TYRANNY OF LABOUR EXTREMISTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1722, 7 June 1917, Page 1

TYRANNY OF LABOUR EXTREMISTS.

One hems so much of! the tyranny of Labour in Australia flint the subject is apt to become wearisome, says the Post's Sydney correspondent. Yet the danger was never greater than it is to-day, and it is plainly reflected in (lie anxiety of merchants and manufacturers. A dangerous class of men, whose cunning is only exceeded by their ignorance and treacherousness, are ceaselessly at work in (he ranks of industrialism. They tell the men that they are wage slaves, that they are blindly and foolishly making wealth for the “fat men,” that they are entitled to rob and cheat their employer in every possible way, so that he may be ruined and all wealth go to the workmen. And so strikes, on the slightest pretext, and the more dangerous and insidious “slow down” system, are constantly being employed. A boy, with an elementary idea of economics could see the folly of it all; but these workers scorn to be incapable of constructive thinking, and are dragging Australia perilously close to an abyss. The Slate Minister for Labour, Mr Beeby, says he is going to tight the Meat Industry Employees’ Union, which is one of (he most powerful, belligerent, ami stupid of the Labour organisations. It recently “black-listed” certain employers who would not comply with its tyrannical and lawless demands, and these employers (butchers) had to surrender, because they could not get any meat. Thereupon, the law stepped in, deregistered the union, and lined it .Cl,ooo. The union laughed at (he law and ignored the line, which the State has shown hesitation in collecting. Now the union has made another extraordinary demand: it lias practically declared a strike until the Sundown Meat Works employ two distinct classes of slaughtermen on cattle and sheep, instead of employing all the men available on whatever class of animal was available. The union is deliberately ignoring Maws, justice, and the interests of the employers in a most high-handed manner; and if Mr Beeby carries out his threats the question of principle involved is going to be settled now, in a direct and definite way. Mr Torwood, president of the Manufacturers’ Conference, recently made a speech, in which he said that a certain class of agitator had deliberately taken advantge of the Commonwealth being at war to stir up strife, with the result that there had been continuous trouble, many strikes, and (he labour market had been practically in a state of chaos. Some of the strikes in industries engaged on war work were a standing disgrace. Manufacturer's had been so harassed by the constant demand for altered conditions of employment and increased pay that a number had gone out of business, and others had put into war loans money that otherwise would have gone to the development of their industries. Nothing was more certain than the breakdown of the entire “White Australia” policy if the ever-growing system of strikes and •“go slow” were not abandoned. Goods manufactured cheaply by coloured labour were coming into Australia in ever-increasing quantities.