THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1913. A GRAVE CRISIS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 October 1913, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1913. A GRAVE CRISIS.

Nobody can dispute the fact that a grave crisis in the industrial affans of this country has been reached. The waterside workers, without the slightest justification, have decided to hold up the whole of the shipping in the Dominion. This will mean that free labour must be employed at every port. There is, of course, the danger oif riots, and of the strike spreading. This however, is not a consideration of those who place the maintenance of the State services and of law and order before questions of sentiment. The strike of watersiders is one of the most wicked that has been brought about in the history of the country. It will inflict an almost irreparable injury upon fruitgrowers, dairymen, and small farmers generally. It will bring hunger, if not starvation, to the homes of innocent people. Hence, it is the duty of every man who prides himself that he is a Britisher, to help to rescue the country from the unhappy position into which it has fallen. This is not a time for homilies on the sacredness of property or the rights of individuals. It is a period when, every true citizen must stand shoulder to shoulder to prevent revolution and bloodshed. The strikers have already endeavoured to overawe thcfce who hare come manfully forward to assist the police in maintaining order. The demonstration of yesterday will serve only to intensify the disgust that is felt lor those who are inciting the mob to acts of lawlessness. When the police are reinforced, as they will be hy hundreds special constables during the next few days, ft will be their dutjy to seise hold of the riagleaders of the riots and place tbejrn Jihey wijl

be out of danger. The mob has hold sway for a few days, but it. will bo dispersed as soon as the outraged public can provide itself with a sufficient force of armed and mounted men. The ships will have'to be worked, and if the watersiders do not work thorn, the settlers and their sons will do so. The threat to create a general strike throughout the country is, we believe, mere braggadocio. The seamen and other bodies of workers who are registered under tho Arbitration Act would render themselves amenable to the law were they to cease work without notioe. Moreover, it ha,s yet to be shown that the seamen and other unions are in sympathy with this unwarranted and inexcusable strike. It is true that the Labour Federatiotoists have taken control of the business, but this will not materially assist in capturing either the public sympathy or the publio services. If it should happen that registered unions take a part in the conflict, they will provide an irresistible argument in favour of wiping the Arbitration Act, and every other Act passed for the benefit of the workers clean off the Statute Book. The country, even now, is sick and tired of lop-sided legislation—legislation which hampers and restricts trade withou't offering any security of industrial peace. The present crisis is fraught with peril td Trades Unionism. If the workers wish to lose all they have gained during the last twenty years, they have only to drive the public to desperation, as the revolutionary ele nent is endeavouring to do.