THE STRIKE AND SETTLEMENT.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14834, 27 November 1913, Page 6

THE STRIKE AND SETTLEMENT.

The members of the Opposition may be excused if, when they look back, upon Sir Joseph Ward's record since he took up,the Leadership of the. Party, they wish that they had. continued to struggle alonjj without a Leader. His record is a list of blunders, and he is still blundering. In the House yesterday, having conspicuously failed in his expressed design to prevent the transaction of-, any further Parliamentary business,:;he turned once more to the task of retarding the settlement of the strike. The public, which is not now in a mood to put too fine a point upon its" criticisms of the Opposition, will regard •„ this move as/.- an exceedingly impudent one. With that aspect of it, therefore, we need not deal just now, although we may observe that when, following the example of those "Liberal ,, newspapers wnich are nudging and encouraging the strikers, the Leader of the Opposition disclaims any intention of making Party capital or impeding a raent, he is greatly under-estimating the intelligence of tho soreiy-tried public. Hβ knows that, although the strike is not yet over, the community which rose w> to defend itself has already obtained a pretty complete control of its affairs. Yet he spoke as if the strike were extending, and were as serious as ever—which is precisely — c lino taken by the''''Federation leaders. That his intention is not precisely the intention of these leaders is something which it is his. business to demonstrate. It need hardly he'said that if a settlement were possible, the public would be delighted, but we can see no prospect of any settlement excepting through the surrender of the Federation of Labour. The suggestion that Mr Justice Williams should act either as a mediator or as arbitrator is not. new, so that the Leader of the Opposition mighs as well liave held his tongue. i.c may oe eiire, however, that when Mr Massey made this suggestion some time ago tb the contending parties, he did not make it intolerable to both sides by recommending it on the deplorably tactless grounds advanced by Sir Joseph Ward. The Leader of the Opposition said that if Mr Justice Williams acted, and if either side refused to accept his verdict it would be an admission that that eicTo wanted more than justice. ' Could anything be-more likely than such a. suggestion to harden up both sides P Our opinionof the wisdom and public--spiritedness and justice of Sir Joshua Williams need hardly be put in words: it is the same as everybody else's. But the simple fact is that there is nothing upon .which, arbitration is possible. The-

issue is exceedingly simple. The Federation's original claim was the right to break its contracts; its conduct of the strike has reinforced that claim by tho claim that the community must bow down to crim© and violence en the part of an active minority. Claims like those do not admit of compromise. As Mr Massey pointed out, the strike is settling itself, and outside interference would obviously be injudicious. In any event, neither the Govomment nor Parliament can with justice or safety constrain cither the strikers or the employers to do more than keep the peace. We think that no union which prefers to remain outside the Arbitration Act should be forced to register under it; all that can be insisted upon, and it shoiild be insisted upon, is that a union which, does so register may be free to supply labour. Any settlement, as Mr Massey says, must conserve the rights of those who are lawfully working on the wharves and elsewhere under the Arbitration Act. The country will not tolerate any treachery towards those men.