THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1912. AS OTHERS SEE US.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10716, 21 October 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1912. AS OTHERS SEE US.

In a recent issue the Sydney Morning Herald comments on the attitude of the Waihi strikers as follows: — "It is worthy of re-mark that the Waihi management has always pursued a liberal and progressive policy in relation to its hands. A prolonged strike naturally gets a long way froin its starting point. Leaving aside the minor matters, the real question is. whether the Federation of Labour shall exercise an absolute despotism. or whether men shall have some right ('to the control of their own unions. '.The tendency to revolt from the socialist tyranny has long been plainly marked among unionists all over Now Zealand, and that is no doubt one reason why the socialists want to -eo a general strike now; a nd they »ro very cleverly seizing on every chance episode of the strike to provoke strii?. For instance, a few men have been imprisoned for strike offences, and large bodies of police have been sent up to the district during the last few weeks. There is, of course, a certain grim humour about all this. Several years ago the late Henry Dernarest Lloyd wrote a book-, entitled 'A Country Without Strikes,' in which it was not merely alleged that there were no strikes, but roundly affirmed that it was impossible that th n re should be any. And now. after a quarter of a century of "advanced' industrial legislation, the New Zor.k.ndor is just where he was, a nd is falling back on the crudest syndicalism as fairs the methods .>f labour are concerned. Yet, in no country in the world con'rl the experiment of the artificial control of labour and lab»ur conditions have been made with a fairer chance of success. The truth: is that there never could bo any chance of success while humanj nature remains what it is. The net result in New Zealand of simultaneously foi-c-

ing up both wages and prices lias naturally be-on nil. The uot result of

tho whole complex machinery ct' industrial arbitration was to disgust everyone witii it. Tiw net reunt ■••• not bang ;i.b!o to quarrel .-.-*cJ» your employer is .simply that yon quarrel with your fellow-worker. The violence' at Waihi is the most ludienm.; comment the arbitrationist has ever had to i'ac*>. No machinery will cv.-i be any good to men who have not the wiil-to use it. These particular won%er.s "had the advantage of employment "n a mine still worth four or five millions sterling. 'Thoy had constant, "•ork, a -, :i a charming little township. Yet they would bo qaiitc content to throw it all away—for 'wNat? —tho right to tyrannise over one another in the name of unionism."