STRIKE LEADERS' TRIAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 301, 29 January 1910, Page 5

STRIKE LEADERS' TRIAL.

BOWLING'S DEFENCE. DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE LAW. By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright Sydney, Friday. Bowling contended that on various occasions the employers had admitted the right of the men to strike by paying them all the wages due after they had struck. His arrest at Newcastle would have led to serious r?".;!ts, but for his command over the !'.. usands of inen who came to the i.i...vay station to welcome him. It must me remembered that the. amended Act under which the charge was laid had been rushed through Parliament without any time for reflection on the part of the meni; bers' concerned and before the people had. a chance to be consulted. Even Conservative England recognised the right of workers to strike. The Tail' Vale decision laid this down. Yet he had been arrested for conspiracy in presiding at a meeting at which the men decided to claim their rights. Had he known that the law rendered him liable to imprisonment for three years or life lie could not have done anything else than he had done. The evidence did liot support the charge that he went to the south coast to encourage the men to remain out. The difficulties' of the men could not be settled by a Wages Board. He went to the south coast because he knew the battle was lost by treachery. No matter what the verdict was, he was satisfied the Judge had given the case every consideration. Til passing sentence, Judge Rogers expressed the hope that the Court of Inquiry about to sit would discover the cause of the Newcastle strike, and whatever abuses there were, either on the side of the employers or of the employees, would at all events be brought to light and corrected. The southern "men had evidently struck out of sympathy and sense of loyalty to unionism. Defendants' were sent to Bulli practically at the behest of No. 2 congress, and it was said now that the mission was a peaceful one, but they had told the miners to leave affairs to be managed by No. 2 congress. You are on holiday. Keep it on until the congress decides.

YOTES OF SYMPATHY. PROVISION FOR WIVES AND FAMILIES. Sydney, Friday. The Sydney Labor Council has passed a resolution of sympathy with the imprisoned leaders, and has arranged to make provision for their wives and families. The annual conference of the Political Labor League also expressed sympathy 'with the imprisoned men. UNIONISM GONE MAD. PRESS COMMENT. Sydney, Friday. The Telegraph says the sentences on the leaders simply mean that the law 'of the land is to be vindicated. Whether that law was wisely or unwisely enacted is a question about which there may be differences of opinion. Bowling and his confreres took the position that they were above the law and responsible to a, higher authority represented by the trader unionists, and it is for deliberate assault upon the supremacy of Parliament that they arc now under sentence. What cared they about the people, 'whose very lives might have been sacrificed by the simultaneous stoppage of public utilities like gasworks, waterWorks, tram services, ferry services'? ■Xothing. Their immediate purpose was to prevent all such services being carried on until the people, in dire distress, agreed to nationalise the mines. Civil war could not go much further than this outburst of unionism gone mad. The Herald says the conviction of Bowling and the others affords an apparently much-needed object-lesson in the power of Hie State to enforce by penalty its enactments. Certain persons assume, that their defiance would mnnv. the law a dead letter. Thev made this assumption at their own risk, and have, J now been convicted and sentenced. There is no room for sympathy with them in their pres'ent position. As a 'State we are determined to suppress strikes, not out of hostility to labor "but in the interests of labor itself. COMPULSORY WAGES HOARD. Received 21). 1...") it .in. Sydney, January 28. The Cninpiil-ory Wages Board co.nnienci d to-iiav taking evidence in re.oard to the strike.