BUREAUS OF LABOR---- MASSACHUSETTS.
259
T r a d e U n i o n s . —The new organizations of labor formed during
the year, as far as reported to the bureau, together with the number
of original members when known, are presented chronologically by
cities and towns under this head. Also, there is presented a statement
of the action of associations of organized labor with respect to the
principal subjects to which they gave their indorsement or condemna
tion by resolution during the year. The subject of the union label
was one which received unusual attention by numerous unions.
S o c i a l a n d I n d u s t r i a l B e n e f i t s . —This section of the report
includes brief abstracts of the action of employers for the benefit of their
employees, or to improve the conditions of employment. Employees’
benefit associations have been considered, as have also bequests or
gifts from whatever source if intended primarily to improve industrial
conditions. The information is presented chronologically by cities and
towns.
M e r c a n t i l e W a g e s a n d S a l a r i e s . — Statistics of wages and sal
aries paid to persons employed in what is generally designated “ trade”
is presented in this part of the report. The investigation was limited
to the city of Boston, and to that part of it usually called the*u con
gested business section,” and embraced 36 kinds of business represented
by 455 establishments. Individuals owned 241 of the establishments,
firms 155, and corporations 59. The number of persons employed in
the establishments considered was 9,454, of whom 5,124 were males
and 4,330 females. O f the total persons, 21.03 per cent were employed
in establishments owned by individuals, 39.26 per cent in those owned
by firms, and 39.71 per cent in those owned by corporations. Of the
36 kinds of business enumerated, department stores employed the
largest number of persons, viz, 2,373, or 25.10 per cent of the total.
Graded and average weekly wages and salaries are presented by sex,
kind of business, and branches of occupations; also, average weekly
wages and salaries, by sex and occupations, without regard to kind of
business.
S e x i n I n d u s t r y . —This presentation is intended to show the
numerical representation of women in the different branches of gain
ful occupations in the State, and to compare their number with the
numbei of males employed in the same branches, as well as to con
sider those branches in which men only are employed, and those in
which women only are employed. A brief history of the entrance of
women into the industrial field, with a table showing at national and
State census periods the number of females and males employed in
gainful occupations from 1831 to 1900, introduces the chapter.
260
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
A summary of the number of males and females engaged in the
different branches of gainful employment covered by the investigation
is shown in the table which follows:
NUM BER AND
PER
CENT OF
M A L E S A N D F E M A L E S IN G A IN F U L
K I N D O F E M P L O Y M E N T , 1900.
EM PLOYM EN TS, B Y
P er cen t.
K in d o f e m p lo y m e n t .
M a le s.
F e m a le s.
T o ta l.
M ales.
G o v e r n m e n t .........................................................................
P r o f e s s io n a l.........................................................................
D o m e s tic s e r v i c e ...............................................................
P e rs o n a l s e r v ic e .................................................................
T r a d e .....................................................................................
T r a n s p o r t a t io n ...................................................................
A g r i c u l t u r e .........................................................................
T h e fis h e r ie s .........................................................................
M a n u f a c t u r e s .....................................................................
M i n i n g ...................................................................................
L a b o r e r s .................................................................................
A p p r e n t i c e s .........................................................................
C h ild r e n a t w o r k ...............................................................
17,240
23,846
14,782
25,724
129,875
69,680
37,281
8,813
349,546
2,367
98,758
5,320
3,223
2,846
19,923
79,265
19,762
24,142
368
275
18
142,951
T o t a l ...........................................................................
786,45$
F e m a le s.
2.19
3.03
1.88
3.27
16.51
8.86
4.7 4
1.12
44.45
.30
12.56
.6 8
.41
0 .9 /
6.81
27.09
6.75
8.25
.13
.09
.01
48.85
207
567
2,312
20,086
43,768
94.047
45,486
154,017
70.048
37,556
8,831
492,497
2,367
98,965
6,887
5,535
292,636
1,079,090
100.00
100.00
.07
.19
.7 9
From the above it is seen that of the total females in gainful employ
ment the greatest number was found in manufactures, namely, 142,951,
or 48.85 per cent, while 79,265, or 27.09 per cent were in domestic
service. Female apprentices numbered 567, or 0.19 per cent, and
children at work 2,312, or 0.79 per cent.
A consideration of the descent of the total (1,079,090) males and
females in gainful employment, shows that 403,231, or 37.37 per cent,
were native born, native descent; 233,643, or 21.65 per cent, were native
born, foreign descent; 159,616, or 14.79 per cent, were foreign born;
129,102, or 11.96 per cent, were foreign born, naturalized; and 153,498,
or 14.23 per cent, were foreign born, alien. O f the 292,636 females,
only 85,733, or 29.30 per cent, were native born, native descent;
80,304, or 27.44 per cent, were native born, foreign descent; and
126,599, or 43.26 per cent, were foreign born. As to the conjugal
condition of females in gainful employment, it was found that less than
one-eighth of the total were married.
RECENT FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS.
AUSTRIA.
D ie Arbeitseinstellungen und Aussperrungen in Osterreieh wahrend
des Jahres 1902. Herausgegeben vom k. k. Arbeitsstatistischen
Amte im Handelsministerium. 446 pp
This volume contains the ninth annual report of the Austrian Gov
ernment on strikes and lockouts. The information, which is com
piled by the Austrian labor bureau, is given in the form of an analysis
and seven tables showing (1 ) strikes according to geographical distri
bution, (2 ) strikes according to industries, (3) general summary of
strikes, (4) comparative summary of strikes for each of the years 1894
to 1902, (5) summary of strikes for all the years 1894 to 1902, ( 6 )
details for each strike in 1902, (7) details for each lockout in 1902.
An appendix gives a brief review of industrial and labor conditions
in the leading countries of the world, statistics of trade associations
in Austria, and notes concerning the strikes reported in the preceding
pages.
S t r i k e s i n 1902.—While the number of strikes in 1902 was slightly
above the average for the period beginning with 1894, the number of
strikers and the number of establishments affected was somewhat below
the average for the same period. There were 284,046 days lost in 1902
on account of strikes, or 126,302 days more than in the preceding year.
During the year there were 264 strikes, which affected 1,184 estab
lishments and involved 37,471 strikers and 6,354 other employees who
were thrown out of employment on account of strikes. The strikers
represented 43.98 per cent of the total number of employees in the
establishments affected. The average number of strikers in each
strike was 141. O f the total strikers, 90.5 per cent were males and
9.5 per cent were females. After the strikes 35,395 strikers were
reemployed and 1,431 new employees took places formerly occupied
by strikers.
261
262
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The following table shows, by industries, the number of strikes,
establishments affected, strikers and others thrown out of employment,
etc., during the year 1902:
S T R IK E S , B Y IN D U S T R IE S , 1902.
S trik ers.
63
70
33,011
13,573
41.1
993
13,229
167
24
18
15
80’
68
15
2,739
2,188
11,863
1,819
741
1,013
66.4
33.9
8 .5
292
48
133
1,605
673
783
206
59
163
20
177
1,769
1,312
74.2
81
1,106
151
8
34
17
34
614
6,795
282
2,599
45.9
38.3
35
274
161
2,476
85
46
T r a n s p o r ta tio n ...........................
O th e r in d u s tr ie s .........................
2
22
4
7
2
4
22
6
5
7
1
7
157
5
173
47
85
156
10
19
73
1
44
2,009
1,825
726
559
961
16,064
177
1,076
2,756
30
29
927
173
584
430
626
10,476
114
863
1,880
30
65.9
46.1
9 .5
80.4
76.9
65.1
65.2
64.4
80.2
68.2
100.0
T o t a l ...................................
264
1,184
85,206
37,471
44.0
In d u s tr y .
M in in g ...........................................
S to n e , glass, c h in a , a n d
e a r th e n w a r e .........................
M e ta ls a n d m e t a llic g o o d s . .
M a c h in e r y a n d in s tr u m e n t s .
W o o d e n an d ca ou tch ou c
g o o d s .........................................
L e a t h e r , h id e s , bru s h es, a n d
fe a t h e r s .....................................
T e x t i l e s .........................................
P a p e r h a n g in g a n d u p h o l
s te r in g .......................................
C l o t h i n g .......................................
P a p e r .............................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s ...........................
H o t e ls , resta u ran ts, e t c ..........
C h e m ic a l p r o d u c t s ...................
B u ild in g t r a d e s .........................
P r in t in g a n d p u b lis h in g ___
C om m erce..... .......................
T o ta l
e m p lo y
ees.
O thers
t h r o w n S trik ers N e w e m
P er c e n t
p lo y e e s
out of
re e m
o f to ta l
a fte r
e m p lo y p lo y e d .
e m p lo y
strik e s .
m e n t.
ees.
Strikes.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
N um
b er.
20
4
6
302
3,983
35
148
6,354
29
855
167
560
374
583
10,002
85
825
1,852
30
35,395
39
19
56
20
345
10
58
27
1,431
The mining industry had the largest number of strikes (63) and
strikers (13,573) in 1902. Next in importance with regard to the num
ber of strikers involved was the group of building trades, with 10,476.
O f all the strikers during the year, 64.18 per cent were engaged in
these two groups of industries.
In the presentation of strikes by causes the cause and not the strike
is taken as the unit, and since several causes frequently operate to
bring about one strike, the number of causes usually exceeds the num
ber of strikes. Thus the 264 strikes in 1902 were produced by 323
causes.
263
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- AUSTRIA
The following table shows the causes of the strikes for 1902, by
industries:
C A U SE S O F S T R IK E S , B Y IN D U S T R IE S , 1902.
[S trik es d u e t o t w o o r m o r e ca u s e s h a v e b e e n t a b u la te d u n d e r e a c h ca u s e ; h e n c e th e to ta ls f o r th is
t a b le d o n o t a g r e e w it h th o s e f o r th e p r e c e d in g ta b le s.]
I n d u s tr y .
F or
F or
d is
F or
A g a in s t A g a in s t
A g a in s t F o r in c h a n g e
A g a in s t
ch arge o b n o x
d is
redu c
r e d u c cre a se
in
o b n o x O th e r
o
f
fo r e
t io n
T o ta l,
io u s
charge
tio n o f
m e th o d
of
m en,
io u s causes.
tre a t o f e m
of
w a g e s. w a g e s. o f p a y
w ork
ru les.
h o u rs.
m e n t. p lo ye e s .
m en,
m en t.
e tc.
M in in g ...................................
S to n e ,'g la s s , .c h in a , a n d
e a r t h e n w a r e ...................
M eta ls a n d
m e t a llic
g o o d s .................................
M a c h in e r y a n d in s tr u
m e n ts .................................
W ooden
and
caou t
c h o u c g o o d s ...................
L e a th e r , h id e s , bru sh es,
a n d f e a t h e r s ...................
T e x t i l e s .................................
P a p e r h a n g in g a n d u p
h o ls t e r in g .......................
C l o t h i n g ...............................
P a p e r .....................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s ...................
H o te ls , resta u ra n ts, e t c . .
C h e m ic a l p r o d u c t s ...........
B u ild in g t r a d e s .................
P r in tin g a n d p u b lis h in g .
C o m m e r c e ...........................
16
18
1
1
2
6
1
2
8
11
1
1
29
3
1
22
5
1
7
68
10
1
6
1
7
1
1
2
8
1
7
3
1
6
28
1
4
3
15
1
3
1
4
1
8
3
2
1
6
11
45
2
5
2
6
2
1
2
1
1
25
5
13
3
6
26
8
6
7
1
1
1
1
14
1
5
2
3
12
O th e r in d u s t r i e s ...............
28
1
1
1
2
1
7
1
2
12
2
1
1
2
4
2
1
127
17
1
1
4
4
1
Transportation..............
T o t a l...........................
3
19
1
52
2
9
2
1
1
1
37
25
31
3
323
As in previous years, the most frequent causes of strikes were
the demands for increased wages and for reduction of hours, the
former having been one of the causes of 39.32 per cent, and the latter
of 16.10 per cent of all the strikes.
The following table shows the results of strikes, by industries:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , B Y IN D U S T R IE S , 1902.
S trik ers.
S trik es.
In d u s tr y .
M i n i n g ...........................................................
S to n e , glass, c h in a , a n d e a r th e n
w a r e ...........................................................
M e ta ls a n d m e t a llic g o o d s ...................
M a c h in e r y a n d i n s t r u m e n t s ...............
W o o d e n a n d c a o u t c h o u c g o o d s .........
L e a th e r , h id e s , bru s h es, a n d fe a th e rs
T e x t i l e s .........................................................
P a p e r h a n g in g a n d u p h o ls te r in g . . .
C l o t h i n g .......................................................
P a p e r .............................................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s ...........................................
H o te ls , resta u ran ts, e t c .........................
C h e m ic a l p r o d u c t s ...................................
B u ild in g t r a d e s .........................................
P r in tin g a n d p u b l i s h i n g .......................
C om m erce.........................................
S u c
S u c
ceeded
ceeded.
p a r tly .
T o ta l.
7
12
44
63
1,070
3,469
9,034
13,573
3
5
2
5
1
7
2
11
1
14
9
7
7
1
16
7
4
6
8
6
11
252
191
250
788
129
934
4
94
236
146
80
74
363
29
615
100
1,473
314
617
444
79
1,302
7
3
4
2
2
10
2
4
2
1
24
18
15
20
8
34
2
22
4
7
• 2
4
22
6
5
7
1
273
73
558
430
196
9,185
28
798
470
30
39
1,819
741
1,013
1,312
282
2,599
29
927
173
584
430
626
10,476
114
863
1,880
30
5
1
T r a n s p o r ta tio n ...........................................
O th e r i n d u s t r i e s .......................................
2
T o t a l ...................................................
52
S u c
S u c
F a ile d . T o ta l.
F a ile d .
ceeded. ceed ed
p a r tly .
103
3
2
7
3
1
3
109
264
977
30
1,348
5,162
19,739
26
430
314
56
65
62
12,570
37,471
264
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
O f the total number of strikes in 1902, 19.70 per cent succeeded,
39.01 per cent succeeded partly, and 41.29 per cent failed. O f the
total number of strikers 13.77 per cent were engaged in strikes which
succeeded, 52.68 per cent in strikes which succeeded partly, and 33.55
per cent in strikes which failed.
The following table shows the results of the strikes in 1902, accord
ing to their duration:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , B Y D U R A T IO N , 1902.
S trik es.
S trikers.
S u c
S u c c e e d e d
F a ile d .
ceeded.
p a rtly .
D a y s o f d u r a tio n .
1 t o 5 ...............................................................
6 t o 1 0 .......................: ....................................
11 t o 1 5 ...........................................................
16 t o 2 0 ...........................................................
21 t o 2 5 ...........................................................
26 t o 3 0 ...........................................................
31 t o 3 5 ...........................................................
36 t o 4 0 ...........................................................
41 t o 5 0 ...........................................................
51 t o 100.........................................................
101 or o v e r ..... ....................................
29
10
6
1
3
1
T o t a l ...................................................
52
1
1
T o ta l.
S u c
S u c
c e e d e d F a ile d .
ceed ed .
p a r tly .
43
23
13
7
5
3
2
2
3
2
74
12
5
3
3
2
2
1
2
4
1
146
45
24
11
11
6
4
4
6
6
1
2,723
597
1,555
14
43
23
103
109
264
5,162
59
148
T o ta l.
6,409
7,845
744
1,279
2,907
70
45
55
219
166
9,138
1,160
152
98
50
129
963
108
62
691
19
18,270
9,602
2,451
1,391
8,000
222
1,008
222
429
857
19
19,739
12,670
37,471
S t r i k e s d u r i n g N i n e Y e a r s . —The following table shows the num
ber and extent of the strikes in Austria for the period during which
the ministry of commerce has published reports on strikes:
S T R IK E S , B Y Y E A R S , 1894 T O 1902.
Y ear.
1894................................................................................................
1895................................................................................................
1896................................................................................................
1897...............................................................................................
1898...............................................................................................
1899...............................................................................................
1900...............................................................................................
1901...............................................................................................
1902...............................................................................................
S trik es.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
Strikers.
172
209
305
246
255
311
303
270
264
2,542
874
1,499
851
885
1,330
1,003
719
1,184
67,061
28,652
66,234
38,467
39,658
54,763
105,128
24,870
37,471
P er cen t
o f s trik
ers o f
D a y s lo st.
t o ta l e m
p lo y e e s .
69.47
69.68
65.72
59.03
59.86
69.23
67.29
38.47
43.98
795,416
300,348
899,939
368,098
323,619
1,029,937
3,483,963
157,744
284,046
265
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----AUSTRIA,
The number o f strikes and the number of strikers for each year of
the nine-year period are shown, by industries, in the following two
tables:
S T R IK E S , B Y IN D U S T R IE S , 1894 T O 1902.
M in in g .
S ton e ,
glass,
c h in a ,
and
e a r th e n
w are.
M e ta ls
and
m e t a llic
goods.
M a c h in
ery an d
in s tru
m e n ts .
W ooden
and
caou t
ch ou c
goods.
T e x tile s .
B u ild in g
tra des.
1894.................
1895.................
1896.................
1897 ...............
1898................
1899.................
1900.................
1901.................
1902.................
13
4
11
25
29
26
40
40
63
22
29
29
27
27
21
19
29
24
23
37
33
26
26
32
26
22
18
7
6
14
20
13
24
13
15
15
23
38
55
27
28
35
34
27
20
34
29
43
28
28
84
56
28
34
11
24
42
34
49
33
23
24
22
39
42
78
69
55
56
92
85
68
172
209
305
246
255
311
303
270
264
T o ta l.
251
227
243
127
287
364
262
674
2,335
Y ear.
S T R IK E R S ,
BY IN D U S T R IE S ,
O th er.
T o ta l.
1894 T O 1902.
M in in g .
S ton e ,
glass,
c h in a ,
and
ea rth en
w are.
M e ta ls
and
m e t a llic
goods.
M a c h in
ery an d
in s tr u
m e n ts .
W ooden
and
ca ou t
ch ou c
goods.
T e x tile s .
B u ild in g
tra d e s.
.
.
.
.
.
..
.
.
.
22,986
626
30,120
3,632
7,046
3,477
78,791
7,496
13,573
6,415
9,943
3,217
3,053
4,491
2,112
574
1,698
1,819
2,762
3,694
2,973
1,568
991
2,459
1,977
1,393
741
194
253
2,058
4,689
2,471
1,356
519
889
1,013
9,793
2,336
5,972
1,372
1,318
3,198
1,391
2,925
1,312
6,317
4,085
9,791
11,275
3,171
30,249
12,010
2,676
2,599
14,975
5,361
5,434
4,995
13,961
7,842
4,849
3,214
10,476
3,629
2,354
6,669
7,883
6,209
4,070
5,017
4,580
5,938
67,061
28,652
66,234
38,467
39,658
54,763
105,128
24,870
37,471
T o ta l.
167,747
33,322
18,548
13,442
29,617
82,172
71,107
46,349
462,304
Y e a r.
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
O th er.
T o ta l.
The causes of strikes for the nine-year period are shown in the fol
lowing table, the cause and not the strike being made the unit:
C A U SESJD F S T R I K E S , 1894 T O 1902.
[S trik es d u e t o t w o o~ m o r e ca u ses h a v e b e e n ta b u la te d u n d e r e a c h c a u s e ; h e n c e t h e to ta ls f o r th is
t a b le d o n o t a g r e e w it h t h o s e f o r t h e p r e c e d in g ta b le s.]
Y ea r.
F o r d is
F or
c h a r g e A g a in s t A g a in s t
A g a in s t
chan ge
A g a in s t
F or in
F o r r e o f fo r e o b n o x
d is
obnox
redu c
i n m e th
m en,
d u c t io n
cre a se o f
io u s
ch arg e
t io n o f
od of
io u s
tre a t
w a g es.
o f h o u rs. w o r k
o f em
w ages.
ru le s.
pay
m en,
m e n t. p lo y e e s .
m e n t.
e tc.
O th e r
cau s e s.
T o ta l.
1 8 9 4 ...............
18 9 5 ...............
18 9 6 ...............
1 8 9 7 ...............
1 8 9 8 ...............
1 8 99...............
1 9 00...............
1 9 0 1 ...............
1 9 0 2 ...............
23
19
28
26
33
29
26
28
28
53
89
140
116
124
143
152
116
127
5
6
8
7
8
5
6
7
12
19
31
67
47
54
73
69
46
52
12
22
32
26
29
17
13
28
9
5
2
5
13
9
5
10
4
2
34
31
40
32
36
40
36
36
37
16
8
12
18
20
18
14
15
25
32
37
34
45
39
40
53
33
31
199
245
366
330
352
370
379
313
323
T o t a l.
240
1,060
64
458
188
55
322
146
344
2,877
266
BULLETIN OP THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The following table shows, for both strikes and strikers, during each
year of the period, the results expressed in percentages:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , 1894 T O 1902.
S trik es.
Y ear.
Strikers.
P er cen t P er cen t
P er cen t
N u m ber.
su c
su cceed
N u m ber.
fa ile d .
c e e d e d . e d p a r tly .
P er cen t P er cen t
P er ce n t
su cceed
su c
fa ile d .
c e e d e d . e d p a r tly .
18 91.................................
18 95.................................
18 96.................................
1897.................................
1 8 98.................................
1 8 99.................................
19 00.................................
19 01.................................
19 02.................................
172
209
305
246
255
311
303
270
264
25.00
26.79
20.98
17.48
18.82
15.43
20.13
20.74
19.70
27.91
24.88
36.40
36.99
41.18
45.02
44.89
36.30
39.01
47.09
48.33
42.62
45.53
40.00
39.55
34.98
42.96
41.29
67,061
28,652
66,234
38,467
39,658
54,763
105,128
24,870
37,471
9.15
12.81
4.60
15.69
8.36
10.21
4.65
20.13
13.77
37.31
60.69
62.80
47. »1
66.46
71.99
85.54
47.83
52.68
53.54
26.50
32.60
36.50
25.18
17.80
9.81
32.04
33.55
T o t a l ...................
2,335
20.17
37.86
41.97
462,304
9.27
62.67
28.06
L o c k o u t s . —There were 8 lockouts reported in 1902, 1 each being
due to the observance of Labor day (May 1 ), to the arbitrary reduc
tion of hours by employees, to the demand for a nine-hour day, to the
refusal of employees to consent to a change in the method of payment,
2 to the demand for reinstatement of discharged employees, and 2 to
the employees leaving the factory without permission of the employers.
The following table contains statistics of lockouts for the period 1894
to 1902:
L O C K O U T S, B Y Y E A R S , 1894 T O 1902.
L ock
ou ts.
Y ear.
1894.................................................................................................
1895..................................................................................................
1896..................................................................................................
1897..................................................................................................
1898.................................................................................................
1899.................................................................................................
1900..................................................................................................
1901..................................................................................................
1902........................................... ......................................................
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts
in v o lv e d .
P e rs o n s
lo c k e d
o u t.
P er cen t
o f per
son s
lo ck e d
out of
t o ta l e m
p lo y e e s .
P e rs o n s
lo c k e d
out and
reem
p lo y e d .
8
10
11
17
211
12
2,317
5,445
1,712
51.25
79.52
54.40
2,183
4,589
1,647
5
10
3
8
38
58
3
9
3,457
4,036
302
1,050
60.96
75.81
70.40
49.90
3,448
3,703
302
1,003
FRANCE.
Statistique des Greves et des Recours a la Conciliation et a VArbitrage
Survenus Pendcmt VAnnee 1903. Direction du Travail, Ministere du
Commerce, de l’lndustrie, des Postes et des Telegraphes. xvi, 575 pp.
This is the thirteenth of a series of annual reports on strikes and concil
iation and arbitration issued by the French labor bureau. The informa
tion is presented in the same form as that contained in previous reports:
S t r i k e s . —During the year 1903 there were 567 strikes, involving
3,246 establishments, 123,151 strikers, and 11,268 persons thrown out
of work on account of strikes. O f the strikers, 87,283 were men,
26,501 were women, and 9,367 were children. The strikes caused a
267
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- FRANCE.
total loss of 2,243,323 working days by strikers and 198,621 by other
employees thrown out of work, or a total of 2,441,944 working days.
