The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17. STRIKES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 225, 17 January 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, JANUARY 17. STRIKES.

Strikes are retaliatory methods conceived and 1 executed by bodies of workers to punisli employers for real or alleged misdeeds. There is no modern Australasian instance where a strike has really improved conditions, has' brought about an amicable adjustment, or has achieved really worthy results. It did not seem to matter .to the Sydney gas-workers whether the city became dark or not. A small bcxly of workers were quite ready to inflict punishment on 500,000 people as 11 protest against the dismissal of one man. It iwas shown in a very serious strike in the North of England a few months ago that thousands of people went on short rations for the sake of one man. The "greatest good for the greatest number" is apparently not considered by strike organisers or strikers, and no doubt it is a proud achievement for a single firebrand to start an industrial fire that burns into the homes of innumerable people. It is- interesting to picture the probable state of society if, for slight reasons, groups of indispensable workers suddenly decided not to work. For instance, one pictures a gas-striker in Sydney, adairfant to the popular demand for light, groping his way home to a candle-lighted sick-bed, and from thence feeling his way to the nearest chemist only to find that all the chemists were on strike and medicine was as scarce as gas. It is possible to picture the blank look of a striking laborer who arrived at the unlit gate of a doctor's aliode to be told by the maid that as doctors generally found it impossible to get more than fifty per cent, of their fees, the whole fraternity had struck and would resume only when the community paid its bill. It is likely the public would be annoyed, and would suggest harsh measures. The average mass of strikers are confident enough until retaliatory methods are used, and very angry indeed when the other side fights too. There is, in effect, no greater reason for the sudden cessation of work by railway men than the sudden closing of all bakers' shops on the ground that 110 further bread would be sold until the people paid an extra penny a loaf. The modern strength of industrial unions lies in their fighting funds subscribed. for a "rainy day" bv the operatives themselves. In retaliation for dislocation, it wouM be quaint for corporate bodies, shopkeepers, professional men and others to subscribe funds that would make it easy for them to "shut down" when trouble threatened. It is conceivable that striking coal miners who left pit-ponies underground and came up to fight would be amazed if the passion for striking iirnl spread to the community generally. We have never, for instance, heard of a grievance big enough to rob the public of its daily paper, but the strike leader who expected his words of wisdom to receive more or less immortality would possibly be hurt at a general newspaper strike fomented at the instance of one man who had been gently asked to take himself elsewhere. It would lie interesting, too, if valiant strikers, wishing to draw strike pay, were told that they eon Id not have any money for a month or two until the strike of the hank officials was over. Merchants might, as a united protest against a single retailer who did not pay his bills, reasonably put their shutters up for a few weeks until the money came in, and the sudden cessation of work by all the crews of intercolonial steamers while at sea would cause some unusual complications, and all these things would be as reasonable as the average industrial strike fomented to injure some persons particularly and all persons engaged generally. It is curious that operatives who take rigorous -measures much to the disadvantage of Ithc public are rarely met with retaliatory measures, and if retaliatory measures are used, the sufferers become heroes. One-sided fighting is not appealing, but it has become very common, If look-outs for the most trivial reasons became common, there would be tremendous indignation, and, it is not unlikely, revolution, but great concerns are, one supposes, as much entitled to become angry at nothing, in particular as are the people they employ. It is to be hoped that the community generally will not get into the habit of tilting at every windmill that shows up, for if the strike passion spread to other occupations than those in which trouble generally brews, the public would soon wish it had never been born. Oil the other hand, one mav readily suppose that this strike cycle will blow itself out and that workers of nil sorts may in the near future lie less disposed to see hideous injustices in every circumstance than they now are. Most of the modern strikes have illustrated the undent exercise of "cutting off the nose to spite the face," and in our opinion it would be as reasonable for the milk suppliers of Tarana'ki to dry off all their cows because one of them was dissatisfied with his cheque at the factory as for the average mob of strikers to quit work because one of them had sustained in jury to his feelings.