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The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1914. ANOTHER BLOW TO SYNDICALISM.

Syndicalism, or a general strike ol workers in order to hold up tiio commerce and industry of a country until their demands are conceded, lias been having rather a bad time lately. In Dublin it tailed, despite the hereulean efforts oi that dynamic individual, ■lames Larkin, jind the workers, after many months' weary wait, are -now sullenly returning to work. In New Zealand the movement lias been delivered a death-blow, leaving many of the misguided men who participated sang n.oney, sans work and sans prospects. And now in South Africa the movement | had no sooner developed «thau it was j effectually, checked. The. authorities ! ("ere adopted 110 half-measures. Yearned by what occurred iu July, they took drastic steps, mobolising the burghers, whose cjuick and general' response provided one of the surprising | features of the situation; placing tile towns under martial law; patrolling the railway lines and bridges; and arresting all the strike leaders. It was a bold policy, but one which subsequent e.vents have completely justified. War on tin' community as practised by the syndicalists can only ell'ectually'be met by the taking of similar measures by the authorities. The truth of this was strikingly exemplified in Xeiv Zealand. , I! the Government had not taken up a strong stand and the producers rushed U their assistance, the lied Feds, would have had things pretty well their own and inflicted grievous losses on everybody. .South Africa has had many i | years of dullness, ami, from a work | 01.1 point of view, seems a good eoun fiy to live out oi. The iSuuth At'ri ••an Government, in order to relieve tin congested state of the white labor war kct some two or three years ago, re ( plated the cheaper Kaflir labor employet 111 unskilled occupations on the rail v.RVs by laborers of European cxtrac tion. The increased cost of mainteu iince, particularly 011 the Transvaa 1 Itnes, where higher wages were paii than on the Cape and Natal railways helped to swell the deficit which til Government is now endeavoring to over take by means of its retrenclimen scheme. That scheme, while introduc iiig uniform rales of payment which in crease the wages paid to the Cape am Natal railwavmen, has slightly reducei the pay of the Transvaal men, and tin del- it, also, a number of hands wer dispensed with, or given notice of th Government's intention to •retrone! them. The present strike has beei '■ailed as a protest against this actio: on the part of the Government. Thoi the mine workers are always in rebel l:on. And little wonder. As statistic; pio\e, the life of the average miner ii South Africa is but two or three years He becomes mad with phthisis, and i; up against everyone, and is ready t( strike out into any extravagant actio! Whenever opportunity occurs. The rail w.iunen j grievances therefore immcdi atelv became his grievances, and hi struck in sympathy. The position n complicated also by the natives, whe H'iiy rise against the whites at any time, ami also by (he India,, element, who have substantial grievances which 'he Government shows no disposition to leilre-,s. |„ (]„, circumstances, t.lip bold course pur<ue,l j„ to tIRI strike was the only one ope,, to the Government. The effects were instantaneous. The back of the strike was '''•okci!, and the transport services, which the strikers thought to hold up, are running as usual. Yesterday the c,.Ucs -fated Hi.' position wag almost m;nil:,! everywhere, and that to-day a pi ot lama tion i~ to be issued demobilising f ol 'i lav ill, certain „f the forces concentre led j,, t |,, : (, )W|)Si rili3 >l>ows thai the i foverimienf regard the position with eoiiaiiimify. Tin; strik cr- should know by this time thai the; cannot redress iheir grievances 01 ""prove their pronpectj by acts of vio ' "l'.'i'ninicnt, no people wil ,n ' iiw'ibi f ci| by. the oulrages or uu reasonableness of one section; they wil 1 ;iinl bike measure;? t<

'^ ist ' n, >' "H"'* made upon them, "lid by tli.vf vi'i v constitution, liv their ,wri «K ' lt WW lw.-k all the resources L, ' ; U| .' country and, what is more, the ''"lily to Use lawn ell'ectively, tlicy ""■•t invariably prove victorious in the 1,1 -i democratic country like -outl, Africa, n Zealand,'it is '"oniabm. thai any „l „f ll! ' found n.-ing the ~tWke wea"'ii. An appcai t„ Reason will always ccomplisl, more than an appeal to orce. A recent writer i„ the .diiibni'gli lieview, oil the folly ""1 futility of the general strike, [itly 'looted what Macaulay wiid of the

I'rench Jaco"bins:—"Ruii'sliiiieni wliicli strikes the guilty ai'id iinoeent promiscuously operates merely like a pestilence or a great convulsion of Nature, and has 110 more tendency to prevent oiVenees than the cholera, or an earthquake like that of Lisbon would have." This, he cemtinued, exactly applied lo the general strike, in which the good and had employer fare alike, and when this is the case 110 employer suiters very ; much. The real loss tabs and is in■lended to tall on "the unoiTending public. The miners in England boasted thai the housewife should not have coal 101 - her backet, but the children of the poor suffered, and for. whose death the railway strike was responsible. The chief sufferers, from a general strike, are, as we have found here by experience, the strikers and their families. Unfortunately, it is not the strike leaders who snlTer —they are usually able to take care of themselves, and do so.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19140123.2.18

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 175, 23 January 1914, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
921

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1914. ANOTHER BLOW TO SYNDICALISM. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 175, 23 January 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 1914. ANOTHER BLOW TO SYNDICALISM. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 175, 23 January 1914, Page 4

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