The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1912. STRIKES AND THE REMEDY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 211, 5 March 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1912. STRIKES AND THE REMEDY.

You cannot force a free man to work, and it is becoming impossible to force men who strike to desist from stopping other men from working. That is, of course, the gravest feature of the in- . dustrial warfare that is spreading like a pestilence over the earth. The present condition of affairs in many great enterprises is leading thinkers to devise means to make strikes unreasonable. They are at least always unprofitable. Mr. Leo Myers, in an address to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, lately suggested that a Royal Commission should be set up to deal with the industrial situation, and he was particular to suggest that this commission should be composed of honorable and skilled business men absolutely free from the suspicion that they were politically interested or controlled. He suggested, too, that part of the Commission should be composed of Labor men—an urgent necessity if the findings of the proposed commission were to have any weight with Labor. Mr. Myers said he thought there could be no harm in conceding men the right to strike, for it is not illegal to cease work, and as yet there has been no extension of the Vagrancy Act to include voluntary out-of-works. The point is that ,in a great strike there is nothing at all voluntary about it. Men are simply forced to desist on pain of the worse—of their leaders. Mr. Myers remarked that when the compulsory Conciliation and Arbitration Act was passed, it was welcomed with open arms by the employees of the Dominion, whilst the employers adopted an attitude of either open or veiled antagonism. There existed at that period a certain of sweating in some trades that a spirit of humanitarianism demanded should be immediately abolished. The A«t for which Mr. E'eeves was generally held to be responsible very soon altered that by increasing wages and improving the conditions of labor throughout New Zealand, and it should now be conceded that, whilst wages might not be as high in certain trades as could be wished by those engaged in them, sweating was unknown in the Dominion. In the consummation of thi3 very desirable and the various labor unions had played an important part. Gradually on the part of the employers a spirit of taleranee towards the Act changed to one of loyal support, whilst the attitude of a certain section of labor towards compulsory conciliation and arbitration altered to one oi dissatisfaction and subsequent hosti-

lity. So soon as the Courts failed to c&ncede the demands of labor these sections commenced an agitation for the cancellation of their registration of their unions to enabled them to use the strike as a weapon against employers. Now, whilst the strike might be fully justified under the conditions that exist in older countries, Mr. Myers declared "that here, under the more favorable circumstance* under which labor carried out its duties, the stike was as uncivilised as it was avoidable. Mr. Myers' most excellent remark was by way of showing that as t general thing the working people were absolutely averse to the chaos that reigned when a sudden dislocation of business took place in strike times. It cannot be believed that the worker of any class wants to deliberately.quarrel with his bread and butter and to smash everything in sight that might be capable of providing the said bread and butter. It is to be yet recognised that the great body of the people have not taken any hand in strikes or the quelling of them, although in Queensland there certainly was some indication that the public would not stand intimidation and the ignominy that was thrust on them by the action of a few men. It is merely a question of the people's rule against a small class rule, and eventually the people always win. In his remarks Mr. Myers, who is a very keen business man with an eye lifted for the dollars, admitted that some trades in New Zealand wero still underpaid. It is « little curious that it has not been the underpaid men in New' Zealand who have caused what disturbances there have been. Although a Royal Commission might do as little service as most Royal Commissions in New Zealand, it might have the effect of showing minutely the conditions of labor in every branch. Where representatives of both business men and labor agreed that conditions were bad and required alteration, there is no possible doubt that on their recommendations the alteration would take place without the necessity for "our only weapon, the strike."