In 1902 there were 512 strikes, in which 212,704 strikers were involved
and 9,461 other employees were affected, causing an aggregate loss of
4,675,081 working days. The large number of strikers and days lost
in 1903 is due to a general strike of textile workers in that year, which
alone involved 75,676 strikers and caused a loss of 1,783,015 working
days. The average number of days lost per striker in 1903 was 18.
O f the 567 strikes in 1903, 449 involved but 1 establishment each,
39 involved from 2 to 5 establishments, 20 from 6 to 10 establishments,
29 from 11 to 25 establishments, 17 from 26 to 50 establishments, and
5 from 51 to 1 0 0 establishments. O f the remaining strikes 7 involved
over 1 0 0 establishments each, and for 1 the number of establishments
was not reported.
In 416 strikes, all or a part of the striking employees were organized.
The employers were organized in 218 strikes. Ten workingmen’s
unions and 2 employers’ associations were organized during the prog
ress of or immediately following strikes. In 60 strikes regular aid
was given by labor organizations to their striking members.
O f the 567 strikes, 1 2 2 , involving 12,526 strikers, succeeded; 2 2 2
strikes, involving 89,736 strikers, succeeded partly, and 223 strikes,
involving 20,899 strikers, failed. In 225 strikes, the striking employ
ees worked by the hour, day, week, or month; in 2 1 1 , by the piece,
and in the remaining 131, by both time and piece.
The two tables following show, by groups of industries, the number of
strikes, strikers, and establishments involved, according to the results
of strikes; also the days of work lost by all employees and the number
of strikers per 1 ,0 0 0 working people in each group of industries:
S T R IK E S A N D E S T A B L IS H M E N T S I N V O L V E D , B Y G R O U P S O F IN D U S T R IE S , 1903.
S u cceeded
p a r tly .
S ucceeded.
In d u s tr y .
Strikes.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
5
3
2
1
2
4
15
41
3
6
299
3
12
1
2
4
15
45
10
20
T o ta l.
F a ile d .
E s ta b
lis h
m e n ts.
S trikes.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
Strikes.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
S trikes.
7
11
4
6
4
7
10
67
3
8
6
* 5
24
1
9
205
11
19
343
4
13
96
486
84
28
68
5
72
200
22
2
9
3
12
2
12
13
65
5
13
4
2
35
1
11
2
9
7
104
2
22
43
112
36
17
39
2
49
1
11
14
23
9
19
8
23
38
173
11
27
10
7
74
3
20
506
23
38
448
8
39
154
643
130
65
107
7
155
202
33
A g r ic u lt u r e , fo r e s try , a n d fish
eries ...................................................
M in in g ...................................................
Q u a r r y i n g ...........................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s ...................................
C h e m ic a l i n d u s t r i e s .......................
P a p e r a n d p r i n t i n g .........................
H id e s a n d le a t h e r .............................
T e x t i l e s .................................................
C lo th in g , c le a n in g , e t c .................
W o o d w o r k i n g .......... ........................
B u ild in g ( w o o d w o r k ) ...................
M eta l r e f i n i n g ...................................
M e ta l w o r k i n g ...................................
P r e c io u s -m e ta l w o r k .......................
S to n e , e a r th e n w a r e , glass, e t c . .
B u ild in g (s to n e , tile , e x c a v a t
in g , r o o fin g , e t c ., w o r k ) .............
T ra n s p o r ta tio n a n d h a n d l i n g . . .
15
1
34
1
9
15
38
72
25
25
233
189
17
17
79
77
51
57
350
338
T o t a l...........................................
122
556
222
. 2,078
223
612
567
3,246
268
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
S T R IK E R S A N D D A Y S O F W O R K LOST B Y A L L E M P L O Y E E S T H R O W N
S T R IK E S IN 1903, B Y G R O U P S O F IN D U S T R IE S .
OUT OF W O RK B Y
S trik ers in strik e s
w h ic h —
S trik e rs D a y s o f
p e r 1,000 w o r k lo s t
w o r k i n g b y a ll e m
T o ta l
p lo y e e s
strik ers. p e o p le
S u c
S u c
in e a c h
th ro w n
c e e d e d F a ile d .
ceeded.
out of
in d u s
p a r tly .
w ork.
tr y . ( « )
I n d u s tr y .
1,399
1,308
1,151
787
799
371
2,504
63,408
467
1,281
747
1,849
2,287
1,225
402
198
1,066
144
660
74
302
1,650
8,440
323
474
305
1,092
2,135
17
560
3,512
2,452
1,385
1,667
942
1,285
5,475
75,676
918
1.941
1,052
2.941
5,422
1,254
962
1.0 5
15.76
24.90
2.77
8.87
10.64
32.40
118.71
2.1 0
8.63
498
2,569
2,656
7,095
1,360
2,089
4,514
11,753
c10.68
18.88
38,296
72,108
12,526
89,736
20,889
123,151
d28.71
2,441,944
A g r ic u lt u r e , fo r e s try , a n d fis h e r ie s ...........................
M i n i n g ..... ............................................................................
Q u a r r y i n g ...........................................................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s ...................................................................
C h e m ic a l i n d u s t r i e s .......................................................
P a p e r a n d p r i n t i n g .........................................................
H id e s a n d le a t h e r .............................................................
T e x t i l e s .................................................................................
C lo th in g , c le a n in g , e t c ...................................................
W o o d w o r k i n g ...................................................................
B u ild in g ( w o o d w o r k ) .....................................................
M eta l r e fin in g .....................................................................
M eta l w o r k i n g ...................................................................
P r e c io u s -m e ta l w o r k .......................................................
S to n e e a r th e n w a r e , glass, e tc .........................
B u ild in g (s to n e , t ile , e x c a v a t in g , ro o fin g , e t c .,
w o r k ) .............................................
T ra n s p o r ta tio n a n d h a n d lin g .....................................
1,915
78
90
220
69
612
1,321
3,828
128
186
T o t a l...........................................................................
1,000
12
19,827
49,088
17,554
8,136
12,533
13,028
71,934
1,783,015
20,818
92,120
15,398
94,726
62,449
29,908
41,006
( ? .2 8
13.04
61.33
6.51
aB a s e d o n t h e ce n s u s o f 1896.
&I n c lu d e d in b u ild in g (s to n e , tile , e x c a v a t in g , r o o fin g , e t c ., w o r k ) .
cI n c lu d in g b u ild in g ( w o o d w o r k ) . dB a se d o n t h e to ta l n u m b e r o f in d u s tr ia l w o r k in g p e o p le i n F r a n c e .
O f the 17 groups of industries above shown, 3, namely, textiles,
metal working, and transportation and handling together furnished
over one-half of the total number of strikes during the year. With
regard to the number of strikers, however, over three-fifths the total
number were in the textile industry.
The strike data are shown by causes in the two tables following:
S T R IK E S , B Y CA U SES, 1903.
[S trik es d u e t o t w o o r m o r e c a u s e s h a v e b e e n t a b u la te d u n d e r e a c h ca u s e ; h e n c e t h e to ta ls f o r th is
t a b le d o n o t a g r e e w it h th o s e f o r t h e p r e c e d in g t a b le s .]
Succeeded
p a r tly .
S u cceeded.
C au se o r o b je c t .
S trikes.
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s ....................
A g a in s t r e d u c t io n o f w a g e s ........
F o r r e d u c t io n o f h o u r s o f la b o r
w it h p re s e n t o r in c r e a s e d
w a g e s .................................................
R e la t in g t o t im e a n d m e t h o d o f
p a y m e n t, e t c ., o f w a g e s ............
F o r o r a g a in s t m o d ific a t io n o f
c o n d it io n s o f w o r k ......................
A g a in s t p i e c e w o r k ..........................
F o r o r a g a in s t m o d ific a t io n o f
s h o p r u le s .........................................
F o r a b o lit io n o r r e d u c t io n o f fin es
A g a in s t d is c h a r g e o r f o r r e in
s ta te m e n t o f w o r k m e n , fo r e
m e n , o r d i r e c t o r s ........................
F o r d is c h a r g e o f w o r k m e n , fo r e
m e n , o r d ir e c t o r s ..........................
A g a in s t e m p lo y m e n t o f w o m e n .
F o r lim it a t io n o f n u m b e r o f
a p p r e n t i c e s ................................... .
R e la t in g t o d e d u c t io n s fr o m
w a g e s fo r s u p p o r t o f in s u r a n c e
a n d a id fu n d s ............................... .
O th e r c a u s e s .....................................
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
Strik es.
530
110
16
432
F a ile d .
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
S trik es.
1,375
34
108
19
T o ta l.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
457
20
S trikes.
284
58
E stab
lis h
m e n ts.
2,362
100
449
315
1,196
79
201
449
109
4
105
298
125
42
19
20
22
44
74
77
112
104
28
53
211
12
12
1
61
436
172
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- FRANCE,
269
S T R IK E R S A N D D A Y S O F W O R K L O S T B Y A L L E M P L O Y E E S T H R O W N O U T O F W O R K B Y
S T R IK E S IN 1903, B Y CAU SES.
[S trik es d u e t o t w o o r m o r e ca u ses h a v e b e e n t a b u la te d u n d e r e a c h ca u s e ; h e n c e t h e to ta ls fo r th is
t a b le d o n o t a g r e e w it h th o s e fo r t h e p r e c e d in g t a b le s .]
S trik ers in strik e s w h ic h —
C au se o r o b je c t .
S u c
ceeded.
S u c
ceeded
p a r tly .
T o ta l
strik ers.
D ays o f
w o r k lo s t
b y a ll e m
p lo y e e s
th row n
out o f
w ork .
9,529
941
86,595
6,522
1,838,970
180,611
F a ile d .
6,448
2,840
70,618
2,741
4,415
2,691
4,917
12,023
213,234
4,328
5,157
271
1,284
220
1,930
4,327
4,367
828
1,973
2,705
2,744
1,032
1,926
713
8,963
12,228
5,670
4,038
2,906
92,290
296,728
84,827
117,038
61,164
Against employment. nf w o m e n ____________ _________
2,824
2,189
737
1,877
2,799
F o r lim it a t io n o f n u m b e r o f a p p r e n t ic e s ...................
R e la t in g t o d e d u c t io n s fr o m w a g e s fo r s u p p o r t o f
in s u r a n c e a n d a id f u n d s ...............................................
O th er c a u s e s ...........................................................................
6,399
6,157
38
105
11,100
10,145
775
105
209,309
110,696
23,920
2,393
2,944
4,388
56
6,043
3,000
12,230
74,791
173,298
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .........................................................
Against r e d u c t io n o f w a g e s .............................................
F o r r e d u c t io n o f h o u r s o f la b o r w i t h p r e s e n t o r
in c r e a s e d w a g e s .................................................................
R e la t in g t o t im e a n d m e t h o d o f p a y m e n t, e t c ., o f
w ag es .....................................................................................
F o r o r a g a in s t m o d ific a t io n o f c o n d it io n s o f w o r k .
A g a in s t p i e c e w o r k ...............................................................
F o r o r a g a in s t m o d ific a t io n o f s h o p r u l e s .................
F o r a b o lit io n o r r e d u c t io n o f f i n e s ...............................
A g a in s t d is c h a r g e o r fo r r e in s ta te m e n t o f w o r k
m e n , fo r e m e n , o r d ir e c t o r s ...........................................
F o r d is c h a r g e o f w o r k m e n , fo r e m e n , o r d ir e c t o r s .
1,799
The most frequent causes of strikes during the 3^ear were wage dis
putes, the demands for increased wages, alone or in conjunction with
other demands, having figured in 284 strikes (50 per cent of the total
number of strikes for the year) involving 86,595 strikers (70 per cent
of the total number of strikers), and causing a loss of 1,838,970 work
ing days, which includes days lost by persons who were thrown out of
employment on account of strike. Sixty-six of these demands were
successful, for 6,448 strikers; 110 partly successful, for 70,618 strikers;
and 108, involving 9,529 strikers, failed.
The next two tables show, respectively, the results of strikes, by
duration, and the duration and results of strikes, by number of strikers
involved:
S T R IK E S A N D S T R IK E R S , B Y D U R A T IO N O F S T R IK E S , 1903.
Strikes.
D a y s o f d u r a tio n .
S trikers.
S u c
S u c
c e e d e d F a ile d .
ceed ed .
p a r tly .
T o ta l.
S u c
ceeded.
S u c
ceeded
p a r tly .
F a ile d .
T o ta l.
7 o r u n d e r .....................................
8 t o 15.............................................
16 t o 30...........................................
31 t o 100.........................................
101 o r o v e r ...................................
85
17
9
11
108
44
29
36
5
126
30
26
36
5
319
91
64
83
10
7,515
3,037
747
1,227
13,972
8,645
13,738
51,742
1,639
7,796
3,142
4,027
4,141
1,783
29,283
14,824
18,512
57,110
3,422
T o t a l...................................
122
222
223
567
12,526
89,736
20,889
123,151
12425— N o . 56— 05------ 18
270
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF
LABOR.
D U R A T IO N A N D R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , B Y N U M B E R O F S T R IK E R S IN V O L V E D , 1903.
Strik es.
S trik ers in v o lv e d .
D a y s o f d u r a t io n .
S uc
S uc
c e e d e d F a ile d .
ceeded.
p a r tly .
T o ta l.
7 or
un der.
8 t o 15. 16 t o 30.
31 to
100.
101 o r
over.
25 o r u n d e r .................................
26 t o 5 0 .........................................
51 t o 1 0 0 .......................................
101 t o 200.......................................
201 t o 5 0 0 .....................................
501 t o 1,000...................................
1,001 o r o v e r ...............................
36
34
18
17
14
3
39
51
41
27
42
12
10
83
52
40
21
18
7
2
158
137
99
65
74
22
12
103
85
55
36
37
2
1
19
18
19
15
10
9
1
15
12
8
6
15
3
5
20
19
16
7
10
7
4
1
3
1
1
2
1
1
T o t a l .................................
122
222
223
567
319
91
64
83
10
O f the 567 strikes, 319 lasted one week or less, and of these, 98 lasted
only one day or less.
The following table gives a summary of the most important strike
data for each of the years 1894 to 1903:
S T R IK E S , B Y Y E A R S , 1894 T O 1903.
Y ear.
Strik es.
E stab
lis h
m e n ts.
391
405
476
356
368
739
902
523
512
567
1,731
1,298
2,178
2,568
1,967
4,288
10,253
6,970
1,820
3,246
1 8 94...............
18 95...............
1 8 96...............
1897 ...............
1 8 98...............
1899 ...............
1 9 0 0 ...............
1 9 0 1 ...............
1 9 0 2 ...............
1 9 03...............
S trik e rs in strik e s
S trik e s w h ic h —
w h ic h —
la y s of
w o r k lo s t
S trikers.
b y e m p lo y
S u c
S u c
S u c
S u c
ees t h r o w n
c e e d e d F a ile d .
c e e d e d F a ile d .
ceeded.
ceeded.
p a r tly .
p a r tly .
o u t o f w ork .
54,576
45,801
49,851
68,875
82,065
176,772
222,714
111,414
212,704
123,151
1,062,480
617,469
644,168
780,944
1,216,306
3,550,734
3,760,577
1,862,050
4,675,081
2,441,944
84
100
117
68
75
180
205
114
111
122
129
117
122
122
123
282
360
195
184
222
178
188
237
166
170
277
337
214
217
223
12,897
8,565
11,579
19,838
10,594
21,131
24,216
9,364
23,533
12,526
24,784
20,672
17,057
28,767
32,546
124,767
140,358
. 44,386
160,820
89,736
16,895
16,564
21,215
20,270
38,925
30,874
58,140
57,664
28,351
20,889
C o n c i l i a t i o n a n d A r b i t r a t i o n . —During the year 1903 recourse to
the law of December 27,1892, in regard to the conciliation and arbitra
tion (u) of labor disputes, was had in 152 disputes. In 9 cases recourse
was had to the law before entire cessation of work had occurred, in 2
of which a compromise was effected, although the employers had refused
the offer of conciliation, and in 2 cases strikes occurred after such refusal.
In the other 5 cases committees of conciliation were formed, but in
none of these 5 cases was a strike averted. The number of disputes in
which the application of the law was requested in 1903 is equal to 26.80
per cent of the number of strikes that actually occurred during the
year. During the preceding ten-year period such recourse was had in
a number of disputes equal to 23.76 per cent of the total strikes for
the period. Requests for the application of the law during 1903 were
made by employees in 89 disputes, by employers in 3 disputes, and by
employees and employers united in 2 disputes. In the other 58 dis
putes in which recourse was had to the law the initiative was taken by
justices of the peace.
« For the provisions of this law see Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 25,
pp. 854-856.
271
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS— FRANCE.
As for results, it was found that 4 strikes had terminated by agree
ment between employers and employees before committees of concili
ation were formed. The offer of conciliation was rejected in 55 of the
148 remaining disputes, the rejection coming from employers in 46
cases, from the employees in 1 case, and from both employers and
employees in 8 cases. In 13 of the 55 cases in which conciliation was
rejected the dispute was terminated on the employees withdrawing
their demands or accepting concessions previously offered, while in
the 42 other cases strikes were declared or continued.
Committees of conciliation were constituted for the settlement of
the remaining 93 disputes. Forty-two of these disputes were settled
directly by such committees, and of the 51 disputes remaining 2 were
settled by arbitration and 9 were settled b}Tthe parties themselves,
after having appeared without success before committees of concilia
tion. Strikes were declared or continued after the failure of conciliation
and arbitration in the 40 remaining disputes.
The following is a summary statement in regard to disputes in
which recourse was had to the law concerning conciliation and arbitra
tion during 1903, and for the preceding ten years, taken collectively:
S U M M A R Y O F CA SE S IN W H IC H R E C O U R S E W A S H A D T O T H E L A W C O N C E R N IN G CO N
C IL IA T IO N A N D A R B I T R A T I O N , 1893 T O 1902, A N D 1903.
Ite m s.
1893 t o
1902.
1903.
T o ta l n u m b e r o f s t r ik e s ........................................................................................................................
D isp u tes in w h ic h r e co u r s e w a s h a d t o th e la w o f 1 8 9 2 .......................................................
5,307
« 1 ,2 6 1
567
152
D isp u tes s e ttle d :
B e fo r e th e c r e a t io n o f c o m m itt e e s o f c o n c i l i a t i o n .........................................................
A ft e r r e fu s a l o f r e q u e s t fo r c o n c i l i a t i o n .............................................................................
D ir e c t ly b y c o m m itt e e s o f c o n c i l i a t i o n ...............................................................................
B y a r b it r a t io n ....................................................................................................................................
D ir e c t ly b y t h e p arties, a fte r h a v in g h a d r e c o u r s e to c o n c i l i a t io n .........................
83
56
6313
52
24
4
13
42
2
9
T o ta l cases s e ttle d t h r o u g h th e a p p lic a t io n o f t h e l a w .............................................
525
70
S trik es r e s u lt in g o r c o n t in u in g :
A ft e r re fu s a l o f re q u e s t fo r c o n c i l i a t i o n ................................................... ..........................
Aft-fir fa ilu r e o f r e co u r s e to c o n c ilia t io n a n d a r b it r a t io n .............................................
c428
d303
43
39
T o ta l cases o f fa ilu r e a fte r a p p lic a t io n o f th e l a w .......................................................
728
82
a R e la te s t o 1,253 d is p a te s . P r io r t o 1900 t h e in s ta n c e s i n w h ic h t h e a p p lic a t io n o f t h e la w w e r e
r e q u e s te d , a n d n o t t h e d is p u te s t h e m s e lv e s , w e r e c o u n te d .
6 T h e r e w e r e b u t 310 d isp u te s s e ttle d b y c o m m itt e e s o f c o n c ilia t io n . T h r e e d is p u te s h a v e b e e n
c o u n t e d t w ic e , b e c a u s e 2 c o m m itt e e s w e r e fo r m e d in e a c h case.
cI n c lu d in g 4 d is p u te s t h a t w e r e s u b m it t e d t o c o m m itt e e s o f c o n c ilia t io n a fte r s trik e w a s d e c la r e d .
H e n c e th e fig u res s h o u ld b e 424; b u t t h e y are g iv e n as fo u n d in t h e r e p o r t.
dF ig u r e s h e r e s h o u ld b e 304; t h o s e g iv e n are, h o w e v e r , a c c o r d in g t o t h e o r ig in a l.
The above summary shows that of 152 disputes considered in 1903,
70 were settled directly or indirectly through the application of the
law of 1892, and in the case of 82 the recourse to the law proved fruit
less. O f the 70 disputes settled, 1 0 were favorable to the demands of
the employees, 46 resulted in a compromise, and 14 were unfavorable
to the employees. In the 82 disputes which continued after the fail
ure of attempts at conciliation and arbitration the employees succeeded
in 11, succeeded partly in 41, and failed in 30 cases.
272
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
GERMANY.
Streiks und Aussperr ungen im Jahre 1903.
Statistischen Amt. 263 pp.
Bearbeitet im Kaiserlichen
This is the fifth annual report on strikes and lockouts published by
the German imperial statistical bureau. The report contains analyses
and summaries o f the strikes and lockouts in 1903, copies of schedules
of inquiry, and tables showing in detail, by locality and by industry
for each dispute, the duration, establishments affected, total number
of employees, strikers and others thrown out of employment, causes,
results, manner of settlement, etc. The data relate to disputes ending
in 1903.
S t r i k e s . —During 1903 there were 1,374 strikes reported, affecting
7,000 establishments. Operations were completely suspended in 1,634
establishments. O f a total of 198,636 employees in the establishments
affected, 85,603 participated in the strikes and 13,811 others were
thrown out of employment on account of them.
The following table shows the results of the strikes in 1903:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ S tr ik e r s ” s h o w s th e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f strik e rs e n g a g e d a t a n y t im e d u r in g
strik e .]
R e s u lt o f strik es.
S trikes.
E sta b lish
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
T o ta l e m
p lo y e e s in
e s ta b lis h
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
S trikers.
O thers
th row n out
o f w ork.
S u c c e e d e d ...............................................................
S u c c e e d e d p a r t ly ...................................
F a i l e d .......................................................................
300
444
630
1,013
3,951
2,036
31,030
79,736
87,870
13,815
39,332
32,456
1,029
2,175
10,607
T o t a l .............................................................
1,374
7,000
198,636
85,603
13,811
Forty-six per cent of all the strikes in 1903 were complete failures,
although the proportion of persons participating in unsuccessful strikes
was 38 per cent o f the total number o f strikers. Only 16 per cent
o f the strikers were engaged in successful strikes.
The following table shows, by principal groups of industries, the
number and results of strikes, the number of establishments and strikers
involved, and the number of other employees thrown out of work on
account o f strikes during the year 1903.
273
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----GERMANY.
S U M M A R Y O F S T R IK E S , B Y G R O U P S O F IN D U S T R IE S , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ S tr ik e r s ” s h o w s t h e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f strik e rs a t a n y t im e d u r in g strik e .]
S trik es w h ic h —
T o ta l
strik es.
I n d u s tr y .
E stab
lis h
S u c
S u c
c e e d e d F a ile d . m e n ts .
ceeded.
p a r tly .
S trik
ers.
G a r d e n in g , florist, a n d n u r s e r y t r a d e s ...........
M in in g , s m e ltin g ,'s a lt, a n d p e a t e x t r a c t io n .
S to n e w o r k a n d e a r t h e n w a r e ...............................
M eta l w o r k ...................................................................
M a c h in e r y , to o ls , a n d in s tr u m e n t s ...................
C h e m ic a ls .....................................................................
T e x t i l e s .........................................................................
P a p e r ...............................................................................
• L e a t h e r .........................................................................
W o o d e n w a r e a n d c a r v e d g o o d s .........................
F o o d p r o d u c t s .............................................................
C lo th in g a n d c l e a n i n g ...........................................
B u ild in g t r a d e s .........................................................
P r in tin g a n d p u b l i s h i n g .......................................
P a in t in g , s c u lp tu r e , d e c o r a t io n , a n d a rtis tic
w o r k ...........................................................................
C o m m e r c ia l e m p l o y m e n t .....................................
