The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23. THE FUTILE STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 346, 23 March 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23. THE FUTILE STRIKE.

Every living man is entitled to obtain the very best price possible for the labour of his hands or brains, consistent with profits of the concern he works for, the cost of necessities, and the physical conditions under which he works. A man who is the paid servant of any master or corporation to take into consideration the fact that an industry 'has been created whereby he and those dependent on him m*y earn their daily bread. The majority of men who work with their hands have small business ability, or organising capacity, and so it comes about that the vast majority of workers dependent on men whose strength lies in their ability to control other men. Workers do not as a general thing spontaneously conclude that t'hey ant being badly treated. They are gene:ally prodded into inactivity by a man who is in no aense a worker; for it i«f clear that the only "worker" who counts is he who produces something Nearly every strike in history has been engineered by a person whose only object in life is to make trouble. The man who induces a group of workerd to quit work, even though those £- era are not obtaining the maximuw wage, is a pariah for whom gaol is *oo good treatment. The strike raiser U not only the enemy of the wage-earner: he is the enemy of the people dependent on him. So easily does disaffection spread among idle men that blood is frequently spilled, starvation of innocent people may occur, and industries of vast importance to a community or country languish. In the Newcastle strike, in order that a strike leader or two might flourish, miners and others engaged, lost in wages, the cables bell us, one million pounds'. Under the very best of conditions, and with the 'highest wages ever paid to miners, they would have to work for a very long period before they recovered the lost ground. The strike means that i»numerable men will be unable to obtain work in the same mines, simply because an enormous bulk of trade had been lost to New South Wales. Th" Victorian Government formerly took 300,000 tons of Newcastle coal yearlf, and there was a magnificent trade with the Philippines. In short, Newcastle loses in trade about three-quarters of a million pounds annually. This, of course, means thap miners who have now not a penny must, with their families, seek fresh fields, and it is to be remembered that coal mines are not found in every paddock. The loss and suffering will be -phenomenal, and the men who engineered the futile sftrrke should be very well satisfied with the commotion caused. In the case of a

huge strike, where a necessary commodity is concerned, cessation of output immediately induces outside wjiiipetitors to exploit the market lost by the strike. It has been seen in Ne-r Zealand that arbitration and a statutory award have not altogether eliminated strikes, although it is a crime to either strike or foment one. Still, on the whole, a very large number of indusfr'al disturbances have been settled by mutual conference, and it may be taken for granted that where concessions have not been made the htftjatries 'concerned have not been thriving enough to permit of increase of -wages or betterment of conditions. Both strikes and the minimum wage are disastrous to effort and ambition. ■ The strike produces ill-feeling, loss and laziness. The minimum wage kills' ambition beoaus" it is unnecessary lor the good worker to achieve more than the poor worker. The fact that any admitted unionist is entitled to the same wages as the very best man at his trade is the chief reason why, in the future, when industries grow and a higher rate of fckill is re quisite, that all workers shall be classified according to ability, so that tne ladder of fame may be easier to climb and the path of success be more facile for the industrious, the uncomplain>-g, and the skilled.