INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 2 January 1912, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL UNREST.

ANNUAL IDLENESS TOTAL. (Received 2, 9.35 a’.in.) London, January 1. Strikes affecting three quarters of a million workers in 1911 represented a loss of ton million working days, compared with a yearly average of four and a half million during the past decade. THE CAUSE OF STRIKES. (Received 2, 8.5 a.m.) Sydney, January 2. Mr John Brown, a well-known colliery proprietor, speaking at Newcastle, attributed the strikes amongst the miners to the delegates. the men were keeping too many idle delegates. They sat and created trouble nay aftr day. Somtimes after conferences they never put the decisions reached before the men. They were like a lot of Kilkenny cats. He also complained of Government interference. If tiie Government made laws they should carry them out. It was unfair for the Government to act as a shield for the men. It was not the law. It was time the miners thought for themselves and not lot the delegates think for them. Everybody in Australia had been taking coal lately because cf the rumours ox a strike. An alteration of the methods of settling disputes must be made or the district would go down. The people must insist on the Government saying that strikers must he a thing of the past. If the men were determined to create strikes the proprietors should demand that the Government instead of taking the part of thhjfmen must give proper protection to; proprietors. He would then guarantee to Avork pits.