The Dominion. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1912. TO FIGHT THE STRIKE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1360, 10 February 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1912. TO FIGHT THE STRIKE.

The interval for reflection since the unhappy surrender of the City Council to the hollow threats of the now discredited agitators who misled the tramwaymen has dissipated the mist of irrelevancies that clouded for some people the real issues involved in the tramways strike. The men, of course, should never have flouted the law and offered violence to the public rights of the citizens, but their crowning offence was their decision, after they had obtained what they had been fighting for, to lend themselves to the agitators as instruments for the express humiliation of the city. The sensible members of the Tramwaymens' Union— for of course there was a sensible section, afraid to take arms against the agitators—must be realising now that they have greatly damaged themselves in the eyes of the community and will henceforth look in vain for public sympathy in any of their grievances. The meeting of the Citizens' League on Thursday night was a sign ot the times, and the sentiments expressed were indubitably the sentiments of the vasl majority of the citizens. There con lit he no givaliT mistake than to suppose that thi' weak surrendi'r of 1 he City Council lo the hollow thivals of the professional agitators means either that I he i.ity desired a surrender or thai there was any chance of success for a general strike. We are confident that the correspondent "-10 Ye-irs a'Worker"—of the validity of whow right to th:il pi'»-n>ur.n w axe wtibfiqd—lws cari'ccUy estiaiated.

Ihe situation. The City Council lieIra.wd thi' city, and although, in ; letter in this issue, Corxcii.uiii Uouiiei! suggests that it had good reason For its action, fhere is no doubt i; the mind of any thoughtful citizen (hat if the Council had been In;-.. , to its trust and faced all the consequences, it would have won easily. H is annoying, but it need not b< depressing, that the Council, holding aiMinusually strong hand against the agitators, should have permitted itself to be bluffed; for in the event i>! any really serious assault by I heLabour "Syndicalists' , upon the community the community will always win.

The Brisbane strike is full o f ]~s . sons for New Zealand. Queensland' is flie very birthplace of the Australian labour movement; the strikers had something like a principle oi unionism to fight for; the organisation of the unions is in Australia more perfect than in any country in the world—and although the raos! desperate efforts have been made by tho strikers to press to the utmost their great fighting advantage, not the least of which is the disgraceful connivance of the Federal Government, whose head actually gave a donation to the strike 'fund, the firmness of the public has already broken the general strike, and the strikers have been driven into the last ditch of reliance upon the maintenance of a strike of the seamen. Should the authorities in Queensland remain linn a smashing blow will have been struck, not against Labour, or the social and economic rierhts of the workers, but against the'power of _ "Syndicalism"— not against the ability of the worker to obtain fair pay and fair conditions, but against the ability of the agitator to throw the workers into war against Society. In _ Adelaide, at one time, a great strike took place, and for a short time the strike committee was actually _ able to give or to refuse permission to tradesmen and others to carry on their business. This condition of affairs, however, did not last long. "In the nature of things," the Sydney Mowing Herald observes, in recalling the episode, "it could not last. People began to see that they must fight for life, and the preparations for actual wav were undertaken. A Labour Premier, under tremendous pressure, suddenly discovered that things had gone too far, and reluctantly took sides against the unionists. At once the wheels began to go round, food was distributed, business commenced again on the usual lines, and the deadlock became a lesson for thoso who caused it. The people of Adelaide smile grimly when a general strike is mentioned, and unionism in that city has gone quietly ever since." Since it is now evident that trade unionism in Australasia, brought into being for good ends, and capable still of good "service, has been led into wrong courses, the sooner every community learns tho lesson that Adelaide has learned, the better will it be for all of us, and most of all for the workers themselves.

Unless it is betrayed by the authorities, no community will submit to a general strike.' The recent threat of a general strike that was issued by the Jocal strike committee was a threat to cut off food supplies and paralyse the machinery of society. It could not have succeeded. The strikers and their sympathisers would have been a small minority of the people. Tlie majority would have been aroused to resistance, and in a very little time the forces supporting t-Ifis strike would have dwindled away. The agitators rely upon the anxiety of the men of the community concerning ■ their wives and children, and they rely upon the unreadiness of the manual worker to perceive that his wife end his children will suffer first and suffer most "What a noble war," exclaims the Melbourne Argus, "what a noble wai it is which seeks to succeed through the sufferings of the helpless, or tlv fear which the thought of that suffering will create in their breadwinners and defenders !" Such a war cannot succeed where the authorities are as courageous and patriotic as the City Council showed itself timorous and treacherous. Nobody who is in touch at all with the feeling of the citizens of Wellington has "am doubt that the city, if it could hav. the Fuller affair all over again, and could forbid surrender by the Council, would make short work of the strike. In the meantime it is just possible that the agitators and a section of the trade unionists may be encouraged to believe that it is easy to "bail up" the community and trample on the rights of the citizens; and it is therefore necessary that the pubric should hold itself prepared for any future trouble. Little preparation, really, is necessary beyond a determination to keep a stout heart, and we think that om recent trouble has done much to stiffen the backs of people throughout New Zealand. Insistence by workingmen upon fair wages and conditions will always secure sympathy from the public, but wanton attacks upon the rights of the community as a whole will never be tolerated 'and will always alienate thousands of people otherwise ready to sympathise with unionism.