Strike and Lock-out.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 74, 9 August 1912, Page 1

Strike and Lock-out.

News and Views.

At the recent meeting of the executive each member, excluding "Webb, was in attendance. And didn't they get down to business. The unions are getting a special report. * * * Whatever you do allow your friend to miss, don't allow him to miss our Special strike issue of next week. Order extra copies if you can. It will'be an historical number. After the recent important executive meeting, Sehiple, Fngan and Armstrong travelled to Christcliurch to hold there a big meeting; Parry, Eraser and Howard remained in Wellington to do the same thing; while other members returned to their various centres to spread the light. * » • Scruple is at present touring the South Island, Howard is doing Auckland and \Vailn, Fraser nnd Parry have been in the Gisborne district and elsewhere. This is the sort of work that tolls. Despite the power of the press, the platform has often beaten it. Use the stump. To the streets 1 * * # A series of successful midday meetings was the order of last week in Wellington on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, tho speakers being Parry, Fraser, Howard, Boss and Hogg. The speakers went out to contradict lies find refute misrepresentations anent strike and lock-out and impressed considerably the large audiences. * * * "Professor Morton Barueis, 8.A." is the way The MaouujAnd Worker designates a well-known resident of the Htitfc. This professorial disease is evidently contagious. Government will be called iip;»n to apply the quarantine laws -if the disease continues to spread. —Petone "Chronicle." Ha, ha! But *e'.>v going to bill Professor Bob Setn'iM fa ansV-or Professor Walter Thomas before we're done. * * * A lecent caller at this office was a Waihi engim'-driver (genuine brand), who let daylight in anent the curious reasr.ns which prompted some eitgincI drivers to "rat" on their union and class. Wellington AVatersiders, in general meeting, officially repudiated any connection with the monetary compensation raised for that "innocent tjirl" pianist. *> <» • Whnt about that Auckland drivers' l.r.rantr' Will v correspondent let us know how the thing stands!' * • " A oorrospoiKient: Hav<? the men lost all the press say they have in wages? I say not. Supposing there hat! not bor-n :\ strike, would the men have, say, £50,000 to divide? Is not the truth otherwise, vis., the wages would have flowed back to the owning class through channels of rent, interest, clothing, fuel and a hundred other things the workers must have. "That Federation—Another Blow" is the heading given by the "Dominion" : , to some yarns wired from Auckland alleging wholesale general laborers' secession. Ah, those "blows"—they're getting a great joke. Fraser got going sharply-in repudiation of the yarns, and actually got the repudiation made as public os tho lie. i * * "We have great sympathy with Mr. A. Winter Evans," says the "Inangahua Times." "Ho has come to New Zealand to teach us mining, and we will not be taught. We are an obstinate and stiff-necked generation, and really do. not know what is good for us. In fact, there seems a base conspiracy against Mr. Winter Evans. The men are against him. The magistrate, in his few c[uiet words, was against him. The Premier and the Government aro against him. All his mining genius, and he has n great name, is allowed to waste itself in air. Sent out to reduce coats, he has reduced mining in the companies to a lost art. It is a foolish doctor who kills all his patients. Mr. Evans stands face to face with a world that cannot Understand him. That the world around him is wilting away—the mines silent, grass growing in Reefton streets, women weeping, businesses practically being sold up—is all part of the s great game in which Mr. Evans, stcrn'and inflexible, is playing with Mr. Fagan'till "the Mineowners' Association has no further use for him."

The Campaign for Workingclass Triumph.

