The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1917. THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 5 October 1917, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1917. THE AUSTRALIAN STRIKE.

(With which is incorporated The Taihapo Post and Waimarino News).

Perhaps the greatest labour upheaval that Australia knows anything of is gradually drifting into history; industry after industry is steadily assuming normal conditions, and one more proof is added to the world’s experience i-hat strikes and all other forms Of arbitrary strife can only be disastrous to those even, who emerge ir. .'St victorious..-. This great lac-nr fracas has now been virtually ended in a firm victory for Government rule, and with disaster to those labour unions who allowed themselves to be influenced by labour desperados, many ,of whom were traitors probably influenced by German gold. Saddening reflections rather than violent resentment are evoked by the stupidity of the but otherwise innocent ruck of men, but we have no law 'severe enough to mete out justice to the purveyors of misfortune and misery, to the heartless, callous agitators who urge men to a course that can only end in an ignominious defeat, and a loss that they and their families can ill afford. Viewing Australia from this distance we, as well as thousands of the men who actually struck, cannot define with clearness what the object of the strike is. The only aspect that stands out clearly, silhoutted against a spotless sky, is that the whole of the Commonwealth has been made the fighting ground of two rival labour parties, the result of a split in labour ranks. Labour had itg own elected representatives filling Ministerial benches in Parliament and it seems some other labour leaders or agitators could not wait for, or abide by the constitutional general election. They wanted the elected labour men out so that they might get in, but that does not quite explain how a general labour upheaval with its misery and loss to the labour was to help them. There was, the other element, the 1.W.W., which it is proved stands at nothing, not even burnings and murder, to help their Gerjnan masters. The men were worked up into a fire of frenzy and this fire was fanned by hurricanes of lies, deceit and disloyalty until collective labour lost control of its

senses and became an easy victim to its destroyers. The tools ,o£ Germany are once more but what a ioss to labour, what a loss to the status of Australia, what a stain will for ever be outstanding on the history pages of the Commonwealth touching its part in this great war for the world’s fredom, the right to progress, and against diabolical enslavement by Germany. While social and industrial matters may rapidly assume the normal, the traditions of the nation will for ever be marked by that awful mistake of misguided labour. While we can only regard strikes as war, for that is really what they are, we are not stupid enougn to say that the men do not resort to strikes as their only weapon against, some form of extreme tyranny that our defective one-sided laws permit. Laying aside all humbug and subterfuge, we know that extortion extraordinary is being practised, and that owing to that extortion no rise in wages can ■ ever keep pace with the ever-increasing cost of necessaries of life. Mere political Cheap-Jacks keep harping out the idiotic, unsatisfying cry that “living is cheaper in New Zealand than in England,” what nonsense, so it should be. Because semi-starvation prevails in or Timbuctoo, that is no valid, logical or sensible reason why we should Hegalise profiteering vultures to go on adding robbery to robbery till a similar state of deprivation i s broadcasting misery and dissension in this land that is naturally flowing with milk and honey. These men are voicing the most contemptible, insulting and most specious reasons for allowing inhuman leeches to persist in bloodsucking practices, and it is only human nature to resent it. And although no strike can be justified, there are strikes and strikes. Strikes are revolts, and we must not forget that many a revolt has been justified by history. Magna Charta came as the result ;of a form of strike; democracy owes its status' to-day to many incidents that can properly be called strikes. The time of strikes and revolts has ? however, passed; there is, with universal suffrage and short parliaments, the power in the hands of the people to say by their vote what shall be, and to strike i s an admission that the masses do not know how to utilise the power they have already gained. We cannot condone the strike that now obtains on New Zealand’s coastal shipping, at the same time we must admit that the high-handedness of owners i s something the law. should remove. - Owners and men caine to a working agreement which was given legal force, but owners, from subsequent events, entered into the agreement with an intention to Trick the men. Directly the new award got going they took back all they had j conceded by abolishing the practice of having two men on deck during the night running ,of their ships. It is I only natural that the men would refuse to accept the one man responsibility for the ship’s abandoning a usage that had established a permanency of the two, the man at the wheel and the look-out. Setting aside the urgency for every precaution against accident on such treacherous coasts as those of New Zealand, if the masters entered into an agreement with the men with the intention of recouping what they were conceding in the agreement the proceeding can only be characterised as dishonest trickery. Still, we maintain that the men were not justified in striking In securing justice for themselves they were not justified in inflicting deprivation, inconvenience and misery on the unoffending wives and families of all other sections of labour The loss sustained by any j trickster in the practice of his trick- j ery is poetic justice Labour is overwhelmingly more numerous than all other sections of this country’s population put together, and if labour leaders would adopt a more moderate and saner course of righting their wrongs by a study of economics and statesmanship, and would impress upon the people the nature and value of striking whenever their rights and liberties are assailed and encroached upon by the wielders of concreted labour, they and the world would be upon the path of Macadam that leads j to real and permanent progress. In olden days strikes and revolts were justifiable because force was the common means used for settling differences. To-day we have all the legal machinery that should render strikes impossible. Strikes are revolts which not infrequently lead to bloodshed and and are obviously self-con-demnatory. So long as environment contributes to the evolution of views and opinions, and this will be so long as mankind inhabits this earth, there must be courts for the settlement of differences that are established, not by strategem and cunning—low pointing—but by the wishes of the masses as recorded at the ballot. The weakness of labour’s cause is its proneness to resent injustice by strikes, while it should educate and organise to place

depend upon to make and administer law s that would be for universal prosperity. Wages should be the outcome of mathematical and economic adjustments, not from mere guessing that economic unfairness obtains. In any case profiteering is as dangerous to the real progress of any country as are strikes.

REQUISITION OF WOOL,

It is notified by the Controller of Imperial Government Supplies that wool-growers must, in accordance with instructions received from the Imperial Authorities, in London brand all wool sent to Government brokers for valuation and purchase with the growers’ brand on one end and on one side only of each bale. ,The side and end on which, the brand must be placed are those not exposed when the doors of the woolpress are open. Letters and figures appearing in the brand must not be less than three inches in height. It is essential that these instructions should I have special attention as all wool not so branded will be re-branded by the Government woolbroker at the grower’s expense. The official notification and full instructions appear in another column of this issue.