The Dominion. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1912. THE NEED FOR FIRMNESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1354, 3 February 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1912. THE NEED FOR FIRMNESS.

The strike continues, and after a full day of negotiations and demonstrations appears to be no nearer to, and 110 further from, a settlement than it was since Thursday. The City Council's sub-committce found no great difficulty in coming to an agreement with the Strike Committee's delegates upon certain of the terms of peace subnlitted to the Council, but the original point in dispute could not be settled. _ The ludicrous proposal that the strikers should be indemnified against the fines that might be inflicted upon them for their breach of the law was not insisted upon by the Strike Committee. Nobody will doubt that the strikers' surrender upon this point— a complete and unqualified surrender—was dictated less by that spirit of "reasonableness' 1 which Mr. W. T. Young so ludicrously declared to be thoir dominant spirit than by their knowledge that nobody would tolerate what seemed so fine and large in the heady atmosphere of the strike demonstration in Newtown Park. Nobody will doubt that if the agitators had seen any reasonable chance of success for insistence upon indemnity they would have pressed their demand, and ■ pressed it, too, as tho "reasonable men" who', the actual case being otherwise, were so glad to withdraw it.

' The chances of a settlement.-were, however, destroyed by the Union's refusal to accept the terms of Inspector Fuller's transfer to some other branch of the service. The Council insisted that the acceptance' of Mr. Fuller's offer to leave his present post should be made in the terms in which it was offered. That is to say, it was willing to transfer him "at his request." The strikers insist, or at least insisted last night, that the .treaty of peace should recognise that the transfer, if made, was made at the Union's request. Although a good many people may at the first glance imagine that if the transfer is made it is of no moment at whose request or dictation it may he made, yet a little reflection will snow even those who take this superficial view that we are here Hack again to the original trouble. The tramwa.vmen, although they have receded from the impossible position which they imagined they could take up on Thursday, have yet not given up their belief that they can humiliate the Council so far as Inspect6r Fuller is concerned. It is apparently not quite certain whether the City Council will hold anything more than a formal meeting to-day but it is quite obvious that if they do continue their negotiations with the strikers, Councillors must resolutely set their faces against any settlement involving an admission of the Union's power to dictate to the authorities. _ The Council must refuse to "eat'dirt."

The point has been reached at which the patienco with 'which tho Council has been negotiating with the strikers cannot be prolonged without turning into pusillanimity. The citizens have been very patient, but they must be beginning now to feel that the city's dignity is already suffering from the readiness of the Council to continue an interminable game of chaffering. The strike has now reached its fourth day, and the core of the dispute is as clear and simple as ever. It is the duty of the 'Council _ cither to announce that negotiations ended yesterday or to lay down an absolutely final set of terms in which the city's interests shall be clearly safeguarded. Any further backing and filling will only make more difficult the protection of the city against the agitators who are leading the .tramwaymen astray. The' extracts* from the editorials in outside newspapers which we give in another column are thoroughly representative. and we commend them, to the study of those Councillors who may be inclined to fancy that the interests of good city government are of small account compared with the temporary inconvenience of a suspended tramway service. The Southland Times is_ not indulging in idle rhetoric, but is stating a plain and important fact, when it says that our City Council has been forced into the position of a trustee for tho other municipal bodies throughout the country.

There does not appear to us to be much need for comment upon the absurd speeches at yesterday's socalled "mass" meeting in the Customhouse Square. A good deal of angry abuse was directed at Tiik Dominion, but we can bear this very easily, for it is perfectly well known that The Dominion has, and always has had, the same anxiety for fair play for the worker as it has for fair play for the nation. If the men had any- legitimate grievance, and were lighting for any good work-ing-class principle, we should not have to oppose them. One of tli<. Bpeivkera at yesterday's "demonntrftticrn" dcucrihcd tha striker* oa "earn-

est men battling for a principle." For what principle f Let the principle be stilted. In conclusion, we again urge the Council not to give way. The threats of a general strike may he disregarded. Whatever a few of the agitators may want, the workers do not want n general strike, and would not support it, and could not carry it through. Tho Council must not he bluffed by the noise of the strike orators. Even were the threats of these men something more than bluff, the Council's duty would be the same, namely, to defend to the last the right of the citv lo resist the domination of a small section of the public.