dl
Mane Would be to organise thoroughly during the coming
€ response to this organising campaign was guch

that by
the end of 1890 the nine-hour day, briefly won bythe

1899 BS in 1885 and regained by a two-month strike int

the | d been won by most trades in the city, though not in

ie fe. Rapidly the cry became one for the eight-hour
Naty S°P eral demand of the labor movement in the United

rie first to strike for the eight-hour day were the coal
Pro y

Chater of Wellington on Vancouver Island, where an AFL
had been issued to the Miners’ and Mine Laborers
Ssociation in 1889. Vancouver Trades and Labor
. Tsponse when the miners struck in 1890 was to
1925 solution of support and follow it with a donation of
‘Nswe, eda by a raffle, The government’s answer — the
Of tena seer John Robson, the leader of the movement
a le government who had moved into opposition
With Roh Cosmos after Confederation and sat in the cabinet
Nas to ae Dunsmuir before the latter's death in 1889 —
the se use of force to crush the miners’ strike strengthened
XHion “ment for independent political action among the
Mhege peatticularly: in Vancouver, now a city of 13,000,
€ labor vote was being wooed by: all candidates.

&tive
Nei)’

battery of artillery to break the strike.

Tagg comtest the provincial election of 1890, Vancouver
le Labor Council drew up.a political platform at a
Ning, .. ith the Workingmen’s League of New West-
Mblisher threw its support to F. L. Carter-Cotton, later
Mor op 2 the. Vancouver News-Advertiser. It proved a

cho;
ey, ‘ahi CarterCotton won the election, but 16 years
Ment on Ng held a cabinet portfolio in the Semlin govern-

* Cong S$ Way, he emerged as president of the council in
“tvative government of Sir Richard McBride.

Ih

ne and again in 1892, Vancouver Trades and Labor
Aa AF Tesolutions to the Trades and Labor Congress
ent o¢ * Organised at Toronto in 1886, calling for establish-

4 oF party. But the congress took no action.

t :
fie oN Same time, under the constant demand of the
Tteeg a "8 for labor legislation, the government was being
Make concessions. In 1893, the government of

as Hastings and Cambie, the heart of Vancouver, in 1898. Building on the left was the old courthouse, scene of many

Premier Theodore Davie introduced a Labor Disputes Bill to
set up a Bureau of Labor Statistics, a Bureau of Conciliation
and a Board of Arbitration, which would act if conciliation
failed and both parties agreed to submit to it,

The debate was remarkable for a speech made by James
Baker, minister of education and immigration and member for
East Kootenay, where base metal discoveries were bringing
new cities into being and making the miners’ vote decisive.
The speech, as reported by the Victoria Colonist of February
8, 1893, was perhaps the most effusive ever made by a
member of a provincial cabinet on the workers’ plight,
concluding:

“In fact, sir, we have only to lift that veil of selfishness
and luxury, which partially obscures the moral vision of
plutocracy, and then to look out with a clear gaze upon the
battlefield of capital and labor; and ah! what a melancholy
spectacle meets our view! We see there the dead and the
dying of starvation, we hear the agonised cries of the wounded
in heart, the wounded in mind and the wounded in spirit,
praying to be released from a world which offers so little hope
of rest and comfort to their weary souls, and beyond all, these
we see, yonder in the distance, some half-starved ranks of
labor struggling in the fight, in the hope that, perchance,
they may win for themselves, what? The bare necessities of
life! Shall we not stretch forth the right hand of fellowship
to such as these? With God’s help, I will now endeavor to
do so by moving, sir, that this bill be read a second time, now.”

The speech made no impression on James Dunsmuir,
whose coal miners were still working a 12-hour day at Exten-
sion. And the coal miners, however they may have applauded
its sentiment, preferred to rely on their own organisation and
nominate their own spokesmen.

In the provincial election of 1898 they ran Ralph Smith,
business agent of the Miners’ Protective Association since
1895, as an independent labor candidate against W. W.
Walkem in Nanaimo and elected him with a thumping
majority.

For Nanaimo it was the beginning of a long political
tradition. For the labor movement it was the first parliamen-
tary victory.

NEXT WEEK: THE SOCIALIST TRADITION

White Rock

wins trophy

RITISH Columbia’s second
B choice entry in the Domi-
nion Drama Festivals walked
away with most of the honors
last week with the Irish com-
edy, Playboy Of The Western
World.

Franklin Johnson, director
of the White Rock Players,
who staged Playboy of the
Western World, took the
award for best director. The
production was adjudged the
best visual presentation and
the overall best entry in the
festival.

By the quality of their pro-
ductions, White Rock Players,
although located in a small
community, have been able to
maintain a weeks-long season
every year. Though they have
often distinguished themselves
in regional festivals, this was
their first chance at the na-
tional title.

B.C. also won the award for
the best play written by a
Canadian. It went to Chilli-
wack Little Theatre for Dark
Harvest.

N. E. STORY

labor demonstrations.

May 30, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 9