The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1913. A PLEA FOR WAIHI

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8358, 19 February 1913, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1913. A PLEA FOR WAIHI

It is surely time that the Tory press ceased its virulent abuse of the men who directed and the other men who took an active part in the Waihi mining strike last year. The strike has ended now for some months, the bitterness engendered by the strike is diminishing, and no good purpose can he served by perennially resurrecting the deplorable occurrence for no better end than to discredit the Labour •party. Hero in Wellington, where we are far removed from the scene of the trouble, it is wrong and indefensible to seek every opportunity to revive memories that were better forgot' ten, and, from the shelter of anonymity, to denounce in unmeasured and violent invective the men who were prominent, in the strike movement. We have read fierce denunciations of them as '‘anarchists,” “dynamiters,” “human fiends,” “Jacobins,” “wreckers,” and Heaven alone knows what besides. Surely, unless the object in view is to fan the fires of industrial class hatred into a fiercer glow than ever, it would be better for everyone concerned to let this sort of thing drop. To persevere in such a policy is to keep alive the bitter, relentless spirit of resentment and uncompromising animosity. Moreover, it is unjust and wrong. Whatever the Waihi strikers did, and violence has not been really alleged against them until that last regrettable episode of the shooting of the police constable, there is much to be said in their favour under very trying and exasperating circumstances. It must never be forgotten to their credit that though they were numbered in thousands, and were absolutely in control of a remote town until the eventual arrival of strong police detachments, there was no actual violence offered to the person and no damage to property was either attempted or perpetrated. Certainly, there were complaints of following-up tactics, which were no doubt very annoying to those molested, but they were not of a character to justify the most violent writer in describing those engaged in these tactics as “anarchists,” or “dynamiters,” or “hnman fiends.” We hold no' brief for the strikers of Waihi, and we do not propose to argue that they were right in the stand they took or the methods they pursued, but we do maintain that they and their acted with commendable moderation in view of their numbers and the power they possessed for a period of many months oyer the lives and property in the district. That moderation ought to count to their credit now and protect them from much of the coarse and violent abuse with which they are being assailed. AVe say without fear of contradiction that there never was a strike where feeling ran so high and where the men held such absolute power that was. freer from violence. If those men had chosen, at any time within a period of six months, they might have destroyed the machinery of the big mines or indulged in an .orgy of riot that would have ended in bloodshed or much loss of life. There were not, until the last few weeks, more than half a dozen policemen in the town to protect life and property. And how did the strikers employ themselves r They spent their days in holding sports gatherings and their nights in social amusement such as dancing and attending tho picture shows. Was this the customary behaviour of “anarchists,” or "wreckers,” or “dynamiters,” seeing that they were walking about idle, labouring under a real or fancied sense of wrong, that their household - goods were being sold for a song, and that their wives and children were often in want of food? We confess, when we review in a calm mood the situation that existed then, wo are surprised at the moderation of the leaders and the control that was exercised over the men. When the police eventually arrived in force, and the strikers were compelled to stand idly by and see tbeir work and wages taken by free labour, it was natural to expect trouble and Dut what did it amount to when it happened? There were a few blows struck in anger by individuals, there was some hooting and jeering, ann the wives and daughters of the sinkers made demonstrations against the free labourers that can only be described as unseemly. Where was the "anarchy,” the “wrecking,” the “dynamiting” about winch so much venomous but nevertheless empty talk is being used? If such a strike had happened in Australia, m England, or in Germany, with surroundings so exasperating to the men and their wives, would it have been so comparatively fretj from violence and destruction of propertv ? AVe are certain it would not. To secure some correct sense of proportion, we would ask our readers to follow us patiently in a parallel we propose to draw between theAVaihi strikers and tbeir wives and the suffragettes of England. The Waihi strikers belong to the working class and are usually described by the local “Quality” as ignorant and common. The suffragettes belong to the educated classes of England, the aristocraev the refined and exclusive circles of society. The Waihi strikers, whether right or wrong, were fighting

for their homos, for their employment, for their wives and children. The suffragettes—ladies all —are fighting foi a vote for women of property. It the Waihi women are assailecT so viciously and bitterly by the Tory press for the little they did, when they had all they hold dear at stake, what could or would be written of them if they had tried to burn down crowded places of amusement, thrown vitriol in the faces of their opponents, smashed windows by the thousands, committed violent and unwomanly assaults upon men, burnt valuable letters in postal boxes by the score, destroyed the turf on tennis and golf links, and so on to a relentless and criminal end? These things have been and are being done by the educated and aristocratic Tory women of England—simply because they want a vote and cannot get it. AVhat has the Tory press to say of it all? Why does it not write of these fiendish things by the women of the class to which it toadies and truckles and leave the unfortunate Waihi strikers and their wives alone? The women of AVaihi may have screeched and hooted and displayed unwomanly anger, but what of it after all, more especially when we compare their ebullition of temper ; under distressingly trying circumstances with the wanton and fiendish behaviour of the refined and aristocratic ladies of England? Compared with _ the suffragettes, the Waihi women, in their worst moods, were veritable angels.