The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1911. THE LABOR WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 55, 26 August 1911, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 1911. THE LABOR WAR.

There was reasonable hope when the railway strike at Home came, to a supposed end a few days ago that calmness would soon again prevail and that the orderly 'business of the Old Country would proceed without further friction. It has been stated in cablegrams that the strikers generally do not supply the class that creates the street disturbance. As a matter of fact, on all such extraordinary occasions the evil clement in any society uses prevailing conditions to further its own ends, and even in natural catastrophe —■ like great earthquakes or floods, the criminal and lawless element takes advantage of the circumstances to pillage, rob and murder. The use of troops, despite the opinions of people living many thousands of miles from the seat of the disturbance, was absolutely necessary to maintain some semblance of order in communities rips for mischief and stung into action by firebrands of the Mann and Hardie type! Keir Hardie—if his remarks are cabled' correctly—is an advocate of peace and yet has threatened under completer organisation something approaching a bloody revolution. It is pitiable that the workers do not know the real Mann —as Australia and New Zealand know him, and as London apparently knew him twelve or fifteen years ago. It has been said that at a time when Germany seems half disposed to use her famous mailed fist in regard to Britain I tUat the great transport trouble at Home,?gives her. a -chance of being disrespectful to her more powerful rival. It is probable that a really determined and aggressive act on the part of Germany would cure the transport trouble more quickly than other means, ofr it is certain Britain would become a union of all classes against outside aggression and would forget internal dissension in a loyal desire to settle trouble from without. It is obvious that many of the outrages which have necessitated the employment of armed force have been the work of. hooligans who- commit outrages whenever .the opportunity occurs. The organised decent working man is not partial to displays of hooliganism, and it is quite likely that he might under some circumstances assist in purifying Britain'from human pests. The chief lesson to be learned from these deplorable strikes which hurt every person in Britain and her dependencies is that, under modern conditions of unionism of both masters and men it is wise, to exhaust every means of solution in regard to labor troubles before striking or locking out. It was quite evident that the great railway companies'long before the men were called out knew that the strike threatened, for a modified service was arranged beforehand. The obedience of great masses of workers to their leaders and the spontaneity of the cessation of work is a very remarkable tribute to the extraordinarily complete organisation that exists nowadays. Although powerful corporations may sturdily defend the position they take up of refusing to meet employees, it will, as time goes on. become an absolute impossibility for corporations, however powerful, to fight and win with great labor organisations to fight, and which have the weapon of the strike to their hands. Tn the meantime, the peaeable citizen who is greatly inconvenienced and who is also impoverished by the increase in the prices of necessities, probably looks upon the striker as a pestilence. The striker, when all is said and done, is fighting for his stomach and the stomachs of his family, and the hooligan is getting him a bad name in the eyes of the British public. The obliquity of vision which led a Perth (Westralia) mob orator to deplore the use of troops, but to counsel revolution, with its unmentionable horrors and bloodshed,

is characteristic of the peaceful portion of the great British public who desire to see the white dove arrive at her destination bedabbled with blood.