T r a n s p o r t a t io n ...........................................................
H o te ls , resta u ra n ts, e t c .........................................
O th er in d u s tr ie s .........................................................
7
12
74
150
75
14
62
16
35
195
40
75
520
22
1
3
14
25
12
4
10
2
6
41
7
21
133
4
2
6
24
35
24
3
22
6
10
66
14
30
176
5
4
3
36
90
39
7
30
8
19
88
19
24
211
13
184
13
166
1,483
79
14
78
34
250
636
129
943
2,744
31
1,328
2,005
3,190
11,099
4,866
449
6,881
445
1,058
6,168
1,291
4,309
35,491
1,168
7
39
28
2
1
1
8
7
1
5
9
7
1
22
14
1
1
19
114
80
2
1
168
3,003
2,628
16
40
T o t a l ...................................................................
1,374
flOO
444
630
7,000
85,603
O th e r
em
p lo y e e s
th row n
out of
w ork.
49
375
7,424
232
762
23
155
38
90
4,632
10
6
15
13,811
The group of building trades, as in previous years, had the largest
number of strikes, strikers, and establishments affected, 35,491, or 41
per cent, of all the strikers during 1903 being persons engaged in this
industry. Of the building-trade strikes, 41 per cent were failures.
Next in importance with regard to the number of persons involved are
the groups of metal work, of textiles, and of wooden ware and carved
goods. Seventy per cent of all the strikers belonged to these four
groups.
The next two tables show, respectively, the results of strikes accord
ing to their duration and according to the number of strikers involved:
S U M M A R Y O F S T R IK E S , B Y D U R A T IO N , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ S tr ik e r s ” s h o w s t h e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f strik e rs a t a n y t im e d u r in g strik e .]
S trik e s w h ic h —
D ays o f d u r a tio n .
T o ta l
strik es.
S u c
ceeded.
S u c
ceeded
p a r tly .
F a ile d .
E stab
lis h
m e n ts.
S trik ers.
O th e r e m p lo y e e s
th row n
out of
w ork .
L ess th a n 1 .......................................
1 t o 5 ...................................................
6 t o 1 0 .................................................
11 t o 2 0 ...............................................
21 t o 3 0 ...............................................
81 t o 5 0 ...............................................
51 t o 1 0 0 .............................................
101 o r o v e r .........................................
118
515
207
174
92
119
115
34
37
155
46
34
4
12
9
3
12
125
86
79
46
44
41
11
69
235
75
61
42
63
65
20
128
787
787
806
746
1,330
2,063
353
2,920
20,166
10,185
9,715
5,960
16,576
16,201
3,890
243
2,028
464
954
530
1,115
8,343
134
T o t a l .......................................
1,374
300
444
630
7,000
85,603
13,811
274
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
S U M M A R Y O F S T R IK E S , B Y N U M B E R O F S T R IK E R S IN V O L V E D , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ S tr ik e r s ” s h o w s th e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f strik e rs a t a n y t im e d u r in g s trik e .]
S trik es w h ic h —
T o ta l
strikes.
S trik ers in v o lv e d .
S u c
ceeded .
S u c
ceeded
p a r tly .
F a ile d .
E stab
lis h
m e n ts.
Strikers.
O th e r e m
p lo y e e s
th row n
out of
w ork.
2 t o 5 ...................................................
6 to 1 0 .................................................
11 t o 2 0 ...............................................
21 t o 3 0 ...............................................
81 t o 5 0 ...............................................
51 t o 1 0 0 .............................................
101 t o 2 0 0 ...........................................
201 t o 5 0 0 ...........................................
501 o r o v e r .........................................
118
205
318
220
166
175
96
53
23
23
47
74
61
40
31
14
7
3
25
37
81
71
59
81
51
26
13
70
121
163
88
67
63
31
20
7
127
246
437
425
419
1,056
1,213
1,284
1,793
462
1,682
4,846
5,526
6,594
12,533
13,676
17,110
23,174
100
145
352
509
615
896
1,780
1,329
8,085
T o t a l .......................................
1,374
300
444
630
7,000
85,603
13,811
The following table shows the causes and results of strikes in 1903,
the cause and not the strike being taken as the unit:
S T R IK E S , B Y C AU SES A N D R E S U L T S , 1903.
[S trik es d u e t o t w o o r m o r e cau s e s h a v e b e e n t a b u la te d u n d e r e a c h c a u s e ; h e n c e t h e to ta ls fo r th is
t a b le d o n o t a g r e e w it h th ose fo r t h e p r e c e d in g ta b le s .]
S trik e s w h ic h —
C ause o r o b je c t .
A g a in s t r e d u c t io n o f w a g e s .......................................................................
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s ...................................................................................
F o r e x t r a ra te fo r o v e r t i m e .......................................................................
F o r e x t r a p a y fo r s e c o n d a r y w o r k .........................................................
O th e r ca u s e s a ffe c t in g w a g e s ...................................................................
A g a in s t in c r e a s e o f h o u r s ...........................................................................
F o r r e d u c t io n o f h o u r s .................................................................................
F o r a b o lit io n o r lim it a t io n o f o v e r t im e w o r k ...................................
F o r r e d u c t io n o f h o u r s o n S a t u r d a y .....................................................
F o r r e g u la r h o u r s ...........................................................................................
O th e r c a u s es a ffe c tin g h o u r s o f l a b o r ...................................................
F o r c h a n g e i n m e t h o d o f p a y m e n t .......................................................
A g a in s t c h a n g e in m e t h o d o f p a y m e n t ...............................................
F o r r e in s ta te m e n t o f d is c h a r g e d e m p lo y e e s .....................................
F o r d is c h a r g e o r a g a in s t e m p lo y m e n t o f c e r t a in p e r s o n s ..........
F o r d is c h a r g e o f fo r e m e n , e t c .................................................................
A g a in s t b e in g c o m p e lle d t o w o r k o n h o lid a y s .................................
F o r b e t te r s a n ita ry c o n d it io n s , e t c .........................................................
A g a in s t u se o f m a te r ia l fr o m e s ta b lis h m e n t i n w h ic h strik e
w a s p e n d i n g .................................................................................................
F o r b e t te r t r e a tm e n t .....................................................................................
F o r r e c o g n it io n o f c o m m it t e e o f e m p l o y e e s .....................................
F o r a d o p tio n , r e te n tio n , o r c h a n g e o f w a g e s c a l e .........................
O th e r c a u s e s ......................................................................................................
T o ta l
strikes.
S u c
ceeded .
97
836
123
64
127
11
253
33
37
13
25
56
13
233
69
24
12
33
27
157
18
7
31
4
43
2
6
4
6
5
2
36
20
4
10
25
72
148
230
S u c
ceeded
p a r tly .
F a ile d .
7
21
366
73
46
56
1
140
19
25
6
5
24
1
51
8
6
8
19
49
313
32
11
40
6
70
12
6
3
14
27
10
146
41
14
4
7
2
4
7
35
40
1
10
40
60
111
7
11
25
53
79
275
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- GERMANY.
The results of strikes for the five-year period, 1899 to 1903, are
shown in the table following:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , 1899 T O 1903.
Y ear.
1 8 9 9 ... .
1 9 0 0 ... .
1 9 0 1 ... .
1 9 0 2 ... .
1 9 0 3 ... .
T o ta l
strik es .
1,288
1,433
1,056
1,060
1,374
T o ta l e m
E stab
p lo y e e s
lis h
i n e stab
Strikers.
lis h
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
7,121
7,740
4,561
3,437
7,000
256,858
298,819
141,220
131,086
198,636
99,338
122,803
55,262
53,912
85,603
S trik es w h ic h —
Succeeded.
N um
b e r.
P er cen t
o f to ta l
strik es.
331
275
200
228
300
25.7
19.2
18.9
21.5
21.8
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly .
P er cen t
N um
, o f t o ta l
b e r.
j strik es.
429
505
285
235
444
33.3
35.2
27.0
22.2
32.3
F a ile d .
N um
ber.
P er ce n t
o f to ta l
strik e s .
528
653
571
597
630
41.0
45.6
54.1
56.3
45.9
L o c k o u t s . —During 1903 there were 70 lockouts reported, affecting
1,714 establishments. Of a total of 52,541 employees in the establish
ments affected, 35,273 were locked out and 835 others were thrown
out of employment on account of the lockouts.
The following table shows the results of the lockouts in 1903:
R E S U L T S O F L O C K O U T S, 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ P ers o n s l o c k e d o u t ” s h o w s th e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f p e rs o n s lo c k e d o u t a t
a n y t im e d u r in g lo c k o u t .]
T o ta l e m
p lo y e e s in
O thers
P ers o n s
e s ta b lis h
th row n ou t
lo c k e d o u t.
m e n ts
o f w ork.
a ffe c te d .
L o ck o u ts .
E sta b lish
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
S u c c e e d e d ...............................................................
S u c c e e d e d p a r t ly .................................................
F a i l e d .......................................................................
36
15
19
699
639
376
32,771
8,660
11,110
24,609
3,948
6,716
400
156
279
T o t a l .............................................................
70
1,714
52,541
35,273
835
R e s u lt o f lo c k o u ts .
Of the lockouts in 1903, 51.4 per cent were successful, 21.4 per cent
were partly successful, and 27.2 per cent were complete failures.
Compared with the rates per cent for 1902 the successful lockouts
for 1903 show a decrease of 13.8 per cent, the partly successful an
increase of 6 .2 per cent, and the complete failures an increase of
7 .6 per cent.
276
BULLETIN OF THE BUBEAU OF LABOK.
The following table shows, by principal groups of industries, the
number and results of lockouts, the number of establishments and
persons involved in lockouts, and the number of other employees
thrown out of work on account of lockouts during the year 1903:
S U M M A R Y O F L O C K O U T S, B Y G R O U P S O F IN D U S T R IE S , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ P ers o n s l o c k e d o u t ” sh o w s t h e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f p e rs o n s l o c k e d o u t at
a n y t im e d u r in g lo c k o u t .]
L o c k o u ts w h ic h —
I n d u s tr y .
T o ta l
lo c k
o u ts.
O th e r
em
E stab P e rs o n s
p lo y e e s
lis h
S u c
lo c k e d
th row n
S u c
c e e d e d F a ile d . m e n ts .
o u t.
ceeded.
out of
p a r tly .
w ork .
S to n e w o r k a n d e a r t h e n w a r e ...............................
M e ta l w o r x ...................................................................
M a c h in e r y , t o o ls , a n d in s tr u m e n t s ...................
T e x t i l e s .........................................................................
W o o d e n w a r e a n d c a r v e d g o o d s .........................
F o o d p r o d u c t s .............................................................
C lo t h in g a n d c l e a n i n g ...........................................
B u ild in g t r a d e s .........................................................
9
6
8
3
9
2
6
28
5
5
6
1
3
1
3
12
T o t a l ...................................................................
70
36
1
3
1
2
3
1
2
6
3
1
1
10
20
308
75
3
401
2
92
813
711
7,369
8,009
136
1,916
65
6,513
11,564
16
19
1,714
35,273
240
150
3
442
835
The group of building trades had the largest number of lockouts,
establishments affected, and number of persons locked out, nearly onethird of all the persons locked out during 1903 being engaged in this
industry. Nearly 43 per cent of the lockouts in building trades were
successful. Next in importance with regard to the number of persons
involved are the groups of metal work and machinery, tools, and
instruments. Seventy-six per cent of all the persons locked out
belonged to these three groups of industries.
The next two tables show, respectively, the results of lockouts
according to their duration and according to the number of persons
locked out:
S U M M A R Y O F L O C K O U T S, B Y D U R A T IO N , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ P ers o n s l o c k e d o u t ” s h o w s th e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f p e rs o n s lo c k e d o u t at
a n y t im e d u r in g lo c k o u t .]
L o c k o u ts w h: ich —
D a y s o f d u r a tio n .
T o ta l
lo c k
o u ts.
O th e r
em
E stab P e rs o n s
p
lo y e e s
S u c
lis h
lo c k e d
S u c
th row n
c e e d e d F a ile d . m e n ts.
o
u
t.
ceeded .
out of
p a r tly .
w ork .
L ess t h a n 1 ....................................................................
l t o 5 ..................................................................................
6 t o 1 0 ..............................................................................
11 t o 2 0 ...........................................................................
21 t o 3 0 ...........................................................................
31 t o 5 0 ...........................................................................
51 t o 1 0 0 .........................................................................
101 o r o v e r .....................................................................
3
14
8
8
9
8
13
7
1
7
6
3
4
6
8
1
2
2
3
1
1
2
4
T o t a l ...................................................................
70
36
15
2
4
1
3
2
3
26
163
138
481
336
455
112
26
2,859
4,098
2,262
7,912
7,668
10,182
266
19
1,714
36,273
2
5
275
12
183
67
298
835
277
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- GERMANY
S U M M A R Y O F L O C K O U T S , B Y N U M B E R O F P E R S O N S L O C K E D O U T , 1903.
[T h e c o lu m n h e a d e d “ P ers o n s l o c k e d o u t ” s h o w s t h e m a x im u m n u m b e r o f p e rs o n s l o c k e d o u t at
a n y t im e d u r in g lo c k o u t .]
L o c i :outs w h i c h -
T o ta l
lo c k
o u ts.
P e rs o n s lo c k e d o u t.
O th e r
em
E stab P ers o n s
p
lo y e e s
lis h
S u c
lo ck e d
S u c
th row n
c e e d e d F a ile d . m e n ts.
o u t.
ceeded.
out o f
p a r tly .
w ork.
2 t o 5 ...............................................................................
6 t o 1 0 .............................................................................
11 t o 2 0 ...........................................................................
21 t o 3 0 ...........................................................................
31 t o 5 0 ...........................................................................
51 t o 1 0 0 .........................................................................
101 t o 2 0 0 .......................................................................
201 t o 5 0 0 .......................................................................
501 o r o v e r .....................................................................
2
11
9
8
8
11
7
2
12
1
3
6
2
3
6
7
1
7
T o t a l ...................................................................
70
36
1
2
5
2
3
1
7
1
1
3
2
1
3
3
12
79
60
38
48
34
2
1,438
6
89
146
202
303
783
976
877
31,891
9
35
67
240
484
2
15
19
1,714
35,273
835
The following table shows the causes and results of lockouts in 1903,
the cause and not the lockout being taken as the unit:
L O C K O U T S, B Y C A U SES, 1903.
[L o c k o u t s d u e t o t w o o r m o r e ca u s e s h a v e b e e n t a b u la te d u n d e r e a c h c a u s e ; h e n c e t h e to ta ls fo r
th is t a b le d o n o t a g r e e w it h t h o s e fo r t h e p r e c e d in g ta b le s .]
L o c k o u t s w h ic h —
T o ta l
lo c k o u t s .
C au se o r o b je c t .
A g a in s t in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .......................................................................
F o r r e d u c t io n o f w a g e s .............................................................................
O th e r c a u s es a ffe c t in g w a g e s .................................................................
A g a in s t r e d u c t io n o f h o u r s .....................................................................
F o r in c r e a s e o f h o u r s .................................................................................
F o r r e te n tio n o f o v e r t im e w o r k ...........................................................
F o r in t r o d u c t io n o f c o n t r a c t w o r k .......................................................
T o c o m p e l e m p lo y e e s t o le a v e u n i o n .................................................
T o fo r c e s e ttle m e n t o f s t r ik e s .................................................................
O th e r c a u s e s ....................................................................................................
24
2
5
8
1
3
1
15
14
23
S uc
ceed ed .
14
1
S uc
ceeded
p a r tly .
F a ile d .
5
5
4
2
2
1
4
10
15
5
2
3
5
1
1
1
1
1
6
2
5
The results of lockouts for the five-year period, 1899 to 1903, are
shown in the table following:
R E S U L T S O F L O C K O U T S, 1899 T O 1903.
Y e a r.
1 8 9 9 ....
1 9 0 0 ... .
1 9 0 1 ... .
1 9 0 2 ... .
1 9 0 8 ... .
T o ta l
lo c k
ou ts.
23
35
85
46
70
L o c k o u t s w h ic h —
T o ta l e m
E sta b
p lo y e e s
P e rs o n s
lis h
in esta b
lo c k e d
lis h
m e n ts
o u t.
a ffe c te d .
m e n ts
a ffe c te d .
N um
ber.
5,298
9,085
5,414
10,305
35,273
6
13
16
30
36
427
607
238
948
1,714
8,290
22,462
7,980
18,705
52,541
S ucceeded.
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly .
P er cen t
N um
o f to ta l
b e r.
lo c k o u t s .
26.1
37.1
45.7
65.2
51.4
9
17
8
7
16
F a ile d .
P er cen t
N um
o f to ta l
b e r.
lo c k o u t s .
39.1
48.6
22 .9
15.2
21 .4
8
5
11
9
19
P ercen t
o f t o ta l
lo c k o u t s .
34.8
14.3
81.4
19.6
27 .2
278
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
GREAT BRITAIN.
R eport on Strikes and Lockouts in the United Kingdom in 1908, and on
Conciliation and Arbitration Boards. 1904. 142 pp. (Published
by the Labor Department of the British Board of Trade.)
The report on strikes and lockouts in the United Kingdom, prepared
by the labor department of the board of trade, is the sixteenth issued
since the commencement of the series in 1888. The report shows in
detail for each dispute, beginning in 1903, the locality, the number of
establishments involved, the number and occupations of working
people thrown out of work, the cause or object of the dispute, the
date o f beginning and ending, and the result; also statements of the
work o f boards of conciliation and arbitration, and of certain agree
ments and awards terminating trade disputes. The tables giving
details are preceded by summary tables, by tables presenting com
parative data for the years 1899 to 1903, and by an analysis of the
statistics of strikes and lockouts and o f conciliation and arbitration.
The general method of inquiry and the plan of presentation are the
same as for the past few years. Disputes involving fewer than 1 0
employees (and those which lasted less than one day) have been omitted
from the tabulations, except when the aggregate duration exceeded
1 0 0 working days.
S t r i k e s a n d L o c k o u t s i n 1903.—The number of labor disputes
arising in 1903 was less than in any of the preceding four years (1899
to 1902), and the number of working people directly and indirectly
affected and the aggregate days of duration were also less than in any
of those years. During 1903 there were 387 strikes and lockouts,
involving 93,515 employes directly and 23,386 indirectly, or throwing
out of work*a total of 116,901 working people, and resulting in an
aggregate loss of 2,338,668 working days.
The following tables show the number of strikes and lockouts and
the number of employees involved in 1903, classified according to the
principal causes and the results:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S , B Y C A U SE S A N D R E S U L T S , A N D W O R K IN G D A Y S L O S T , 1903.
[ “ A g g r e g a t e w o r k in g d a y s lo s t b y a ll e m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o u t o f w o r k ” in c lu d e s t h e a g g r e g a te d u r a
t io n in 1903 o f d is p u te s w h ic h b e g a n i n p r e v io u s ye a rs a n d e x c lu d e s th e d u r a t io n in 1904 o f d is p u te s
w h ic h b e g a n i n 1903.]
S trik e s a n d lo c k o u t s t h e results
o f w h ic h w e r e —
P r in c ip a l ca u s e o r o b je c t .
I n fa v o r I n fa v o r C o m
o f em
o f em
p ro
p lo y e e s . p lo y e r s . m is e d .
T o ta l
strik e s
I n d e fi
and
n it e o r
lo c k
u n se t
ou ts.
tle d .
W a g e s ......................................................................................
H o u rs o f l a b o r ...................................................................
E m p lo y m e n t o f p a r tic u la r cla sse s o r p e r s o n s ___
W o r k in g a r r a n g e m e n ts , ru le s, a n d d i s c i p l i n e .. .
T r a d e u n io n is m .................................................................
O th e r c a u s e s .......................................................................
46
3
10
14
14
1
107
7
29
26
8
2
73
7
13
16
1
6
T o t a l ...........................................................................
88
179
110
. 10
2
2
A g g r e g a te
w o r k in g
d a y s lost
b y a ll e m
p lo y e e s
th row n
out of
w ork .
232
17
64
56
25
3
1,768,608
44,173
132,862
238,737
151,862
2,426
387
2,338,668
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- GREAT BRITAIN.
279
S T R IK E R S A N D E M P L O Y E E S L O C K E D OU T, B Y C A U SES A N D R E S U L T S , 1903.
S trik ers a n d e m p lo y e e s lo c k e d o u t
i n d isp u te s t h e re su lts o f w h ic h
w e re —
P r in c ip a l ca u s e o r o b je c t .
I n d e fi
I n fa v o r I n fa v o r
C o m p r o n it e o r
o f em
o f em
m is e d .
u n se t
p lo y e e s . p lo y e r s .
tle d .
W a g e s .................................................................................
H o u rs o f l a b o r .................................................................
E m p lo y m e n t o f p a r tic u la r classes o r p e r s o n s . .
W o r k in g a r r a n g e m e n ts , ru les, a n d d i s c i p l i n e ..
T r a d e u n io n is m ...............................................................
O th er c a u s e s .....................................................................
3,777
500
961
6,916
16,723
31
35,225
211
4,750
3,007
297
786
10,058
3,397
1,962
3,686
207
497
T o t a l.........................................................................
28,908
44,276
19,310
1,021
149
375
O th e r
T o ta l
strik e rs e m p lo y
an d em
ees
p lo y e e s t h r o w n
lo c k e d
out of
w ork.
o u t.
49,557
4,108
7,822
13,609
17,602
817
15,993
382
4,520
2,154
269
68
93,515
23,386
As in previous years, the disputes in 1903 related mostly to wages,
232 out of a total of 387 strikes and lockouts, or 59.9 per cent, result
ing from this cause. Of the total of 93,515 strikers and employees
locked out in disputes from all causes^ 49,557, or 53 per cent, were
involved in wage disputes. Only 17 disputes, or 4.4 per cent of
the total were due to the question of hours of labor, and but 4,108
working people, or 4.4 per cent of the total, were directly affected
thereby.
O f the 387 disputes, 8 8 , or 22.7 per cent, resulted in favor of the
employees; 179, or 46.3 per cent, in favor of the employers; 110, or
28.4 per cent, were compromised, and 10, or 2.6 per cent, remained
indefinite or unsettled. O f the 93,515 strikers and employees locked
out, 28,908, or 30.9 per cent, were engaged in disputes which resulted
in favor of employees; 44,276, or 47.3 per cent, in disputes which
resulted in favor of employers; 19,310, or 20.7 per cent, in disputes
which were compromised, and 1 ,0 2 1 , or 1 . 1 per cent, in disputes which
remained indefinite or unsettled at the close of the year. Employees
involved in disputes relating to wages and hours of labor were mostly
unsuccessful, while in disputes relating to trade unionism they were
mostly successful.
280
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
In 1903, as in previous years, a large proportion of disputes affected
comparatively few working people. This is brought out in the table
which follows:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S, B Y G R O U P S O F E M P L O Y E E S T H R O W N O U T O F W O R K , 1903.
[ “ A g g r e g a t e w o r k in g d a y s lo s t b y a ll e m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o n t o f w o r k ” in c lu d e s t h e a g g r e g a te d u r a
t io n o f d is p u te s w h ic h b e g a n i n 1903 a n d e m b r a c e s w o r k in g d a y s lo s t i n 1904 in d is p u te s w h ic h
e x t e n d e d b e y o n d 1903.]
S trik es
and
lo c k
o u ts.
G rou p s o f e m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o u t o f w o r k .
A g g reg a te w o rk
i n g d a y s lo s t b y
a ll e m p lo y e e s
th ro w n o u t o f
w ork.
E m p lo y e e s
th row n ou t o f
w ork .
N um ber.
P er
cen t.
N u m ber.
P er
cen t.
5,000 o r o v e r ...................................................................................
2,500 o r u n d e r 5,000.....................................................................
1,000 o r u n d e r 2,500.....................................................................
500 o r u n d e r 1,000.........................................................................
250 o r u n d e r 500 ...........................................................................
100 o r u n d e r 250 ...........................................................................
50 o r u n d e r 1 0 0 .............................................................................
25 o r u n d e r 5 0 ...............................................................................
U n d e r 25...........................................................................................
