GREAT LABOR CRISIS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1945, 19 September 1889, Page 1

GREAT LABOR CRISIS.

THE STRIKE IN LONDON. London, Sept. 15. Mr' Gillies, Premier of Victoria, has cabled to Sir Graham Berry, the AgentGenera!, conveying the general sympathy of Victorian colonists with the strikers. Cardinal Manning and (he Lord Mayor, speaking at Guildhall, eulogised the orderly conduct of the men during the strike.

Burns has promised that a balancesheet shall be prepared, showing the use to which the funds have been put, The surplus was being applied to the relief of distress among the families of strikers. Burns intends to visit Australia in a month for the sake of his health, which has been greatly strained by the anxieties of the past three weeks. Bo will take the opportunity of thanking the colonists personally for the liberality of their concontributions in aid of the men on strike. Sept. 16. The strike has cost the companies and workmen in all two million pounds sterling, besides lowering the value of dock stock an additional million.

The newly formed labor union numbers 18,000 members, which it is considered will bo sufficient for the needs of the port without the aid of casual bands,

The demand of the tailors for increased wages has been conceded. The men marched in procession to Hyde Park to-day when a congratulatory meeting was held at which a special vote of thanks was awarded to the Australians and others who had rendered financial assistance. Later. At a meeting of the strikers in Hyde Park the Australian flag was waved from the platform, surrounded by flowers. It preceded ail flags in the procession, Pour thousand men were working in the docks when the strike ended. Although Sums denies that the strike is connected with the Socialists, the organs of the latter claim the result as a triumph for their principles. The leaders make no concealment of their intention to organise different kinds of labor in preparation for a general strike next summer, It is asserted that numbers of the strikers were kept,on good pay, and that Burns did not give bis services without remuneration. In support of the latter statement it is*alleged that he was able to spend money lavishly during the time of the strike. The dock owners assert that the London papers published garbled accounts of the strike, which were cabled to Australia, in order to court popularity, while correspondents of American papers sent both sides of the question.

Burns boasts that the result of the movement is a death blow to the dorr ination of capital over labor. The strikers who have been re-engaged are, contrary to the guarantee given, molesting the blacklegs engaged by the dock companies, especially those at the Surrey And Albert docks. Many of the blacklegs were stoned and ducked.

The Mansion House committee and Burns had a conference it which it was agreed to use influence to obtain a rigid observance of the terms of the agreement. Many of the strikers repudiate the right of their leaders to pledge them to amicable treatment of the blacklegs. Burns, in addressing the men, advised a patient policy, and he threatened that if the dock companies violated the agreement. he would organise another strike which would paralyse the trade of London.

It is reported that the object of Burns’ visit to Australia is to organise in the colonies the preliminaries of a strike on a more extensive scale.

There is general depression in business circles with regard to the future. It is stated that the railway employees are organising & strike for ten and a-half hours. Sept. 17, The strikers complain that many of the dock i fficiala are treating them vinnii ; ?iveH - and unfairly, A large nnnii'T of stevedores have refused to accept work except with members of the , Union,

Melbourne, Sept. 16. The strike fnnd in aid of the strike in London has reached a sum of £14,000. Wellington, Sept. 16. The amount collected on behalf of the London strikers by the affiliated trades and the general public amounts to £B2, which hag been cabled Home, Grbymouth, Sept. 17, The amount collected in Greymouth on behalf of the London dock strikers was £BS 10s.