THE VINDICATION OF GOVERNMENT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 34, 3 November 1917, Page 8

THE VINDICATION OF GOVERNMENT

COMMENTS ON THE RECENT BIG STRIKE, At the Orange (N.S.AV.) Eight-hour banquet on October 20, Mr. J. C. L. Fitzpatrick, the Treasurer, said the State Government had gone through a, somewhat strenuous time. They had come into existence as the result of a schism, the outcome of the Conscription Referendum campaign. Men in politics of all 6hades had formed together for the purpose of securing help for the boys at the front, but because of the decision of the Labour Council that this proposition should be opposed, prominent members of the State Labour Government and their supporters- had been expelled, and the National Party was the outcome. An amalgamation had been effected almost immediately. A campaign had been initiated bj the Labour Council against them, with the result that the strike on the card system was initiated. No one with an atom of brains assumed for a moment that this was the real cause for the industrial revolution which culminated later on in a complete rout of the union secretaries and walking delegates who were responsible for the upheaval. The Government broke the strike, first becauso it knew its own mind, and followed a course of action early determined upon, and secondly because it had the great heart of the city and country behind it. Citizens from all quarters came forward to fill the vacant places and furnish the consumer with all that the strikers proposed to withhold. No error of judgment had been committed by the Government; they had not asked for more than justice. As far as the public departments and his Government were concerned they had not resorted to (victimisation. They had not passed any special law, other than the one which was needed to enable the mines to be worked by unskilled labour, and the Minister of Mines had proven, the statement, made by him in Parliament when he introduced tbe amending Hill, that no fear need be experienced as to the operation of the enactment in its altered condition, as 'during a space of eight weeks there had been only threo slight accidents in the 16 mines taken over and controlled by the Government. There was one special feature associated witli the action of the Government right through this crisis, and that was tho absolute unanimity of the Government.