STRIKE RELIEF AND WASTRELS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14838, 2 December 1913, Page 8

STRIKE RELIEF AND WASTRELS.

TO THB EDXTOB OP "THB PRESS. Sir,—ln view of th© talk of the maritime striko, in which the Federation leaders hope to involve the community, the following information may cause some of our seamen to stop and think, as the facts can be fully vouched for. You ar© doubtless aware that many seamen are straight-going, hard-work-ing fellows, who endeavour to save their money and provide homes for their families. Some of these are now out of work through no fault of their own, and their experiences should act as a warning to the seamen generally, as to tho alleged benefits 6_ tno Federation when on strike. Some of the men applied to their Union leaders in Lyttelton for provisions, etc., from the Strike Funds, and these individuals had the superb effrontery to suggest that as they could get credit at the grocers' they should do co, and leave the strike funds for those improvident fellows who are in th© habit of recklessly spending their money as quickly as it is earned. This, of course, means that these men, on returning tp work, will have to pay up their arrears, while the improvident ones would have been living on the fat of the land at

their expense. The men, however, declined to fall in with the suggestion, on the ground that they have regularly paid their contributions to the Union, and are, therefore, entitled to Union benefits, just as much as the wastrel members. - It will thus be apparent that the Red Feds, put a premium on improvidence, and ono wonders why tho more respectable hard-working class of tho men, who are satisfied with arbitration methods, do not break away from an element which is obviously only seeking to drag them down. Possibly the understanding of such facts as the above may make them don their thinking caps.—Yours, etc., ' ' SAILORITE.