The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1009. THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 691, 16 December 1909, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1009. THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE.

« . Tub daily scraps of news respecting the groat coal striko in New South Wales have probably ceasod to cause any very lively interest in New Zealand, but tho Sydney newspapers make it clear that Now 1 South Wales is already suffering severely, and may suffer still more bitterly. Industry and business arc slowly coming to a standstill, and tho State is drifting towards something very like a general striko—not that a general striko has yet been ordered by tho Strike Congress, but tho mere shortage of coal will do the work of a Congress ordor that all work shall cease. Already the pinch c-f hunger is being felt in the striko districts, while there are few people in the State who do not already, or who will not shortly, feel the effects of the disloca-" tion -of business and communication. Whatever tho final settlement may bo, and whenever it may come, the net result of the striko will be a large and irrecoverablo loss the community. There can be little doubt that the Government committed a grave error in not putting into operation tho penal clauses of the Industrial Disputes Act the moment it became apparent that a prompt and decisive attempt at mediation was a failure; If it was difficult to enforce the law during the first week of tho strike, it is much more difficult now, and it is the idlest folly to talk, as, according to a.message printed to r day, the Government is talking, of making the penal clauses of the Act more drastic than they are at present. ;A big gun is as useless as a smaller gun if neither is to be fired. Our own opinion has always been that it is wrong to treat a striker as a criminal, but where the contrary view has found legislative expression, higher interests than the individual right of a man to cease work demand that the law shall bo enforced. At first it appeared as if the Waoe' Government would act with promptitude and firmness, and we expected that we should at last have an opportunity of seeing how penal laws against striking would work in practice. In default of that experiment, it must be concluded that sucb laws are unworkable, and must be discarded. Tho friends of. compulsory arbitration and Stato regulation of wages may'not bo convinced by tho Newcastle strike that their ideas are unsound, but they will be convinced sooner or later. To those outside tho "Labour movement" the most puzzling feature.of the striko is the distinction that is maintained between the policies of the rival leaders, Messiis. Hughes and Bowling. The difference seems to be in the fact that Mr. Hughes is a sort of constitutional and punctilious Socialist while "Mb. Bowling is a plain unvarnished Social- ' hi— the difference between Tweedledum and Twccdlcdcc. Excepting in the matter of tactics there is nothing to choose be- i tween them. Both are keenly anxious to destroy the existing machinery of society by setting up Socialistic standards. Mb. Bowmng wants to do it, in 1 MB. Hughes's words, "by plunging the 1

country and the people into irreparable confusion.", Mb. Hughes .■'wants'.; to do it by politely but firmly Btarving the omployers and the public generally into submission,' and by securing "a lasting peace" which will.mean the permanent subjection of the State to trades-union rule. Of the two evils, Mr., Bowling is probably the lesser.. Society would quickly right itself, and would be firmer upon,its legs, if the crisis burst in a sharp arid violent confusion. But if Mr. Hughes's peaceful measures succeed, the State will bo given ovor to a long process, of unrest, the end of which will be depression and decay. We in New Zealand have good reason to fear the painless process of successive and continuous surrender to the creeping paralysis of State :Socialism. Mr.' Hughes is quite in. earnest, however, in opposing tho "revolutionary" tactics, of Mn. Bowling and "The Industrial AVorkors of the World,'! for ; out-and-out Socialism is a deadly enemy of trades-unionism; Under Socialism, trades-unionism would disappear: a Socialistic coup d'etat would obliterate the trades-union movement, and leave organised Labour in ruins when the State began its work of sane re-building. . : The New South Wales Government is greatly embarrassed, by the assistance which the great need for coal is giving to the movement for the nationalisation of the mines. Those who can take a long view,, like Me. Wade, are afraid that a temporary insertion of the thin end' of the wedge of nationalisation will inevit-, ably lead to permanency in State ownership.' Some of the most influential of Sydney's public/men attempted to persuade the Premier to sanction, a temporary measure of State control. Mr. Wade asked their spokesman;' the Lord Mayor of .Sydney,. what the position would be if the Government-took one or two mines and the men then insisted' on their taking all. ■ . '. : "I further asked," ho explained to tho "Herald," "whether,' if the scheme was undertaken, the men would * then return to work. Further, if at tho end of any given period, say, six months; tho Government intimated its desire to be! relieved of the position, and to transfer the operations to the control of the proprietors again, and-if tho miners then said, 'If the Government recedes from its position we'll strike,' what was going to . be; the; remedy? Would it riot involve a complete submission by, the Government to tho scheme of nationalisations its entirety? There was, again, no explanation.'' The view of the Herald is one that will appeal with much force to those who remember the sequel to. the: DennistOn sot tlement. If the Lord Mayor's' advice were followed, it points out, "the Government may; as well resign at once, and allow the Trades Hall to run the country." When a general.strike was instituted, in Sweden the community attacked the-strikers 'with, a formidable anti-So-cialistic ■~• organisation* v C6unts, barons, military officers, business men, engineers, clerks, free labourers and students ( joined (ogether to' run tho' machinery of society,' and tho Government ! stood firm behind its soldiers and police. Tho back of the strike was; broken in a week. ' A Bimilar movement appears; to be the only means of saving New South Wales from great '-evil's.at the present moment. '; ;.;'