WORK PROGRESSING.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1914, 24 November 1913, Page 4

WORK PROGRESSING.

The speeches at yesterday's demonstration of strikers will bo found reported elsewhere at much greater length than the- matter in them warrants. It is just as well, however, that the public should have some idea of the sort of stuff the strike bosses delude their followers with. It will be recognised by tho observant reader that a new note has crept into the wild harangues of these strife-mongers. The tremendous confidence, with which they have been accustomed to declaim upon their splendid unanimity—the solidity of their ranks and the spirit of harmony in their counsels—is lacking. We have been- told again and again that not a striker had gone bad to work at Auckland. Now it is only a few who have gone back. A small thinp perhaps, but significant. It shows that the hope of deceiving the men and ths public generally by deliberately misstating the truth' of the position has been abandoned. The best .the strike bosses can now hope for is to minimise as much as possible the- numbers and the effect of the break-away. The aggressive Mr. Hickey, who has been shouting : from the soap-box and the cart-tail. i of the magnificent solidarity of the strikers, now has an anxious notc even in _ the most militant of his declarations on this point. Ho now pleads for that unity which previously he so_ confidently declared to actually exist. These changes are due to the refusal of some of the more intelligent of the strikers to blind themselves to the facts of the position. They are now better able to judge of the emjjty nature of the boasts and prophecies of the blundering mischief-makers who have led them into trouble. They can sec that the only thing the Federation of Labour can now bops for is to prolong tlifi trouble—that in tlie "iid they must be defeated. Why, therefore, should the watersidcrs' and the seamen,_ and tlw drivers, be forced to remain idle, when every day that passes makes their position worse without any hone of ultimate Erain? Why should they and their wives and children live miserably on the doles handed out to them by the strike bosses, and have a cheerless Christmas to look forward to—all-

for nothing? Tho men. as wo say, are beginning to realise these things, and arc asking questions. Some of them know that they have little chance of getting .back to their old jobs at- all unless they do so at once. Some have gone back to work., and arc earning good wages; tnpy jnoro are talking of following their example; and so Mmus. Hicke? and Co. are growing anxious, and are pleading for unity. Pleading for men- to_ sacrifice their homes and their wives and children—for what? To save the faces of the men who led them into the" trouble. Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin are now working their ports with Arbitration union labour, and today a start will be made- at Lyitelton. Canterbury lias been rather backward in handling the situation. With the experience of Wellington and Auckland to guide them, the people of Canterbury should have realised thai; temporising with the class of men who control tho Federation of Labour is useless. They mistake good nature for weakness, and any effort ,to arrive at a settlement by conciliatory methods merely encourages them to greater aggressiveness. Our friends in the south will find that nothing is to bo gained by to conciliate these men, There is only one thing to do, and that is to let them see that the Federation of Labour is not goine: to be allowed to terroriso the people of New Zealand and paralyse the business of the country, even though it should •ho necessary for every able-bodied citizen and farmer in the Dominion to take a hand in tho task of keep ins our ports open. With the crumbling at Auckland and Wellington, there should he little difficulty now in hnndlinp the trouble at Lyttelton and Dunedin.