Hokitika Guardian 7 Evening Star THURSDAY, SEP. 27th, 1917. COMING TO TERMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 September 1917, Page 2

Hokitika Guardian 7 Evening Star THURSDAY, SEP. 27th, 1917. COMING TO TERMS.

j 'Hu k particulars supplied in ro for nee j to the settlement of the Sydney strike indicate that the action of the t’iovj ('rnment lias resulted in tho worsting of the strikers. Naturally tho effort to defy authority was foreshadowed to failure. The strikers began in very best, premises, and their case was undermined at the very outset by tho overtures of the Government officers who offered to meet the wishes of the strikers, but in their own way: The strike was organised to overthrow the card system. This the Government I were not ready to tolerate without giving the system a trial. They offered that much to the str’kers at the very outset, with the proviso that at the close of a period a commission should

investigate* the working of the system, and any evils should bo corrected or the system banned if need he, as the circumstances might demand. This reasonable offer the strikers rejected with promptitude, and the fight went on. Now the terms of agreement under which the railway and tramway men have gone haek to work, are practically on the lines of the original offer—so that the men have suffered without recompense. We are told that the distress they suffered combined with the discontent which would naturally permeato all ranks as the abortive days went hv tempered their stubborness and in tho end the strike broke down. The experience will be another bitter lesson for foolishly led labour, which so often falls into these disasters when flic strike bludgeon is used. The card system which lias been the cause of all the trouble was the adaptation of a' method to record service and output, and to note that the labourer was worthy of his hire. It was a reasonable way to conduct a great state concern, and to see that while tho men were wclll paid and cnmi for under union rates and rules, they oil their pa'rt, did their duty by their employer. Tn Australia LW.W. methods appear to have taken a good deal of root, and it became necessary to combat the evil influences of its followers in the workshops'and in the service generally. Seeing that lit.inr shirking was being practiced with so much openness as to call attention to the defects suffered by the employers, it would hare been thought that the general body of labour honestly bent on doing a fair thing, would be disposed to moot the requirements of the man* agetnent, and demonstrate that on their part they were not slackers, but were ready to put their volume of work daily to any tost, but the voice of the agitator prevailed as is so often the ease, and ill-led labour lias again fallen a victim to its own schemes. Tatties such as these do not commend unionism as labour is wont to control it, and the outcome will he that labour association necessary and valuable as it is, must ho conducted under more rigorous direction. Not only must unionism ho prevented from harming itself, but it. must he stopped at injuring communities. A far reaching strike such as that in Australia at ibis juncture is like wise disloyal, and labour if it would respect, and esteem must be loyal to its country as to itself. Tho lessons of the occasion are many and varied and no doubt some of them will sink deeply into tho hearts and minds of the rea] workers.