The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1913. MR PHILIP SNOWDEN'S ADVICE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 54, 4 November 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1913. MR PHILIP SNOWDEN'S ADVICE.

"Strikes do not pay. They are a barbarous, cruel, costly, and ineffective way of trying to remedy the wrongs of labour," says Mr Philip Snowdeu, M.P., writing in tlie "Morning Post." "They do not pay the workmen; they do not pay the community; the employers arc the only party who can be said in any way to gain by them. They have powers in their hands by which they can speedily more than recoup themselves for any temporary loss a strike may inflict upon them. The irresponsible section of the Trade Unions to-day exercise an influence altogether beyond their numbers. They are mainly responsible for the strikes which have taken place in the last two years. The leaders of the Unions have been led more often than they have led. They have allowed themselves to l>c carried into a turmoil against their; hotter judgment, because they had not the courage to lace a temporary unpopularity. This new policy of militancy in Trade Unionism will certainly ruin the movement if it i s not subdued. The practice of it during the last two years has been a failure from whatever point of view it is considered. Not for two generations has labour had such favorable conditions for improving its lot by Trade Union; action as ii has had since l!Uil. Trade has been wonderi'ulh good: unemnloy-,

ment has touched the lowest point on record; it lias been almost impossible to get strike-breaking labour; the profits of the employers have been so enormous that they could afford to concede (substantial advances of wages, without feeling the cost. But in spite of these rare and favorable circumstances the advances or wages have in the aggregate been very slight. The first lesson to learn is that the strike is not a means by which any substantial and permanent improvement in the lot of labour can be secured. The second matter arising out ol modern economic developments is that the pubile are now a third party to' every big strike, and their interests! are quite as important as those of the other two parties. The Trade Unionsj will have to accept this fact. After all.-the community is rigger than organised labour, and it is a mistake for Trade Unionists to suppose that the methods 'for dealing with labour disputes and the regulation of wages will be just what they desire them to be." New Zealand is surely learning this lesson.