STRIKE'S SILVER LINING.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 14

STRIKE'S SILVER LINING.

Ben Tiilett's View. The question you ask mo—will tho recent labor difficulties be for the ultimate benefit of the country as a avliolo-' —has an answer that is obvious to every man who thinks of the prosperity of his countrymen as a whole, and not only of his own small share in that prosperity. That ansAve.r is, that whatever makes for the good of a part ot the people makes in the end for the good of the country as a Avhole, writes Ben Tilleit. < One must admit that a great transport strike causes a "certain amount of inconvenience to the general public, butone cannot too strongly emphasise the fact that from the men's point of vioAv • _f_ch incoiiA'-onic-Jice is to be regretted, and that it is really no fault of theirs. XJnfortunately the man who _ finds himself inconvenienced-by a strike is sp.met.imes too ready to lay the blame on the strikers, without thinking that the root of the evil really lies in the injustice of - the employers. But, after all, the inconvenience i.. only temporary, and is in microscopic proportion to the amount of good that comes to the general public and to the country as a whole as a result of the strikers' efforts. Take an instance that puts the case in a nutshell. Suppose an office boy gets an increase ox a fo-AV shillings ;i .week'in his wages. The immediate effect of this rise is a certain increase in his comfort; be can get so much more food, and consequently so much more health. Besides Avhich, the change does not affect tlie office boy only, but also those at home in a smaller Avay. Consider, jthen, the effect of such ;_rt increase in spending power hi scA'eu.l million families, and you will see-the far-reaching effect that even a small increase of wages must have in added --health and, comfort amongst the successful strikers and their families. The increased wages means increased spending power -, increased spending •power means more money put into c-.v----cul-ation ; a.d that, in'turn,'means increased trade for the country as a whole. It is not the actual money the strikers wore fighting (or, but the increase in comfort, health, vitality that the extra money van purchase for then., and there can be -no doubt but that the.." things are for tlie general benefit of the public. Everything that is done to raise the so-called "bottom-dog 1 ' means raising tho man above him, and the man above in his turn pusher, up the others, until there has been a rise in the standard of health and con.fort in the whole body of the public. —Ex