2
3
18
32
52
77
63
61
79
19,000
10,505
27,570
21,557
18,417
12,213
4,262
2,148
1,229
16.3
9 .0
23.6
18 .4
15.8
10.4
3 .6
1 .8
1 .1
157,000
59,058
145,748
410,032
314,697
315,794
91,168
56,871
25,079
10.0
3 .7
9 .3
26.0
20.0
20.0
5 .8
3 .6
1 .6
T o t a l .....................................................................................
387
116,901
100.0
1,575,447
100.0
From the above table it is seen that out of 387 disputes, 203, or 52.5
per cent, involved less man 100 employees each, or only 6.5 per cent
of all employees thrown out of work, and 1 1 per cent of the time lost
in all the disputes of the year. The 5 largest disputes involved 29,505,
or 25.3 per cent, of the employees thrown out of work, and 13.7 per
cent o f the time lost in all the disputes of the year.
The tables following show the extent to which each of the various
groups of industries was involved in the strikes and lockouts of 1903,
and the results of the dispute in each case:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S, B Y IN D U S T R IE S A N D R E S U L T S , A N D W O R K I N G D A Y S L O S T , 1903.
[ “ A g g r e g a t e w o r k in g d a y s lo s t b y a ll e m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o u t o f w o r k ” in c lu d e s th e a g g r e g a te d u r a
t io n in 1903 o f d is p u te s w h ic h b e g a n i n p r e v io u s y e a rs a n d e x c lu d e s t h e d u r a t io n i n 1904 o f d is
p u te s w h ic h b e g a n i n 1903.]
S trik es a n d lo c k o u t s t h e re su lts o f
w h ic h w e r e —
I n d u s tr y .
I n fa v o r
o f em
p lo y e e s .
I n fa v o r
o f em
p lo y e r s .
C om pro
m is e d .
B u ild in g t r a d e s ...............................................
M in in g a n d q u a r r y in g .................................
M e ta l, e n g in e e r in g , a n d s h i p b u i l d i n g ..
T e x t i l e .................................................................
C l o t h i n g .............................................................
T r a n s p o r t a t i o n ...............................................
M i s c e ll a n e o u s .................................................
E m p lo y e e s o f p u b lic a u t h o r it ie s .............
14
28
18
12
8
3
4
1
20
49
34
33
10
9
22
2
10
43
31
10
7
3
5
1
T o t a l.........................................................
88
179
110
I n d e fi
n it e o r
u n s e t
t le d .
5
4
1
10
T o ta l
strik e s
and
lo c k o u t s .
A g g r e g a te
w o r k in g
d a y s lo s t
b y a ll
e m p lo y e e s
th row n ou t
o f w ork .
44
125
87
55
25
15
32
4
114,371
1,397,898
481,016
117,038
136,182
26,779
64,892
492
387
2,338,668
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----GREAT BRITAIN.
281
S T R I K E R S A N D E M P L O Y E E S L O C K E D O U T , B Y IN D U S T R IE S A N D R E S U L T S , 1903.
S trik e rs a n d e m p lo y e e s lo c k e d o u t in
d is p u te s t h e resu lts o f w h ic h w e r e —
In d u s tr y .
I n fa v o r
o f em
p lo y e e s .
I n fa v o r
o f em
p lo y e r s .
C l o t h i n g .............................................................
T r a n s p o r ta tio n .................................................
M is c e lla n e o u s ...................................................
E m p lo y e e s o f p u b lic a u t h o r it ie s .............
887
23,135
2,685
1,069
327
407
345
53
1,504
14,307
20,669
3,690
1,392
1,133
1,526
55
922
11,859
4,115
733
487
592
67
535
T o t a l.........................................................
28,908
44,276
19,310
B u ild in g t r a d e s ...............................................
M in in g a n d q u a r r y in g .................................
M eta l, e n g in e e r in g , a n d s h ip b u ild in g . .
C om pro
m is e d .
I n d e fin ite
or un
s e ttle d .
694
287
40
1,021
T o ta l
strik e rs
an d em
p lo y e e s
lo c k e d
o u t.
O th e r
e m p lo y
ees
th row n
out o f
w ork.
3,313
49,995
27,756
5,492
2,206
2,132
1,978
643
350
13,583
4,624
3,966
270
40
485
68
93,515
23,386
The mining and quarrying industry shows the largest number of
disputes, working people involved, and working days lost. The lar
gest measure of success on the part of employees seems to have been
attained by those involved in disputes in the mining and quarrying
and in the metal, engineering, and shipbuilding industries.
S t r i k e s a n d L o c k o u t s d u r i n g F i v e Y e a r s . —During the fiveyear period 1899 to 1903 there was a yearly average of 567.6 disputes,
in which there was affected an average of 184,374: working people.
The table following presents some of the principal statistics of strikes
and lockouts for each year from 1899 to 1903:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S, E M P L O Y E E S T H R O W N O U T O P W O R K , A N D W O R K IN G D A Y S
L O S T 1899 T O 1903.
[ “ A g g r e g a te w o r k in g d a y s lo s t b y a ll e m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o u t o f w o r k ” in c lu d e s t h e a g g r e g a te d u r a
t io n in e a c h y e a r o f d is p u te s w h ic h b e g a n in p r e v io u s ye a rs.]
Y ear.
1899.............................................................................................
1900.............................................................................................
1901.............................................................................................
1902................................................................................. ............
1903.............................................................................................
A g g reg a te
S trik ers O th e r e m T o ta l e m w o r k in g
p lo y e e s
Strikes
a n d e m p lo y e e s
d a y s lo s t
a n d l o c k p lo y e e s
th row n
b y a ll e m
th row n
lo ck e d
out of
outs.
p lo y e e s
out of
w ork.
w ork.
th row n ou t
o u t.
o f w ork.
719
648
642
442
387
138,058
135,145
111,437
116,824
93,515
42,159
53,393
68,109
139,843
23,386
180,217
188,538
179,546
256,667
116,901
2,516,416
3,152,694
4,142,287
3,479,255
2,338,668
282
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The table following shows the number of strikes and lockouts and
the employees thrown out of work during each year from 1899 to 1903,
by industries:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S, A N D E M P L O Y E E S T H R O W N O U T O F W O R K , B Y IN D U S T R IE S ,
1899 T O 1903.
S trik es a n d lo c k o u t s .
E m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o u t o f w o r k .
In d u s tr y .
B u ild in g t r a d e s ...........................
M in in g a n d q u a r r y in g ............
M e ta l,e n g in e e r in g , a n d s h ip
b u ild in g .....................................
T e x t i l e .............................................
C l o t h i n g .........................................
T r a n s p o r t a t i o n ...........................
M i s c e ll a n e o u s .............................
E m p lo y e e s o f p u b lic a u th o rT o t a l .....................................
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
180
109
146
136
104
210
39
168
44
125
30,524
46,831
19,178
9,797
5,356
74,364 112,981 208,526
3,663
63,578
140
124
37
47
71
111
96
38
50
60
103
96
39
20
65
71
82
23
14
41
87
55
25
15
32
21,119
61,499
2,258
12,611
4,212
19,810
24,143
2,154
23,026
24,968
22,489
16,609
4,135
2,682
10,489
15,914
16,706
2,790
1,590
3,679
32,380
9,458
2,476
2,172
2,463
4
1,163
895
364
2,106
711
387 180,217 188,538 179,546 256,667
116,901
11
11
5
4
719
648
642
442
1899.
1900.
1901.
19012.
1903.
The above table shows that in each year, except 1899, the mining
and quarrying industry had the largest number of employees involved
in disputes. In 1899 the great dispute of the year was in the jute
industry. Probably the most noteworthy point shown in the table is
the decrease since 1900 in the number of persons affected by disputes
in the building trades.
The following table shows the principal causes of strikes and lock
outs and the number of disputes and employees directly involved in
each cause from 1899 to 1903:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S , A N D S T R IK E R S A N D E M P L O Y E E S L O C K E D O U T , B Y P R I N C I P A L
C A U SES, 1899 T O 1903.
S trik e s a n d lo c k o u t s .
S trik e rs a n d e m p lo y e e s lo c k e d o u t.
P r in c ip a l c a u s e o r o b je c t .
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
W a g e s ...............................................
H o u r s o f l a b o r .............................
E m p lo y m e n t o f p a r tic u la r
classes o r p e r s o n s ...................
W o r k in g a r r a n g e m e n ts , rules,
a n d d i s c i p l i n e .........................
T r a d e u n io n is m ...........................
S y m p a t h e t ic d is p u t e s ...............
O th e r c a u s e s .................................
460
17
438
6
402
29
267
20
232
17
102
93
84
58
68
46
24
2
57
45
5
4
79
38
6
4
64
29
1
3
T o t a l .....................................
719
648
642
442
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
94,651
3,857
82,903
718
58,865
4,198
56,733
3,044
54
8,187
10,427
10,524
11,436
7,822
56
25
17,895
5,130
8,233
105
18,956
19,573
1,018
1,550
23,185
11,531
1,890
1,244
19,849
25,489
14
259
13,609
17,602
387 138,058 135,145 111,437 116,824
93,515
3
1903.
49,557
4,108
817
During this five-year period—1899 to 1903—63.4 per cent of all the
strikes and lockouts related to wages. Next in order of importance
were disputes relating to the employment of particular classes of per
sons, to working arrangements, rules, and discipline, to trade union
ism, and to hours o f labor.
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----GREAT BRITAIN.
283
The following table shows the number of strikes and lockouts and
the strikers and employees locked out each year during the five-year
period— 1899 to 1903—classified according to results:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S , A N D S T R IK E R S A N D E M P L O Y E E S L O C K E D O U T , B Y R E S U L T S ,
1899 T O 1903.
S trik es a n d lo c k o u t s .
S trik ers a n d e m p lo y e e s lo c k e d o u t.
R esu lt.
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
I n fa v o r o f e m p lo y e e s ...............
I n fa v o r o f e m p lo y e r s ...............
C o m p r o m is e d ...............................
I n d e fin ite o r u n s e t t le d .............
230
245
236
8
202
211
221
14
163
280
192
7
107.
202
123
10
88
179
110
10
T o t a l.....................................
719
648
642
442
1903.
36,808
60,275
40,237
738
40,612
33,497
56,390
4,646
30,591
37,675
40,955
2,216
36,917
35,515
41,645
2,747
28,908
44,276
19,310
1,021
387 138,058 135,145 111, 437 116,824
93,515
O f the 2,838 disputes reported during the five-year period, 790, or
27.8 per cent, resulted in favor of employees; 1,117, or 39.4 per cent,
resulted in favor of employers; 882, or 31.1 per cent, were compro
mised, and 49, or 1.7 per cent, remained indefinite or unsettled. Of
594,979 strikers and employees locked out during the period, 173,836,
or 29.2 per cent, were engaged in disputes resulting in favor of
employees; 211,238, or 35.5 per cent, in disputes resulting in favor of
employers; 198,537, or 33.4 per cent, in disputes which were compro
mised, and 11,368, or 1.9 per cent, in disputes which remained indefi
nite or unsettled.
In the table following, the disputes beginning in each of the years
1899 to 1903 and the employees thrown out of work are classified
according to the various methods of settlement:
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S, A N D E M P L O Y E E S T H R O W N O U T O F W O R K , B Y
S E T T L E M E N T , 1899 T O 1903.
S trik es a n d lo c k o u t s .
M ETH OD OF
E m p lo y e e s t h r o w n o u t o f w o r k .
M e th o d o f se ttle m e n t.
1899.
16
22
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
19
13
23
18
16
13
18
8
1899.
1900.
1901.
1902.
1903.
3,319
8,386
7,118
8,593
8,349
8,465
4,481
7,129
18,658
3,110
A r b i t r a t i o n ...................................
C o n c i l i a t i o n .................................
D ir e c t a r r a n g e m e n t o r n e g o
t ia t io n b e t w e e n t h e pa rties
o r th e ir r e p r e s e n ta tiv e s ___
S u b m ission o f e m p l o y e e s ___
R e p la c e m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s . .
C lo s in g o f w o r k s .........................
I n d e fin ite o r u n s e t t le d .............
562
22
88
3
6
487
456
45
45
89
71
4
5
9 •
6
316
40
47
3
7
266 166,743 155,025 143,470 222,547
9,362 16,570
36
7,054
8,895
47
3,980
4,918
6,415
3,188
5
95
1,288
230
300
2,522
7
640
3,689
2,197
80,057
11,461
2,658
251
706
T o t a l.....................................
719
648
642
442
387 180,217 188,538 179,546 256,667
116,901
The great majority of the strikes and lockouts were settled by direct
negotiation between the parties concerned or their representatives.
O f the total of 387 disputes in 1903, not fewer than 266, or 68.7 per
cent, were so settled, and these embraced 80,057, or 68.5 per cent,
o f all the persons involved. In 1903 there were 26 disputes settled by
arbitration and by conciliation, involving under the two methods a
total o f 21,768 persons.
284
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
ITA LY .
Statistica degli Scioperi cwvenuti nelVIndustries e neW Agricoltura
duremffi Vanno 1901. Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio, Direzione Generale della Statistica. 1904. lvii, 424 pp.
This is the tenth of a series of annual reports on strikes and lock
outs published by the bureau of statistics of the Italian department of
agriculture, industry, and commerce. The report presents in detailed
tables and text statements the most important facts in reference to each
strike or lockout that occurred during the year 1901, the strikes being
separated into two categories—(1 ) those occurring in the group of
agricultural industries, and (2 ) those occurring in industries other
than agriculture. The report also contains summary tables of strikes
for 1901 and for periods of years.
S t r i k e s a n d L o c k o u t s i n 1901.—During the year 1901 there were
1,671 strikes, of which 629 were agricultural and 1,042 occurred in
other industries. There were 30 shut downs, of which 6 were
lockouts.
The 629 strikes among agricultural workers involved a total of
222,985 strikers and caused a loss of 2,931,766 working, days. In
addition 715 agricultural workers were thrown out of employment on
account of the strikes, causing an additional loss of 5,149 working
days. Of the strikers, about 65 per cent were men, 23 per cent
women, and 1 2 per cent children.
The 1,042 strikes in the other industries involved 196,540 strikers,
of whom 137,389 were men, 40,683 were women, and 18,468 were chil
dren. There were, in addition, 14,674 employees thrown out of work
on account of strikes. The aggregate time lost by these strikers was
2,146,184 days, and by the nonstrikers thrown out of work, 208,302
days, making a total loss of 2,354,486 days in the industries other
than agriculture.
The largest strikes of the year occurred among agricultural workers,
4 strikes involving, respectively, 18,500, 12,000, 11,000, and 10,000
laborers. These strikes were all for increased wages. The first suc
ceeded, and the other three succeeded partly. A strike of masons and
bricklayers in Milan involved 12,000 workmen and lasted 28 days.
While various demands were made in this strike, the principal cause
was a demand for increased wages. It was partly successful.
285
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- ITALY,
The following table shows, for the year 1901, the number of strikes,
strikers, and wofking days lost, by industries:
S T R IK E S , S T R IK E R S , A N D W O R K IN G D A Y S L O S T , B Y IN D U S T R IE S , 1901.
S trik e rs.
S trik e s.
In d u s try .
W o rk in g
d a y s lo s t.
A d u lts .
M a les.
A g r ic u lt u r e .............................................................
M in in g a n d q u a r r y in g .......................................
M e ta ls a n d m a c h in e r y .......................................
S to n e , e a rth , sa n d , a n d b u ild in g w o r k ___
C h e m ica l in d u s t r ie s ...........................................
W o o d w o r d in g .......................................................
P a p e r .................•.......................................................
P r in tin g a n d p u b lis h in g ...................................
T e x t ile s .....................................................................
H id e s a n d le a t h e r ...............................................
D y e in g o f le a th e r a n d t e x t u r e s .....................
W o o d a n d m e ta l p a in tin g a n d g ild in g —
C lo t h in g ...................................................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s ............................................. .........
T ra n s p o r ta tio n .......................................................
O th e r in d u s t r ie s ...................................................
629
66
75
268
22
43
14
22
227
25
3
8
48
77
89
65
144,642
15,296
13,034
42,075
1,410
4,113
1,443
1,287
7,985
1,097
91
2,702
4,058
12,645
23,383
6,770
T o ta l...............................................................
1,671
282,031
C h ild re n
15 y e a rs
o f age or
F e m a le s.
u n d e r.
T o ta l.
3,341
6,298
190
1,341
26,497
793
728
6,285
102
418
161
593
7,508
38
2
100
314
854
216
356
222,985
16,126
15,053
48,498
1,825
4,531
2,186
1,923
43,553
1,171
106
2,802
7,718
18,797
23,789
8,467
2,931,766
116,464
146,753
720,370
22,091
45,990
37,799
29,890
467,873
17,224
1,372
26,472
37,888
152,996
256,818
66,184
92,529
44,965
419,525
5,077,950
61,846
37
1,291
138
313
582
43
28,060
36
13
The strikes were mostly among agricultural workers and employees
in the groups of stone, earth, sand, and building work and textiles,
over 67 per cent of all the strikes and 70 per cent of the strikers
belonging to these three groups.
The following table shows for the agricultural and for the other
industries, separately, the number and per cent of strikes and strikers,
by principal causes:
C A U SES O F S T R IK E S , 1901.
A g r ic u ltu r a l o c c u p a tio n s .
C au se o r o b je c t .
S trik e s.
N um
b er.
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .............................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s.............
F o r r e d u c tio n o f h o u r s .........................
A g a in s t in c r e a s e o f h o u r s ....................
O th e r c a u s e s ...............................................
456
3
5
T o ta l...................................................
629
12425— N o. 56— 05------ 19
165
S trik ers.
O th er in d u s trie s .
S trik e s.
P er
c e n t.
N um
b er.
72.49 167,304
0 .8 0
727
272
0 .4 8
75.03
0.3 3
0.1 2
63.05 117,492
2.5 9
3,824
6 .4 3 13,158
.3 9
475
27.54 61,591
59.78
1.96
6.69
.2 4
31.34
100.00 196,540
100.00
54,682
24.52
657
27
67
4
287
100.00 222,985
100.00
1,042
26.23
P er
c e n t.
S trik e rs.
N um
b e r.
P er
c e n t.
N um
b er.
P er
c e n t.
286
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The next two tables show, for the agricultural and for the other
industries, respectively, the results of strikes, arranged according to
causes:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S IN A G R IC U L T U R A L O C C U P A T IO N S , B Y C A U SE S, 1901.
S u cceed ed .
C au se o r o b je c t .
F o r in c r e a s e o f
w a g e s .....................
A g a in s t r e d u ctio n
o f w a g e s ...............
F o r r e d u c tio n o f
h o u r s .....................
O th e r c a u s e s ( « ) . . .
T o ta l ( a ) ___
S trik es.
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly .
S trik e rs.
S trik es.
F a ile d .
S trik e rs.
P e r N u m P er
c e n t. b e r. c e n t.
S trik es.
S trik e rs.
N u m P er
b e r. c e n t.
N um
b e r.
203
44
69,814
•42
172
38
82,183
49
81.
18
15,307
9
1
33
12
4
1
33
60
22
1
34
200
74
72
45
28,934
53
1
54
20
33
84
17,376
12
32
4
36
80
.22
643
7,967
88
15
276
44
98,760
44
228
36
99,703
45
122
20
24,117
11
aR e su lts o f 3 strik e s ,
N um
b e r.
P er N u m P e r
c e n t. b e r . c e n t.
N u m P er
b e r. ce n t.
in v o lv in g 406 strik e rs, n o t re p o r te d .
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S IN IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E , B Y C A U SE S, 1901.
S u cceed ed .
C au se o r o b je c t .
S trik e s.
N u m P er
b e r. c e n t.
F o r in c r e a s e o f
w a g e s .....................
A g a in s t re d u c tio n
o f w a g e s ...............
F o r r e d u c tio n o f
h o u r s .....................
A g a in s t in c r e a s e
o f h o u r s .................
O th e r ca u s e s ( « ) . . .
T o ta l ( o ) ___
187
8
28
294
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly .
S trik e rs.
N um
b er.
S trik es.
P er N u m P e r
c e n t. b e r.
c e n t.
F a ile d .
S trik e rs.
N um
b e r.
S trik es.
P er N u m P e r
c e n t. b e r. c e n t.
S trik e rs.
N um P er
b er. c e n t
28,100
24
313
48
70,706
60
157
24
18,686
16
845
22
8
29|
2,037
53
11
41
942
25
21
31
2,924
22
29
43
4,859
37
17
26
5,375
41
1
77
25
294
40
18,654
9
33
1
77
25
294
305
17,313
64
31
2
108
50
41
130
20,058
27
36
50,563
26
428
42
95,220
50
295
29
45,191
24
294 | 29
a R e su lts o f 25 strik e s , in v o lv in g 5,566 strik e rs , n o t r e p o r te d .
In 30 instances in 1901 employers closed their establishments for the
purpose of accomplishing certain objects, sometimes of a political
and sometimes o f a business nature. O f these shut downs, only 6
were directed against employees and can be properly classed as lock
outs. These 6 lockouts affected 937 employees, of whom 595 were
men, 283 were women, and 59 were children 15 years of age or under.
The following table shows the method of settlement of the strikes
and lockouts, arranged according to results.
287
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS---- ITALY
S T R IK E S A N D L O C K O U T S, B Y M E T H O D O F S E T T L E M E N T , 1901.
S trik e s a n d lo c k o u ts s e ttle d —
B y in te r v e n tio n o f—
P u b lic
a u th o ri
tie s.
T ra d e
a s s o cia
tio n s .
S trik e s in tra d e s a n d in d u s
trie s w h ic h s u c c e e d e d .............
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly ...................
F a ile d .........................................
76
129
43
35
59
40
C o u n cils E c c le s i
P riv a te
o f p ru d - a stica l a u
p a rtie s.
h o m m e . th o r itie s .
1
2
9
5
1 ..........
6
12
T o ta l
strik e s
W ith o u t
and
o u ts id e
in te r v e n lo c k o u ts .
tio n .
3
174
214
208
294
428
295
T o t a l.......................................
248
134
11
7
21
596
a 1,017
S trik es in a g r icu ltu r a l o c c u
p a tio n s w h ic h s u c c e e d e d ___
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly ...................
F a ile d .........................................
113
73
16
23
17
4
2
8
12
12
6
1
118
114
98
276
228
3
T o t a l.......................................
207
44
3
23
19
330
6626
L o ck o u ts w h ic h s u c c e e d e d ___
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly ...................
F a ile d .........................................
...........
1
1
7
5
2
1
1
11
9
2
13
30
17
3
19
19
4
299
333
307
581
672
420
30
42
939
d1,673
2
1
T o ta l ( c ) .................................
13
2
T o ta l strik e s a n d lo c k o u ts
w h ic h s u c c e e d e d .......................
S u c c e e d e d p a r tly ...................
F a ile d .........................................
191
216
61
59
77
44
10
(o).................................
468
180
14
T o ta l
10
3
1
1
122
16
3
a R e su lts n o t r e p o r te d in 25 strik e s .
6 R e su lts n o t re p o r te d in 3 strik e s .
c O f th e d isp u te s c la sse d a s lo c k o u ts o n ly 6 w e r e lo c k o u ts p ro p e r ; th e o th e r s w e re sh u t-d o w n s n o t
d ir e c te d a g a in st e m p lo y e e s .
d N o t in c lu d in g 28 strik e s fo r w h ic h re su lts w e r e n o t r e p o r te d .
S t r i k e s D u r i n g T w e n t y - t h r e e Y e a r s . —The following two tables
contain a summary of the more important facts in relation to strikes in
agricultural occupations for the years 1881 to 1901, and in the other
industries for the years 1879 to 1901, respectively:
S T R IK E S IN A G R IC U L T U R A L O C C U P A T IO N S , B Y Y E A R S , 1881 T O 1901.
Y e a r.
T o ta l
strik e s .
S trik e s fo r
w h ic h
s trik e rs
w e re
r e p o r te d .
S trik e rs.
A g g re g a te
days o f
w o r k lo s t.
1 8 8 1 ......................................................................................................
1 8 82......................................................................................................
1 8 83......................................................................................................
