AN OBJECT-LESSON.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1896, 3 November 1913, Page 6

AN OBJECT-LESSON.

The Dublin strike is a distressing object-lesson of the folly of industrial war, carric.d .to the extreme of th© striko backed by violence and intimidation. A strike may sometimes be the only remedy for unfair treatment by employers, but _it should never be resorted to until peaceful methods _ of redressing grievances have failed. The Dublin trouble was forced upon the employers by tho tyranny of Larkinism, which eventually became too grievous to be borne. As a result, nearly four hundro'd of the most prominent employers of labour passed the following-re-solution : —

That this meet-intr of employers, while M»*rtinji it* frioadly foolinss to trnto unionism, hereby dooUws tiat tho tost'

tion created by tho Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (a union in namo only) is a mcnace to all trado organisation, and has becoriie intolerable; that in order to deal effectively with tho present situation all employers should bind tliemsolves to adopt a common lino of action. There was no tribunal in existence by ■ which the merits of the dispute could be decided, nor was any time given for the operation of conciliatory methods. War was declared. That was nearly two months ago, and the struggle is still going on. It has caused much loss to tho employers, and inconvenience to the general public; but- this loss and inconvenience is as nothing compared with tho suffering and privations of the strikers, and other workers who have been deprived of employment by the disorganisation of industry. It is a pitiful tale of poverty and destitution: The Dublin correspondent of the Morning Post states that the suffering amongst the poor is almost heart-breaking, If nil this privation and hardship had resulted in some great gain there might have been some justification for the action of the strike leaders in asking their followers to adopt the "down tools" policy. But what has been the outcome- of this eight weeks of misery? The answer is supplied by tho following cablegram, which appeared in Saturday's issue of The Dominion :

Pree labourers from Manchester are replacing tha timber merchants' employees m Dublin. They are housed, in premises belonging to the employers. Two hundred of tho dockcrs have returnod to vtork, and iho strike is gradually breaking. All tho delayed steamers aro being discharged. Merchants aro largely -employing motor-lorries, and probably hundreds of carters will bo left without employment when IUo strike is ovsr. After reading the story of the Dublin strike one cannot help wondering when the eyes of the workers wili be opened so that they may see t.ho stark folly of allowing tnemselves to bo led to disaster by the revolutionary ideas of a cert-ain typo of demagogue and labour agitator, Who live by fomenting strife ana illwill. No sensible man would contend for a moment that employees should submit without protest to oppression and injustice. In New Zealand, at any rate, a tribunal exists for the express purpose of righting industrial wrongs, and any class of labour which has a just grievance should not hesitate to place its case before an impartial Court, which will hear the evidence of both sides in the light of clay, and whose decisions will have to stand tho criticism of the Press and the public. Society is bound to protect itself by meeting every unlawful appeal to fores with greater force; but anv section of the community that asks tho assistance of the law and of public opinion in an industrial dispute may confidently rely upon getting a fair hearing and a just judgment.