'Our Reptile Contemporary,

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 91, 13 December 1912, Page 12

'Our Reptile Contemporary ,

OPINIONS ON THE STRIKE'S ENDINC.

The executive of the Federation of Labor has accepted the inevitable at last, and declared the Waihi strike "off." . . Whatever may be thought of the motives which inspired the strikers, it has to be admitted that their rank and file fought a hopeless battle with courage and loyalty. Many of the men had homes in Waihi, and it was no small thing for them to face ruin, with their wives and children clinging to them, in vindication of what seemed to them to be a principle. . . .

The lesson of the strike ought to be plain to everyone. . . No thoughtful worker believes to-day that the sectional strike helps the cause of Labor or does anything but harm, and clearly the organisation which could win a general strike could speak with an irresistible voice at an election. There should not be another great strike in New Zealand. —"Lyttelton Times."

The fight for Industrial Unionism pure and simple was not by the Miners' Union,'but by the arbitration union of Engine-drivers and Winders. The wish of the Red Federation Union was to restrict employment at Waihi to men identified with the doctrine of Mr. Semple and his friends and the teachings of The Maor'land Worker. In j other words, the "right to work" at Waihi was to be confined to "Revolutionary Socialists" —as the Federationists have* described themselves. Naturally, there were men at Waihi who had no desire to have their Industrial Unidnism mixed up with "Revolutionary Socialism," and they claimed a right to work as unionists, untrammelled by the crude tenets of the ultraSocialist body. The Red Federation fought for itself and the arbitration union made a stand for unadulterated unionism.—"Evening Post," Wellington.

We are quite convinced that right throughout New Zealand the Federation embraces large numbers of workers who, while conscientiously, yet mistakenly, convinced that the strike is the only effective method of emancipation, have no sympathy with the detestable extravagances which result from the wild and irresponsible utterances of the leaders of the I.W.W. movement, and the equally grotesque and ill-bal-anced writings of their official organ The Maortland Worker. The outstanding feature of the Waihi strike is that Messrs. Semple, Webb, Parry, Fraser and Glover have been weighed iv the balance and found wanting. It has cost the Federation £30,000 of hard-won gold to make this discovery. And yet these precocious gentlemen seem still hopeful of getting through on bluff.—"N.Z. Times," Wellington.

The leaders of the Federation, of Labor and the men who led the Waihi miners to the ghastly failure which attended the Waihi strike practically from beginning to end are shouting very loudly just now in an endeavor to keep up their own courage and to further deceive their deluded followers. They have at last acknowledged their defeat by declaring the strike off, which, seeing that the Waihi mine has been working for weeks past, is somewhat sixperfluous. But they arc attempting to cover up the utter rout of their forces by a continuance of the wild and vague threats which characterised their public utterances throughout the strike, and hint darkly at tihe terrible powers they will exercise at some distant date.—''Dominion,'' Wellington.

From first to last the strike was a very unfortunate business. It was a mistake, to begin with, and, because it was so, it failed to make an appeal to the sympathies of more than a fraction of the industrial classes. . . To those who were engaged in it ... the strike has been ,a costly lesson. It has demonstrated to them that the general sense of the people of New Zealand is opposed to the use of the strike as an industrial weapon, and that a movement which is in the nature of an attack on the arbitration system is not favored even among the workers themselves by more than c. minority who Lave imbibed impracticable and vicious ideas. . . Mr. Sem'ple "claims that the Federation has been strengthened by the fight." It would be hardly possible for its enemies to wish it anything worse than that it should be similarly strengthened by other fights. . . The organiser of the Federation and those who,' in company with him, have dragged the strikers at Waihi to the ignominious issue that is now recorded are hardily to be blamed for whistling to keep their courage up, but their attempt to represent the Federation as strengthened and solidified by its disastrous experience is as futile as it ia foolish.—"Otago Daily Times."

During the late trouble in Waihi, where apparently Pinkerton methods have been adopted to crush the union, the capitalistic press laughed itself sick at the spectacle of "brave" unionists "skeltering for cover" from armed police, and in a leading article a Brisbane day lie heartily applauded the "citizens' " attack by force upon the unionists, and concluded by declaring that when men armed tliemselves and used those arms in defence of their rights, it was a noble and proper tiling to do, and a sign that they did not intend to be chained slaves, or words to that effect. We need to remember these things when our £iberal friends guffaw in the street or the train about the tyranny of Labor, and remind them that there may be another side of the question.— "Q'land Worker."