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Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 67, 6 August 1912, Page 4

WHAT STRIKES OQST. Workers have substantial and real grievances in some of the older countries, notably in-England, but it is questionable whether on a £ s. d, basis they have paid. For many years the coal' miners' strike of 1893 has been regarded at Home as the greatest industrial conflict of its day and generation. In this strike the miners were resisting a reduction in wages, and they gained their point; but at what cost? The strike lasted 10 weeks; and the incidental losses were estimated approximately as follows:—Mining'royalties, £2,000',000; ■ employers' profits, £4,000,000; shopkeepers' profits, £3,600,000; ; increased cost of coal to the geijeral public, £4,700,000; wages, £18,000,000. Here is a gross toss of about £ 33,000,000 through a strike lasting four months. And the same story is told in the strike records of every civilised country to-day. The great American coal strike ten years ago cost the United States at least £20,000,000, much of .which represents loss of wages to the workers. The miners' strike in New South Wales three years ago cost £1,000,000 in wages alone. The

recent miners''strike at Home, though it actually lasted only five weeks, cost the workers £12,(>00,000 in wages; while the indirect losses to the whole community were quite incalculably great. And strike records taken over a long perrod of years are more depressing still. -The American Bureau of Lata* lias tabulated the strides that have occurred during the past thirty years; and it appears that between 1881 and 1001 Labor in the United States has lost in wages alone considerably over £50.000,000; while a low estimate of the employers' loss is £25.000,000. Of course, it is obvious that if strikes were invariably successful, the argument in their favor would be strong enough in many cases to off-set even these prodigious losses. But, unfortunately, only a small proportion of strikes ever do secure the objects that tlie men desitc to attain. The British Board of Trade statistics show that between 1901 and .1909 a»bout 31~per cent, of the strikes that occurred in Great Britain terminated in favor of the workmen, and about 35 per cent, in favor of the employers. The .balance of the disputes were compromised, and certainly the small proportion of successes scored by tlie men would hardly appear to justify such frequent ■recourse to the doubtful chances of industrial war.