PILING UP TROUBLE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1690, 5 March 1913, Page 6

PILING UP TROUBLE.

The spectacle of the M'Gowem Labour Government forced by the weight of public opinion to rush to the-assistance of the "monopolistic" Sydney gas companies and fight tho employees of the company on strike would be diverting were it not for the seriousness of the .occasion. It is only a few months back that this same Labour Government set out on a campaign which meant heavy financial losses, and in some cases probably ruin to those who had invested their savings in these same gas companies. A Bill was introduced—one of the most vicious 'measures of its kind ever placed before a Legislature-by a responsible Ministry—to take from the shareholders of the gas companies the right to a reasonable dividend, and, to quote the words of one of the leading Australian papers, "confiscation was written- upon it." As originally presented to Parliament this unjust measure, which appeared to be aimed at one particular corporation, fixed not only 'the price which the gas company should charge the consumer, but actually limited to 4 per ccnt. the dividend which the company' could pay to its shareholders. This, in view oi; the fact that most of the existing shareholders had bought their shares in the open market, at a heavy premium, meant a ruinous loss. A nominal dividend of 15 per cent, meant only 5 per cent, on the actual market price of tho shares, and the loss to investors ca,n be imagined if tho Government's proposal to limit the nominal dividond to 4 per cent, had been given effect, to. This Bill was sprung on the country without warning, and the price of gas shares immediately fell several pounds in value. Fortunately, not only for those who had invested their money in the gas companies, but also for the future development of industries in, New South Wales by private capital, the Upper House refused to pass the measure in its confiscatory form. It was modified in material particulars,' and , the Government was considered to have received a well-deserved and severe set-back.

Nqw Mn. M'Gowen and his Ministers are confronted with quite another phase of the gas question. One of their own unions—that is to say, one of the Labour unions which helped to put the Government into office—has laid itself out not only '.to paralyse the business of the gas companies, but incidentally to inconvenience in a lesser or greater degree the whole population of Sydney. Confronted with a situation in which it has to choose between the claims of the Gas Employees' Union and the interests of the rest of the community, the Government, with the elections looming near, has deemed it advisable to throw in its lot with tho stronger side, and to call on the public to fight the strikers with free labour. No doubt Mn. M'Gowen has taken ■ the ' proper course in this respect as well as the wise one from the point of view of his own future political welfare. The action of the gas companies' employees in cutting off the supply of gas for the city means something more than loss to • their employers and inconvenience to the community at large: it means that some thousands of unionists engaged in occupations in which gas is used for

power or heating or lighting have been thrown out of employment, and are losing their wages. This is a serious thing for the unfortunate men and their families who, through the precipitate action of the gas employees, have had their means of living cut off without warning, and it adds to the embarrassment of the Government,'• and 110 doubt helped Ministers to make up their minds to throw the strikers over, and incite the public to crush the industrial revolt. Mr. Massey and Me. Herdjiax, it will; be remembered, were bitterly attacked by the Redflag Labour-Socialists in New Zealand for merely, doing their plain .and obvious duty t in preserving the peace and protecting free workers and unionists alike in connection with the Waihi strike. It should, we imagine, in the circumstances, be difficult for Uic Labour extremists to find, sufficiently strong language in which to adequately express their opinions of Mr. M'Gowen and his Labour Government for not only offering to protect free labourers but for inciting the public to become free labourers, and actually offering, as the Prime Minister did, to hecome a free labourer—a "scab," we believe, is the oorrect Labour term— himself. The merits of the clain: of the strikers to the extra shilling a day, we know little about, but tJicy have at least proved that they arc a most unreasonable set of men. Not so very long ago they actually left work at a moment's notice, and threatened to plunge the city in darkness because a drunken fellowemployee had been dismissed. They had no consideration for anyone but the. individual whom it was afterwards proved did not deserve the slightest consideration. On that occasion the Government interceded with them, and they deemed it advisable to go back to work on the condition that_ an inquiry would bo at once held into the dismissal of their drunken fellow-employee. The Committee of Innuiry, which was presided over by the Labour Leader and ex-Labour Premier of the Commonwealth, Mr. J. C. Watson, brought in a finding settjflg out that tho dismissal of the manVas justified and the strike very ill-advised. Tho latest advices show that the present strike still continues, and that much loss and great inconvenience is being occasioned. It is not calculated to win sympathy for the Labour cause, cither in Australia or anywhere else.