18 84......................................................................................................
1885......................................................................................................
18 86......................................................................................................
1887......................................................................................................
1888......................................................................................................
1889......................................................................................................
18 90......................................................................................................
18 91......................................................................................................
18 92......................................................................................................
18 93......................................................................................................
1894......................................................................................................
1 8 95......................................................................................................
1896......................................................................................................
1897......................................................................................................
18 98......................................................................................................
1899.....................................................................................................
19 00......................................................................................................
19 01......................................................................................................
1
2
3
10
62
17
9
5
4
8
24
10
18
8
7
1
12
36
9
27
629
1
2
3
2
36
16
8
5
4
7
24
9
18
8
6
1
12
36
9
26
629
100
2,200
262
245
8,857
3,846
2,275
1,366
a 1 ,0 8 7
1,950
7,795
3,504
12,390
4,748
1,765
100
24,135
8,495
1,895
12,517
222,985
200
4,400
1,812
245
53,761
9,623
3,785
1,366
2,880
8,420
33,877
7,123
1,718,370
43,058
20,565
100
322,020
82,833
7,475
72,057
2,931,766
T o ta l.......................................................................................
902
862
a 322,517
5,325,736
a In 1 s trik e th e n u m b e r o f fa m ilie s ta k in g p a rt w a s r e p o r te d .
288
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
S T R IK E S IN IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E , B Y Y E A R S , 1879 T O 1901.
S trik e s w h ic h —
Y e a r.
S trik es
fo r
w h ic h
T o ta l
S
u
c
s
trik
e rs
strik e s . S u c
c e e d e d F a ile d . w e re
ceed ed .
p a r tly .
re
p o rte d .
(a )
?a)
32
1879.........
1880.........
27
1881.........
44
1882.........
47
1883.........
73
1884.........
81
1885.........
89
1886.........
96
1887.........
69
1888.........
101
1889.........
126
1890........
139
132
1891.........
1892.........
<*119
1893........
e l3 1
1894.........
/1 0 9
1895.........
126
1896.........
210
1897.........
217
1898.........
256
1899.........
259
1900.........
383
1901......... ^ 1,042
c l5 8
24
34
35
41
79
70
70
80
112
294
h3,908
997
T o t a l.
la)
la)
la)
(a )
(a)
(a)
(a )
(« )
a)
(a
(a )
(a )
(a)
(a )
la)
la)
la)
vV
(a)
(a )
la)
la)
la)
la)
(a )
(a )
o421
(a)
la)
(a)
la)
(a)
o401
33
46
29
39
51
60
68
69
143
428
57
41
39
46
80
87
118
110
128
295
1,387
1,402
(a )
la)
(a )
S trik e rs.
C h il
d re n 15
W o m e n . y e a rs o f T o ta l.
age or
u n d er.
M en .
( ft)
(6 )
(ft)
S trik e s
fo r
A g g re
w h ic h
g a te
days
days o f
lo s t
w ork
w e re
lo s t.
re
p o rte d .
(ft)
4,011
(ft)
5,900
(ft)
8,272
(ft)
5,854
(ft)
12,900
(ft)
23,967
(ft)
34,166
(ft)
16,951
(ft)
25,027
(6)
28,974
(ft)
23,322
(ft)
38,402
(ft)
34,733
30,800
(*>)
32,109
(° )
3,939 27,595
2,327 19,307
21,832 96,051
16,326 76,670
4,022 35,705
3,686 43,194
4,816 80,858
18,468 196,540
28
21,896
26
91,899
95,578
38
45
25,119
65
111,697
149,215
78
82
244,393
95
56,772
218,612
66
191,204
95
123
215,880
167,657
129
123
258,059
216,907
114
122
234,323
323,261
103
126
125,968
210 1,152,503
217 1,113,535
239,292
256
259
231,590
383
493,093
1,042 2,146,184
*3,861 J340,797 1159,607 J75,416 901,208
3,825 8,124,637
28
26
39
45
67
81
86
96
68
99
125
133
128
117
127
103
126
210
217
256
259
383
1,042
(*>)
(5)
(5 )
(5 )
(ft)
(6 )
(6 )
(6 )
(ft)
(6 )
( b)
(ft)
(6 )
(6 )
( b)
lb)
(ft)
(
(ft)
(ft)
(ft)
(ft)
(ft)
(ft)
(ft)
3 890
5,192
34,264
38,435
9,571
11,280
16,292
40,683
(b)
(b)
19,766
11,788
39,955
21,809
22,112
28,228
59,750
137,389
a I n c lu d e d in re su lts o f strik e s fo r 1891.
5 N o t r e p o r te d .
cI n c lu d in g s trik e s o c c u r r in g d u r in g th e y e a rs 1879 to 1890, b u t n o t in c lu d in g 76 s trik e s th e re su lts
o f w h ic h w e r e n o t r e p o r te d .
dI n c lu d in g 6 strik e s th e re su lts o f w h ic h w e re n o t r e p o r te d .
« I n c lu d in g 10 strik e s th e re su lts o f w h ic h w e re n o t r e p o r te d .
/I n c lu d in g 6 strik e s th e re su lts o f w h ic h w e re n o t r e p o r te d .
oI n c lu d in g 25 s trik e s th e re s u lts o f w h ic h w e re n o t r e p o r te d .
* Including 122 strikes the results of which were not reported.
iT h is to ta l d o e s n o t a g re e w ith th e to ta l in ta b le s h o w in g strik e s b y n u m b e r o f strik e rs in v o lv e d ,
p a g e 290; th e co m p u ta tio n is m a d e , h o w e v e r , fr o m fig u re s in th e o r ig in a l re p o rts.
/N o t in c lu d in g fig u re s fo r 1879 t o 1893.
The other data concerning strikes for a series of years are shown
only for the industries other than agriculture. The following table
shows the number and result of strikes and the number of strikers,
by industries, for the period 1892 to 1901:
S U M M A R Y O F S T R IK E S IN
IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E , B Y IN D U S T R IE S ,
F O R T H E P E R IO D 1892 T O 1901.
S trik e s w h ic h —
In d u s tr ie s .
T o ta l
strik e s .
S u c
ceed ed .
S u c
ceed ed
p a r tly .
M in in g a n d q u a r r y in g .....................................
M e ta ls a n d m a c h in e r y .....................................
S to n e , e a rth , sa n d , a n d b u ild in g w o r k . .
W o o d w o r k in g .....................................................
P r in tin g a n d p u b lis h in g .................................
T e x tile s ...................................................................
H id e s a n d le a t h e r .............................................
D y e in g o f le a th e r a n d te x tu r e s ( a ) .............
W o o d a n d m e ta l p a in tin g a n d g ild in g .. .
C lo th in g .................................................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s .....................................................
T r a n s p o r ta tio n ...................................................
O th e r in d u s tr ie s .................................................
283
220
618
71
66
747
77
31
(» )
143
124
195
231
119
51
206
20
20
212
21
6
(* )
40
33
55
56
66
66
224
34
13
264
24
11
T o ta l.............................................................
©2,806
839
966
52
45
86
81
F a ile d .
S trik e s
fo r w h ic h
T o ta l
s trik e rs
w e re re s trik e rs.
p o rte d .
98
103
188
17
33
271
32
14
i
46
54
94
287
223
617
71
66
763
78
31
(*>)
143
126
197
239
99,977
35,712
99,724
6,692
4,334
142,827
4,973
5,113
(*>)
100,729
21,488
56,315
60,845
1,001
2,841
638,729
(\
a In c lu d e s w o o d a n d m e ta l p a in tin g a n d g ild in g .
ft I n c lu d e d in d y e in g o f le a th e r a n a te x tu r e s .
o N o t in c lu d in g 46 strik e s th e re su lts o f w h ic h w e r e n o t r e p o r te d .
289
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----ITALY.
The next table shows the causes of strikes, by years, from 1879-1891
to 1901:
C A U SE S O F S T R IK E S IN IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E , 1879-1891 T O 1901.
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n
o f w a g e s.
F o r in c r e a s e o f
w a g e s.
Y e a r.
S trik es.
S trik ers.
516
39
51
46
45
111
106
113
113
181
657
151,678
6,642
13,386
17,685
8,513
78,722
60,559
16,779
19,539
26,370
117,492
1879-1891 (<*).................................................................
1 8 9 2 (6 )...........................................................................
1 8 9 3 (c )...........................................................................
1894 (<*)••••...................................................................
1 8 9 5 .................................................................................
18 96.................................................................................
18 97.................................................................................
1898.................................................................................
1899.................................................................................
1 9 00.................................................................................
1 9 01.................................................................................
S trik e s.
ca u ses w e re
ca u se s w e r e
ca u se s w e re
ca u ses w e re
S trik e s.
22,992
7,551
3,931
1,498
3,093
5,723
4,426
6,902
4,325
2,998
3,824
68
4
11
12
9
6
16
12
17
31
67
O th e r ca u ses.
S trik e s.
S trik e rs.
S trik e s.
S trik e rs.
20
4
1
2
5,646
630
300
330
2
1
7
5
6
4
267
230
908
2,384
694
475
270
44
36
31
50
65
67
80
96
136
287
61,384
13,571
12,492
6,293
6,462
10,359
7,804
10,225
13,315
47,280
61,591
1879-1891 (a).................................................................
1892 ( 6 ) ...........................................................................
1893 ( c ) ...........................................................................
1 8 9 4 (d )...........................................................................
1 8 95.................................................................................
1896.................................................................................
18 97.................................................................................
18 98.................................................................................
1 8 99.................................................................................
1900.................................................................................
19 01.................................................................................
a The
bT h e
eT h e
dT h e
S trik e rs.
106
23
22
12
22
26
27
44
28
29
27 |
A g a in s t in c r e a s e
o f h o u rs.
Y e a r.
n o t r e p o r te d
n o t r e p o r te d
n o t r e p o r te d
n o t r e p o r te d
in
in
in
in
th e
th e
th e
th e
F o r r e d u c tio n o f
h o u rs.
ca se
ca s e
ca se
ca s e
of
of
of
of
S trik e rs.
9,884
1,790
1,519
2,539
1,239
980
3,551
891
3,631
3,516
13,158
T o ta l.
S trik e s. S trik e rs.
980
114
121
103
126
210
217
256
259
383
1,042
251,584
30,184
31,628
27.345
19,307
96,051
76,670
* 35,705
43,194
80,858
196,540
76 s trik e s .
5 s trik e s .
10 s trik e s .
6 s trik e s .
The two following tables show the strikes for the period 1879 to
1891, and for each year 1892 to 1900, classified according to duration
and the number o f strikers involved, respectively:
S T R IK E S IN IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E , B Y D U R A T IO N , 1879-1891 T O 1901.
1879-1891.
1892.
1893.
3 o r u n d e r ...................
4 to 10.............................
11 to 30...........................
O v e r 30...........................
633
256
112
16
60
36
19
1
67
39
11
.8
52
33
12
7
61
44
19
2
T o ta l...................
a 1,017
a 116
a 125
a 104
126
D ays o f d u r a tio n .
1894.
1895.
1897.
1898.
1899.
1900.
1901.
91
70
42
7
104
56
37
19
153
57
33
13
161
70
23
5
208
105
55
15
481
330
177
54
2,071
1,096
540
147
210
0216
256
259
383 1,042
03 ,8 5 4
1896.
T o ta l.
aT h is to ta l d o e s n o t a g re e w ith th e fig u re s g iv e n in th e g e n e r a l ta b le o f strik e s , p a g e 288; th e fig u re s
a re r e p r o d u c e d , h o w e v e r , a s s h o w n in th e o r ig in a l r e p o r t.
290
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
S T R IK E S IN IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E ,
IN V O L V E D , 1879-1891 T O 1901.
1879-1891.
1892.
1893.
1894.
1895.
1896.
1 to 49.............................
50 to 99...........................
100 to 199.......................
200 to 499.......................
500 to 999.......................
1,000 o r o v e r .................
265
203
195
219
86
53
27
18
26
27
11
8
28
24
22
41
6
6
40
16
18
18
5
7
39
34
21
27
3
2
54
35
46
52
14
9
70
52
44
31
14
6
T o ta l...................
a 1,021
117
127
a 104
126
210
217
S trik e rs in v o lv e d .
B Y N U M B E R O F S T R IK E R S
1897. , 1898.; 1899.
!
92
55
63
35
6
5 |
!
98
51
48
39
15
8
256 | 259
1900.
116
95
88
62
13
9
T o ta l.
1901.
406
214
176
157
55
34 !
383 1,042
1,235
797
747
708
228
147
« 3 ,862
aT h is to ta l d o e s n o t a g re e w ith th e fig u re s g iv e n in th e g e n e r a l ta b le o f strik e s , p a g e 288; th e fig u re s
a re r e p r o d u c e d , h o w e v e r , as sh o w n in th e o r ig in a l r e p o r t.
The results of strikes for the period 1879-1891 to 1901 are shown in
the following table:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S IN IN D U S T R IE S O T H E R T H A N A G R IC U L T U R E , 1879-1891 T O 1901.
P e r c e n t o f strik e s .
Y e a r.
1879-1891 .................................................................
1 8 9 2 ...........................................................................
1 8 9 3 ...........................................................................
1 8 9 4 ........................................................................
18 9 5 ...........................................................................
1 8 96...........................................................................
1 8 9 7 ...........................................................................
1 8 98...........................................................................
1 8 99...........................................................................
1 9 00...........................................................................
1 9 01...........................................................................
S u c
ceed ed .
16
21
28
34
32
38
33
27
31
29
29
S u c
ceed ed
p a r tly .
43
29
38
28
31
24
27
27
27
37
42
P e r c e n t o f strik e rs.
F a ile d ,
S u c
ceed ed .
41
50
34
38
37
38
40
46
42
34
29
25
29
29
19
33
49
23
27
33
43
26
S u c
ceed ed
p a r tly .
47
19
44
24
40
31
45
31
38
37
50
F a ile d .
28
52
27
57
27
20
32
42
29
20
24
NETHERLANDS.
Werkstahingenen Uitsluitingen in Nederland gednrende1901,190%, 1903.
Bijvoegsel van het Tijdschrift van het Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, Afl. 2,1903, 53 pp.; Afl. 3h 1, 1903, 28 pp.; Afl. 7,1904, 43 pp.
These three volumes, which are published in the form of supple
ments to the Review of the Central Bureau of Statistics of the Nether
lands, contain the first three annual reports on strikes and lockouts in
that country. The information is given in the form of an analysis,
with summary tables and a tabular statement showing in detail the
important facts concerning each strike and lockout. The report for
1903 contains comparative tables for the three years.
S t r i k e s . —There were 115 strikes reported in 1901,128 in 1902, and
149 in 1903. The number of establishments involved and persons
affected were not reported in the case of all of these strikes. Eightyfour of the strikes in 1901 involved 192 establishments, 113 strikes in
1902 involved 394 establishments, and 132 strikes in 1903 involved 327
establishments. Fifty-eight of the strikes in 1901 affected 4,182
employees, 119 strikes in 1902 affected 12,652 employees, and 136
strikes in 1903 affected 33,487 employees.
The following table shows for each of the years 1901, 1902, and
1903 the number of strikes, establishments involved, and employees
affected in each group of industries.
291
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS— NETHERLANDS.
STRIKES, BY INDUSTRIES, 1901 TO 1903.
In d u s try .
S trik e s fo r
S trik e s fo r
w h ic h n u m b e r
w h ic h n u m b e r
o f e s ta b lis h
o f p e rso n s
m e n ts
a ffe c te d w a s
in v o lv e d w as
r e p o rte d .
r e p o r te d .
S trik e s.
R e su lts.
P erson s S u c
ce e d
a f
ed.
fe c te d .
S u c
N o t re
ceed
F a ile d . p o rt
ed
ed.
p a r tly .
4
1
N um
b er.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts.
N um
b er.
1
16
21
1
1
3
5
5
1
1,578
29
80
65
1,097
300
10
2
6
6
6
43
82
324
558
2
3
4
2
3
1
1
2
4
7
5
4,182
39
17
33
5
1901.
E a rth e n w a re , g la ss, lim e , a n d
s t o n e .....................................................
D ia m o n d a n d o th e r p re c io u s
s to n e c u t t in g .....................................
B u ild in g tra d e s .....................................
C h e m ica l in d u s tr ie s ...........................
W o o d , c o r k , a n d stra w w o r k in g . .
C lo th in g ...................................................
M in in g .......................... ..........................
M e ta l w o r k in g .....................................
M a c h in e r y a n d im p le m e n ts ..........
S h ip b u ild in g a n d c o a c h m a k in g .
P a p e r .........................................................
T e x t ile s ...................................................
P o o d p r o d u c ts .......................................
A g r ic u lt u r e ...........................................
T r a n s p o r ta tio n .....................................
P ro fe s s io n a l s e r v ic e ...........................
5
2
3
5
29
1
3
3
16
7
1
1
1
4
13
14
10
2
5
22
1
3
3
2
7
1
1
1
4
13
10
8
1
5
26
1
3
3
90
7
1
1
1
4
13
21
12
1
T o t a l.............................................
115
84
192
58
4
9
4
1
7
3
5
1
1
6
10
1
2
i
1
ai
a1
3
3
1
1
1
53
2
2
2
<?26
1902.
E a rth e n w a re , g la ss, lim e , a n d
s t o n e .....................................................
D ia m o n d a n d o th e r p re c io u s
s to n e c u ttin g — .............................
P r in tin g a n d p u b lis h in g .................
B u ild in g tra d e s .....................................
W o o d , c o r k , a n d stra w w o r k in g . .
C lo th in g ...................................................
M in in g .....................................................
M e ta l w o r k in g .....................................
P a p e r ................................... » . .................
T e x t ile s ...................................................
F o o d p r o d u c ts .......................................
A g r ic u ltu r e .............................................
C o m m e rcia l o c c u p a tio n s .................
T r a n s p o r ta tio n .....................................
P ro fe s s io n a l s e r v ic e ...........................
10
10
11
10
228
1
4
8
5
35
3
2
6
5
2
5
31
6
2
7
1
7
5
30
3
2
5
5
2
5
25
4
2
7
1
7
7
154
3
2
102
5
2
5
27
54
2
12
1
8
5
33
3
2
6
5
2
5
25
6
2
6
1
3,637
62
2,218
116
19
5,030
133
76
194
371
314
18
197
39
4
3
2
5
T o t a l.............................................
128
113
394
119
12,652
48
16
1
3
1
1
1
10
2
2
5
1
al
1
7
2
3
12
2
1
2
3
1
3
7
2
1
1
27
42
4
1
1
62
al
___
67
dll
1903.
E a rth e n w a re , g la ss, lim e , a n d
s t o n e .....................................................
D ia m o n d a n d o th e r p re c io u s
s to n e c u t t in g .....................................
P rin tin g a n d p u b lis h in g .................
B u ild in g tra d e s .....................................
W o o d , c o r k , a n d stra w w o r k in g . .
C lo th in g ...................................................
M in in g .....................................................
M e ta l w o r k in g .....................................
M a c h in e r y a n d im p le m e n ts ...........
S h ip b u ild in g a n d c o a c h m a k in g .
P a p e r .........................................................
T e x t ile s ...................................................
F o o d p r o d u c t s .......................................
A g r ic u lt u r e ...........................................
C o m m e rcia l o c c u p a tio n s .................
T r a n s p o r ta tio n .....................................
P ro fe s s io n a l s e r v ic e ...........................
7
7
7
7
150
2
1
7
6
45
7
14
1
1
5
1
2
6
18
6
7
15
1
7
6
39
7
14
1
7
6
108
9
40
50
7
6
42
7
14
1
494
93
1,896
111
439
500
5
1
10
1
9
13
4‘
1
1
5
1
2
6
15
3
7
12
5
1
4
6
21
3
7
53
5
1
2
6
15
5
7
12
454
19
39
320
439
165
228
28,140
1
4
3
1
3
4
2
1
2
5
1
3
1
2
1
7
2
3
6
T o t a l.............................................
149
132
327
136
33,487
39
37
60
aIn d e fin ite
2
o r u n s e ttle d .
oI n c lu d in g 3 in d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .
6 I n c lu d in g 1 in d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .
<*I n c lu d in g 4 in d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .
eI n c lu d in g 2 in d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .
5
19
2
4
al
1
63
e5
1
1
1
<*13
292
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
During each of the three years the building trades had the largest
number of strikes. As regards the number of persons affected, the
building trades had the largest number in 1901, the mining industry
had the largest number in 1902, and the transportation industry had
the largest number in 1903.
The table which follows shows the number of strikes, establishments
involved, and persons affected each year, classified by causes. For the
year 1901 the strike is taken as the unit. For the years 1902 and
1903, however, the cause is taken as the unit, so that wherever a strike
was due to two or more causes the data for such a strike are repeated
under each cause. Hence the total number of strikes, establishments
involved, and persons affected in 1902 and 1903, as shown in the tables
giving causes of strikes, does not agree with the number in the other
tables.
C A U SE S O P S T R IK E S , 1901 T O 1903.
[F o r th e y e a r 1901 th e s trik e , a n d fo r th e y e a rs 1902 a n d 1903 th e ca u s e , h a s b e e n ta k e n as th e u n it. A s
a c o n s id e r a b le n u m b e r o f s trik e s in 1902 a n d 1903 w e r e d u e t o tw o o r m o re ca u se s, th e fa cts in th o s e
ca se s h a v e b e e n ta b u la te d u n d e r e a c h ca u s e ; h e n c e th e to ta ls fo r th o s e y e a rs d o n o t a g re e w ith
th o s e in o th e r ta b le s .]
S trik es.
C au se o r o b je c t .
S trik e s fo r
S trik e s fo r
S trik e s fo r
w h ic h n u m
w h ic h n u m w h ic h n u m
b e r o f e sta b
b e r o f p e rs o n s b e r o f w o r k
lis h m e n ts
a ffe c te d w a s in g d a y s lo s t
in v o lv e d w as
re p o r te d .
w a s r e p o r te d .
r e p o r te d .
P er
E sta b
lis h
cen t o f
N um
N um
N u m P erson s N u m
to ta l re
m e n ts
a f
b er.
b er.
b er.
b er.
p o r tin g
in
fe c te d .
ca u se .
v o lv e d .
D ays
lo s t.
1901.
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .............................................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s.................................
O th e r d is p u te s c o n c e r n in g w a g e s .....................
H o u rs o f l a b o r ...........................................................
T r a d e -u n io n is m .......................................................
F o r r e in s ta te m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s .......................
W o rk in g a rra n g e m e n ts, ru le s, e t c ...................
O t h e r ..............................................................................
N o t r e p o r t e d ...............................................................
62
15
7
3
5
15
1
6
1
54.39
13.16
6.1 4
2.63
4.3 8
13.16
.8 8
5.2 6
37
15
6
1
5
14
1
5
138
19
7
1
7
14
1
5
30
8
2
1
3
- 10
1
3
2,761
500
18
300
76
196
38
293
42
11
4
1
3
9
1
4
1
T o t a l...................................................................
115
100.00
84
192
58
4,182
76
1,058
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .............................................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s .................................
O th e r d isp u te s c o n c e r n in g w a g e s .....................
H o u rs o f la b o r ................................... ........................
T r a d e -u n io n is m .......................................................
F o r re in s ta te m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s .......................
W o rk in g a rra n g e m e n ts, r u le s , e t c ...................
O t h e r ..............................................................................
N o t r e p o r te d ................................................................
61
19
17
10
2
25
2
40
5
34*. 66
10.79
9.6 6
5 .68
1.1 4
14.20
1.1 4
22.73
54
19
15
7
1
25
2
38
195
68
101
7
1
27
5
46
61
18
16
10
2
25
1
37
5,976
441
1,894
1,194
3,132
740
5
3,966
59
19
16
9
2
24
2
36
1,1614
444
984
96
143
636
49
751
T o ta l...................................................................
181
100.00
161
450
170
17,348
167
3,379
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .............................................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s .................................
O th e r d is p u te s c o n c e r n in g w a g e s .....................
H o u rs o f la b o r ...........................................................
T r a d e -u n io n is m .......................................................
F o r r e in s ta te m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s .......................
