VV.111.1.N1 LABOUR FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN MINES.
WE do not intend to re-enter in detail on the controversy connected with Chinese labour in South Africa. Taking the question as a whole, we consider that the Cabinet has dealt with a very difficult problem in a reasonable and statesmanlike way, and we have no sympathy whatever with those extremists who are just now attempting to force the Government into violent action as regards repatriation. Much as we disliked the policy of introducing Chinese indentured labour under semi-servile conditions, we have always realised that the harm done by the Ordinance could not be undone either quickly or easily. No Cabinet with a full sense of responsibility could have acted otherwise than the present Cabinet acted in regard to the licenses already issued. Again, we feel as to repatriation that the most that the Government could do was to see that no China- man was detained in South Africa against his will. Finally, we hold that the only policy consistent with the principles which ought to control the self-governing 'portions of the Empire is the policy of leaving the final decision on the employment of Chinese labour in the hands of the Colony, sUbject to the disallowance of any Colonial Act which would introduce a system of serfage or semi-serfage incon- sistent with the essential welfare of the Empire as a whole. While the Government adhere to the course which they originally marked out for themselves, and refuse to depart from it in either direction, we believe that they will secure the support of the nation.
One of our chief objections to the introduction of Chinese labour to supplement the native labour, which, of course, must always be the chief form of unskilled labour used in the mines, has always been that it was an abandonment of the true policy in regard to the settlement of the Transvaal. It is impossible to forget the war, or to expect the Boers to forget it. That being so, our object, as we urged from the very beginning of the war, should be to introduce as large a white non-Boer population into the Colony as possible. To put the matter plainly, we can only make our position absolutely safe, by packing the Transvaal with white men who are either British, or at any rate are not likely to sympathise with the Boers against their Anglo-Saxon fellow-subjects. The employment in the mines of an increased number of white labourers, skilled and unskilled, presented an admirable opportunity for such a packing of the Transvaal with a non-Boer population. Unhappily, the mineowners, partly from a liking for the nominally cheap labour of South African natives and Orientals, which is perhaps not unnatural, but still more from the desire to employ labourers who would not form Trade-Unions and demand a voice in settling the price and conditions of labour, and, further, would not have votes, and so share the rights of self- government with the mineowners, decided not to attempt the use of unskilled white labour in the mines. Instead, they insisted that their industry could not be carried on unless they were allowed to import Chinese labour, and to import it under conditions of a semi-servile character, and totally unfitted to a Colony which aspires to be a white man's country. When once the fatal decision against white labour was arrived at, all sorts of arguments were of course found to support it, and were no doubt in many cases sincerely believed in by. the mineowners. For example, it was asserted that white labour could not be used in the mines, and would not, owing to social and racial prejudices, come forward to do the work, even if such work were physically possible for white men. Again, it was declared that the cost of white .unskilled labour was prohibitive. When it was pointed out that white labour was employed in Australia and in America in worse climates and under worse conditions than in the Transvaal to win ore of quite' as low a grade ; that Mr. Creswell's experiment had shown that the use of white labour was not economically unsound in South Africa; and, finally, that there were thousands of white men who did not feel the alleged prejudices, the mineowners simply reasserted their former propositions. They made no real attempt to explain why white labour could not do things in the healthy and comparatively cool atmosphere of the Rand which are done in Australia and California. They merely met every argument, physical and political, with a sullen non possumus, and the reiteration that Chinese labour, and Chinese labour under the conditione of the Ordinance, was the only form of labour which they would or could employ on the mines to supplement the work of the Kaffirs. If they were not allowed this. par- ticular form of Oriental labour under the conditions of the Ordinance they must close their mines.
A telegram from its Johannesburg correspondent appear- ing in the Daily Chronicle of Wednesday seems, however, to indicate that there is a possibility of better conditions prevailing on the Rand. He tells us that the Rand Daily Mail announces that the mineowners are giving work to the unemployed at the rate of 7s. 6d. a day, that a hundred men are engaged 9,p the Crown Reef, and that large numbers of Boers are applying for work. As the corre- spondent remarks, this fact disposes of the statement that the white man will not work in the mines. It will be remembered that it has sometime been asserted that the white man will sooner die of starvation than do "Kaffir's work " in South Africa. The correspondent notes, however, that during Mr. Creswell's experiment 10s. a day was paid instead of 7s. 6d., and that even at this high rate of pay Mr. Creswell always declared—and brought plenty of facts and figures to prove his case — that white labour was quite as cheap as the labour of Baffirs or Chinamen. Our own impression is that if as much care and trouble were taken by the mineowners to import and organise white unskilled labour as was taken in the case of the Chinese, there would be no sort of difficulty in its employment. No doubt it would be necessary to provide houses for the white. labourers, and also to make arrangements under which their, food could be procured at a reasonable rate ; but such arrangements, though costly and troublesome, have had to be made in the case of the Chinese. A very large number of labourers could, we believe, be obtained from England if the mine- owners were to make it clear that such labour would be fairly treated. Again, we feel certain that a 'good deal of the Italian labour which has proved so useful in America and in great engineering works all over Europe, and even in Egypt, might be employed upon the Rand. The Italian is an excellent colonist, and there is no reason to believe that he would prove anything but loyal to the British Empire. Probably, as we have said, the white labourer would not be as amenable as the Chinaman. That is, he would form combinations to protect his interests and would also demand the vote. It has not been found, however, in America or in the self-governing Colonies, not to mention England itself, that such aspirations render a man unfit to work with his hands, and we do not see why South Africa should be an exception to the rule. It has, indeed, been proved again and again that highly paid labour is often economically more productive than low-paid labour. No one, we take it, pretends that the Chinaman does a very splendid day's work for his meagre day's pay.. Again, though his wage is nominally so small, the incidental expenses to which his employers and the community are put are so large that his labour becomes in fact very dear.
We understand that a proposal has lately been made in regard to the use of white labour in the mines which.might prove useful. It is suggested that the taxation of the mines might be graduated in such a way as to place a pre- mium on the mines which employ white unskilled labour. In this way the mineowners would be given a direct interest in engaging white men to do their work. Some such proposal seems to us well worth trying, for we cannot but believe that if once white unskilled labour were used on a sufficiently big scale, the mineowners would come to see its value. Even though reluctantly, they would drop their objection to employing men who had votes, and would find out that the trail of the serpent of Trade-Unionism, which they declare is over all white labour, is not so terrible a, thing as it seems. No doubt in theory it is pleasanter for an employer to get an automatic obedience out of those whom he employs. Nevertheless, all experi- ence shows that the greatest business profits come not from works where such labour is employed, but from those where the white labourer uses his powers of collective bargaining to the utmost. It has been said, and said truly, that a high rent is often the best manure for a field. In the same way it can be shown that a high wages-bill is often the best stimulant to an industrial business.
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