FREAK STRIKES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 27, 6 May 1916, Page 4

FREAK STRIKES.

The following appears in a. recent issue of the Sydney Daily Telegraph:' The latest freak in the way of a strike is a threat by the employees on the State wheat farm to 'go out and refuse to sow the season’s crop. I

Mr Graliame has replied that lie does not care whether the men sow any, crop or not. While it may he a good thing to take a firm stand and resist unjust demands, It may be noted that the Minister could not do so if it was not for ins knowledge that other farmers will sow their crops whatever the men under his own control may do. if, however, the Labor party ideal became accomplished and the whole of the farm lands of the State were Government property, a general strike of hands might deprive the State of the whole of its crop for one year. And if that sort of thing happenedi-* 1 > and wheat could not be obtained from abroad owing to the insufficiency of freights, and the men in other States •struck too, the population of New South Wales and of Australia might be threatened with starvation. Under the Labor party’s constitutional amendments farming could be made a Government monopoly by a simple resolution of both Houses. A strike by a refusal to put in the wheat crop would, in the event of that blissful scheme being realised, be worse than the worst drought that has ever struck this continent.' The manaia for strikes in Government employment is extending at such a rate that if it was not that private enterprise still exists the. Commonwealth would he soon at a standstill. Fortunately, private enterprise, by its greater energy and wisdom, is able to counterbalance the effects of mischievous government. Also, it provides the money by taxation for ail the cranky schemes' that Governments undertake, though it never gets any credit for it.