From the Brisbane correspondent of the "International Socialist": —"We notice that V. H. Hickoy is in Sydney, nnd heartily wish that he could be induced to visit Brisbane before he leaves Australia. He would be sure of a hearty welcome from the members of this branch, and his presence would have ..i good effect on the amount subscribed by the unions here for the W'aihi strikers." Tito writer of labor notes in the "Auckland Star" says: "We are told that the Government will introduce legislation that will prevent strikes in 'Vie Dominion. Bluntly put, it cannot be done. Charles Gregory Wade tried it with his Coercion Act when Premier of New South Wales, but it failed. Even the famous and oft-quoted Lernmix Act of Canada does not attempt to ink*.- the right tp strike away from tli€ ■■<" -s. It simply provides that the 4 > shall not take place until reasonable attempts have been made to settle the dispute by constitutions' means. When legislation can be frame to force an employer to continue ' .s business and employ hands when it does not pay him to do so, then and not till then can legislation be passed that will prevent workers from striking against conditions that are not acceptable to them. The labor legislation of the Massey Government will be awaited with interest." «r * = The "Innngahua Times" reports another death at Reefton from the fell die ease of miners' complaint, in the passing away of Frank Hoy, a native of Ohristchurch, and only aged 36, who has been for many years mining at the Globe. The greatest sympathy is expressed for the widow and young family in their bereavement. A London cable to the local director of the Waihi Company retids: "Directors hare declared a dividend of Mα per shiire, yayaule on September L\ So further dividends until strike ends. £yen then subsequent effects are likely to adversely affect dividends." A circular hi shareholders states, re yarding the strike, that the companies insisted at the conference on "the registration of theMiiK-rs' Union, and adds: "It is impossible to say how long the strike is likely to last." * * * "The Federation of Labor lias been rightly criticised for the breaking of agreements. With what pious wrath d'd Mr. Rhodes at Wciihi ask the Fedt'ation t>o give some security for its agreements. Yet the Mine-owners' Association, after it had pledged itself in court, deliberately went back on its pledge. Circumstances arose, lawyers found a way out of the difficulty. Thus the Word is broken. The Federation of Labor only talked about breaking its agreements. They are better than the Mine-owners' Association that went back on the agreement it had -agreed to."—"lnaugahua Times." * » * At a public meeting held in the King's Theatre, Christchurch, on Sunday night, July 28, the following resolution was carried unanimously :— "That this meeting of citizens 6f Christelmrch congratulates the workers of Waihi and Reefton on the splendid fight they aro making for straight unionism, condemns those who are being made the tools of the employers in the formation of scab unions, and while pledging all available financial support and heartily endorsing the attitude of the Federation of Labor, denounces as traitorous and reprehensible the tactics of those alleged Labor Councils whose efforts are directed towards compelling the surrender of the unionists by starving their women and children." Get a resolution such as this carried wherever possible—and get it printed I j Don't forget the latter. TJse the press. It's all right so long as the press doesn't use you. * * Secretary Glover told in Wellington recently how that while the Federation was conferring with the shipowners in Wellington each concession fought for and wrung from the owners was wired to Napier by a delegate present at the conference, and the information was then used at the Napier conference between watersiders and owners as the basis of a new agreement. No wonder the Napier folks can crow about their agreement 1 But it was the Federation of Labor that fought the fight.

Speaking at Hit King's Theatre, Chnstchurdi, oil Sunday, July 28, Mr. Semplo. said that h« iind read Rhodes's statement that he could find a woman who would work the popper drill siligle-handed. The speaker would accept that as a challenge on the condition thst the woman to make the effort should be a member of Mr. Rhodos's family. It was a fair proposition t-hsu what Mr. Rhodes reckoned to be good enough for th * wires and daughters of working-men should be good enough for his wile or daughter. He proposed to wnce to Mr. Rhodes to this effect. The statement was received with great cheering. Parry was the chief speaker at the "Wellington public meeting. Hβ spoke for an hoiir, and then answered lots of questions. "We are making ]us story a special feature of our special number. Another feature of the number will be speeches by Semple, Fagan and Armstrong, specially reported by Harry Holland. * ;r * "Ted" Howard,, at the big meeting in Wellington, was thoroughly at home. The Federation, lie declared, was out to do things, and they had done things. During the four years of its existence, the Federation had won from the mas-ter-class for the working-class more than the organisation known as the Trades and Labor Councils' Federation had won during the last 15 years. The Federation- had established a paper and owned a plant and almost owned a warehouse. The rank and file, of the workers knew that ithe Federation of Labor was firm. To date £7GOO had been provided for the men at present out on strike. The workers of the Dominion must be behind the Federation or, in the middle of winter, they could not have over £7000 contributed to the Waihi men. (Cheers.) Theirs was a fight for humanity —not merely for power and influence Howard challenged the "Times" as a workers' paper to print a list of its shareholders. The. "Times" as a workers' paper, reminded him of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. * # » At the cosy Adelphi Theatre, Wellington, on Sunday week, Glover, Parry and Howard interested a large audience in Waihi and Reefton. Jack Glover presided, and said they had no apology to offer for holding the meeting. He dealt with Prof. Mills' ■ references to

