THE Kaipara Advertiser, AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1912.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 13 March 1912, Page 2

THE Kaipara Advertiser, AND WAITEMATA CHRONICLE. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18, 1912.

FEDERATIONS AND STRIKES.

The present industrial crisis has assumed such proportions that it is now merely a question of time before the employers of labour will be compelled to accede to the demands of the workers, or take the inevitable consequences. As to whether the claims of the men are within the bounds of reason is, of course, an entirely different matter. In other words

they are contrasting the strained situation from their own standpoint, while the employers are strenuously opposing them on the ground of what might be termed legitimate contentions. For instance, the attitude which the Mayor of Auckland has deemed fit to take up* in respect of the Council employees, speaks for itself. Mr Parr evidently realises that there is no via media, and despite what impartial critics may say, it will be; a fight to a finish. In the face of facts, we cannot see our way :to advocate a system whereby a large industrial community can''be completely paralysed at the. sweet will and pleasure of what might' be appropriately called a notorious federation of labour, and simply because an employer refuses to grant the request of a few toilers whose sense of what is. just, is in reality, covered by a surreptitious garment of illogical balderdash ! There is an old adage, "Union is Strength," but it can be carried too far, and this is exactly what the officials of the Federation are endeavour : ing to dp. Their principals may be quite in accordance with the advanced methods of a modern supremacy, nevertheless, we have no hesitation in-asserting that the modus operandi to which they are inclined, spells inhuman vindictiveness in every line. At one stage the Arbitration medium was the loop-hole of escape from the jaws of an impending trouble. However, all that is changed, and if the new order of things meets with the approval of a certain number of hair-brained agitators, we are glad to think that the same rule does not apply to the more level-headed people of this Dominion. True, and dealing with another aspect, socialism may come in the natural course of evolution, but the time is not yet ripe ! Messrs Semple, Parry aud Webb may consider that they are going to win the day, but have they counted the cost ? We are persuaded to think they have not even taken the modicum of trouble. From, beginning to end the whole affair is a farce, and to learn that it %is the intention of the federation of labour to call out the men on the barest fringe of provocation ; moreover to start by tackling the tramway employees first, possibly with a view to disorganising the traffic and the public convenience; then it is about time that a radical change took place, and the workers brought to their senses anent the fitness of reasonable demands.