W o rk in g a rra n g e m e n ts, r u le s , e t c ...................
O t h e r .............................................................................
N o t r e p o r t e d ...............................................................
80
6
24
21
11
36
14
33
9
35.55
2.67
10.67
9.33
4 .8 9
16.00
6 .2 2
14.67
70
6
23
17
11
36
13
30
4
206
55
46
68
97
71
51
113
4
76
6
23
20
11
36
14
32
2
3,802
582
838
1,007
4,818
3,501
1,024
28,725
9
71
5
23
18
9
32
14
32
2
1,277
50
477
3664
247
6794
278
697
24
T o ta l...................................................................
234
100.00
210
711
220
44,306
206
4,0744
5624
140
45
12
51
117
49
614
30
1902.
1903.
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----NETHERLANDS.
293
It will be observed that the strikes in each year were mostly due to
wage disputes, strikes for the reinstatement of employees being next
in importance.
The results of strikes are shown in the following table:
R E S U L T S O F S T R IK E S , 1901 t o 1903.
S trik e s.
S trik e s fo r
S trik e s fo r
w h ic h n u m b e r
w h ic h n u m b e r
o f e s ta b lis h
o f p e rs o n s
m e n ts
a ffe c te d w a s
in v o lv e d w as
re p o r te d .
r e p o r te d .
R e s u lt.
N um
b e r.
P er
cen t o f
to ta l
r e p o r t
in g
r e s u lt.
N um
b er.
E sta b
lis h
m e n ts
in
v o lv e d .
N um
b e r.
D ays
lo s t.
1901.
S u c c e e d e d .....................................................................................
S u c c e e d e d p a r t ly .......................................................................
F a ile d ..............................................................................................
I n d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .............................................................
N o t r e p o r t e d ..................................................................... ............
39
17
33
3
23
42.39
18.48
35.87
3.26
25
10
28
3
18
114
10
47
3
18
17
11
21
1
8
1,493
1,180
1,289
34
186
T o ta l.....................................................................................
115
100.00
84
192
58
4,182
S u c c e e d e d ......................................................................................
S u c c e e d e d p a r t ly .......................................................................
F a ile d ..............................................................................................
In d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .............................................................
N o t r e p o r t e d .................................................................................
48
27
42
4
7
39.67
22.31
34.71
3 .3 1
45
26
37
4
1
133
196
60
“4
1
46
27
40
4
2
4,219
4,354
3,957
61
51
T o ta l......................................................................................
128
100.00
113
394
119
12,652
S u c c e e d e d ......................................................................................
S u c c e e d e d p a r t ly .......................................................................
F a ile d ..............................................................................................
I n d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d ...........................................................
N o t r e p o r t e d .................................................................................
39
37
60
4
9
27.86
26.43
42.86
2.85
37
34
53
4
4
74
147
98
4
4
37
36
57
4
2
3,334
2,107
27,821
152
73
T o ta l.....................................................................................
149
100.00
132
327
136
33,487
1902.
1903.
The proportion of strikes which succeeded shows a decrease each
year, while the proportion which succeeded partly and which failed
shows an increase.
294
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
In the table which follows the strikes are shown, by causes and
results, for each of the three years, 1901, 1902, and 1903. As in a
preceding table, the strike is taken as the unit in 1901 and the cause
as the unit in 1902 and 1903:
S T R IK E S , B Y C A U SE S A N D R E S U L T S , 1901 T O 1903.
[F o r th e y e a r 1901 th e s trik e , a n d fo r th e y e a rs 1902 a n d 1903 th e ca u s e , h a s b e e n ta k e n as th e u n it.
A s a c o n s id e r a b le n u m b e r o f s trik e s in 1902 a n d 1903 w e re d u e to tw o o r m o re ca u ses, th e fa cts in
th o s e ca se s h a v e b e e n ta b u la te d u n d e r e a c h ca u s e ; h e n c e th e to ta ls fo r th o se y e a rs d o n o t a g re e
w ith th o s e in o th e r ta b le s .]
I n d e fi
Suc
S u c
n ite o r N ot re
c e e d e d F a ile d .
T o ta l.
ceed ed .
u n se t p o rte d .
p a r tly .
tle d .
C au se o r o b je c t .
1901.
12
1
3
1
1
3
62
15
7
3
5
15
1
6
1
19
7
3
1
1
5
13
2
1
N o t r e p o r te d .................................................................................
2
1
18
3
1
1
2
6
1
1
T o ta l.....................................................................................
39
17
33
3
23
115
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s ...............................................................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s ...................................................
O th e r d isp u te s c o n c e r n in g w a g e s .......................................
H o u rs o f la b o r . . . ; .....................................................................
Trade-unionism .........................................................................
F o r r e in sta te m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s .........................................
W o rk in g a rra n g e m e n ts, ru le s, e t c .....................................
O t h e r ................................................................................................
N o t r e p o r te d .................................................................................
21
8
8
2
17
5
7
3
1
4
21
6
2
4
1
1
4
16
T o ta l.....................................................................................
71
41
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s .. r .........................................................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s ...................................................
O th e r d isp u te s c o n c e r n in g w a g e s.......................................
H o u rs o f la b o r .............................................................................
T r a d e -u n io n is m .........................................................................
F o r r e in s ta te m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s .........................................
W o rk in g a rra n g e m e n ts, ru le s, e t c .....................................
O t h e r .......................................................................................
N o t r e p o r te d .................................................................................
20
1
8
5
5
7
3
9
T o ta l.....................................................................................
58
F o r in c r e a s e o f w a g e s ...............................................................
A g a in s t r e d u c tio n o f w a g e s ...................................................
Other disputes concerning w^ges.............
, , ___
T r a d e -u n io n is m .........................................................................
F o r re in s ta te m e n t o f e m p lo y e e s .........................................
W o rk in g a rra n g e m e n ts, ru le s, e t c .....................................
O ther................................................................ ..............
1
2
1
2
1902*
13
2
17
2
1
5
61
19
17
10
2
25
2
40
5
55
7
7
181
23
3
4
7
2
9
6
14
1
35
1
12
9
3
19
5
9
1
2
1
1
1
7
80
6
24
21
11
36
14
33
9
69
94
4
9
234
1
1
2
6
*
1903.
1
295
FOREIGN STATISTICAL PUBLICATIONS-----NETHERLANDS.
The next table shows the strikes in 1901,1902, and 1903 by duration
and results:
STRIKES, BY DURATION AND RESULT, 1901 TO 1903.
L ess
th a n
R e su lt.
1
1 t o 2 3 to 7
d a y s. d a y s.
day.
D u ra
t io n
8 to 15 to 29 to 43 to O y er
n ot
42
14
28
91
91
re
d a y s. d a y s. d a y s. d a y s. d a y s.
p o rt
ed .
T o
ta l.
1901.
1
S u c c e e d e d ........................
S u cce e d e d p a r t ly ........ .
F a ile d ................................
In d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .
N o t r e p o r t e d ....................
.
6
.
6
.
2
6
2
15
25
6
6
11
20
6
10
1
T o ta l
7
1
11
4
1
3
1
3
1
1
1
1
7
4
6
1
21
39
17
33
3
23
10
9
9
6
39
115
8
4
8
4
4
5
1
3
5
1
4
7
1
1
1902*
S u c c e e d e d ........................
S u c c e e d e d p a r t ly ........ .
F a ile d ................................
In d e fin ite o r u n s e ttle d .
N o t r e p o r t e d ....................
2
.
T o ta l........................
.
2
1
1
2
3 ...........
3
1
2
. 1
1
2
1 ..........
6
48
27
42
4
7
36
20
10
9
9
10
9
4
12
8
5
6
7
2
5
15
5
3
39
37
60
4
21
18
10
149
4
23 |
S u c c e e d e d ........................
S u cce e d e d p a r t ly ..........
F a ile d ...............................
In d e fin ite o r u n se ttle d .
N o t r e p o r te d ....................
9
5
3
T o ta l........................
17
32
9
6
11
128
1903.
1 ......
2
More than one-half of the strikes for which duration was reported
lasted 7 days or less, and but 8 strikes during the three years lasted
over 91 days.
The table which follows shows the number of strikes and their
results, and the number of persons affected by strikes, classified accord
ing to method of settlement:
S T R IK E S , B Y M E T H O D O F S E T T L E M E N T , 1901 T O 1903.
S trik es.
M e th o d o f s e ttle m e n t.
S trik es
fo r
w h ic h
n u m b e r o f p e rs o n s
a ffe c te d w a s
re
p o rte d .
S trik e s w h ic h —
P e rso n s a f
R e
fe c t e d .
m a in
P er
S u c
e d in - R e su lt
cen t o f
ceed
S
u
c
P er
N u m to ta l
n ot
N um
F a il d e ficeed
ed
b e r.
ce n t o f
b e r. r e p o r t
ed.
n ite
re
N um
e d . p a rt
o r u n p o rte d .
to ta l re
in g
b e r.
ly .
p o r tin g
set
m e th o d
m e th o d
tle d .
1901.
D ir e ct n e g o tia tio n b e tw e e n
th e p a rtie s o r th e ir re p re
s e n ta tiv e s .......................................
M e d ia tio n o f th ir d p a r tie s ..........
E m p lo y m e n t o f o th e r w o rk m e n
D is in te g r a tio n ( a ) ...........................
N o t r e p o r te d .....................................
T o ta l.........................................
34
8
6
14
53
115
54.84
12.90
9.6 8
22.58
25
1
13
100.00
39
7
6
1
4
2
1
5
14
11
2
17
33
3
931
844
437
693
1,277
32.05
29.05
15.04
23.86
23
17
7
4
10
20
23
58
4,182
100.00
a B y d is in te g r a tio n is m e a n t th e b r e a k in g u p o f th e s trik e b y th e g r a d u a l r e tu rn o f th e strik e rs.
296
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
STRIKES, BY METHOD OF SETTLEMENT, 1901 TO 1903—Concluded.
S trik es.
M e th o d , o f s e ttle m e n t.
S trik e s w h ic h —
S trik e s
fo r
w h ic h
n u m b e r o f p e rso n s
a ffe c te d
w a s re
p o rte d .
P e rso n s a f
R e
fe c te d .
P er
m a in
S u c
R e s u lt
cen t o f
e
d
in
S u c c e e d
n ot
N u m t o ta l
F
a
il
N
u
m
d
e
fiP er
ceed
ed
re
b e r. r e p o r t
b er.
ed.
n ite
e d . p a rt
N um cen t o f
p o r t
or un
in g
to
ta
l re
ed.
b er.
ly .
m e th o d
se t
p o rtin g
t le d .
m e th o d
1902.
D ir e c t n e g o tia tio n b e tw e e n
th e p a rtie s o r th e ir r e p re
s e n ta tiv e s .......................................
M e d ia tio n o f th ir d p a r tie s ........
A r b it r a t io n .......................................
E m p lo y m e n t o f o th e r w o rk m e n
D is in te g r a tio n (a)...........................
O t h e r ...................................................
N o t r e p o r t e d .....................................
T o ta l (& ).................................
7,269
640
31
145
847
194
3,700
55.66
12.26
3.7 7
7.55
13.21
7.5 5
132
100.00
49
27
45
123
79.65
7.01
.3 4
1 .5 9
9.2 8
2 .1 3
12,826
100.00
950
487
542
60
16.90
2.8 3
1.4 5
1.6 2
.1 8
1903*
D ir e ct n e g o tia tio n b e tw e e n
th e p a rtie s o r th e ir r e p re
s e n ta tiv e s .......................................
M e d ia tio n o f th ir d p a r tie s .........
A r b itr a tio n
...................................
E m p lo y m e n to f o th e r w o rk m e n
D is in te g r a tio n (a)...........................
D e fe a t o f o n e o f th e p a rtie s
w ith o u t n e g o t ia t io n .................
O t h e r ...................................................
N o t r e p o r te d .....................................
T o ta l ( b) .................................
51.09
10.95
2.1 9
15.33
2.9 2
9.4 9
8.0 3
160
100.00
40
37
70
147
25,011
806
253
74.61
2 .4 1
33,775
100.00
aBy d is in te g ra tio n is m e a n t th e b r e a k in g u p o f th e s trik e b y th e g ra d u a l r e tu rn o f th e s trik e rs.
bW h ere tw o o r m o re m e th o d s o f s e ttle m e n t h a v e b e e n e m p lo y e d th e d a ta w e re r e p o r te d in e a c h
ca se , h e n c e th e se to ta ls d o n o t sh o w th e a c tu a l n u m b e r o f strik e s .
In the above table, where two or more methods of settlement have
been employed, the data were repeated in each case. Hence the totals
do not agree with those of the actual number of strikes and persons
affected as shown elsewhere. It will be observed that in each year
over one-half o f the strikes were settled by direct negotiation of
the parties, disintegration being next in frequency in 1901 and 1902,
and employment of other workmen in 1903.
L o o k o u t s . —There were 7 lockouts in 1901, 14 in 1902, and 14 in
1903. The number of persons locked out was 362 in 1901, 2,381 in
1902, and 1,021 in 1903.
DECISIONS OF COUNTS AFFECTING LABOR.
[This subject, begun in Bulletin No. 2, has been continued in successive issues.
A ll material parts of the decisions are reproduced in the words of the courts, indi
cated when short by quotation marks, and when long by being printed solid. In
order to save space, matter needed simply by way of explanation is given in the
words of the editorial reviser.]
DECISIONS UNDER STATUTORY L A W .
E
m ployers’
ants—
L
ia b il it y —
C o n s t it u t io n a l it y
R a il r o a d
of
C o m p a n ie s — F
S t a t u t e — K ane
ellow
v . E rie
-S e r v
R a ilroad
Com pany, United States Circuit Court, N orthern D istrict o f Ohio,
Eastern D iv isio n ,
F ederal R eporter, page
—Thomas M.
128
Kane, a fireman in the employment of the above-named railroad com
pany, met his death, as was alleged, through the negligence of an
engineer on another locomotive than that on which he was serving.
An action was brought by his administratrix to recover damages for
such death. The right to recover was based upon section 3365-22 of
the Revised Statutes of Ohio, which provides that the alleged negli
gent engineer would be held to be the superior and not a fellow-servant
o f the said Kane. The claim of the railroad company was made that
the petition did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause o f action
and the court was asked to enter final judgment in favor of the com
pany against the claimant. The essential portion of the statute in
question will be found quoted in the remarks of Judge W ing, who
announced the opinion of the court granting the request of the defend
ant company, and declaring that portion of the statute under consider,
ation to be unconstitutional. The remarks of Judge W ing are given
in full below:
M y first reason for sustaining the objection to the introduction of
any testimony under the petition in this case is that in the case of Bal
timore and Ohio Railroad Company v. Baugh, 149 U. S. 368, 13 Sup.
Ct. 914, 37 L. Ed. 772, it was decided that a question o f liability by
reason o f the negligent acts o f a fellow-servant, and what relation con
stituted one a fellow-servant, was a question oi general law, and that
the solution o f the question as to whether one person is the fellowservant o f another is not based upon the superiority of one over the
other, but upon the character of labor in which they are engaged, and
that, if two are working together, they may be fellow-servants, not
withstanding that one is superior in authority to the other. The
statute relied upon in this case (section 3365-22 of the Revised Statutes
297
298
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
of Ohio), when forming the basis of an action in the courts of the State
of Ohio, has read into it the ruling of the supreme court of Ohio, to
the effect that the negligence of a servant superior to another serv
ant is, with respect to the latter, by reason of such superiority, the
negligence of the master. When an action is brought in the Federal
courts, the statute should have read into it the decisions of the Federal
courts with respect to fellowship in service. The statute does not, in
terms, create liability, and only has that effect when it is assumed that
negligence by a superior servant creates liability of the master to the
inferior. But since, in the Federal court, negligence of a superior
does not create liability of the master to the inferior, the statute cre
ates no right of action in the Federal court.
My second reason is that, in my opinion, the third section of the act,
which is section 3365-22 of the Revised Statutes, is in contravention
of section 2 of article 1 of the constitution of Ohio, which provides
that government is instituted for the equal protection and benefit of
the people. Assuming that the section of the statutes referred to cre
ates a liability, and consequently a right of action, it withholds that
right of action by the exception found in the last two lines of the stat
ute from general operation. The provision of the statute is:
“ * * * that every person in the employ of such company hav
ing charge or control of employees in any separate branch or depart
ment, shall be held to be the superior and not fellow-servant of employ
ees in anv other branch or department who have no power to direct
or control in the branch or department in which they are employed.”
W e may understand the operation of this provision of the statute
by applying it to the incident which gives rise to this suit. Two
engines belonging to the defendant railroad company collide. This
collision is occasioned by the negligence of the engineer o f engine No.
1. Such engineer has control or his fireman. The collision results in
the injury of both the engineer and fireman of engine No. 2. If the
negligence of the engineer of engine No. 1 is attributable to his mas
ter, then there should be a right of action, on account of such negli
gence, in favor of both the engineer and the fireman of engine No. 2,
except for the defense of fellow-servant. The right of action, how
ever, by the statute, is allowed to the fireman, and withheld from the
engineer, by a fact which has in no wise had to do with the causing of
the injury. W e may go further, so as to relieve the question from
the level rank of the two engineers. Suppose that on engine No. 2
there is a coal passer, who, by the rules of the company, is under the
charge or control of the fireman, and who has no one under his charge
or control. Then a right of action for this accident would be given to
the coal passer, and withheld from the fireman, by the arbitrary dis
tinction made in the statute. Before the passage of the statute, no
right of action, under similar circumstances, would have existed in
favor of either the engineer, fireman, or coal passer of engine No. 2.
The statute attempts to make a classification between individuals
who may have a right of action, and bases that classification upon a
fact which has had nothing to do with occasioning the accident, and
over which the person injured has had no control. The law does not
operate to equally protect the persons injured, or liable to be injured.
Although I have used the word “ classification,” we can not say that
the legislature, in enacting this section of the statute, has made a
classification. It rather has delegated to the railroad company the
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
299
right to make the classification which will serve as the criterion of its
own liability, because by its rules and its acts a right of recovery for
an injury can be prevented. It lies entirely within the power of a
railroad company as to whether or not a servant shall have charge and
control of another servant, as, we may suppose, a railroad company,
for the purpose of relieving itself from liability, puts upon each of its
trains a boy, who, under its rules, is in the charge and under the control
of every other employee on the train. The only liability, then, of the
railroad company, for a collision occasioned by the negligence of an
employee on another of its trains, would be to this boy; and this, by
reason of the creation of facts which are the basis of the assumed
classification established by the statute. The statute might as well
have read that, 46in the event of injury occasioned by the negligence
of an employee in a separate branch or department, right of action,
notwithstanding the doctrine of fellow-servant, shall exist in favor of
those only whom the railroad company shall designate.” For the rea
sons given, I hold that so much of section 3365-22, Rev. St. Ohio, as
provides that 44every person in the employ of such company having
charge or control of employees in any separate branch or department
shall be held to be the superior and not fellow-servant of employees
in any other branch or department who have no power to direct or
control in the branch or department in which they are employed,” is
unconstitutional, because its benefits are restricted to those who have
no power to direct or control in the branch or department in which
they are employed.
E
L
m ployers’
aw
— A
L
ia b il it y —
s s u m p t io n
of
R a il r o a d C o m p a n ie s — S a f e t y A
R is k — C o n t r ib u t o r y
p p l ia n c e
N e g l i g e n c e —Denver
and R io Grande Railway Go. v. A rrighi, United States Circuit Court
o f Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 129 Federal Reporter, page 31fl.—The
plaintiff, Arrighi, was a switchman in the service of the railroad com
pany named above, and had been injured while endeavoring to couple
freight cars which were not equipped with automatic couplers as
directed by the act of 1893. This act provides that any employee of
any interstate carrier who may be injured by any car used in inter
state traffic by reason of the same not having been equipped with an
automatic coupling device shall not be deemed to have assumed the
risk thereby occasioned, though continuing in the service after the
fact of such defective equipment has been brought to his knowledge.
The circuit court of the United States for the district of Colorado had
allowed damages, from which judgment the company appealed, pro
curing a reversal of such judgment and orders for a new trial. It
appeared from the evidence that the plaintiff was a skillful workman
o f about eleven years’ experience in railroading; that he was acquainted
with the old style coupling which was in use on the cars in question,
and that the movement of the engine was being directed by him, and
there were no circumstances making the coupling especially difficult.
He was holding the coupling link of the approaching car with his left
hand and failed to remove it in time to avoid the impact so that his
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
hand was crushed, resulting in the loss of three fingers. The opinion
of the court was announced by Judge Hook, who held that while the
statute provides against the assumption of risk it did not do away
with the defense of contributory negligence. The following extract
from Judge Hook’s opinion presents the grounds on which the conclu
sions are based:
Prior to the time when the act of Congress became fully operative,
the employees of a railroad company subject to its provisions, engaged
in coupling cars used in moving interstate traffic, but not equipped
with automatic couplers, assumed the ordinary risks and hazards of
that employment, and the company was not liable to them for injuries
resulting therefrom. The common-law doctrine of the assumption of
risk was then applicable. But a new rule is prescribed by the act. It
specially provides that the employees shall no longer rest under the
burden o f that assumption in respect of any car used contrary to its
provisions. While this is true, the railroad company is not thereby
deprived of the defense of contributory negligence. With an excep
tion, unnecessary to be noted here, the risks and dangers of an employ
ment which at common law are assumed by the employee are not those
which arise from the negligence of either party. And when the bur
den o f those assumed risks and dangers were lifted from the employee
by statutory enactment, and cast upon the railroad company, there
was not transferred therewith a responsibility for the negligence of
the employee himself. The rationale of the doctrine of assumption of
risk is not that which supports the rule of contributory negligence.
They operate differently, and are dependent upon widely different
principles. It can not be assumed that by the passage of a salutary
law designed for the protection of those engaged in a hazardous occu
pation Congress intended to offer a premium for carelessness, or to
grant immunity from the consequences of negligence. The reasonable
conclusion is that the defense of contributory negligence is as avail
able to a railroad company after as before the passage of the act of
Congress, although it has not complied with its requirements.
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cago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway Co. v. Voelker, United States
Circuit Court o f Appeals, Eighth Circuit, 129 Federal Reporter, page
522.—Emil Voelker was a switchman in the employment of the rail
way company, and was killed while attempting to effect a coupling
between cars in the line of his employment. One of the cars to be
coupled was provided with a coupler so defective that it was necessary
to go entirely between the cars to adjust it for the impact, and while
so occupied Voelker had been crushed by the unexpected kicking of
other cars against those he wished to couple.
The circuit court of the United States for the northern district of
Iowa had awarded Voelker’s administratrix damages (see Bulletin of
the Department of Labor No. 4A, p. 165), on the ground that the defec
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tive condition o f the coupler was the proximate cause of his death, and
was such a violation of the safety appliance law of 1893 as to fix the
liability on the company. From this judgment this appeal was taken
and a reversal procured on grounds that appear in the following
quotations from the court’s opinion as delivered by Judge Van
Devanter.
Having stated the facts, the court said:
It is entirely clear that the trial proceeded upon the theory that
plaintiff’s petition charged two acts of negligence on the part of the
railway company as proximate causes of Yoelker’s death: First, per
mitting the coupler upon the coal car to become inoperative and defec
tive; and, second, kicking or sending other cars against the cars between
which Voelker was engaged without a signal from him, and contrary
to a general and established practice. Each party, without objection
from the other, introduced evidence bearing directly upon each charge
o f negligence, and not otherwise relevant to the issues. The court
also instructed the jury upon this theory. The contention on behalf
of the railway company that the case was tried upon the theory that
the petition charged the negligent kicking or sending of other cars
against those between which Voelker was engaged as the sole proximate
cause of the injury is not supported by the record, but is refuted by it.
Judge Van Devanter then took up the contention of the company
that the statute was satisfied with the use of a coupler 44to prepare
which for the impact” it is necessary to go between the ends of the
cars, provided that when so prepared the actual coupling is automat
ically effected, as to which he said:
The contention that the preparation of the coupler for the impact
is distinct from the act of coupling is a mistaken attempt to separate
a part of an act from the whole. The preparation of the coupler and
the impact are not isolated acts, but connected and indispensable parts
of the larger act, which is regulated by these [United States and State]
statutes, and the performance of which is intended to be relieved of
unnecessary risk and danger.