''pernicious management" and scored in showing how at the last F.L. conference the United Labor Party had waited upon the Federation to persuade it to join the party—and at this ! time the Federation's management was equally "pernicious." He further scored in proving that when tho Greymouth Watorsiders were at deadlock with the shipping owners tho Federation had come to tho rescue, and got for the Greymouthians the best agreement of their experience and as well the be3t agreement in the- Dominion. Of this body's withdrawal from the Federation, Glover asked: Could anything be mere mean and contemptible?—and tho house cheered. « * « Referring to the state of affairs at Reefton, tho "West Coast Times" says: Dolefui accounts continue to filter through concerning the baneful influence the deadlock in the mining industry is having upon the town of Reefton. Business is absolutely stagnant. Most of the single men have leftf the district*, the married men,, with wives and children, being left to battle against adverse circumstances. Naturally, the pinch is acutely felt, and though a grim determination to achieve a victory for Labor is apparent, the termination of the deadlock would be hailed with satisfaction. Not only are the workers suffering, but the business people know that ''times are hard and money scarce." The only saving factor in an ugly situation is that work is proceeding as usual at the Big River and Keep-it-Dark mines, which give employment to a good number of men, perhaps a hundred or more. Just after tho trouble in the Consolidated arose, the management of "the Dark ,, tactfully withdrew the Waugh popper, and thus escaped being drawn into tho vortex. * * * Wellington Shipwrights in general meeting voted £20 to Waihi and Reefton fund, only to have the vote blocked by officials on the score of legality or southing. Once again, the Waihi strike is quite legal and the locked-out are quite legal, though the lockers-out are breaking the agreement and award. * * * The splendid response to the fighting fund of the Waihi and Reefton miners by Federation unions and wellwishers has moved even "D.G.5.," the writer of the "Labor Column" in the "Lyttelton Times," to adnfiration. The

writer of this column admits himself that he ''is bitterly opposed to the policy of the Federation of Labor, believing as ho does tliat that policy means defeat and disaster to the workers, but ho is willing to express his admiration of the self-sacrificing mannfer in which its supporters are prepared to back up their principles by putting their bands in their pockets." * * * "Wired from Waihi specially to Wellington "Evening Post" on August! 1: "The Conciliation Commissioners (Messrs. Triggs and Hally) concluded their investigations into the Waihi dispute yesterday, and will leave for Wellington this morning. They are to report to the Minister for Labor (Hon. W. F. Massey), and although the members of the Commission have given no indication of the altitude they are likely to adopt in framing their report, it is anticipated that they will recommend the introduction by Parliament of amendments to the existing laws in the direction of compulsory arbitration and a variation in the constitution of the Arbitration Court. That the tamo is ripe for the Government of the country to take action must, it is urged by many, have been strongly impressed upon the Commission by the refusal of the strike promoters and their supporters to entertain the courteous invitation extended them to state the position from the union's standpoint, as the Commissioners were not called upon by the Minister to mediate, but to s:mply furnish a report and make such recommendations as might seem fit after investigating the trouble." * * » What the Federation executive has to say about Reefton is put in a resolution submitted to the tVime Minister as follows: —"With reference to the question of the submission of tho Inangahua Miners' Union trouble to arbitration, we beg to state that from our point there is nothing to arbitrate on, as our union is prepared to loyally abide by the agreement already in existence, and which, in our opinion, the employers have been guilty of ignoring and have committed a breach by so doing." * * » Timaru Watersiders held a special meeting last week to finally settle the levy for Waihi and Reefton, one or two having questioned its imposition. Result was that after two hours' talk,