What Workers Want July 27, 1895.

*THE WORKER*

BRISBANE JULY 27, 1895.

What Workers Want.

ED. WORKER – The fact that Labour, in the in the eye of the employer, is only as so much merchandise – like soap or sugar – is what ought to arouse the spirit of the workers to a reform – personal, political and national. The equality of soap and sugar with human labour in the commercial world is what makes the wage slavery and the minimum wage, so far as can be seen at present, a measure of salvation. Let us strive to get it. The waste of human labour from want of proper direction in Queensland is a national loss, and the misery flowing from enforced idleness is a national calamity. Let us do something to remedy this state of affairs. The functions of the State should be co-extensive with the requirements of the people, therefore the direction of the people's labour into remunerative channels should be a function of the State both for the individual and the community's good. There is no more honourable employment than State employment, giving security from want and the fear of want, which is at present our most crying misery. It is not so much the actual unemployed whose condition we wish to remedy, but of the vast number that are working day in day out for a mere bare ration and threadbare rags. There are plenty such men on the poor goldfields of Queensland as well as in other walks of life. Our only hope is through Parliament, backed by the education of the electors. Teach them to sink all thoughts of the man that's good for the district and go and do all they can for the man that's good for the country. The man that's good for the country will legislate so as to make each district bring forth its own good. - A STATE SOCIALIST.