"GO-SLOW" METHODS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 March 1919, Page 6

"GO-SLOW" METHODS.

VICIOUS PROPAGANDA. Sydney, Feb. 28. The advocates of "go-slow"—sneaking furtive, whispering gentlemen, generally of foreip origin—are busy in a score of Australian industries. Of course, they are industries where the unskilled and uneducated man is employed, for it is only this class of worker who accepts the insidious doctrines of the 1.W.W., the One Big Union and the Bolshevik. An incident at Darling Island, in Sydney, where hundreds of 111 c are employed. in loading our precious wheat into steamers for oversea is very typical. There have suddenly appeared, all over he place, little stickers carrying such messages as these:— "The butchers increased the price of meat by selling a half-pound for the same price as they previously got for one pound. Wheat lumpers, follow the example of your exploiters."

"Tobacco people increased price of cigarettes by reducing number in packet from ten to eight. Wheat lumpers, get 2s by reducing the number of bags per hour."

The whole argument is silly, as may be seen by anyone who gives the matter a little thought—but there is no doubt .that it appeals to minds which are not analytical, but are convinced that the mass of people in this country arc being cruelly exploited. They believe that the organisations which control the supply of many articles in this country, have used the war to increase the prices to an extent not justified by war conditions. The workers arc persuaded oE this, and are very bitter against the economic conditions which permit sticli things, and it can be understood that the I.W.W. and its friends play upon this bitterness for all they are worth. There may be no reaction now of the .kind desired by the Bolshevik element, but these things draw attention to influeneas at work in the community that. | make the return of tjie Labor Party to power practically a certainty after next >7edar&l aad State election*.