STRIKE-AND AFTER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1371, 23 February 1912, Page 3

STRIKE-AND AFTER.

IN BRISBANE. SET-HACK I'OR UNIONISM. Mr. C. Chambers, fino of Iho bestknown architects of Urisbane, is :i visitor lo Wellington. Ho lias just arrived from ii tour nf Now South Wales, Victoria, 'I'nsmimiii, unci the Houlli Island of Now /calami, and 'inlands lo visit l.ako Taupo, Wairakci, and I'otnruu en rmilo to Auckland. With n lirisbano man the uppcrmn.st topic was (ho strike, on which .Mr. (Jliiinilwi'H expressed some views. Not only did the wholesale and retail business people close I heir premises ivheu the. striko was declared, but all tl)»i ntlieos closed up. They had no option. Must of the principals and heads were called on to act as special constables, and it was deemed best that all Iho offices .should close. "••W who suffers?" said Mr. Chambers. "The master a little, but in proportion tho men a [{rent deal inoro. And now you see that unionism has received a blow that it will take, them years to recover from, hecnuao thev overstepped tho mark. Say there aro IOiOOO men out, do you 4Link that moncv is pouring into Hrisbuno at the rato of .£51)0 a day lo give, those men a. living wago? Not by a very long chalk! Mr. Coyno may 'say that tho men aro all right, but I Bay that they or their families must bo Buffering. To-day, you sec, the city has becomo normal—trams aro running, all tho shops aro open, and tho factories aro going—yet. tho striko is still on. That means that Brisbane is being run with non-union labour. "I liavo just loomed, in a letter, that somo of the building trades want to go bock to work, but, as tho labourers are still out, tho contractors have decided to suspend all building operations until all branches of tho trade aro prepared to turn to. They do not bcliovo in cmploying some branches, who may be feeding others still on striko. Th"at is the easy way to smash 'syndicalism 1 or sectional stnkes. If one section goes out —stop tho whole of tho work. "I think a great change is about to take place politically nil over Australia." In what way? "Against Labour. They have failed to hold in South Australia, and I think there is «. weakening all round. One thing that is going to help to bring this about is women's franchise. The ivife of tho working man. getting decent wages, cannot sec, for tho lifo of her, why her husband should ceaso to work and bring want and care into the homo for some petty little matter that really affects neither of them. All the reasoning in the world will not persuade the woman that her children should go hungry because the father—or the agitators who lead the fathers—is not allowed to wear a union bailgo by his employer. The women aro beginning lo realise their power at .the polls, and there is- going to be a change, you'll •ee!' "No one disagrees with unionism. It is a good thing when guided by reason, and consideration is allowed ' for conditions, but unionism appears to beget a fort of crude .Socialism that develops agitators. They preach strike, and, before they know where they'dre, they have jumbled over a precipice, and have to J begin all over again."