The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1912. THE WOMAN'S CAUSE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 303, 19 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1912. THE WOMAN'S CAUSE.

There has been no great sympathy on the part of the general public with the Waihi strike, and even many associated unions have expressed their disapproval of the strike, which is in no sense an effort to improve the industrial condi-. tions of the men or a protest against any action of the employers. The employers, in fact, have simply been madte a chop- ! ping block for a purely personal dispute between two sections of the workers. But what sympathy there has been will surely be widely alienated by the latest action of the Union. A telegram from Auckland states that "Mr. John Fuller has received a letter from his Waihi manager stating that the unionists had threatened to boycott the Waihi pictures if the pianist, the daughter of a nonunionist, were continued in their employment. The lady was informed that her services would have to be dispensed! with." We should imagine that never in the history of unionism has there been a parallel to this disgraceful incident. There are many women in the labor market because they want to be, but far more because they must be, and it is reasonable to assume that the unfortunate girl referred to belongs to the latter category, and is seeking to earn an honest livelihood in a sphere that is peculiarly suited to womankind. Her employment can have no possible connection with the strike cither directly or indirectly, and) the arbitrary demand for her dismissal is an outrage on every sense of justice and an offence against public morality. The girl's hideous crime is that she incidentally happens to be the daughter of a non-unionist, an offence for which the Union apparently regards her as being directly responsible. To be consistent the Union must now at once boycott any tradesman who supplies the wives and children of non-unionists with bread and meat and milk and other necessities of life. Also, it must boycott any newspaper that dares to sell a copy of its issue in any non-union household; it must insist on any hotel being closed that supplies refreshment to nonunionists ; and after having starved these unfortunate people to death it must hang, draw and quarter any sympathetic undertaker who attempts to bury them. And, having done this, it must proceed to boycott itself, on the ground that si search of its family tree will inevitably disclose the fact that all of its members are descended directly from non-union-ists. • But the whole outrage will not admit of discussion. Outside its crass futility and its amazing vindictiveness, the one surprising point about the incident is that a proprietary of the standing of Messrs Fuller and Sons should have submitted quietly to such a contemptible form of dictation. Had they stood by their employee they would havo had the practical support and sympathy of every decent man and woman in the country. We hope to see a strong

public feeling evoked by the incident that the girl will be immediately reinstated, and! the possibility of such an' outrage recurring for ever obviated. Unionism is indeed achieving a parlous state when its strength is brought to bear to crush a helpless girl and rob her of her livelihood in a manner that can inly be described as unthinkably objectionable and mean. "The woman's cause," we are taught, "is man's," but in no industrial community have we bebefore been told that the man's cause is necessarily the woman's. The Waihi Union has struck a severe blow at the very roots of trades unionism by its paltry and despicable action, and we can only hope that when fuller details of the incident are available it will be shown that the situation has been provoked by the indiscretion of some irresponsible official, and that it has neither the approval nor the sanction of the men themselves. Until this- is done the Union stands branded as being guilty of an unprecedentedly cowardly attack upon an innocent and) helpless woman.