THE FACTS OF THE POSITION.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1907, 15 November 1913, Page 4

THE FACTS OF THE POSITION.

The strike leaders are in tho last ditch, and the' only weapon left to them appeals to be deliberate lying as to the facts of the position. Some of the stories they circulating to bolster up the drooping spirits of the unfortunate men they nave led into such serious trouble are.such transparent liuinbug that they cannot really be expected to deceive anyone. One of these precious orators, for instance, declared .on Thursday la&t. that the working of cargo on the vessels at the wharves in Wellington wsisall a. sham._ That the slings were being kept going up and down, but that- the eargo was not being moved. Yet the public can see the cargo coming off the wharves in a continuous stream of lorries. They know that thousands of cases of fruit have been taken, to the auction rooms and sold. They know that the steamer Moana has taken in her cargo, and sailed for San Frattciseo; they know that the steamer Northern has discharged the balance of her cargo, and sailed for the South; tlrey know that the steamer Willochra has discharged her cargo, and sailed for Sydney; aad they can see with their own eyes that the big ocean-liner Athenic, which a few days ago was high oufc of the water, is now well down to her Himsoll mark, heavily laden with cheese, butter, flax, -etc., ...the produce from the country districts handled by the Arbitration union-' ■ ists who are earning the big wages that would have gone to the ordinary waterside workers bad they not been so foolish as to place themselves under the th-arab.of the Federation of Labour. Then, again, yesterday ; the stupid story was posted outside the offi.ee of the Seamen's Union that the Moa&a, which bad sailed tho previous evening for San Francisco, was returning to port because thG men on board had refused duty. It 'was a deliberate lie, intended tet in- : ftuencc the men on the steamer WilI lochia, whic-h was to sail yesterday for Sydney, and which tho Strike Committee had endeavoured to prevent; sailing. As a matter -of fact, at the time the notice, concerning the Mean-a was posted to mislead and encourage the strikers' and their friends, the steadier mentioned was rushing on towards her destination at a Higher rate ofspeed than is reqnired by her mail contr-aefc. A wireless message received by the shipping company completely exploded the fiction invented by the genius erf. the Sea-men's Union. So it is all along the line. At the: •women's meeting at the Opera House on Thursday, Mr, W. T. Mills, the gentleman who has come here from America to pro-mote industrial strife, unburdened himself in this fashion: "Women," he said, -'don't go home and think your husbands are beaten. ] They are going to winj to win with- i out a doubt. You ought to be thankful that ymi are nigJried to strikers. You eatt easily tell a striker in the street. So wears a smile that stretches from ear to ear, right round to the back of his head, and looses itself away down behind his collar. It is. the employer who goes about with' a long face and a ehia that needs to bo propped." And then Mil. Mills worked himself up into a fine frenzy, and shouted and clenched his bands in true demagogic fashion* Finally* ho exhorted the women to go homo with the song of the nightingalo in their hearts and On their lips, and to do their utmost to win this fight. And the -women—wives of toe strikci's—what do they think of such heartless balderdash 1 How _ many, strikers are there grinning with joy at the loss of wages and the cer : tainty of defeat which . confronts them? Mr. Mitts may grin from ear to ear, bat it surely must bo at the folly of the men wk> swallow the rubbish for which they pity him a nice fat. salary. , And the women with the song of the nightingale in their hearts and on their lips!, Tha women whose husbands have been bullied and dragged out of work, at which they were earning good wages■ and under conditions with which they had no complaint; the women who are daily confronted with the increasingly difficult task of finding necessaries for themselves and-their children; tie- women who see- the savings of years recklessly and needlessly wasted without any immediate prospect of replenishing them, and who are forfiod to live oft the beggarly grants doled out to them by the Strike Committee; the women who are pinching and scraping and worrying to make ends meet. Mn. Mtixs tells these women they should go home—to their in many instances ruined and desolate homes—with the song of tho nightingale in their hearts and on their lips! He is surely a curious sort of humorist this man from Milwaukee, who can crack a merry jest over the misfor* tunes of the sufferers on strike, and mock tho misery of the victims of the organisation which pays him his f»t salary. As to tho strike it-self, it is slowly but surely crumbling, and the process of disintegration will proceed, with increasing rapidity. Ycster-i day, at Wellington, sixteen vessels wore lying at the wharves nnd being worked. Five vessels entered .port and seven loft, including two oceailgoincf vcssiils, which sailed for Australia. The Arbitration unionists are increasing in numbers, and a fairly largo number of the strikers] 9.r0 Biiitt to bavo applied for enrolnionfcj and -several BftVo already, po-J

1 commenced work. Transhipments are now Iseing handled, and the business of the port is beginning to assume normal dimensions. Yesterday the main wharf gates wore kept 'open continuously to meet the requirements of traffic, a significant evidence of the increased bustle, as we'll as a demonstration of the confidence restored by the presence of the Special Constables. The United Labour Party has at last come out openly on the side of Jaw and order, and has issued a manifesto urging all the unions associated with it to keep aloof from the strike. It might have shown greater activity at an earlier stage of the trouble, when it offered to mediate; but there is no doubt that its present step is in the interests of the strikers, as well as in the interests of trades unionism genCMlly, It is Jβ the interests of'the [strikers because it will assist thfcm to realise the nselcssnesg of continuing an unworthy struggle in which they must be defeated.' The sooner they get back to work the Bitter the chance will be far them finding their old places still open. The gaps arc being filled, and the/ employers are determined to. stand by the me* they now take On. Many of tiio strikers will find, when they do want to go back, that there is no place open to them. Some who have- been to realise this have, as stated already, gone back to work, or else applied to be taken hack at, the earliest moment that tlieir services are required,