The company contended further that inasmuch as the track on which
the accident occurred was used44to set out and handle thereon * * *
cars having some defect in them and needing repairs, as well as other
cars not defective,” the trial court should have instructed the jury that
the plaintiff in working on that track assumed the risk of such defects
as might exist in the cars. As to this the court said:
Section 8 of the controlling act o f Congress declares:
44That any employee of any such common carrier who may be injured
by any locomotive, car, or train in use contrary to the provision of
this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk thereby
occasioned, although continuing in the employment of such carrier
after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car, or train had been
brought to his knowledge.”
12425— N o. 56— 05------ 20
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
The evidence, without any substantial conflict, showed that this
track was principally used in actively handling freight trains and
freight cars; that incoming trains were received thereon and the cars
distributed therefrom; that outgoing trains were made up thereon and
dispatched therefrom; that incoming trains sometimes brought thereon
cars in need of repair, and in some instances such cars were temporarily
transferred thereto from other tracks; that there was in the yards at
Dubuque a hospital track specially designed and used for isolating and
holding cars in need of repair; that the practice was to inspect the
cars of incoming trains, and to mark those found in need of repair,
commonly termed “ bad order” cars, in such manner as to indicate
their condition, preparatory to their proper disposition, and as a warn
ing to those handling them; and that at the time of the injury this car
had not been marked or isolated as in bad order. There was no evi
dence that Yoelker was engaged in moving the car as one in bad order,
with a view to its isolation or repair. Of this evidence it is sufficient
to say that, working under such circumstances with a car in use con
trary to the Congressional act does not, in the presence of section 8,
amount to an assumption of the risk arising therefrom, and the court
very properly instructed the jury to that effect.
As to the alleged negligent method of moving the cars, the Judge
spoke as follows:
The principal allegations constituting plaintiff’s second charge of
negligence were: First, the existence of a practice in defendant’s yards
at Dubuque, long recognized by defendant, and amounting to a general
custom, requiring, when a car coupler, also called “ fieldman,” is engaged
between two cars in preparing them for coupling, that other cars be
not moved against those between which he is engaged without a signal
from him; and, second, the kicking or sending of other cars forcibly
against those between which Voelker was engaged, without a signal
from him, and with knowledge of his exposed position between the
cars. It was important, therefore, to know whether it was Voelker’s
duty to take the precaution necessary to avoid injury from an exposed
position between the cars and the movement of other cars, or whether
it was the duty of the switching crew to take this precaution. While
the evidence respecting the practice in switching cars and the duties to
be performed by those engaged therein was conflicting, that produced
by defendant, including the testimony of the yard master and of the
foreman of the switching crew under whom Voelker was employed,
tended to show that the practice long established, generally followed,
and effective during Yoelker’s employment, was that this duty rested
upon the car coupler, and not upon the switching crew.
As applicable to this state of the evidence bearing upon the second
charge of negligence, defendant requested the court to charge the jury
as follows:
“ If, while Yoelker was working in the yards, it was the general and
uniform custom to kick cars down to the fieldman without giving him
any notice or warning, and Voelker continued in the service, such cus
tom being practiced or acted on, he took the risks arising from this
manner of kicking cars, and no recovery can be had because of injury
to him caused thereby.”
“ If, while Voelker was working in the yard, it was the general and
uniform custom to kick cars down to a fieldman, so called, without
303
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
giving him any notice or warning, and Voelker was acting as fieldman,
and he remained working in the yard while this custom or practice was
observed, there can be no recovery for any injury done him because
of the kicking of cars to him without giving notice or warning that it
was to be done.”
The court refused to so instruct the jury, and gave no other instruc
tion upon the subject.
We regard these requests as substantially the same, and think one
of them should have been granted. The rejection of both was error.
Each is in terms carefully confined to the charge of negligence in
kicking or sending down the second set of cars, and each requires that
the custom should have been general and uniform, and that Yoelker
should have continued in the service while the custom was being
observed. If it was general and uniform, and was observed during
his continuance in the service, it was manifestly within not merely his
means of knowledge, but his actual knowledge. He was an experi
enced railroad employee, and was familiar with this branch of that
service, having been in defendant’s employ as a brakeman and switch
man for a period of eight years. He therefore understood the dangers
incident to the observance of such a custom. There can be no claim,
under the evidence, that the injury was willfully or wantonly inflicted.
Nor was the custom an unreasonable one. Whether or not there was
occasion to go between the cars, and thus assume a position of exposure
to injury from the movement of other cars, would be known to the
fieldman, but not to the switching crew. His position would also
enable him to judge of the character and probable duration of the
exposure better than could be done by others. He would be primarily
in a jflace of safety, would know that the work in which he was engaged
was, in a larger sense, that o f moving cars and making up trains, and,
being in control of his movements, would not assume a position of
danger without some volition of his own. If, in the presence and
during the observance of a general and uniform custom of the charac
ter stated, Yoelker continued in the service o f defendant, he assumed
the risk of injury arising from its observance.
The judgment is reversed, with a direction to grant a new trial.
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raf
Johnson v. Southern Pacific Company, United States Supreme
Court, 25 Supreme Court Reporter, page 158.—This was an action
brought by one W . O. Johnson to recover damages for injuries
received while in the employment of the above-named company as brakeman. Johnson was injured while undertaking to effect a coupling
between a freight engine, provided with a Janney coupler, and a dining
car, equipped with a Miller hook or coupler. Both these couplers
were automatic and worked satisfactorily with others of their kind, but
would not work with each other, so that Johnson tried to make the
coupling with a link and pin and while so doing had his hand caught
and crushed so that it had to be amputated at the wrist. The accident
occurred on a side track leading to a turntable where the car was
f ic —
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
being prepared for a return trip later in the day from Promontory,
Utah, where it then was, to San Francisco, Cal., from which latter
city it had been brought in the regular course o f traffic.
The defendant company had been awarded judgment in the United
States circuit court for the district of Utah, and likewise in the circuit
court of appeals. (See Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 44,
p. 167.) From this judgment an appeal was taken to the United States
Supreme Court, which reversed the former judgments and directed a
new trial.
The opinion of the court, delivered by Chief Justice Fuller, is, with
slight omissions, reproduced herewith.
The plaintiff claimed that he was relieved of assumption of risk
under common law rules by the act of Congress of March 2, 1893 (27
Stat., 531, c. 196), entitled “ An act to promote the safety o f employees
and travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers engaged
in interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and
continuous brakes and their locomotives with driving-wheel brakes,
and for other purposes.”
The issues involved questions deemed of such general importance
that the Government was permitted to file brief and be neard at
the bar.
The act of 1893 provided—
“ That from and after the first day of January, eighteen hundred
and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any common carrier engaged
in interstate commerce by railroad to use on its line any locomotive engine
in moving interstate traffic not equipped with a power driving-wheel
brake ana appliances for operating the train-brake system. * * *
“ S e c . 2 . That on and after the first day o f January, eighteen hun
dred and ninety-eight, it shall be unlawful for any such common
carrier to haul or permit to be hauled or used on its line any car used in
moving interstate traffic not equipped with couplers coupling automat
ically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity of
men going between the ends of the cars.
66 S e c . 6. That any such common carrier using any locomotive engine,
running any train, or hauling or permitting to be hauled or used on
its line any car in violation of any of the provisions of this act, shall
be liable to a penalty of one hundred dollars for each and every such
violation, to be recovered in a suit or suits to be brought by the
United States district attorney in the district court of the United
States having jurisdiction in the locality where such violation shall
have been committed, and it shall be the duty o f such district attorney
to bring such suits upon duly verified information being lodged with
him of such violations having occurred.
“ S e c . 8 . That any employee of any such common carrier who may
be injured by any locomotive, car, or train in use contrary to the pro
vision o f this act shall not be deemed thereby to have assumed the risk
thereby occasioned, although continuing in the employment o f such
carrier after the unlawful use of such locomotive, car, or train had
been brought to his knowledge.”
The circuit court of appeals held, in substance, Sanborn, J ., de
livering the opinion and Lochren, J., concurring, that the locomotive
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
305
and car were both equipped as required by the act, as the one had a
power driving-wheel brake and the other a coupler; that section 2 did
not apply to locomotives; that at the time of the accident the dining
car was not “ used in moving interstate traffic;” and, moreover, that
the locomotive, as well as the dining car, was furnished with an auto
matic coupler, so that each was equipped as the statute required if sec
tion 2 applied to both. Thayer, J., concurred in the judgment on the
latter ground, but was of opinion that locomotives were included by
the words “ any ca r” in the second section, and that the dining car
was being “ used in moving interstate traffic.”
W e are unable to accept these conclusions, notwithstanding the able
opinion o f the majority, as they appear to us to be inconsistent with
tne plain intention of Congress, to defeat the object of the legislation,
and to be arrived at by an inadmissible narrowness of construction.
The intention of Congress, declared in the preamble and in sections
one and two of the act, was “ to promote the safety of employees and
travelers upon railroads by compelling common carriers engaged in
interstate commerce to equip their cars with automatic couplers and
continuous brakes and their locomotives with driving-wheel brakes,”
those brakes to be accompanied with “ appliances for operating the
train-brake system;” and every car to be “ equipped with couplers
coupling automatically by impact, and which can be uncoupled with
out the necessity of men going between the ends o f the cars,” whereby
the danger and risk consequent on the existing system was averted as
far as possible.
The present case is that of an injured employee, and involves the
application of the act in respect of automatic couplers, the preliminary
question being whether locomotives are required to be equipped with
such couplers. And it is not to be successfully denied that they are
so required if the words “ any car” of the second section were intended
to embrace, and do embrace, locomotives. But it is said that this can
not be so because locomotives were elsewhere in terms required to be
equipped with power driving-wheel brakes, and that the rule that the
expression of one thing exdudes another applies. That, however, is
a question o f intention, ana as there was special reason for requiring
locomotives to be equipped with power driving-wheel brakes, if it
were also necessary that locomotives should be equipped with auto
matic couplers, and the word “ car” would cover locomotives, then
the intention to limit the equipment of locomotives to power drivingwheel brakes, because they were separately mentioned, could not be
imputed. Now, it was as necessary for the safety o f employees in
coupling and uncoupling, that locomotives should be equipped with
automatic couplers, as it was that freight and passenger and dining
cars should be, perhaps more so, as Judge Thayer suggests, “ since
engines have occasion to make couplings more frequently.”
And manifestly the word 44car ” was used in its generic sense. There
is nothing to indicate that any particular kind of car was meant.
Tested by context, subject-matter and object, 44any ca r” meant all
kinds of cars running on the rails, including locomotives. And this
view is supported by the dictionary definitions and by many judicial
decisions, some of them having been rendered in construction of this
act. (Winkler v. Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company, 53 Atl.
Rep. TO, 4 Penn. (Del.) 387; Fleming s. Southern Railway Company,
131 N. C. 476; East St. Louis Connecting Railway Company v. O’Hara,
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
150 111. 580; Kansas City, &c., Railroad Company v. Crocker, 95 Ala.
412; Thomas v. Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, 38 Ga. 222;
New York v. Third Ave. Ry. Co., 117 N. Y. 404; Benson v. Railroad
Company, 75 Minn. 163.)
The result is that if the locomotive in question was not equipped with
automatic couplers, the company failed to comply with the provisions
of the act. It appears, however, that this locomotive was in fact
equipped with automatic couplers, as well as the dining car, hut that
the couplers on each, which were of different types, would not couple
with each other automatically by impact so as to render it unnecessary
for men to go between the cars to couple and uncouple.
Nevertheless, the circuit court of appeals was of opinion that it
would be an unwarrantable extension of the terms of the law to hold
that where the couplers would couple automatically with couplers of
their own kind, the couplers must so couple with couplers of different
kinds. But we think that what the act plainly forbade was the use of
cars which could not be coupled together automatically by impact, by
means of the couplers actually used on the cai’s to be coupled. The
object was to protect the lives and limbs of railroad employees by ren
dering it unnecessary for a man operating the couplers to go between
the ends of the cars, and that object would be defeated, not necessarily
by the use of automatic couplers of different kinds, but if those differ
ent kinds would not automatically couple with each other. The point
was that the railroad companies should be compelled, respectively, to
adopt devices, whatever they were, which would act so far uniformly
as to eliminate the danger consequent on men going between the cars.
I f the language used were open to construction, we are constrained
to say that the construction put upon the act by the circuit court of
appeals was altogether too narrow.
This strictness was thought to be required because the common-law
rule as to the assumption of risk was changed by the act, and because
the act was penal.
The dogma as to the strict construction of statutes in derogation of
the common law only amounts to the recognition of a presumption
against an intention to change existing law, and as there is no doubt
of that intention here, the extent of the application of the change
demands at least no more rigorous construction than would be applied
to penal laws. And, as Chief Justice Parker remarked, conceding
that statutes in derogation of the common law are to be construed
strictly, “ they are also to be construed sensibly, and with a view to the
object aimed at by the legislature.” (Gibson v. Jenney, 15 Mass. 205.)
The primary object of the act was to promote the public welfare by
securing the safety of employees and travellers, and it was in that
aspect remedial, while for violations a penalty of one hundred dollars,
recoverable in a civil action, was provided for, and in that aspect it was
penal. But the design to give relief was more dominant than to inflict
punishment, and the act might well be held to fall within the rule
applicable to statutes to prevent fraud upon the revenue, and for the
collection of customs, that rule not requiring absolute strictness of
construction. (Taylor v. United States, 3 How. 197; United States v.
Stowell, 133 U. S. 1, 12, and cases cited. And see Farmers’ National
Bank v. Deering, 9 1 U. S. 29, 35; Gray v. Bennett, 3 Met. (Mass.) 539.)
Moreover it is settled that “ though penal laws are to be construed
strictly, yet the intention of the legislature must govern in the con
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
307
struction of penal as well as other statutes; and they are not to be
construed so strictly as to defeat the obvious intention of the legisla
ture.” (United States v. Lacher, 134 U. S. 624.) In that case we cited
and quoted* from United States v. Winn, 3 Sumn. 209, in which Mr.
Justice Story, referring to the rule that penal statutes are to be con
strued strictly, said:
“ I agree to that rule in its true and sober sense; and that is, that
penal statutes are not to be enlarged by implication, or extended to
cases not obviously within their words and purport. But where the
words are general, and include various classes of persons, I know of
no authority, which would justify the court in restricting them to one
class, or in giving them the narrowest interpretation, where the mis
chief to be redressed by the statute is equally applicable to all of them.
And where a word is used in a statute, which has various known signi
fications, I know of no rule, that requires the court to adopt one in
preference to another, simply because it is more restrained, if the
objects of the statute equally apply to the largest and broadest sense
o f the word. In short, it appears to me, that the proper course in all
these cases, is to search out and follow the true intent of the legisla
ture, and to adopt that sense of the words, which harmonizes best with
the context, and promotes in the fullest manner, the apparent policy
and objects of the legislature.”
Tested by these principles, we think the view of the circuit court
of appeals, which limits the second section to merely providing auto
matic couplers, does not give due effect to the words “ coupling auto
matically by impact, and which can be uncoupled without the necessity
of men going between the cars,” and cannot be sustained.
W e dismiss as without merit the suggestion, which has been made,
that the words “ without the necessity of men going between the ends
of the cars,” which are the test o f compliance with section two, apply
only to the act of uncoupling. The phrase literally covers both coup
ling and uncoupling, and if read, as it should be, with a comma after
the word “ uncoupled,” this becomes entirely clear. (Chicago, Mil
waukee & St. Paul Railway Company v. Voelker, 129 Fed. Rep. 522;
United States v. Lacher, supra.)
The risk in coupling and uncoupling was the evil sought to be
remedied, and that risk was to be obviated by the use of couplers
actually coupling automatically. True, no particular design was
required, but whatever the devices used they were to be effectively
interchangeable. Congress was not paltering in a double sense. And
its intention is found “ in the language actually used, interpreted
according to its fair and obvious meaning.” (United States v. Harris,
177 U. S. 309.)
That this was the scope of the statute is confirmed by the circum
stances surrounding its enactment, as exhibited in public documents
to which we are at liberty to refer.
Chief Justice Fuller at this point reviewed briefly some of the cir
cumstances connected with the enactment of the law in question, after
which he continued as follows:
The diligence of counsel has called our attention to changes made in
the bill in the course of its passage, and to the debates in the Senate
on the report of its committee. (24 Cong. Rec., pt. 2, pp. 1246,1273,
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BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
et seq.) These demonstrate that the difficulty as to interchangeability
was fully in the mind of Congress and was assumed to be met by the
language which was used. The essential degree of uniformity was
secured by providing that the couplings must couple automatically by
impact without the necessity of men going between the ends of the
cars.
In the present case the couplings would not work together, Johnson
was obliged to go between the cars, and the law was not complied
with.
March 2,1903 (32 Stat., 943, c. 976), an act in amendment o f the act
of 1893 was approved, which provided, among other things, that the
provisions ana requirements of the former act “ shall be held to apply
to common carriers by railroads in the Territories and the District of
Columbia and shall apply in all cases, whether or not the couplers
brought together are of the same kind, make, or type;” and “ shall be
held to apply to all trains, locomotives, tenders, cars, and similar
vehicles used on any railroad engaged in interstate commerce.”
This act was to take effect September first, nineteen hundred and
three, and nothing in it was to be held or construed to relieve any
common carrier46from any of the provisions, powers, duties, liabilities,
or requirements” of the act of 1893, all of which should apply except
as specifically amended.
As we have no doubt of the meaning of the prior law, the subsequent
legislation can not be regarded as intended to operate to destroy it.
Indeed, the latter act is affirmative and declaratory, and, in effect,
only construed and applied the former act. (Bailey v. Clark, 21 Wall.
284; United States ^.Freeman, 3 How. 556; Cope v. Cope, 137 U. S.
682; Wetmore v. Markoe, 25 Sup. Ct. 172.) This legislative recogni
tion o f the scope o f the prior law fortifies and does not weaken the
conclusion at which we have arrived.'
Another ground on which the decision of the circuit court of
appeals was rested remains to be noticed. That court held by a
majority that as the dining car was empty and had not actually entered
upon its trip, it was not used in moving interstate traffic, and hen$e
was not within the act. The dining car bad been constantly used for
several years to furnish meals to passengers between San Francisco
and Ogden, and for no other purpose. On the day of the accident the
east-bound train was so late that it was found that the car could not
reach Ogden in time to return on the next west-bound train according
to intention, and it was therefore dropped off at Promontory to be
picked up by that train as it csme along that evening.
The presumption is that it was stocked for the return, and as it was
not a new car, or a car just from the repair shop, on its way to its
field of labor, it was not “ an empty,” as tnat term is sometimes used.
Besides, whether cars are empty or loaded, the danger to employees is
practically the same, and we agree with the observation of District
Judge Shiras in Voelker v. Railway Company, 116 Fed. Rep. 867,
that “ it can not be true that on the eastern trip the provisions of the
act o f Congress would be binding upon the company because the cars
were loaded, but would not be binding upon the return trip because
the cars are empty.”
Counsel urges that the character of the dining car at the time and
place o f the injury was local only and could not be changed until the
car was actually engaged in interstate movement or being put into a
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
309
train for such use, and Coe v. Errol, 116 U. S. 517, is cited as sup
porting that contention. In Coe v. Errol it was held that certain logs
cut in New Hampshire, and hauled to a river in order that they might
be transported to Maine, were subject to taxation in the former State
before transportation had begun.
The distinction between merchandise which may become an article
o f interstate commerce, or may not, and an instrument regularly used
in moving interstate commerce, which has stopped temporarily in
making its trip between two points in different States, renders this and
like cases inapplicable.
Confessedly this dining car was under the control of Congress while
in the act of making its interstate journey, and in our judgment it was
equally so when waiting for the train to be made up for the next trip.
It was being regularly used in the movement of interstate traffic and
so within the law.
Finally it is argued that Johnson was guilty of such contributory
negligence as to defeat recovery, and that, therefore, the judgment
should be affirmed. But the circuit court of appeals did not con
sider this question, nor apparently did the circuit court, and we do
not feel constrained to inquire whether it could have been open under
section 8, or, if so, whether it should have been left to the jury under
proper instructions.
The judgment o f the circuit court of appeals is reversed; the judg
ment of the circuit court is also reversed, and the cause remanded to
that court with instructions to set aside the verdict and award a new
trial.
P aym ent
of
W
ages—
S t a t u t e — State
R e d e m p t io n
of
S c r ip — C o n s t it u t io n a l it y
v. Missouri Tie and Timber Co., Supreme Court
o f Missouri^ 80 Southwestern Reporter, page 933.—This case was before
the supreme court on an agreed statement of facts which were in
brief as follows:
The Missouri Tie and Timber Company had given to one Sweeney,
an employee, an order book containing mercantile coupons of a value
of $5, redeemable in merchandise at the company’s store. This book
was not redeemable in money, but was in fact intended as a payment
of wages due. If not used in the purchase of goods, the sum or any
remaining part thereof would be paid in money if presented for
redemption on the company’s pay day, which recurred monthly, but
not on regular days. I f it had been assigned, however, cash would
not be paid therefor. The order books were issued only to employees
to whom the company was indebted, and without coercion or compul
sion on any employee to accept the same.
Under the provisions of sections 8142-8145, Revised Statutes of
1899, which forbid the issue of any order, note, check, etc., in pay
ment of wages, not redeemable in money on demand, conviction was
had in the circuit court of Ripley County, from which the defendant
company appealed, and secured a reversal on the ground of the uncon
stitutionality of this law.
of
310
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
Judge Burgess reviewed the case at length, citing numerous similar
statutes and presenting conclusions in which all the judges concurred,
which appear in the following extracts from his remarks:
It is said for defendant that the statute quoted is violative of section
4 of article 2, of the State constitution, which says that all persons
have a natural right to life, liberty and the enjoyment of the gains of
their own industry; that to give security for these things is the prin
cipal office of government, and that when government does not confer
this security it fails of its chief design; that it violates section 30, article
2, of said constitution, which says that “ no person shall be deprived
o f life, liberty or property without due process of law,” and that it
violates the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution o f the United
States, which provides that: “ Nor shall any State deprive any person
of life, liberty or property without due process o f law nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.” It was
ruled in State v. Loomis, 115 Mo. 307, 22 S. W . 350, 21 L. R. A. 789,
that sections 7058, 7060, Revised Statutes 1889, making it a misde
meanor for any corporation, person, or firm engaged in manufacturing
or mining to issue in payment of the wages of his or its employees any
order, check, memorandum, token, or evidence of indebtedness, payable
otherwise than in lawful money of the United States, unless the same
was negotiable and redeemable at its face value in cash, or in goods or
supplies, at the option of the holder, at the store or other place of
business of the corporation, person, or firm, is class legislation, and as
such is violative of the constitutional guaranty of “ due process of
law,” and void. The decision is placed upon the broad ground that
the sections of the statute then under consideration were not “ due
process of law ” within the meaning of the Constitution, and upon the
further grounds that they are an interference with the right to make
reasonable and proper contracts in conducting a legitimate business
which the Constitution guaranties to everyone when it declares that
he has a natural inalienable right of acquiring, possessing, and pro
tecting property.
W e are of the opinion that under the great weight of authority the
act in question can not be upheld, in so far as defendant company and
its adult employees are concerned, upon the ground of its being a police
regulation, for it can not be said that the defendant, in operating its
tie and timber business, is any way pursuing a public business, or
devoting their property to a public use; and the law must be held
unconstitutional upon the ground that it interferes with or abridges
the right o f persons competent to contract with each other with respect
to the manner in which defendant’s employees were to be paid for their
services. The right to labor, or employ labor, and make contracts
with respect thereto, upon such terms as"may be agreed upon, is both
a liberty and property right, and is included in the guaranty of the
Constitution whicn provides “ that no person shall be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of law.” “ Law of the land”
is said to mean a law binding upon every member of the community
under similar circumstances. The word “ liberty,” as used in these
constitutional declarations, means more than freedom of locomotion.
