STRIKE HEROES!

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1546, 16 September 1912, Page 4

STRIKE HEROES!

The transparently misleading rubbish that is being talked by the strike bosses at Waihi must make sensible people wonder what manner of men the misguided miners must be to be so easily fooled. Having broken tho law and been shown a quite exceptional amount of consideration by the magistrate who presided at the hearing of the charges against them, the foolish fellows, ouoyed up by the belief instilled into them by their leaders, that they are doing something heroic, have 'decided to go. to gaol rather than comply' with the law. Heroes! What have they done that is heroic, unless it is to show an heroic disregard of common-sense'! What principle arc they fighting for 1 What arc they going to gaol foi: I Of course it is part of the policy of the strike bosses, who thrive on industrial strife, to make it appear that there is some large and worthy principle at stake, and so to induce their deluded victims to continue the conflict, which is punishing their wives and families, and in many cases ruining their homes. But what is the principle that is being fought for? The miners had no grievance against the mine-owners regarding the working conditions and scale of pay. They had no just quarrel with their employers at all. Their trouble was with a section of their fellow workers. They wished to force the enginedrivers to come into their particular union, and because the engine-driv-ers preferred a union of their own the Miners' Federation wished to victimiso them. Is there anything heroic about, that 1 A large and powerful union attempting to trample roughshod over the wishes of a comparatively small union, and relying on its superior numbers to force the smaller body to obey its wishes regardless of the effect on the members of the weaker union. And because the employers declined to take sides in the matter and compel the members of the smaller union to submit to the intimidation of the larger, the miners went out on strike and inflicted hardship and loss on everyone connected with the industry. Was this heroic or simply an act of attempted terrorism_ by a large and powerful union desirous of injuring those who dared to differ with it and act as free men in k free country , ! What principle was being fought for by the miners as unionists, unless it. was the right to override and intimidate a weaker union of workers'! Is it erne of the principles of unionism that any powerful'organisation of workers can step in and take the bread and butter out of the mouths of the wives and children of a weaker organisation of workers if the members of the weaker organisation, who follow a different occupation, prefer to have a union of their own, as provided for by the law of the country i Heroes ! Ciui tho misKHulcd- men who, under tin- evil advice of their lenders, inflict so much needless hardship and suffering on innocent pnonlc. on such preposterous grounds, think fur one moment that anyone in his senses can possibly regard them as doing anything heroic! And what of their action in goin'n to gaol! What ie the alternative 1 Mevely that they should

sign a bond to keep the peace.—to obey the law. What is there in the law that they object to ? They resent tho protection which the law gives to every member of the community against molestation and insult in a public thoroughfare. They claim the right to set aside the law and go about in gangs insulting and attempting to terrorise by their offensive and threatening behaviour those of their fellow workers who daro to differ with them. These "heroes," who parade in gangs of scores, and in some cases hundreds, to shout objectionable epithets at individuals or small bodies of their fellow workers, and endeavour to make life unbearable for them, claim a liberty of action for themselves in defiance of lite law, while they refuse a similar liberty of action to other workers who act in rnnjnrnuinee -with ihc law. Tho Miners' Federation and tho Federation of Labour, and the United Labour party may attempt to coyer up the conduct of the Waihi minora and the strike bosses by making it appear that the men who have been convicted of breaking the law have gone to gaol as martyrs to principle or for devotion to some good cause. The plain facts of the case, however, show that the men have not tho slightest claini to sympathy or respect, unless it is to that sympathy which good-natured people are over-ready to extend to simple folk who permit themselves to be made the tools of scheming mischief-makers.