The Daily News. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1912. UNIONISM GONE MAD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 276, 18 May 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1912. UNIONISM GONE MAD.

The strike at VVaihi shows little sign of speedy settlement, and the prospects point, indeed, rather to its becoming more far-reaching than ever. Meantime, a puzzled and indignant country feels disposed to ask with C'olombe: Why are they mad ? —a gross, indecent fad—• Why in the name of Glory are they mad ? 'To the person of average intelligence the whole disorder seems to he criminally out of proportion with its cause. The Auckland Star, in an exhaustive discussion of the position, says: It seems to be quite clear that the strike at Waihi is due to internal dissension in the ranks of the Miners' Union, the officials of which have taken this somewhat extraordinary method of drawing attention to their disagreement with a sectiom of the members. For many years the engine-drivers and winders at Waihi have been members of the Miners' Union, and have been specially provided for in all agreements. Some 3even or eight years ago they used to be affiliated with the Auckland Enginedrivers' Union, but apparently they thought they could do better for themselves in the Miners' Union. Recently

a movement was made bv some of the j engine-drivers to get back into the En-gine-drivers' Union, but the movement was not unanimous. Then steps were taken for the formation of a new union of engine-drivers and winders. . . ■■ The drivers were by no means unanimous about this new union, and that was why there was a certain amount of resentment on the part of the others, that a minority sufficient to register as a union should thus break away in opposition to the wishes of the majority. This seems a quite sufficiently puerile reason for precipitating an extensive strike, but the manner of its inception is even more reprehensible. The officials of the Union, after holding a meeting, simply attended at the mine mouth, and ordered the men not to go to work. No intimation whatever was given to the employers, who are not directly concerned in the dispute, despite the fact that there is a clause in the men's agreement providing for discussion before action in

cases of dispute. The union lenders simply ignored this clause, and ordered the strike. The position is frankly intolerable. There is no great principle involved, no light for a living wage or improved social conditions, no stand for an industrial reform or the removal of a grievance affecu'ng the status of the worker. The whode dispute is a trump.'ry and essentially childish quarrel around a technicality which interests and concerns only the merest moiety of the men themselves. Yet this wrangle over the bare bones of a singularly ancient and odorous difference of opinion has been allowed to precipitate a strike that has disorganised a whole district, thrown thousands out of employment, paralysed local industry, interfered with the public services, thrown trade and commerce out of gear, and cast the shadow of hunger and distress over hundreds of homes whose inmates know and care less of the cause of the dispute than they do of the Lost Tales of Milties or Bishop Blaugram's Apology, or the thyroid gland. Some reflections of the total irresponsibility of the whole proceeding is conveyed in a cheerful and casual telegram that says "Nothing but good humor and order prevail, and free picture shows and socials are being provided for the unionists." These are, no doubt, only a lively appreciation of favors to come, but those responsible for the strike would | be better employed doing a little free work breaking stones for the Government. We have every sympathy with unionism when it has for its object the betterment of the lot of Labor, but a strike should only be the ultimate appeal in a difficulty where all conciliatory methods of compromise have been exhausted. Even then it should be resorted to only in support of a great and urgent principle. But to evolve chaos from law and order simply because Bill Smith floes not approve of Jack Jones' wisdom teeth, or Sam Brown has a bigger corn on his left little toe that Dick Robinson has, is to make a mockery and a scoff and a crime of industrial methods that, .properly applied, have been of inestimable value to the cause of Labor. I The present strike, whilst it is an anI noyance and a discomfort to hundreds of : innocent and disinterested persons, is i simply calculated to bring our industrial system and our industrial legislation into universal disrepute, and its leaders ought to be scourged with whips made from i fourteen different sorts of scorpions.