The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1920. THE STRIKE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3475, 1 May 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1920. THE STRIKE.

With which is incorporated “The Taihape Post and Waimarino ‘ News.”

A crisis in railway management has been rudely heralded by a strike of locomotive engineers, firemen and cleaners. Most people expected" it, indeed it was regarded by -the . Government, the Railway Department and the public.as inevitable, the -Railway Department admitting that it built. up ' a, large store-.o‘f petrol against the ex}pected crisis. At time of Writing it is to_o;early to-discoverwhat else the V Dlepartmenty and ' Government have idono in view ofsuch a contingency. ‘lt is plain thatrthe strike was being anticipated by both the Prime l\linis- ‘ ter and General ‘Manager. of Railways, and so far as‘ public opinion is conleerned, the strike will cause little or no surprise. It was common talk in most (:il‘CleS_.‘ill the Empire City, that the men ‘were left no other course than to put the strike weapon into play_ Whether it was thought the men would wait untilkthe Prince of lwales’ visit had ended is another _nlattcr. In any case the unprejudiced view is t.hat the Prime Minister is largely to blame for allowing the serious- railway situation to drift on until the only alternatives left to Railway sel'vants"wcrc the strike and the forfeiture of self-respect; the men. naturally chose the former. The dispute is one that the men have held in abeyance since the declaration. of war in 1914, therefore it. is an old subject upon which most people are Iwell-'lnf»orm.ed. Because the hour of crisis chances to synchronise with the visit of the -Prince of Wales it does not appear that the Premier has any more right to call the men disloyal than the men have to call him dis—loyal. The time had come, whether it was so willed or not by either party, when the men were either toloceupy an undignified, degraded po:sition_. or -assert their manhood and ‘self~rcspect. ' It cannot be denied that no, section of public service has been more loyal to their Department, the Government and the Empire‘ during the war than the Railway Service, which fact renders?‘ the determined action of the Government. to keep ,railwaymen worse paid than other 'public and private workers quite beiyond ordinary understanding. While the war was current railwaymen in a depleted service, performed their dulties in an admirably patriotic. spirit; [when war ceased and cost of living Tcommenced to unreasonably increase instead of decreasing as expected, and “went on increasing beyond the wildest ; anticipations‘, they were justified in the belief that remuneration would be increased so as to leave them no worse paid, if no better, than before the war. The Government Statistic—ian estimated that cost of living increased by 62 percent, and the men were quite satisfied to accept a similar increase of remuneration, which would leave them, if afything, still less welloflf than they were in 1914. When the fact that an increased wage was being agitated for before the war is juxtaposed to the wage the men are new willing. to accept, it cannot be‘ said they are unreasonable. It is” noteworthy that when people do not‘. fall in with some other people's opinions, ways, whims and desires they are called unreasonable, -and it is not S‘lTPl‘iSiTlg that even Ministers of the . Crown are threatening to shut the Prince dot. Wales up in his ship and only allow him '_to‘appear on View at the Various ports named in the itin-

erary unless the ldcb-motive men crawl alown and «cement. to go back on to itheil' fiootplates. Alnothcr Minister ibewails the possibility that Returned }Soldiers and children between Rotolrua and Wellington will not be able Ito see the Prince unless the men, by -a reversion of their determination proclaim themselves to be unreasonable idiots. Such may be the evolutions Act‘ the higher political intellilgences, but they scarcely fit in with the common understandings, alld.3l'o: therefore, a pure rvastc of effort. [They go no Way in bridging the difficulty which confronts the people Of the North Island. Faced with a -similar trouble in Britain Lloyd George lost no time in getting into personal touch with the strikers, and, alfllrougli British Railwa._vmell’S 116" mands might be classed as’? unreasonable, he knew they had some degree of right on their side, and he conceded to them that right. In New Zcaland Mr‘l\l.asse_v may be merely staving oi? the evil day, or he may be perfectly sincere in believing that this Donlinion’s railwaymen are a pack of unreasoning vultures, bent upon getting increased remullGl'afioll whether conditions of life entitle them . to it or not. It is impossible ‘EO diVill€ >what the Minister of Railways’ views really are, but there is the one i supreme event that. confronts him, and it is most logical to suppose that he will come to the rescue of para—lysed business life in the shortest space of time possible." Getting exicited and calling the I'-ailwaymcn “a disgrace to the Dominion” is not helpful, but rather aends to aggravate the situation. Here is a very Serious matter indeed Which will call into play all the goo-d sense the I\linistm' {can bring to bear, ‘for the men already urge that he now stands self-convict-led. It is Ministerially admitted that the men are justly entitled to be placed in the same, relative position they were in, before the War; it is also admitted that the cost of living has increased by not less than 62 per cent, and yet t.he men are allowed to paralyse all railway transit bywa general strike rather than offer t_hem half the 62 pel_‘_~cent even. In a_ccord_-ance with the basis;-agreed upon for computation of remuneration the vmen are unquestionably entitled to an increase .proportio_na.te with the increased cost -of living_: and’ it is past undel'stand,ing why the Prime Minister is repudiating the ‘basis agreed upon and thereby paralysing the railway servicc while the King-Emperor to be of the British Empire is traver(sing the Dominion. Mr Massey ikncw as well as other people that a strike was imminent, and it was hoped and believed that some satisfactory arrangement would be patch‘ed up that would save the conntz'.y land Government from blame and reproach. It seems Government and Department let the matter. lritft, speculated, took all risk rather than adopt. the only dependable means for averting such a catastrophe. The one thing that seems certain is,that if an -agreement between the Department and the men is not ‘soon. arrived at the country is faced with aistrike i compared with which the old maritime strike was a mere joke. If capital I is anxious to try strength with labour it should not be permitted to gond . on the Government to stand the racket on its behalf. lfloweyer, it is ‘doubtful whether tlfdse who would grind down the wage-earner till he becomes, a purchasing power of ‘no ‘value to businessmen, realise the i danger they are running into, for who can say where the strike ball now irreedlessly set rolling will stop? txxmong other“ things it is point.lcd out that. unprecedented cnalpriccs are the result. of a coal shortage, but why is the Government. helping =’o much to continue and intensify the shortage? Thousands of tons of coal are waiting ‘for ships at Grreymouth; 'shipping is held up for want of truclisr; and 150 full trucks of coal 'stzln(l in Wellington Railway Station_ awaiting‘ for labour to empty them, ‘because the Government. blankly refuses to. pay the ruling rate of wages. It is stated the railwaymen have chosen? the wrong time for striking, but it seems that Mr Massey held in his] keeping that reply to the men which was calculated to provoke ai strike, and had he‘ not withheld‘ it until the Prince of Wales} was just about due in New Zealand, it is at least possible thei trouble might have been averterl before his arrival. The mcn’s action’ must be judged on merit. not merely‘ on circumstance. -