WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3430, 9 March 1920, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS

, €ISTENT RAILVVAY MEN. DEMAND FOR ADEQUATE PAY. .......... ~ T (Special Correspdndent.) WELLINGTON, March 3. The railway men,-vin the Wellington district are just a'little more insistent than those in other parts of the 89minion in the demand for an increase in the wages of the members of the service. At a meeting of the Thorndon branch of the A.S.R.S. held YES‘ terday a resolution expressing regfet at the failure of Parliament, the G5?ernment and the Wages B‘oard'to cognise the urgency-< of the question, and demanding a minimum wage of 18/ a day, was adopted unanimously, and those present pledged themselves to suport the executive in any steps it might take, “no matter how extreme,” to obtain justice from the authorities. The men are very much in earnest. They have shown thatl many members on the service are receiving less than a living wage, that they are running into .debt for the sbare necessaries of life and that a. continuance of the existing state of affairs will be intolerable. STRIKE. The men claim, with some justice, that during the War they “carried on” under conditions which no other large body of workers was asked to endure, and that their patriotism in» stead of being recognised by the authorities is now being urged as a reason for leaving them with inadequate pay. They pride. themselves upon having passed through a very trying period without talkin-g ‘‘strike.;’’ but they are finding now, so they say, that their patience has been misunderstood and that if their latest representations are ignored they will have to adopt more drastic measures. There can be no doubt that the position is an extremely critical one. The‘ “go slow” poni-cy hinted at by the; same branch of the A.S.R.S. seems to ; be in actual: operation on certain sec— ‘ tions and the Whole service is seriously disturbed. The Minister himself is gravely concerned. THE COST O'F LIVING. It is, of course, the continued increase in the cost of living that has driven railway men from protests to threats. Realising the soundness of the economic axiom that cheap commodities are of more importance to the workers than high wages, they have held their hand in the hope that with the conclusion of the war prices would approach more nearly to normal rates. But instead of this happening, prices have continued to soar and it is a fact that railway workers with ‘families, _whose lower wages were ample for their requirements before the war, are now steadily getting behind with their payments to their tradesmen and suffering all the anxiety and humiliation of being unable to make their income and their expenditure balance. Men in this position cannot afford to be very tolerant of delay and unless they obtain relief in the near future the result may be extremely uncomfortable for the com-

munity. THE PRIME MINISTER’S BURDEN.

The task of dealing with the ‘perplexing problems involved in this critical situation ‘is falling almost entirely upon Mr Massey, who, it would seem, is receiving little ‘assistance from either his colleagues or the Board of Trade. The Board after its meeting with the millers and bakers in Christchurch approved of an advance of £3 a ton in the price of flour and 2nd in the price of bread, but the Prime Minister vetoed these proposals and is at loggerheads with the bakers, some of whom are refusing to accept the smaller advance in the price of bread he has offered. Their alternative is to cease baking—to strike themselv~:;~; in fact—and now, in turn, they are being taken to task by the Welfare League who deprecates the employers following the bad example of the workers. Altogether Mr Massey»’s lot at the moment is very far from being a happy one, but he is playing the part of a strong man and doubtless will find a way out of the trouble.