INTERFERING WITH CONVERSATION

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1921, Page 4

INTERFERING WITH CONVERSATION

No one having any claim to good manners would be guilty of “chipping in” when a conversation is proceeding, so why should the stevedores at Melbourne have their korero during work interfered with by the sailors chipping the paint off the vessels on which the stevedores are employed? Certainly if those responsible for the ships are -so callous as not to consider the urgent need of the stevedores for conversing with one another while they work—or otherwise — then the sailors ought to know better than make a noise at their work. This disregard of the amenities of life is so reprehensible that the indignant stevedores declined to continue work under such trying circumstances. Whether they cannot work unless they can talk is not definitely stated, but in view of the many acifte problems affecting the workers, it may be assumed there is not sufficient time to properly discuss those problems outside working hours, so that it becomes necessary—or preferable—to talk while their time is being paid for by the employers. It may be due to this latter fact that the conversations are too precious to be interrupted. Anyhow, it must be annoying to the stevedores to be interfered with in this way, and so they issued their ultimatum, that there must be no paint chipping during loading operations, and sailors must be idle or go softly about work that makes no noise. Such is the evolution of Labor! This phase of intolerance of interruption is not new; it is often exemplified in political campaigns, when it is quite legitimate for candidates to be heckled and counted out by Laborites, but an outrage for the latter to be interfered with. The question is: Shall the spoilt child be pampered or given wholesome correction ?