THE LAST BLUFF.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1938, 22 December 1913, Page 4

THE LAST BLUFF.

No one-will be very.much surprised to find the strike loaders endeavouring 'to core? their discomfiture at the. turn affairs have taken in'connection with the strike by proclaiming thcis success. ■ They arc very like the dusnmy'elown in the marionette entertainment of •our childhood days, who, every time he; was knocked flat with a skilfully aimed brickbat hurled from the wings of the stage, flopped to his feet again with the cheerful announcement, "And he' missed me again I;':-.:; The strike leaders may shout .noisily' about' their splendid fight.., and-. assert/ their ; satisfaction with the" result,' but no one is deceived thereby.' Everyone knows that they have been telling their dupes'for weeks past that ; .the employers could not hold out; against them..: At the .outset'they told their followers that cargo would .never be - : worked, it was. worked. 1 They then tolcl them that transport,-.'would bo paralysed. It was?not paralysed.■■■'•They then requisitioned- the;, weapon—the -gen-' era! strike—which was to' bring the employers and the';'community generally trembling-Ho-'their.'knees. ■ -The general, strike .;failed and ■ the "employcrsiand ihe'conmiunity'remained upright. Then, the -Home boats wc-re to be prevented from leaving port. The Home boats left port. following this, camei the i;boast .that'. , the manufacturing and'' in fact all businesses and-manufactures ' dependent-:;, on : the .use ■ of -coal would be-thrown' idle"and. erippled'by-the refusal of.;the.miner:!..to work- . the. mines. The.; manufacturers and - the. publicshowed: that ! they ■ could ' get coal elsewhere..-.So it has been from beginning: to end, .the boastful .'prophecies'of the' Strike Bosses have been falsified... The strikers know this— thev have seen'promise after promise broken-they now.knmv that their leaders .. who made,,, those,promises simply did so ,in order" to prevent them .from going back./-to work.', The strikers now know that thc fight-' wa.s lost weeks ago;, that'if .their leaders had been'-: men ..capable;of : forming a sound' judgment. and -anxious,,.only for tlK' welfare of ..those ibev ' lr-d they.; would, havejcndcd the., struggle weeks'; ago: How "'much"., better, r. iff would'the seamen aiuhwatorsidc;work-, ers and carters and minors have been . to-day i-hailf.t be; strike.;'cnded.;a?inonlh 'ago !Th'e'sinnemlniv.o beeiVToiibed of ti'iis : (if thiiiisaisds of; ; poun'(ls' : iiv-vi:ages ; through, ihe' blundering/,, ini-ompe! ciift: of the;rsleaders^l^g;^;.^

!;■;Nowf iho?o same . ie: s dorr. .arc.'.sci kngjto'.refaiu their.controi - oyer:.'lie:

ny.'u jhi'y Iml s6J.badly J 'andl\vith such", 'ruinous''results',, by',telling them that! they 'have • lfotnost?any thfng.& Apart! from the heavy-'-iinancial losses suffered by Uie strikers in actual wages, .and looses..to.Jollow ;to those" whoso jobs have been ; taken Unionists,, those .who have .associated' themselves .with-, the unscrupulous' methods, of the Fed Federation have lost nil public, sympathy. It is all very well tor. tile .leaders of that organisation ;to.:talk about their splendid solidarity.;, and. the tremendous effect the :sti-ike:;has. had in strengthening the Federation.. It is the ■shallowest' .-bluff. They know that -the • confidence of a the men they ihaye^led^Mjbadly.;';they know that ■ theyO' greater dis-ityusfc-.thari ever.by:.the sane and reasonable,: section',, of : organised Labour. ;;J:.!)uring;;the: earlier stages.- of - the. strikesthey could- command open-air audiences.of 6000 people largely eomliot'od-; of ';Ilcd." Fcdcralionists'<■ and .their',allies; yesterday they could not : : muster "much'-'morei than' '"'one-tenth' that number.,.' The. mention of; : the namo'.''..uf ■'■ their President at' yisterr,day'simeeting was received ..with' hoots'where it was wont to be-ml-corned with cheers. The Ked Federation may not be destroyed ; there may still be men foolish enough'to trust the management of their affairs to tho reckless blundering of the leaders who have deceived and cost them so dear, but the Red Federation is discredited in the eyes of sane labour unionism. It has widciK'd the between the-extremists of the Socialist-Anarchist Red Flag Brigade and the, moderates of legitimate' labour- unionism: it lias lost largely through secessions from its own. ranks: and it has consolidated aod stirred into active antagonism that large body of the public which while it_ has every sympathy with the legitimate aspirations of Labour is completely opposed to the rash and ■revolutionary methods which have their beginning in mob violence and disorder and their ending in anarchy and the overthrow of constitutional government-. The leaders of the Red Federation are not so dull as to be unable to see these things. But_ they have played the game of bluff so long that despite their past failures they must keep up the farce .to the,-very last.