It includes and comprehends, among other things, freedom of speech,
the right to self-defense against unlawful violence, and the right to
freely buy and sell as others may.
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
311
From the foregoing descriptions and definitions of “ due process of
layr,” or its equivalent, “ law of the land,” it must be evident that this
constitutional safeguard condemns arbitrary, unequal, and partial leg
islation; and it is equally clear that the right to make contracts and
have them enforced, as others may, is one of the rights so secured to
every citizen.
P r o t e c t io n
E
of
m ployees
as
M
em bers
of
L
abor
O r g a n iz a
Coffeyville Vitrified B rick
and Tile Co. v. P erry, Supreme Court o f Kansas, 76 Pacific R eporter,
page 8if*.—T. P. Perry had procured a judgment in the district court
o f Montgomery County against the above-named company awarding
damages for his discharge because of membership in a labor organiza
tion. The action was based on chapter 120, Laws of 1897, which for
bids discharge for such cause, fixes a penalty and allows damages not
to exceed $2,000.
From the judgment of the lower court the company appealed and
procured a reversal of the same on the ground of the unconstitution
ality of the statute in question. The grounds for this conclusion were
set forth by Judge Greene, who delivered the opinion of the court.
The judge quoted with approval from the similar cases of State v.
Julow, 129 Mo. 163; 31 S. W. 781 (see Bulletin of the Department
of Labor, No. 2, p. 206); Gillespie v. People, 188 111. 176; 58 N. E.
1007 (see Bulletin of the Department of Labor, No. 35, p. 797); and
Zillmer v. Kreutzberg, 114 Wis. 530; 90 N. W . 1098 (see Bulletin of
the Department of Labor, No. 47, p. 938).
The following syllabus prepared by the court presents the conclu
sions of law:
t io n s —
C o n s t it u t io n a l it y
of
Statute—
1.
A statute which makes it unlawful to discharge an employee
because he belongs to a lawful labor organization, and which provides
for the recovery of damages for such discharge, is void. The right
to terminate a contract is within the protection of the State and Federal
constitutions, which guaranty to every citizen the protection of life,
liberty, and property.
DECISIONS UNDER COMMON L A W .
A
s s ig n m e n t
of
F
uture
E
a r n in g s —
C o n s id e r a t io n — V
a l id it y o f
— Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. v. Kidwell,
Court o f Appeals o f Colorado, 76 Pacific Reporter, page 9 —The
company named was summoned as garnishee in proceedings by W. R.
Kidwell to recover a judgment debt against John McCarney, an
employee of said company. A justice of the peace and, on appeal,
the Pueblo County court had granted judgment against the company,
from which an appeal was again taken with the result of a reversal.
The company had answered in the first instance that at the time of
the service of the writ it was not in any way indebted to McCarney,
U
n c e r t a in
A
s s ig n m e n t s
312
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
which answer was disputed by Kidwell, he claiming that there was an
indebtedness of an unknown sum. It appeared from the evidence that
in October, prior to the service of the writ of garnishment in the fol
lowing April, McCarney had, for value received, assigned to the
Colorado Supply Company so much of his earnings from the Colorado
Fuel and Iron Company as would cover any present debt or any debt
which might become due to the Supply Company from month to month
on account of current supplies of goods sold and delivered to him. The
Fuel and Iron Company had notice of the assignment and had made
payments accordingly.
McCarney’s earnings for each of the months if March and April
were less than his indebtedness to the Supply Company for the same
months. Kidwell maintained, however, that the assignment was
invalid as against creditors for the reasons that no indebtedness existed
at the time it was made and that it was supported by no consideration
then paid; that neither the time nor amount covered or to be covered
by it was fixed; that the employing company had made no binding
acceptance, and that the assignment was made with the purpose of
delaying the collection of the claim sued for. There was no evidence
to support the last ground nor of anything other than good faith in
the transaction as a whole and it was disregarded.
The first three grounds were discussed by Judge Thompson, who
spoke for the court, in the following language:
1. Whether McCarney owed the Supply Company anything at the
time of the assignment does not directly appear. The instrument
recites as its consideration 44value received,” and expressly transfers
sufficient of the earnings 46to cover all moneys now due by me to said
Supply Company.” According to those recitals, there was an indebted
ness existing at the time of the assignment, and a consideration then
passed, and the burden was upon Kidwell to prove the contrary. But,
aside from the foregoing, there was an independent legal and valid
consideration, namely, the extension of credit by the Supply Company
to McCarney. By such extension McCarney was enabled to obtain
necessary supplies without being compelled to pay for them as he pur
chased them. This extension of credit was a valuable consideration,
within every definition of the term.
2. It is well settled that a person in the employ of another may make
a valid assignment of wages to be earned during the existence of the
employment, and the assignee will take precedence of subsequent
attaching creditors. Where the term of the employment is indefinite
and uncertain, and the consideration of the assignment is the furnish
ing of such necessaries as the assignor may require during the employ
ment, it is manifest that, in the nature of the case, the assignment can
not be, either as to time or amount, other than indefinite; but the
intention of the parties may nevertheless be clearly and explicitly
expressed, leaving their rights under the instrument entirely free from
doubt. W hy an assignment of wages to be earned during an employ
ment of uncertain duration, in consideration of a credit for such arti
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING- LABOE.
313
cles as the assignor may require from month to month, is not as valid
and binding as an assignment of wages for a fixed period in considera
tion o f a specified amount, we are unable to perceive. But there
is direct authority that neither as to time or amount is certainty
necessary.
3.
The Fuel and Iron Company was notified of the assignment, and,
after receiving notice, regularly paid McCarney’s wages to the Supply
Company. No formality is necessary to the acceptance of an instru
ment like this. The Fuel and Iron Company by its conduct placed
itself in the position of debtor to the Supply Company, to the extent
o f McCarney’s wages. By paying the money to the Supply Company
it acknowledged its liability to that company.
The judgment will be reversed, and the court below instructed to
enter judgment for the garnishee.
D
is c h a r g e
of
E
m ployee—
P rocurem ent
by
T
h ir d
P erson—
—Holder v. Cannon Manufacturing Co., Supreme Court o f
North Carolina, Ifl Southeastern Reporter, page JtSl,—D. M. Holder,
a weaver in the employment of the Gibson Manufacturing Company,
had sued for and procured a judgment against the Cannon Manufac
turing Company on account of certain alleged false and malicious
charges made by the latter company, which led to Holder’s discharge.
Holder charged willful and malicious conspiracy, and testified that
his boss had said on discharging him that he hated to do it, but that he
had a letter from the Cannon Manufacturing Company and that that
company wanted it done. This testimony was contradicted by the
defendant company, the claim being made by the assistant manager
(who was the same for both companies) that he had taken the action
himself without conference with or suggestion from any officer of the
defendant company.
From the judgment in Holder’s favor the company appealed to the
State supreme court, where the judgment was affirmed, Judge Mont
gomery, for the court, using in part the following language:
M
a l ic e
The plaintiffs evidence tended to show that he was discharged
without cause by the defendant company, and that he was discharged
from the employment of the Gibson Company, while giving satisfac
tion in his work to that company, by a letter from the defendant
demanding his discharge from the service of the Gibson Company,
and upon that evidence, believed by the jury, the law applicable to the
case seems to be clear. In order to constitute malice in a case like the
present, it is not necessary that the defendant should show actual ill
will or hatred to the plaintiff, but it is sufficient if the act done, to the
apparent damage of the plaintiff, is without legal excuse. Any person
who by any act causes tne discharge of another from the service of a
third party maliciously and willfully—that is, without lawful justifica
tion—is liable to the injured party for damages. (Haskins v. Royster,
70 N. C. 601,16 Am. Rep. 780; Morgan v. Smith, 77 N. C. 37.)
314
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
It is true that in the plaintiff’s complaint there is an allegation
that the defendant procured his discharge by conspiracy and by false
and fraudulent representations to the Gibson Company, but such an
allegation was not necessary or essential to the prosecution o f the
action by the plaintiff. It is sufficient that the act is alleged to have
been done maliciously, willfully, and unlawfully. (Jones v. Stanly, 76
N. C. 355; Haskins^. Royster, supra; Morgan v. Smith, supra.) The
question was not whether the plaintiff was discharged by reason of the
false or fraudulent representations of the defendant, but was the dis
charge procured through malice; that is, without a lawful justifica
tion?
It is not to be understood by anything said in this opinion that one
employer can not inquire of another of the character and habits of a
former employee o f that other, and that an answer made in good faith
and upon a knowledge of facts, and acted upon by the recipient,
would subject the giver of the information to a suit in damages.
E
m ploym ent
of
L
abor—
R ules— A
greements
am ong
E m ploy
— W illis v. Muscogee M anufacturing Co., Supreme
Court o f Georgia, lfi Southeastern Reporter, page 177.—This was an
action brought by R. H. Willis against the Muscogee Manufacturing
Company to recover damages for unlawfully preventing his employ
ment. Willis was a loom fixer and had been employed by the company
to repair Crompton looms at $1.50 a day. According to his testimony
it was expressly understood that he was not to work at that price on
Crompton and Knowles looms combined. Willis worked for some
time on the Crompton looms and was then directed by a superior to
repair some combined looms. This he refused to do unless his wages
were increased, when he was told that that was all he would get and if
he would not work for that price he could quit. Considering himself
discharged, he left service and applied for positions with other com
panies, but was refused because his name had been sent to them on
what was called the blacklist, in which it was stated that he had left
the service of the company without cause and without working the
required six days’ notice. Several of the companies in the county,
among them the Muscogee Company, had mutually agreed to report to
each other all employees who left their service without working out a
six days’ notice which was provided for in a rule adopted by all the
employers uniting in the above agreement. After Willis found himself
unable to secure employment at Columbus he removed to another
point at the cost o f some time and money and afterwards sued the
above company for damages. After the submission of the testimony
above stated to the superior court of Muscogee County, the judge
granted a nonsuit on the ground of insufficient evidence to warrant
the case going to a jury. From this ruling this appeal was taken and
ers—
B
l a c k l is t in g
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTINft LABOR.
315
the judgment was reversed. From the opinion of the court, which
was delivered by Judge Simmons, the following is quoted:
1. All manufacturing companies, and as well all other persons who
employ labor, have the right and power to make reasonable rules and
regulations for the government of their employees. It is reasonable
to require that employees shall give their employers a certain number
of days’ notice before leaving their service. It has been held to be
reasonable to require such notice, and to provide that, if the notice is
not .given, the employee shall forfeit all wages then due him. The
rule m the present case was reasonable, and one who, with knowledge
of the rule, entered the service of the defendant, was bound by the
rule. It entered into his contract of service, and became a part of it,
as binding upon him as any other part of his contract. Manufacturing
corporations frequently make large contracts for goods to be delivered
at a specified time. In order to comply with these contracts, it is
necessary for them to keep the requisite number of employees in their
service. If employees were allowed to leave their employment without
giving any notice, it would in many cases be impossible for the
employers to fill their places in time to complete the goods according
to the contracts made for their delivery. With six days’ notice of the
intention of an employee to leave, the employer would have a reason
able time to fill his place. For these and other reasons we think, as
above stated, that the rule was a reasonable one.
2. It was contended by counsel for the plaintiff in error that while
the rule may have been a reasonable one when adopted by a single
corporation, it was an unlawful conspiracy for a number of corpora
tions to join in an agreement to enforce such a rule by reporting
violations of it to each other, and refusing to employ any person who
had been so reported. W e can not see the force of the reasoning of
counsel on this point. W e see no reason why the officers of a dozen
cotton mills in or near the same city can not make such an agreement
with each other. An employer has a right to select his employees
according to what standard he may choose, though such standard be
arbitrary or unreasonable. An employer certainly has a right to
refuse to employ any one whom he knows to have left another
employer in violation of a reasonable rule which both employers are
seeking to enforce. An agreement among a number of employers to
report such violations, and thus assist each other in the selection of
their employees, is not unlawful, though coupled with an agreement
to employ no one so reported, such an agreement not being binding
upon the employers, and there being no allegation that it was entered
into through malice. [Cases cited.]
3. There are, however, limitations upon the rights of the employers
in this matter. While the employee is bound by the reasonable rules
of the employer, as a part of the contract of employment, and may be
reported to other employees for a breach of those rules, there is a
correlative duty upon the employer not to report an employee wrong
fully. The rule which enters into the contract of employment is as
much a part of the contract of the employer as of the employee, and
both are bound b}^ it. The employer is strictly within his rights as
long as he reports no employee for a violation of the rule except such
as have actually violated it. When, however, he wrongfully makes
316
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR.
such a report, and an employee is thereby damaged, such employee
has a right of action. While the corporation which entered into the
agreement above described had a right to do so, they owed a duty
to their employees not to abuse that right. When one of them falsely
reported an employee, to his injury, such employee may recover for
the tort. The combination of the employers was a powerful machine
for the accomplishment of lawful results, but it was capable of misuse
to the injury of innocent employees. When a company so misused it
such company must take the consequences.
4.
Our difficulty has arisen, not in coming to the above conclusions,
but in applying them to the facts of the present case so as to determine
whether the trial judge erred in granting a nonsuit. It was contended
by counsel for the plaintiff in error that the rule as to six days’ notice
did not apply to the facts of this case, and that, instead of ‘ 4leaving”
his employer, plaintiff was discharged by defendant; that he had made
a contract to do certain work on a certain kind of loom at a stipulated
)rice, expressly excepting from the agreement work on the combined
ooms, wnich he stated he would not do for the price paid for the work
contracted for. Without his consent, an officer of the defendant ordered
him to work on the combined looms without any addition to his wages.
This, he claims, was a change in his contract, to which he refused to
accede, and he was then told he could quit. In consequence of this
declaration by the defendant’s officers, he gathered up his tools, etc.,
and left. Tlie other companies were then notified by defendant that
plaintiff had left its employment without cause, and in violation of the
rule as to giving notice." On the other hand, the defendant claims
that the evidence shows that the plaintiff left its services voluntarily,
and refused to work out the required notice, and that the liefendant
was, therefore, justified in reporting him to the other companies as
having violated the rule. This, we think, was a question of fact which
should have been submitted to the jury. There was enough evidence
to require that the case be submitted to a jury.
If the jury had
found in favor of the plaintiff on this issue he would have been enti
tled to recover some damages. When one promulgates an ambigu
ous or doubtful rule, it must be construed strictly against him. This
rule of construction must be borne in mind in ascertaining whether
the regulation as to notice applied to such a case as was made by the
termination of the plaintiff’s employment. If the employer who pro
mulgated the regulation made a mistake in its construction, and
applied it to a state of facts which did not come within it, the em
ployee injured by such mistake has a right to recover. The employer
can not arbitrarily place an employee upon the blacklist as having
violated the regulation, when in point of fact the employee’s conduct
did#not come within the terms of such regulation, and he, there
fore, had not violated it. On the other hand, if the plaintiff left
the service of the defendant voluntarily, without cause, and without
giving the required notice, or if he had contracted to do all such work
m his line as the company might reasonably require of him, without
excepting work upon the combined looms, and then refused to work
upon these looms for the agreed price per day, and left because defend
ant would not give him more, then the defendant had a right to report
him as having left without cause and without working out the required
notice. It was also contended by the plaintiff that this report to the
I
DECISIONS OF COURTS AFFECTING LABOR.
317
other companies prevented his obtaining other employment, and com
pelled him, in order to obtain work, to remove to another city* that
he thus lost time and was put to actual expense by reason of his having
been reported by the defendant. The defendant claimed that the
agreement between it and the other companies was voluntary, and not
legally binding on any of them, and that any one of the other com*
panics could have employed plaintiff had it seen proper to do so, and
that in truth the notice sent out to the other companies was not the
real cause of the plaintiff’s failure to get work. Under the evidence
this was also a question for the jury, and not for determination by the
court. W e therefore think that the court erred in granting a nonsuit,.
12425— No. 56— 05------ 21
LAWS OF VARIOUS STATES RELATING TO LABOR ENACTED
SINCE JANUARY 1, 1896.
[The Second Special Report of this Bureau contains all laws of the various States and Territories
and of the United States relating to labor in force January l, 1896. Later enactments are reproduced
in successive issues of the Bulletin from time to time as published.]
NEBRASKA.
ACTS OF 1903.
C h apter 17.— E m p lo y m e n t o f la b o r on p u b l ic w o r k s — C ities o f the fir s t cla ss.
S e c t io n 123. In all cities governed by this act [cities having less than forty thou
sand
upon
with
done
and more than twenty-five thousand inhabitants], where wTork is performed
the streets, sewers, boulevards or in parks, etc., or by virtue of any contract
any person, company, or companies, or corporations, for such city, shall be
by union labor and be paid for at the rate of two dollars ($ 2 ) per day: P r o
v id ed , That when skilled labor is employed by the city, said labor shall be paid the
current scale of union wages: P r o v id e d , That eight hours shall constitute a day’ s
labor.
Approved April 6, 1903.
NEVADA.
ACTS OF 1903.
C h apter 10.— H o u r s o f la b o r in m in es a n d sm elters.
S ection 1. The period of employment of workingmen in all underground mines
or workings shall be eight (8) hours per day, except in cases of emergency wThere
life or property is in imminent danger.
S e c . 2. The period of employment of workingmen in smelters and in all other
institutions for the reduction or refining of ores or metals shall be eight (8) hours
per day, except in cases of emergency where life or property is in imminent danger.
S e c . 3 . A n y p erson w h o vio la te s e ith e r o f th e p re ce d in g se ctio n s o f th is act o r a n y
p erson , c o rp oration , e m p lo y e r o r h is or its ag en t, w h o h ires, co ntracts w ith , or
causes a n y p erson to wTo rk in a n u n d e rg ro u n d m in e or o th e r u n d ergrou n d w o rk in g s,
or in a sm e lte r o r a n y o th ^ r in stitu tio n o r p la ce for th e re d u ctio n or re fin in g o f ores
or m e ta ls for a p e r io d o f tim e lo n g e r th a n e ig h t ( 8 ) h o u rs d u rin g o n e d a y u n less life
a n d p ro p e rty sh a ll b e in im m in e n t d a n g er sh a ll b e g u ilty o f a m isd e m e a n o r an d u p o n
c o n v ic tio n th e r e o f sh a ll b e p u n ish e d b y a fine o f n o t less th a n on e h u n d re d ($ 1 0 0 )
d o lla rs, n o r m o re th a n five h u n d re d ($500) d ollars, o r im p ris o n m e n t in th e c o u n ty
ja il n o t m o re th a n s ix m o n th s, o r b y b o th su ch fine a n d im p ris o n m e n t.
Approved February 23, 1903.
C hapter 13.— I n s p e c tio n o f fa c to r ie s — S a fe ty a p p lia n ce s .
S e c t io n 1. It shall be unlawful for any person, company or corporation, after the
first day of July, nineteen hundred and three, to construct or place any shaft or shaft
ing with collars, sleeves or pulleys over two feet in diameter attached or secured to
such shaft by set screws projecting above the hub of such collars, sleeves or pulleys.
In all such cases vrhere set screws are used, the heads thereof shall be countersunk
below the surface of the hub of the collar, sleeve or pulley in which they are placed.
S e c . 2. Any person or corporation wT
ho shall, after the first day of July, 1903, fail
or refuse to comply with the requirements of this act, w hen constructing or changing
318
LABOR LAWS---- NEVADA-----ACTS OF 1903.
319
any machinery, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall
be lined not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars.
S e c . 3 . N o th in g co n ta in ed in th is act, sh a ll b e so con stru ed as to p re v e n t re c o v e ry
in a su it fo r d am a ge s, for in ju ries su stain ed b y th e p a r ty so in ju re d or h is h eirs o r
ad m in istra to rs.
Approved February 26, 1903.
C hapter 37.— H o u r s o f la b o r o n p u b l i c w o rk s.
S ection 1. On public works, all works or undertakings carried on or aided bv the
State, county or municipal governments, eight hours shall constitute a day’ s labor.
S e c . 2. Any violation of the provisions of this act shall cause a forfeiture to the
contractor or contractors of any contract on such public, State, county or municipal
government work and a further penalty of a fine of fifty ($50) dollars for each and
every man so employed: P r o v id e d , Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to
prevent the preservation or protection of public property in case of emergency.
Approved March 9, 1903.
C hapter 84.— F o r c e d c o n trib u tio n s f r o m e m p lo y e e s — H o s p it a l fe e s .
Section 1. It is hereby made unlawful for any person or persons, contractor or con
tractors, firm, company, corporation, or association, or the managing agent of any
person or persons, contractor or contractors, firm, company, corporation, or associa
tion to collect, demand, force, compel, or require, either monthly, annually, or for
any other period of time, any sum of money for hospital fees from any person or
laborer at any place in this State, where no convenient, comfortable, and "wellequipped hospital is maintained at some town or place for the accommodation, relief
and treatment of persons in his or their employ, and from whom hospital fees are
collected: P r o v id e d , That any person or persons, contractor or contractors, firm, com
pany, corporation, or association, or the managing agent of same, may care for or
cause to be cared for, any person in his or their employ, from whom hospital fees
are collected, at any private or public hospital, sanitarium, or other convenient and
comfortable place, without expense to the person or patient from whom hospital fees
are collected: A n d p r o v id e d f u r t h e r . The distance and facilities for the comfort and
conveyance of any patient come within the intent and meaning of section two of
this act.
#
S e c . 2. For the purposes of this act,, the words “ town or place,” mentioned in sec
tion one of this act, shall be construed to mean any town, headquarters, or place, at
which town, headquarters, or place, and tributary places, sufficient hospital fees are
collected to maintain a hospital in keeping with the hospital fees collected, and the
words “ distance and facilities for the comfort and conveyance of any patient,” men
tioned in section one of this act, shall be construed to mean the nearest hospital,
and most comfortable means of conveyance at hand, or that can be procured in a
reasonable time: P r o v id e d , That if at the nearest hospital the proper medical treat
ment cannot be secured, then it shall not be a misdemeanor to take any person or
patient a greater distance or to another hospital.
S e c . 3. Any person or persons violating the provisions of this act shall, upon con
viction thereof, be fined in any sum not less than two hundred dollars nor more than
five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not less
than one hundred days nor more than two hundred and fifty days, or by both such
fine and imprisonment.
Approved March 14, 1903.
C h apter 88. — W a g e s a p r e fe r r e d c la im — I n in so lv en cy , etc., o f c o rp o r a tio n s .
S ection 86. Whenever any corporation formed under the provisions of this [gen
eral corporation] act and prior acts shall become insolvent or be dissolved in any
way, or for any cause, the employees doing labor or service of whatever character in
the regular employ of such corporation, shall have a lien upon the assets thereof for
the amount of wages due to them, not exceeding two months’ wages respectively,
which shall be paid prior to any other debt or debts of said corporation; but the
word “ employees” shall not be construed to include any of the officers of such cor
poration.
Approved March 16, 1903.
320
BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF LABOR,
C h apter 106.— P r o te c tio n o f e m p lo y e e s a s voters.
S ection 2. Any remuneration or reward or promise of remuneration or reward,
whether it be in the form of a money gift or payment, release of debt, payment of
board, lodging or transportation, the furnishing of food or clothing, the promise or
giving of employment, the increasing or maintaining of wages, * * * either for
the voter or any other person, * * * either before or after the election, for the
purpose and with the object of inducing a voter or voters, * * * to vote for or
against any candidate or measure, or to refrain from voting for or against the same,
shall be deemed and considered bribery.
S e c . 7. A n y p erson w h o a tte m p ts to in flu en c e th e vo te o f h is e m p lo y e e b y d ire c tly
o r in d ire c tly th r e a te n in g su ch e m p lo y e e w ith loss o f e m p lo y m e n t or b y in tim a tin g
th a t su ch e m p lo y e e w ill lose h is e m p lo y m e n t if h e v o te s or fails to v o te for a certain
ca n d id a te o r ca n dida te s, m easu re or m easu res, or th a t th e success o f a certain p a r ty
or ca n d id a te w ill jeo p a rd ize h is e m p lo y m e n t, sh a ll b e d e e m e d g u ilty o f in tim id a tio n ,
a n d u p o n co n v ic tio n
@FedFRASER