The Hastings Standard Published Daily WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15, 1897. INDUSTRIAL WAR.

Hastings Standard, Issue 426, 15 September 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 15, 1897. INDUSTRIAL WAR.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

From several parts of the compass there is floated across the cables the news of industrial strife, but nowhere has a strike assumed such a serious aspect or resulted in so much bloodshed as in that land of big things, the United States. The cold - blooded murder of 22 workmen and the wounding and maltreatment of 70 others is possible only in a country which tolerates lynch law. The circumstance is enough to create unutterable loathing for a system of government under which it is possible to commit wholesale murders. Such an incident is practically impossible under British rule, and yet there are certain leatherlunged agitators of the Ben Tillet tpye who fancy it is becoming to flout the Queen simply because she is the head of the British Constitution. It is interesting to analyse the strikes that are now raging. In England the Amalgamated Engineers have declared war in order to obtain shorter hours. Apparently the workmen believe that notwithstanding the lower wages and longei' hours endured by similar workmen in othet' countries the business of British engineering firms is so good as to admit of the concession now Remanded by the workmen. It is an excellent answer to those who say that British trade is declining. But the views held by the Amalgamated Engineers is not shared by their employees, who maintain that the Continental competition with the lower wages and longer hours of the workman is a factor that cannot be treated as lightly as the employees desire. But in this engineering dispute, critically keen though it has been for weeks past, there is no violence of any consequence, no disorder calling for armed intervention, and no reading of the Riot Act and cold-blooded murder. In New South Wales the Lucknow miners are at loggerheads with their employers, but there is no disturbance o' the kind as recorded in Colerame. In New Zealand industrial disputes are of almost monthly occurrence, but these only tend to increase the honorarium of the members of the Conciliation Boards, who might otherwise be thrown upon the mercy of the Charitable Aid Boards. The split-the-difi'erence principle which appears to be invariably adopted by the New Zealand Conciliation Boards may not b3 the best solution of the difficulties, but

it at any rate patches up the breach between employers and employees, and enables both sides to enjoy a respite from strife so long as the agreement sanctioned by the Conciliation Board is observed. The New Zealand system may not be perfect, indeed it is not so, but it is better than the system which admits of defenceless men being shot down like dogs. Half of our labor troubles in New Zealand are made in Victoria. Somehow the labor agitators of this colony have got Victoria on the brain, and as soon as the Melbourne cranks bring about a disturbance in a particular trade then the New Zealand geese cause a flutter in the same direction. This has been very noticeable recently, with the tailoring dispute aud the furniture trades dispute, the latter of which is now being made the subject of an inquiry by the Conciliation Board in Wellington. The shooting in Coleraine has very naturally caused great indignation in the locality, and the arrest of the sheriff and the shooters has been undertaken promptly. This prompitude, wa imagine, is due to the fact that those who have been slaughtered are foreigners, aud the United States will be called upon to make some reparation besides punishing the guilty parties. In the case of the lynching of certain Italians, Brother Jonathan was obliged to unbutton his pockets, and the same will have to be done in the present case. The condition of America just now is far from good, and any serious distubance, industrial or otherwise, will greatly retard that recovery which certain American commercial celebrities profess to be able to forsee.