“SETTLEMENT" OF STRIKES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1711, 12 May 1917, Page 2

“SETTLEMENT" OF STRIKES.

THE disquieting circumstances in connection, with the “settlement'’ of strikes is that in most eases the strikers have to he bribed to return, to work, which means that the reckless and detiant forces of anarchy score against the forces of settled law and orderly government (says the Dunedin Star). The whole thing reminds one of the immunity purchased in certain districts terrorised by lawless bands of desperadoes. The arbitrary freaks of strikers continue their wilful way, because the community is weak and compromising, and so accustomed to the uninterrupted routine of demand and supply that it shrinks from any prolonged inconvenience, and soon gets excited and impatient, and prepared for almost anything (hat will stave off the threatened privation and loss. If a strike, is plainly arbitrary and vexatious, illegal and unjustiiiable, the community should be resolved not to give way an inch, whatever the result might be. Such humble bargaining with recalcitrant labour is altogether pernicous, and only means further trouble. And surely it is never more pernicious than when it takes the form of interference with law courts. It affords immense satisfaction that the S.M. before whom (he “go-slow” cases were recently heard distinctly declined to recognise the compact made with the miners by the Government through their Ministers, and refused to become a partner to an agreement which made the Court a party to “bargaining with justice.”