PUBLIC SECURITY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14839, 3 December 1913, Page 8

PUBLIC SECURITY.

The decision of the Auckland Citizens' Defence Committee to keep a permanent register containing i3ie names of five hundred men who are willing to serve at a day's notice to preserve law and order in the community should occasion arise is one that deserves matnre consideration in other centres of population. The knowledge that snch a roserve eocisted to support the official police, and enable a community threatened with the harassing disorganisation which is the essential characteristic of tho I."W.W. methods, would strengthen the hands of the large body of moderate and reasonably-minded men which it is matter of common knowledge exists in all unions, and at tne same time 'act as a deterrent to the rashor and more hot-neaded element who are so easily carried off their feet by the frothy rhetoric of paid agitators. But it is open to question if tho proposal goes far enongh. The experience of the last few weeks uas shown once again with impressive emphasis that no community will stand by with folded arms and permit a section of the population to inflict upon it a maximum of loss and discomfort to gain some supposed benefit for themselves. But a

community taken by surprise is a community at a disadvantage. When ordinary services are abruptly discontinued, it takes time to organise an effective substitute. A week or ten days' cessation of labour at an important port produces effects so serious *nd so tarreaching that they are entirely incommensurate with the time involved. It might be well for the future to take time by the forelock, and not wait for the call of emergency. "By a prophyl- " actic organisation planned upon a " sufficiently extensivo ecale and per- " fected in times of industrial peace," says that well-known authority on industrial questions, Sir Henry Clay, " the frreat centres of population might " make themselves comparatively safe '' from tho worst dangers of a general "strike." The thing was done in Stockholm as recently as August, ISO 9, .»nd done, too, almost on the spur of the moment. It was notified at the end of July that a general strike would begin in Sweden on August 4th. On August 2nd tho citizens of Stockholm formed a "Public Security Brigade" of volunteers, not merely for purposes of defence,*but to carry on all the multifarious and essential activities of the city. Within a week the organisation was in full working order, and proved capable of ensuring tho. continuance of all necessary public services. As the "Economic Journal" put it, "An attack "had "been made on the community, " but the community had proved quite "capable of defending itself. The "weapon tho strikers had most relied " on not only failed to do harm, but "had turned against tnemselvcs. The " Publio Security Brigade broke the " general 6trike."

Such a prophylactic organisation, ready to come into play practically at a moment's notice, would be in the best interests not merely of the community as a whole, but of the manual workers themselves. For all the wild and whirling worda wo hear about "class consciousness," "solidarity of "Labour," and tho other abstract phrases the stump orator is so fond of mouthing, are obscuring for the working man the obvious fact that in New Zealnnd at least ho is a citizen with all a citizen's rights and responsibilities. If lie inflicts loss and damage on the public at large, he himself is part of that public, and must not hope to escape free of scathe. It is a melancholy comment on the education system of which we so frequently and loudly make our boast, that so large a proportion of citizens who passed through our echools should reason co inexactly that they readily fall a prey to the teachings of such leaders os the interloping ""Professor" from Milwaukee. For defects in education tho only cure is more and sounder education. And it might be well if the educational authorities incorporated in their reading-books a series of clear and dispassionate lessons on the history of strikes in general, the damage and detriment which they inevitably inflict on all citizens, more especially those who make their livelihood by manual labour. The elements of "civics" are taught in a superficial way, but it is certainly a grave reflection on our education system that no attempt is made to teach even the most elementary principles of political economy. If every boy and girl on leaving school had even an elementary knowledge of the real nature of wages and profits, the workers of New Zealand would be saved from many serious pitfalls, and the agitators -would not find 6O many dupes to swallow their monstrous misrepresentations.