STRIKES AND STRIKERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1920, Page 7

STRIKES AND STRIKERS.

THE ILLEGITIMATE STRIKE. HOW THE REVOLT CAME IN BRITAIN. Ho had left England just when a very big strike was started, stated Mr. \Y. E. Home, Ml'., at the New Zealand Club luncheon. He got ahead of it by twelve hours, as a matter of fact. There were strikes of all kinds, and he had a very great sympathy for trades unionism and with' strikes, for the strike was one way in which the men could make sure of their fair share of the legitimate profits of a business in many cases. But there were legitimate strikes and illegitimate strikes—strikes thnt were directed towards securing a fair share of the profits of a business, and strikes that meant the holding of the hands at the throat of the nation at large by the only people who could produce a certain article or render a certain service. That was an illegitimate strike—(applause)—the sort of strike that, in England, at any rate, the whole community rose up against. (Applause). The strike he referred to was, as they knew, one of the transport workers. It was forced against the wishes of a very great number of the better men in the unions, and the whole of England rose in revolt against it—not by shooting workers down, nor by violent methods of any kind, but by getting up and doing the work themselves and insisting that the work should be done. Ho was a director of a company which had ISOO clerks nt the head office. The day after the strike, though they lived up to a radius of .10 miles away from the office, every clerk, with the. exception of 37, turned up. (Applause). Over 1700 made their appearance in good time, either walking or cycling in. or comine bv various conveyance*. (Applause). Tlmt spirii, he believed, was in the Dominions also. '.A>»)lnusc). firitnns were not going to be beaten when strikers held a pistol at the nation's head in that way. (Apslaui«)