"FED" TAKES CHARGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 31 October 1913, Page 5

"FED" TAKES CHARGE.

STRIKE HANDED OVER. "The dispute was yesterday officially handed over to the Federation." This was the important announcement made by Mr P. H. Hickey, secretary of the United Federation of Labour, when addressing a big assemblage of strikers and others in the Post Office Square yesterday. He went on to 6ay that as far as the Federation was concerned it wantod to state that it was as anxious as anybody in Wellington or any person in New Zealand to bring about a termination of this trouble, but not on terms that were not acceptable to organised labour. It was anixous to see the work being carried on as formerly, but it was ' 'not going to pay any old price for that desirable sight." The employers were showing a tendency to stand flatfooted in every dispute. In addition to the men on strike in Wellington, 1200 watersiders were on strike in Auckland, and the Westport watersiders had absolutely cut off the coal supply on the West Coast. "We only have to send the word—and it my be sent at any moment," continued Mr Hickey, "to bring about a similar state of affairs in other parts of the country. I sometimes feel a bit timid in entering into a strike, but I say this: that I have never felt more like fighting in my life than I do now. If we do fight, we will fight hard." After reviewing the history of the strike, Mr Hickey said there was not a man or a woman who would commend the attitude taken up by the employers. The men wanted to go back to work on the same conditions as before, and there was nothing unreasonable in that. Their average earnings had been £2 a week, and the Government bf the country was controlled by the "money bugs," who were getting free labour to smash the conditions that it had taken twenty-iive years to establish. New constables were arriving, and it was no use trying to fight them by hruling epithets at them.

A voice: "What about the "scab" policemen P" Mr Hickey: "I will deal with them later." He added that he was referring to the regular policemen. He believed, however, that if they -sent all the policemen out of the town better law and order would prevail than ever before' in the annals of the city. Mr Hickey touched on "scab" labour,which he heatedly denounced, saying that he knew of nothing more detestable than a "scab" on God's earth. The "scab" was the mna who had broken other strikes, but he was not going to break this one.