A BITTER FIGHT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1491, 13 July 1912, Page 5

A BITTER FIGHT.

TRANSPORT STRIKE.

LORD DEVONPORT DENOUNCES MEN'S LEADERS.

600 POLICE CALLED OUT, >

By Telegraph-Press Association— CopyriEht (Bee. July 12, 0.t5 p.m.) London, July 11. I/Ord Devoriport, chairman of the Port of London Authority, the principal employer of waterside labour, has issued a statement in connection with the strike. He says tho regrettable distress has been largely caused by tho necessity of supplanting strikers' Who preferred, unjustifiably, to leave good wages and fait treatment. It had never been alleged by either tho leaders or the men that the strike was in any way directed against Iho terms or conditions of the Port of London Authority's employment. Tho strike was a despotic attempt to coerce tho workmen to accept the Transport Workers' Federation. The Labour leaders were trifling with tho situation, and it would bo better if the Bishops and others would adviso tlie resumption of work and thus rescue the dupes from the consequences of their leaders' unjustifiable, action. Mr.- Arthur Chamberlain, chairman of Kynochs, Ltd., has contributed £1000 to the dockers' relief fund.

MORE FIGHTING AT SURREY DOCKS. : London, July 11. Several hundred strikers and nonunionists, armed with hammers, cudgels, and portions of iron palings, fought at tho Surrey Commercial Docks to-day. Two non-unionists were seriously injured. Six hundred police were called out, and finally restored order. The outbreak was renewed at lunch-time, and several persons were badly stoned.

LORD DEVONPORT DENOUNCED. (Rec. July .13, 0.15 a.m.) London, July 12. Mr. J. O'Grady, Labour JI.P. for, East Leeds, in speaking to tho transport strikers at Tower Hill, said Lord Devonport was the only obstacle to a settlement. He had disregarded all the appeals for a settlement, and it was to bo hoped that he wonld not Le allowed to attend another . Court function. Ho was doing more to damage life and property than a hundred Anarchists.

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF, Since the beginning of tho transport workera' strike in -London, the English newspapers have been filled .with articles oa we' significance of tlio present labour unrest.. Mr. Philip Snowden, Uio wellknown Labour Ml'., in am articlo in the "Daily Mail," said: Tho most extraordinary thing about this labour unrest is the very general impression that it is something now and unprecedented. This only serves to show how soon events which at the time command universal attention pass from public recollection, and how many incidents which appear to contain tho germs of portentous change do not como to maturity. Those who from their own personal recollection are familiar with the'incidents of the labour world in tho last, ono or two generations,, and .who aro acquainted vdtli tho older ■ history of tho movement, ?« in all that has happened during tho Inst twclvo months .a .repetition of many previous, periods of exceptional excite:ment in' tho imlustriaV world. .Nothing, in tho present .unrest has differed materially from tho state of things winch prevailed twenty to twenty-fivd years ago. Then th&ro were strikes of a magnitude hardly surpassed by any, of recent da to; th'en there was tho demand for a minimum wago • urgetl in precisely the eanie words in which it is now put forward; then there was just the sanio fear and aicxioty among tho capitalists and,upper classes that tho foundations of society were giving way; then the very Teasons which are now given as the cause of tho labour unrest' woro set forth—namely, tho increase in the cost .of living, tho growing intelligence of the wbrkers as a result of better education, the dehumanising of the relations between employers and workmen, tho irritation, of the masses at the growing display of wealth, the effect of. Socialist propaganda on the working classes; indeed, every ?ne of tho causes now set forth as being responsible for the present ■uprising of labour. And the methods adopted to deal with the unrest of that day were nlso the same. Tho military - were sent out to •'strike a7«as; tho leaders of the workers were arrested and tried for-sedition; trade.unions made enormous increases in.their membership; Parliament was compelled t) give attention to the -stato of things, and a Royal Commission on Labour was appointed whose terms of reference would apply with absolute appropriateness. to an inquiry into the causes and remedies ftv tho present unrest. Tho speeches of Labour leaders in thoso days were precisely like those which aro now. being delivered; the awakening of Labour, had come at last; the solidarity of Labour was an .accomplished fact; tho coming of Labour into its own was close at hand; Mr. Hyndman: announced then, as ho did last week, that we were in tho rapids of the social revolution. . . The labour unrest of fho last f/eneration, tho labour unrest which has shown itself periodically through. all the nineteenth century, has arisen from '.he same cause. / Labour is always poor and op-β-iessed. It is always discontented, but generally it is passively so. Tho smouldering fires of discontent are .always tl'cro; occasionally they burst volcanolike into flame. Tho eruption won expends its force, and relative ijuietness follows. Tho experience of the recent events in the labour world has proved, as every previous experience has .ehown, that though the; strike may be successful occasionally and iu peculiar, circumstances, it is useless as a means of permanently and securely advancing ■ the welfare of labour. It is well that vo should have the;e occasional,' variations in laboin methods. . They tench by practical experience what nien are not willing to learn by precept and precedent. Political action, is said to bo in bad favour among workmen, at tho .present time. But it it only by political action that the workers will ever be able to alter the economic system which keeps them poor. The partial conquest of political power which tlif workers have mado has done more foi tliom in six years than all the strikes they over waged or ever will wago. By the Act of labour legislation Mono (the Workmen's Compensation Act) tho work cvs have gained twelve times more in tlu last four years than rill they have, wor by strikes, m tho List fifteen years. '