THE WAIHI STRIKE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 71, 10 August 1912, Page 6

THE WAIHI STRIKE.

To the Editor. •Sir, —To comment on your leader of yesterday may seem late, now that the Financial Statement is before us. But there is something incomplete about your article, as it does not show the cause of the Waihi strike, and one is almost tempted to accept your criticisms and opinions as the reason for the strike. You say (and perhaps are privileged to say) that the policy of the "Red Foderationists," whoever they are, is insane, and that they have brought about the ruin of the town. The Miners' Union wants majority rule and are striving for it, and would you say that they should submit to minority rule? These miners are out for reasonable conditions, and it is for those in authority to see that they get them instead of saying, ''We won't give you what you want, and then we'll see what you'll do." Ts it right that the miners in the majority should submit to the decision of a handful of engine-drivers, who, if they are not satisfied, can control the mines? Of what use is the Conciliation Act if it cannot settle an affair of this kind? As for the ; tyranny of the Red Federationists, compare it with the tyrants who have been somewhat subdued by the actions of labor unions. Labor leaders and agitators are doing their best by destroying the employers' tyranny.—l am, etc., TENAX. 7/8/12.

[Our correspondent appears to be suf- j fering from the same moral obliquity as the Red Federationists are. The men were not out "for reasonable conditions," because they already had been conceded conditions and wages the like of which? are-not enjoyed by any others miners in j the'world. They'objected to the engine-. drivers forming a. separate union and registering .under the Arbitration Act! that the Red Federationists had someS time before thrown overboard as of no s •further use to them, and to fio-rce the engine-men into submission, placed a pistol to the head of the mining company, and threatened to stop work. The matter had nothing to do with the company, and they said so. The Federationists thereupon struck. Their conduet was as tyrannical as it was indefensible, and is , deserving of the condemnation of all: right-thinking men. Such conduct if

persisted in can only lead to one enddestruction of liberty, law and order, and general chaos. New Zealand is supposed to be a free country, but if the Wailii Socialists had their way the conditions here would soon be more intolerable than they are supposed to be in Russia.—Ed.]