The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1908. AFTER THE STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 207, 26 May 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. TUESDAY, MAY 26, 1908. AFTER THE STRIKE.

The Auckland trimwaymen's strike is ended. This is satisfactory' as tho termination of a position full of inconvenience to the Auckland public, and it is not unpleasant also to 1 know.'that the country : is safe from such another humiliating .spectacle as was presented by tno Government during the prolonged strike of the Blackball miners. On, no other ground is'there room for rejoicing: as soon as the men went on strike, an already .serious industrial situation was made still' more serious, and no kind of settlement vfill undo the new injury done to/ iaw and order by the outbreak. To consider the strike, as only 'another symptom, of ; a feeling which was beforehand known to exist is to misunderstand the whole meaning of the past year's industrial, disturbances. To put it in another way, .it is incorrect to suppose that matters have not been made worse by the Auckland strike. Those who would make this suggestion must remember , that the effect of all theso strikes upon industry is cumulative, for. the spirit of lawlessness grows with its'activities: it feeds on its successive indulgences.

As in ,the Blackball affair, so in the Auckland strike, trades unions and trades and labour councils' rushed to meeting at once to pass enthusiastic resolutions of approval. That a strike is an offence against the law was nothing to them; possibly they had actually forgotten that strikes a,rc illegal. A sudden strike by highly-irritated men, smarting underwhat they consider an injustice, is a very human thing, and not in itself and by itself alarming, however reprehensible and deserving of punishment it may be. What is alarming is that the labour organisations in distant places, withdut knowing or earing about tho rights or wrongß of tba 1 matter,, should .havo

cheered the strikers on. This, surely, is the apotheosis of contumacy, the very pinnacle of lawlessness, and it io ; duo entirely to the abject surrender of the Government to tradesunionism. Employers may now make up their , minds —they have probably done so long since —that tho promise' of security from strikes for which they have paid so heavily is not worth the paper'it is written upon. Not only is their assurance of peace worthless, and the premiums they have paid in money and other concessions of no avail, but they are in addition unable to escape the payment' of further contributions in the shape . of obedience to • a decree that binds them* and them only. In the case of the Auckland strike the Government's duty is plain. We cannot believe that it is so blind to .the state of public opinion as to imagine that the public will tolerate a repetition of the tactics that'it followed in connection with the Blackball strike.. The public will not again endure that jugglqry with procedure—we condemned it months ago—which reduces the Act to a nullity by making the Union the only objective of such punitive action as may be taken.

The public has had quite 'enough of Ministerial quibblings and evasions and ingenuities, and it will not be satisfied ■with anything les6 than a prompt and honest application of the law. The prosecution of a Union can be made a puro absurdity. That was discovered from tho prosecution -of the Blackball Union, which taught tho Government that if men are to be deterred from striking—and that is ;tho object of any prosecution in this case—rerort must be had to' individual penalties. Wo shall have many occasions of dealing in future, issues,with the amendments which must be made' in the 'Arbitration Act, and upon that point wo shall here. be brief. The only serious amendment that recent events' have shown to be necessary in the' Act itself is one which, Will circumvent the poWer of a trades union to avoid paying a fine. The* chief amendment required' is, ; however, an amendment of the Government's administration. The 1 best amendment will be the adoption of Mr'. W. Eraser's scheme; But in tho end, if the Government 1 does • not intend to'• take , a stand,' dven.iat this late, hour, against the.growing violence and, pride'of unionist lawlessness, ,it should' liberate the employers from their bond and give them equal' freedom;with the men. .The outlook is an unpleasant one, and the only relief o.f the gloom is the hope that the Government may at last come to realise that even for its pa,rty purposes it' will pay better,to, regain: the ; favour of the great law-abiding public which it lias sacrificed for . the support of, miltant trades unionism. The Government'will finch that' it has made a bad; bargain,; for; it will, learn it has not gained even Labour's sup-' port by its prostration before the trades unions. . Labour, will repudiate its : obligations'as cheerfully as it breaks awards/